A nice shot of Rum on a Saturday afternoon
September 2010 |
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Lucid Initiatives once again took the pole and were fervently hoping for a clean race for a change. BIX2 lined up second but were demoted to the back of the grid after an illegal kart change in qualifying. Dyll Stig-Davies, was most displeased with his situation when interviewed from the pits just seconds before the start.
“For the first time in Club100 I’m really not happy. We’ve had four awful karts today. The carb was checked three times and it’s still not right, the wheel came off because the stub axle completely sheared so how can we have that kart repaired? It’s impossible! We then got in another kart because there were no mechanics anywhere. Eight minutes into qualifying on cold tyres with about two minutes to get a lap in and we get black flagged, sent to the back of the grid and told we can’t have that kart and have to use the other one. We’re stuck with it now. I’m really not a happy bunny and you can quote me on that!”
OK I will: “I’m really not a happy bunny” Dyll Davies Saturday 4th September 2010.
Back to less angry matters and BIX2’s demise promoted Rum Racing in their place with Minimum Traction third, Drive Fast Don’t Crash fourth and Keen As Mustard fifth. Like BIX2, Team Pikey Racing, Rapid Hire Racing and Overdraft Racing would have a tough job on their hands to battle up from near the back of the grid.
At the other end of the field, the pole sitters were feeling very confident on the grid and were determined to make it to the finish in one piece. Paul Bacon, who some say could also be the Stig, once again did the honours in qualifying.
“This time it’s ours. The kart is wonderful and it’s an absolute pleasure to drive so I think we have a good chance. Our strategy is to drive as fast as we can for as long as we can. A pretty standard strategy.”
It was the pole sitters who led off the line with Rum Racing and Drive Fast Don’t Crash following closely behind. Racewear.co.uk were well up in 4th with Keen As Mustard and The Speed Muppets quietly lurking behind.
The top 3 pulled away before the first round of pit stops, emerging still at the front. The Pikey’s were making good progress through the field as were Overdraft whose race pace was much stronger than their lacklustre qualifying performance, although Stuart Stig-Martin was still not quite satisfied with things.
“I’m blaming the kart. It’s always the kart and never the drivers. It was bound to happen at some stage and I think we’ve just lucked out today. Tim is doing a great job out there at the moment but just doesn’t have the speed down the straight but we’re doing the best job we can.”
Farce India were looking strong during this race. Unfortunately they were “Dylled” at the bottom of the hill, effectively ending their charge. Richard from Farce India gave his views on the incident.
“Dyll was following me. It was my second lap out of the pits and I was just getting up to speed and he just decided to dive down the inside and crashed into me. He came up and apologised for it which is the main thing.”
Drive Fast Don’t Crash were once again looking strong in second place but dropped down the order after needing repairs to an exhaust flex in one of their pit stops. A snapped throttle cable later in the race cost them a sure podium. Jon Maycock, celebrating his birthday and also rumoured to be the Stig, was understandably disappointed with events.
“Everyone’s having a bad day by the looks of it. I’ve also burnt my arse really badly. I was driving around for about ten minutes in pain because of petrol burns but then coming out of the chicane the throttle snapped so that was the end of it really.”
Gaucho Productions had a difficult start to the race but were slowly getting on with the job. Alistair Weaver:
“It’s a pretty bad afternoon. We qualified sixteenth and we’re not sure whether the kart has enough top-end but we got ourselves up to about fifth in class but then Oli lost it at the first corner. He was being quite aggressive, hopped the curb and that was that really. Hopefully we can claw something back.”
Claw something back they did. A great recovery drive, coupled with the misfortunes of others would see them right up the sharp end come the end of the race.
Having also been outed as the Stig during the week, Dyll Davies’ BIX2 team were having a torrid time with various kart and driver problems. Keen As Mustard suffered a major blow to their championship when their kart threw a chain. Their misery was compounded with a black flag later in the race. Team Pikey Racing were having an equally eventful race. Having started from the back, Chris Kent, who was racing with a different member of his extended family, picked up a black flag and got punted off. Nevertheless, helped by new Pikey, Alex Ring, the duo started climbing their way back through the order.
Lucid Initiatives suffered yet another agonisingly painful race. Having led for much of the early race, their day ended when the throttle stuck open on them. It was a bad day for all the championship contenders as Drive Fast Don’t Crash also dropped out when running second.
Rum Racing’s James Hoskisson who, like many others in Club100, is touted as being the Stig was delighted with the way his race was going and seemed confident of holding on until the end of the race.
“Yeah we seem to be going very well today so if we can keep it on the track today we should be on for another good result. Fingers crossed we could get our first victory.”
Despite a spin 10 minutes from home, Rum Racing held on for their first, and very well deserved, victory in Club100. The demise of many of the front runners saw Broken Spanners take the runner up spot. Gaucho Productions gratefully accepted third place with the Pikey’s, the Speed Muppets and Overdraft Racing rounding out the top 6.
Rum Racing’s team captain Pat Nicholls was relieved to finally get a win under his belt and, despite now being a firm championship contender with DFDC missing the next race, was refusing to be drawn into any comments regarding the title.
“We had a couple of bizarre incidents near the end. Adam went off at the first corner and I collided with a back marker and nearly lost the engine but a lot of the other top teams had misfortunes today. It’s nice to get an Inters win at last. Now we’ve got the first win out of the way we might start to think about the championship a little bit more but I don’t like to use the ‘C’ word.”
