The opposition disintegrate
August 2010 |
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Returning from his suspicious shower related gym shoulder injury was Liam Hegarty, allaying any rumours created by the Club100 tabloid press about his position within the team. Kieran McCullough shunned a potential reunion with his old Essex TT team to join runaway championship leaders Just So in place of the absent Phil Ingram, who was probably busy engineering another useful widget on the Red Bull car that is sure to confuse and annoy the rest of the Formula 1 teams.
Having won the previous 3 races, Just So arrived in confident mood and proceeded to take the pole. Unsurprisingly it was Team Red Steel and Tanked Up Racing who were second and third. Team Tebbutt and Slipstream were looking like being a thorn in the championship contenders’ sides up there in 4th and 5th respectively while the rest of the teams all had an equally good chance of a strong result. In fact the top 20 were separated by less than a second in qualifying, proving once again how evenly matched the Club100 equipment is.
The extremely modest and humble Kieran McCullough did the honours for Just So.
“I’m only standing in because Phil can’t make it today. Obviously I’m not up to the same standard as the rest of the guys but I just gave it my best shot. The kart seems to be okay and I got a lucky lap so we will have to see what we can do in the race now.”
There was chaos on the opening lap and RBB, Galliard, 3Cubed and Cartman all found themselves being bumped and barged to the back of the field. A number of the teams affected by the argy bargy pitted straight away to try and get out into clear air. This meant a large queue forming in the fuel bays.
Recovering from their first lap dramas, RBB and Galliard were enjoying an aggressive dice that would last for much of the race. Simon Young didn’t have any complaints whatsoever about any driver pushing him wide whilst trying to avoid being rammed into oblivion by the Stallions’ Kamikaze pilot, Spearoff. He certainly didn’t drive down the pit straight gesticulating and giving the Team America signal.
“Somebody forced me right off the track in my first stint which is very un-gentlemanly but why I was expecting gentlemanly conduct I’m not sure. It’s been a frustrating race in that Dan was the only driver to get caught up in the first corner accident who actually came to a stop. Since then we’ve been plugging away and we are fighting with Galliard.”
Back at the front and the top 3 were pulling out a nice gap over Team Tebbutt and Vagisil. High Times were also running well and obviously hoping for a good result after a dismal season so far. Rich Higham was, as always, supportive of the fuel guys and maintained they all tried their hardest for him and his team despite suffering another problem that is surely causing his bald patch to get bigger every race.
“Unfortunately Barnaby had a problem putting our fuel in. I think he must have had cramp halfway through so we had a really slow stop. There is nothing we can do about it.”
Despite one very slow pit stop, their race went vaguely to plan which is more than can be said for Red Steel. They suffered a rare mechanical failure when their chain snapped 50 minutes into the race when Lee Clackett was behind the wheel. Not content with destroying a perfectly good chain, kart breaker Clackett then decided he would make his team’s life even more difficult by spinning off in the infield section. Cock!
This left Just So, Tanked Up and Slipstream at the front. Despite a coming together with 3Cubed while attempting to lap them, Tanked Up remained in contention for a podium slot. They were running as a 2 man team today as Darren Teal was still in Dubai, making their performance even more impressive.
However, Carl Watt was less than impressed with Ant Teal’s manoeuvre that cost 3Cubed a good result.
“He overtook me by nudging me all the way around the circuit. He didn’t like it being given back and then he tried to go up the inside of someone, spun off and took me with him. It was stupid really.”
Slipstream’s Dave Pethers meanwhile was obviously nervous as his team started inching closer to a podium position. It has been a rather inconsistent season so far for these guys and the ultimate champion was keen to get back on the podium.
Further back, RBB, Galliard and Club16-48 were all fighting for 7th place. RBB looked to have the edge and Galliard were holding off Steve Kendall who was doing most of the race on his own as a result of father Phil feeling under the weather. Perhaps it was fatigue that caused Kendall Jr to spin off. Phil Kendall:
“I was ill and only did one and a half laps at the start. Steve did the rest of the race but as it started going pair-shaped I jumped in again near the end and just crawled around. I think the poor guy might just have been knackered, having driven all race in what wasn’t a great kart. We had a black flag for driving over the white lines as well so pretty bad.”
At the flag it was Just So who reeled off their 4th consecutive win. Tanked Up followed them home in second and Slipstream were delighted with third. Team Tebbutt picked up more useful points in 4th while High Times finally had something to smile about in 5th.
Brian Trott gave his views on yet another win in his usual modest way. Some people think he’s arrogant – I don’t see it myself.
“We started pole and we won. That’s it really. I think Kieran had a minor problem during the race but nothing to worry about. Red Steel went out with a broken chain and I saw Lee parked again shortly after so he’s obviously getting in some practice for tomorrow. Ant said he was rubbish all day and he obviously couldn’t take the pace because he spun off as well. Basically the opposition just disintegrated and we reeled off another easy win.”
It has to be said that Just So are looking almost unbeatable at the moment. Can Tanked Up and Steel turn things around at Clay Pigeon? With less than 3 weeks to go until the next race, the excitement is building in the climax to the championship…
