Champions!
November 2009
High Times took victory in the treacherous conditions at Buckmore Park and in doing so sealed the Clubman championship, proving that nice guys don’t always finish last! A team always willing to help out their rivals and provide race reporters with cold beers during the Inters and Rookie races, they are worthy champions and fully deserve their promotion up to the premier level next season.Prior to the race, The Joy Riders studiously denied rumours that Harry Landy was heading for pastures new in 2010. The latest rumours are putting James Akehurst at Briatore Motorsport and potentially a permanent third slot emerging at HB Racing.
Mad Rush took the pole, ably assisted by Buckmore specialist Matt Brooks who had been sold to the squad by Premier team Target Racing just minutes before the race started. Loud Pedal Racing were not far behind with Panic Racing 3rd and Briatore Motorsport 4th. Sami Seppala, probably used to driving on ice and in the dark, happy with the conditions. InkJet said good-bye to their all ready slim title hopes by qualifying 19th but it was a dismal session for the other top teams of 3Cubed, Es Car Go and KAD Racing who could manage no better than 23rd, 26th and 29th respectively.
Starting on the inside line, Loud Pedal snatched the lead at the first corner with Briatore and Panic following them through. This demoted Mad Rush to 4th. First lap casualties include the Stallions and Swede Speed.
Briatore Motorsport took the lead on lap 2 but a black flag for Oli Allwood for mating with the curbs in his first stint would drop them off the lead lap. Stuart Martin later being punted off by another kart would ultimately end any chance of a podium finish. Mad Rush were making excellent progress after their poor start and had the lead back by lap 8. Brooks.
“It’s looking good so far. The kart is pretty good so we just have to stay out of trouble in the wet and hopefully things will go well. I think if we don’t make any mistakes we should be up there.”
The slippery conditions caught most of the field out at some point during the day. The leaders all had accidents which left Loose Heads, for once not breaking their kart, in contention by half distance. Garret “The Fish” O’Connor was for once happy with the way the race was panning out.
“I drove our best ever qualifying to line up grid fifteen and drove the first two stints. By the time I'd finished we were third. James took over and double stinted as well and the only problem was getting taken off by a backmarker resulting in a spin. Jonathan double stinted to bring it home, again great pace plus consistency worked our way to second, matching our best result to date. It's taken a while to get on the pace this year after a two year sabbatical so it felt fantastic to be slicing through the field and getting the right kind of compliments from other drivers in the pits. Call me Mr Fish! I even managed a 360 degree spin and only lost a couple of seconds by managing to keep it going. I am going to be joining JV for his rain dance at Rye”
Es Car Go were having a dismal day at the office. Ross Andrews was pragmatic about events.
“It’s pretty much the story of the second half of our season: Not very good. Every team member has had a spin or rather has been taken off. We’ve been down in twenty something all race so we’ve just got to see how the rest of the race pans out.”
Working their way quietly through the mayhem were the boys from High Times. Almost unnoticed, they appeared at the top of the timesheet having driven a sensible race in true style that befits a championship winning outfit. Team emperor, Richard Higham, refused to comment much during the race so as not to jinx it.
“I’m not saying anything other than it’s looking good so far. We are fighting for a podium, which should be enough so we are just running around and trying to keep out of trouble.”
Having an awful day were 3Cubed. John Emerson and the Withington brothers were absent due to their ex team mate inconsiderately allowing his wedding to clash with a race date (congratulations by the way Mr and Mrs Mace!) Carl Watt was joined by two BUCK drivers in place of his regular team mates. Watt:
“I’m not sure how successful it’s going to be. They are both ex York Uni drivers so they should both be OK but Darren is a bit nervous about the wet.”
HB Racing were having another quiet afternoon and Chris Heaton admitted to struggling for pace in the wet.
“Better than we thought it would originally. There were some pretty slow laps from both of us because we haven’t driven in the rain for a while but we were very consistent so that helped us a little bit.”
InkJet were having an average day but could see their championship hopes slipping through their fingers with every lap. KAD racing, who are not fighting for the title were also not featuring much in the race. Al Bull:
“It’s pretty bad. We just haven’t got any pace out there and Karl spun under yellow flags and picked up a penalty. It’s a shame because we’ve had some rubbish results this season and we really needed a good one here to try and get third in the championship but I think it’s all over now.”
At the finish, High Times took the chequered flag to wrap up the title in superb style. Loose Heads managed to keep theirs and crossed the line 2nd ahead of The Joy Riders.
President Parm and his Higham henchmen were delighted to have clinched the championship with a win. Sir Paul Higham, who shall from this day forth no longer be known as Dave, was delighted to have wrapped things up in style.
“I’m very happy. We made a good start but lost a few places because of contact at the start but we kept our heads and just did the laps. None of us went off all day and we all drove well so yeah; champions; woohoo!”
With one round remaining, the runner up spot is still up for grabs with The Joy Riders, InkJet Racing and 3Cubed all in contention.
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