Heartbreak for KOKS
November 2009
In an exciting climax to what has been a very close season, Auditing Armageddon clinched the championship in the closing 10 minutes of the race.Although MoFoCo still had an outside chance of the championship coming into this race, it was really only ever going to be between Auditing Armageddon and The Bored KOKS. Nevertheless, MoFoCo did the better job in qualifying to line up second behind the on-form Speed Muppets. Drive Fast Don’t Crash were next up ahead of British Columbia who were looking very rapid indeed. The main title protagonists were further down with the KOKS 11th and Auditing Armageddon 14th.
The extremely affable Speed Muppet boys were delighted with their pole position but were less than pleased with the idea of it raining just as they were getting ready for the off.
“We’re really happy with it but it’s just started raining so that’s ruined our chances. Rain is certainly not our favourite conditions so I think we’ll be hoping it clears up before too long.”
It was interesting getting the views of the main championship contenders before the off. Rob Williams of the KOKS was less confident about his chances.
“Yes I’m feeling the pressure and I’m possibly doing the last stint as well so that’s not good. I’m usually more confident doing the middle stint but we’ll try to have no crashes and no black flags – that is the plan.”
Auditing Armageddon’s JJ Aiston seemed slightly more relaxed and confident.
“I’m not really feeling the pressure yet to be honest. We had a pretty shoddy qualifying but we found earlier on in the season that we often qualified badly but were always up there at the end of the race so we’re not really worried at the moment. I guess it kind of takes the pressure off a bit being in the mid-field because things can only get better from here.”
MoFoCo rounded the first lap in the lead ahead of Drive Fast Don’t Crash, The Speed Muppets, Gaucho Productions and British Columbia. Auditing Armageddon’s challenge looked like it might be ending early when they went off at the first hairpin. MoFoCo’s lead ended on lap 3 with a black flag for jumping the start which effectively ended their already slim chance of the championship. By this time the KOKS were starting to make their way up the field. However, they also fell victim to a black flag for assaulting a competitor into Stadium.
While the lead alternated up at the front, the main focus was on the battle for the championship with Auditing Armageddon benefiting from the chaos brought on by the sudden downpour and working their way into the top 3. The Bored KOKS, despite their earlier black flag, maintained the advantage over their Auditing Armageddon during the middle phase of the race.
British Columbia were having by far their most competitive showing of the year so far and were starting to challenge the leaders by half distance. Despite a rather comical looking pit lane blunder where Martin Murphy spun at the entry and then overshot the fuel bay, they maintained relative track position.
After their dream steal at Buckmore it was back down to earth with a bump for the Pikey’s as Chris Kent explained.
“We started at the back again because our kart was terrible in qualifying. We had it tested and it was apparently good enough but we felt it was so bad so changed it after qualifying. We had an early spin and then I got a black flag for overtaking under a yellow so we’ve got a lot of recovery to do.”
Approaching the last stop, the KOKS were one place ahead of Auditing Armageddon which was enough to tie on points but win the title on number of victories. However, Auditing Armageddon were catching them at an alarming rate and looked likely to pass them in the last stop. The KOKS’ challenge effectively ended when there was a delay fitting the wet weather cover on the air box, which allowed Auditing Armageddon to sneak through. The KOKS didn’t have the pace in the final 10 minutes and dropped further behind.
Andrew Davies looked sicker than a man who’d eaten aeroplane food after the pit lane calamity. He gave his view of events shortly after the incident.
“They fiddled around with the air box for ages and couldn’t get it on so we had a really long stop. We were about twelve seconds ahead of them before the pit stop and they came in about two minutes later and they haven’t bothered to fit it because the guys are too busy talking and they’ve jumped us.”
Rob Williams, who was driving in the final stint, was just as disappointed but more philosophical in defeat.
“It’s just annoying. Had I known I would have pushed a bit harder but I was just cruising. I knew there was more pace in me but I was just trying to keep it on the black stuff. Sadly these things happen and this is motor racing as they say.”
It’s totally gut-wrenching to lose a championship due to someone else’s mistake (believe me I know from experience!) but as little consolation as it might be, Auditing Armageddon would almost certainly have taken the lead in the pits even without the air box fiasco
Almost unnoticed at the front, British Columbia took the chequered flag to win their first ever Intermediate race ahead of an equally happy MoFoCo who recovered well after their early race black flag. Auditing Armageddon took the final spot on the podium to wrap things up and the KOKS were a solemn fourth.
JJ Aiston kept his excitement under control and was quick to congratulate the KOKS after their season long epic battle.
“I’ve got no idea what happened at the end. I was following MoFoCo at the end there and I kept closing up when we got into traffic so I knew that if they were only one place ahead of us they wouldn’t challenge us for the championship. It’s a shame about the KOKS but we’ve had our fair share of pit lane cock-ups like at the last race there was a guy pushing a kart on a trolley and we lost about ten seconds and only lost the race by five so it’s swings and roundabouts I guess.”
It was great to see British Columbia secure their first victory. They came close at Llandow before the curse of the race reporter wrecked their chances. I left it until after the race before speaking to Jose Soler.
“I’m very happy. We were quite good in the wet before so we were confident of maybe getting a podium but everything worked out today. It was really, really good. The kart was good, we didn’t have any incidents apart from the moment in the pits so it was good.”
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