Tanked Up see year out in style
November 2009
With Team Red Steel not turning up for the final race of the season, it was left to Tanked Up Racing to do the honours as they scored their first victory of the season in what has been a great year of Premier level racing.Another team absent from this event was Ministry of Speed. With Lee Clackett officially announcing that Team Red Steel would be no more in 2010, rumours of Clackett joining Jordan Hill at Ministry next year are intensifying. Making a welcome return after his earlier season injury was Trevor Randall. He followed Kieran McCullough to the Essex TT graveyard that is Target Racing. Chris Powell, who has been confirmed with Tanked Up full time for 2010, was also present for the team in place of the ousted Australian convict Brenton Miller.
With the track starting out wet, RBB took the pole ahead of Just So Racing. Tanked Up were third with Randall proving he had lost none of his pace with fourth for Target. A great performance from Ikonn Racing saw them line up 5th with Club16-48 and Wolfie close behind. Galliard again had a disappointing session and could manage no better than 16th.
It was a good result for RBB in what has been a largely frustrating year compared to their 2008 campaign. The ever chirpy Pete O’Connor was certainly more than satisfied with the outcome of qualifying.
“I’m very pleased to be honest. It’s nice to have a good start to a race. The kart felt so good in practice we didn’t even get it tested. The first lap in qualifying was good and I kept going faster. I just hope we can have a good end to the season really.”
It didn’t go totally to plan for RBB as Just So got the jump at the start and took the lead. Trevor Randall made a great start to jump up to second before being bumped down the order by Tanked Up and lost out to RBB and Club16-48 in the process.
The running order remained fairly unchanged at the front with the top runners all spreading out nicely in the first stint. Galliard were already having a miserable day and were trailing around at the back of the pack in the early stages. All three drivers would go on to have spins during the course of the day. Club16-48 were another team wishing they had stayed in bed; suffering numerous spins as well as a pit lane blunder.
Tanked Up and Just So pitted together on lap 13 and neither stop was brilliant. Just So were very slow getting the fuel in and Tanked Up didn’t even have a fuel man at their bay. Nevertheless, the two rejoined the track nose to tail. However, Just So didn’t seem to have the pace after their first stop and were passed by both Tanked Up and Target shortly afterwards. Stuart Symonds blamed a poor strategy call.
“The engine is not great but I could handle it when it was really wet but I think Brian is struggling a little bit now it’s drying out. I think it’s more that we made a bit of a mistake not double stinting me because the conditions are quite difficult. Everybody else has double stinted their first driver and we didn’t and I think we have lost out because obviously Brian has to go out and learn the lines so it’s taken him longer to get up to speed.”
As the track began to dry, a number of teams started complaining of a lack of top end. A large number of spins in the earlier wet conditions had opened the field up a bit but it was still the usual suspects out in front. Target lost a sure third place with a spin from Marc Laukam that dropped them to fifth and more spins from Galliard and Club 16-48 as mentioned earlier left them both further behind. Ikonn managed to keep it cleaner than the rest and this helped them to move up the order.
After his disqualification at Buckmore that promoted Target to 3rd, Alex Kapadia was once again helping them by spinning off in the closing stages and securing 6th in the championship for the grateful team. I am personally unable to comment on suggestions that he may secretly be on the Target Racing payroll. Although refusing to comment on that particular incident, Tim “Flavio” Hill wasn’t pleased with the day’s racing.
“It’s not going at all well really. Our brakes are not very good and the kart didn’t work in the wet. I think it’s a bit better in the dry but I haven’t been out yet so I can’t really say.”
So it was Tanked Up who took their first victory of the season to set them up nicely for 2010. Just So were a comfortable second with RBB taking a well deserved podium finish with third. Target, Wolfie and Ikonn rounded out the top 6.
It was the new permanent team member, Chris Powell, who was nominated to speak to the press after the race. These were his views:
“It was a pretty good race. Ant started and got us into second. We pitted with Just So and managed to get past them shortly afterwards and pulled twenty seconds on them and that was it really. I think we won it because we double stinted at the start and it took Brian (Just So) a few laps to get on the pace. We just kept it together after than and won by two laps so it was pretty easy. It’s a good start for next year because I think we are going to be a strong team and I’m hoping for more of this. Even with Steel out there are going to be some strong teams like Just So and Slipstream.”
In the unlikely event that Steel really do not participate next year, the championship battle in 2010 looks set to be an interesting one. Just So are surely the favourites but Tanked Up will be right up there challenging them. If Slipstream can cut out the mistakes and Dave Pethers can ease off the pies they are sure to be a threat as well. The likes of Wolfie, RBB and Target could well be in contention for wins while Galliard and Club 16-48 will also be there to spring a surprise or two. It will be interesting to see how the new Clubman champions adjust to the premier level. Whatever, it is sure to be another fantastic year of Club100 racing!
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