A night out in Rochester with Sami Seppala
March 2010 |
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The Michael Schumacher syndrome saw another face returning to Club100 after a 2 year absence in the form of Alex Mace. Now well and truly mortgaged up the arse, he nevertheless could not turn down the offer of a drive drive form the artists formerly known as Team Ginsters (now racing as Slimfast). Auditing Armageddon, the KOKS and MoFoCo were all promoted from the Inters championship and all would have to raise their game this year if they want to repeat their Inters success in Clubman.
Nick Portlock’s Loud Pedal Racing outfit will be expecting good things this year, especially with Heavyweight sprint sensation James Taylor on board full time. However, disaster struck prior to the race when Taylor injured his wrist racing in the Open enduro – although he still managed to win the race and turn up on Sunday and win the sprints. Also, tabloid rumours that he was seen out partying on Friday night with fellow model Naomi Campbell raise serious questions and Mr Portlock should be having words with his new recruit!
Surprisingly it was neither Awesome or Tebbutt who took the pole but rather a bunch of students in a team called “The man’s an animal”. This ex-BUCK team could well be a dark horse according to certain Club100 insiders. Anyway, JWM put in a great performance to line up second with Team Awesome doing a solid job in third. MoFoCo, Team Tebbutt, Loud Pedal and Es Car Go were next up. A notable and surprising absentee from this race was KAD Racing.
The pole sitters weren’t giving much away before the start but seemed quietly confident of a good result.
“It’s pretty tricky out there so the aim is to keep it on the track. Anything is possible I guess but we’ll have to see how it goes. The most important thing is that ‘the man’s an animal’” – bloody students!
Team Awesome and Team Tebbutt both decided to give everyone else a fighting chance and fell off on the opening lap. This left The Man’s an Animal to lead from a grateful MoFoCo. The students did a great job of mixing it with the Prem boys at the sharp end of the field, leaving everyone else behind.
It didn’t take long for the top teams to start closing in and Oli Allwood got team Awesome into a net lead before handing over to the wet weather specialist Flying Finn Seppala. A spin from Aiden Ball saw The Man’s An Animal drop off the lead lap and left them with their work cut out to get back up the front.
HB Racing, finally succumbing to the need for a third driver, were joined by Steve Youle for this race and will be partnered by Mel Broxis for the rest of the season. A typically solid drive from the old boys was blighted by an off from Chris Heaton. Stuart Brierley gave his views on the race.
“We sent Steve out for qualifying and he did fairly well to get twenty-first having never driven these new karts before. The start was mad. The karts in front of me were still fighting over grid slots when the flag dropped and the guy in front of me ended up going backwards over the line taking the cone out. Apart from that, we were hopeless in the wet but made up for it when it dried. Chris got taken out and lost over a lap, otherwise it would have been a better result.”
Once all the pit stops had played out, the pecking order became clearer. Team Tebbutt inherited the lead after a number of problems beset Team Awesome – not least of which was a fuel cap that wouldn’t go on as Akehurst explained.
“I went out for my double stint and I couldn't get the fuel cap on. I drove round one handed for two laps trying to get the bugger on and in the end I came in to put the cap on because I was getting passed by everyone. It took ages! We dropped to god knows where and at my next stop we made sure we got the thread on before we pushed out, so we lost a bit more time. Then in my last stint, the engine went. It was really good all race, but it started four stroking on the straight and I could literally drive through turns one and two completely flat out. We just missed out on the podium so I’m gutted.”
This was a great story but I was more interested in Sami Seppala’s comments about – and I quote – “There were fat slags in Rochester when we stumbled out from the Wetherspoons. I think RBB should've hired a girl; it seems like Dan Gore is getting too horny these days.” Care to explain Mr Gore? Is this what happens when you turn 30?
Es Car Go were having a good, albeit seemingly quiet, day and running well at the sharp end of the field for much of the race. Loud Pedal were also looking solid. Nick Portlock was joined by Mark Burrell and Simon Mace and, despite Mace being punted off at turn 1, the team made good progress throughout the race despite suffering with a lack of top-end as the track dried out.
So at the finish it was Team Tebbutt who took the win from the tax dodging students, who took second place from Es Car Go on the penultimate lap after a storming recovery drive. Es Car Go had a solid result in third with team Awesome, Loose Heads and Auditing Armageddon rounding out the top 6. Those having a bad day were Five Gloves, the newly promoted KOKS, Rapid Response and InkJet Racing. The Stallions were excluded for being underweight.
Carl Tebbutt was pleased with a debut victory for his team.
“Yeah very happy. We couldn’t get into our grid position at the start and we ended up in the wall at turn one but the kart was great.”
