2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was an anti-climax to what has been an exceptional year, as IMSD struggled with a down-on–power kart and struggled home in 18th at the final race at Buckmore Park.
The team line-up for the final race was as it was for the season opener at the same circuit, with Eddie Hall joining IM and SD. They were joined briefly by fourth driver, Ian Wilson, who had to depart early as he was flying off to Spain, leaving his team-mates to cope with typical British (or typical Buckmore Park) rain!
The team had to change their kart in practice as it had no bottom end. Unbelievably, the replacement kart was even worse. It was too late by this stage to change it again, so the team knew they would be in for a long afternoon.
Starting 32nd and last as a result of topping the championship table, Stephen made a good start to get up into the mid field by the time he came in for a splash and dash on lap 2. The lack of bottom-end soon became apparent, however, and he struggled to make ground. His misery was compounded by being taken out by another kart.
Ian Miller went out and had a clean run before handing over to Eddie, who admitted to having one of the most difficult drives of his career.
“The obvious problem of being blinded by the spray was made worse by the fact that my glasses got steamed up underneath. I lifted my visor to let more air through but this just caused the spray to hit my ‘bins’ instead. I am virtually blind without my glasses these days but I had to slide them down and drive without them because at least I could see blurry objects… it did make finding the pit board interesting though!”
The rest of the race was a complete nightmare. The kart got progressively worse throughout the race, but the trio did an incredible job to get as high as 11th at one stage. Stephen was taken out for the second time in his last stint and the team lost a further 3 laps in the pits when the kart lost all power at the end of the pitlane and refused to start up.
“It was a bit of a disaster today really.” explained Eddie afterwards. “I am so glad that we won the championship at Whilton Mill, as this would have been a real anti-climax to what has been an exceptional year.”
The consolation to such an awful race was that the team picked up their trophy for winning the championship!
