The day the rookies went bad
November 2009
With the championship battle between The New Yorkers, BIX2 and Lotus Power becoming more intense, controversy continues to brew as they all try to undermine each other with cheat tactics and whining that put the Premier drivers to shame.Team Incredible took pole with Monday Night Racing close behind. Lotus Power were the first of the title contenders in third. Their two rivals BIX2 and The New Yorkers were 7th and 8th respectively. Chris Cahoon was happy but rather surprised with his pole lap:
“I was surprised when I came round and they showed me the number one. The kart felt good but the conditions are crazy and people are bunched up all over the place. I think we’ll do OK in dry or wet so providing we don’t have any mechanical problems we should be OK.”
Lotus Power stormed into the lead on lap 1 but would receive a black flag for contact into turn one. Monday Night Racing and Pantera Racing were amongst the first lap casualties as were pole sitters Team Incredible who had their first of four spins during the afternoon. Fear Are We Wacing made a cracking start to slot into second ahead of SMJ, The New Yorkers and AAA Taxi.
BIX2 caused a stir by pitting on the first lap even though the rules state that the karts must complete at least one full lap before coming into the pits. This was not missed by either The New Yorkers or Lotus Power who both lodged complaints. No penalty was awarded as according to the eagle eyed BIX2 legal team no penalty is stipulated for this (who do you guys think you are, Essex TT?), which caused consternation amongst the other teams. Pete Bunton attempted to justify his actions.
“Seeing as I’m team principle this week, I took the strategy that we would come in on the first lap not knowing completely the rules. We were allowed to come in, allowed to fill up, nothing was said and it wasn’t until the New Yorkers ran down the pit lane complaining that it all came out. We were told we could pit. Had we been told to go out and do another lap we would have so they can’t really give us a penalty now.”
SMJ found themselves in contention in the early phase of the race and a good first stop went well and brought Martin Cox out in clear air. However, they were then mistakenly given a black flag for missing the first fuel window but were allowed to skip the next window. Alas, they would later get punted off at the second hairpin, ending any chances of a podium and the possibility of a first win.
Lotus Power were putting in a good performance. They were joined today by Billy Taylor, and AJ was trying to be as diplomatic as possible about the BIX2 scandal.
“We’ll just see what the officials do. There isn’t much we can do about it really. It is a bit annoying about the black flag at turn one because I got hit from behind, it was pod to pod and I shouldn’t have got done for it. Billy has done a cracking job after I got the black flag at the start”
The tricky conditions caught a lot of drivers out and the early race was as unpredictable as it was amusing to watch as karts were flying off in all directions. Virtually every team had at least one go at facing the wrong way during the day.
Partly thanks to their lucky escape in their first stop, BIX2 found themselves in a comfortable lead by half distance. With the help of reigning champion Tom Foy, they were looking like closing the gap to The New Yorkers who were also running well and looking the best bet for second. Team Incredible, SMJ and Lotus Power were all in the mix but Rapid Hire Racing and Pantera Racing were having a miserable time. After such a successful return at Whilton, it was a bitter pill to swallow for Raid Hire’s Matt Kavanagh.
“We started badly even before the race when our 'strategy department' made a timing error, meaning we started the race on an un-planned fuel level. This had knock-on effects for qually and our first stint. We had kart troubles too, with two changes during the race, one being brake failure coming out of Conways; quite fortunate that the run-off just took us straight down the hill and into the pits. Even without all these problems we weren't driving that great.”
Monday Night Racing were gaining ground after their first lap incident and were looking good for some solid points. Despite a number of offs during the course of the day, team Incredible were showing that they have some serious pace and were running well in second.
As the laps wound down, BIX2 looked on course for a comfortable win. However, just two laps from the end they were taken out by Team Incredible. Although the latter received a one lap penalty for their crime, it cost BIX2 the win to the grateful New Yorkers who saw it as justification for their penalty-less pit stop. Team Incredible still finished third ahead of Lotus Power.
The New Yorkers were not holding back any punches in their criticism of BIX2 even in victory and are now clear favourites for the championship going into Rye.
“Considering they weren’t given a penalty for their first lap pit stop, I think what happened to them was only fair really. Obviously I didn’t see what happened between them and Team Incredible but I passed them and knew it must be for position so I just backed off and didn’t push any more. I crossed the line, took the win and this has really done our championship a lot of good so very happy.”
With one round remaining, The New Yorkers have a 15 point lead over BIX2 who are a further 15 ahead of Lotus Power.
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