UK Karting - MBKC 3S Club Championship Race Report

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MBKC - 3S Club Championship

MBKC - 3S Club Championship
Round 5 - Three Sisters - 24th April 2005

It's often said that there are only two certainties in life....death and taxes, well, the continued and rapid growth of MBKC, in particular the Three Sisters club championship, can be added to that list. Another fantastic entry of over 240 drivers for the April round testify the immense popularity surrounding this championship and, whilst it`s true that the entry was boosted by the hosting of the NKF/210 challenge gearbox entries, this was tempered by the meeting clashing with the TKM super 1 meeting at Fulbeck.

With the Gold Cup and First Stop Rotax Max Cup meetings to come, it really looks like being a teriffic summer of racing at the Wigan circuit.

Round 5, once again, produced some cracking racing throughout the day, hard but, generally speaking fair, backed up by the fact that following 28 heats and 10 finals, no red flags were employed.

Following tradition, the cadet class began the afternoon finals, and what a fantastic opener it was. Abigail Gerry and Chris Warburton were generally quickest through the heats and started on the front row of the grid for the final. The two of them immediately took up the mantle with Warburton gaining the early advantage from Gerry, but Ethan Patterson and James Tunnicliffe soon joined the front pair to make it a fascinating four kart battle at the front. By lap five this quartet had pulled right away from the rest of the pack, in fact by the end of the race, almost a 10 second gap had elapsed between 4th and 5th place. At the front, the lead was swapping lap after lap between Warburton, Gerry and Patterson, with Tunnicliffe only slightly back waiting to pick up any scraps in fourth. After an epic last lap it was Warburton who just held on at the line to take the victory over Gerry by a mere 0.025 secs with Patterson another whisker back in third spot. Just two WTP cadets saw Oliver Raine take a rather lonely victory from Jordan Barnes by a sizeable margin.

Sadly it isn`t very often we see the 210 gearbox class these days at Three Sisters, but we had a rare visit for the 210 challenge round today, and what a great day it turned out to be for Louise Colin. Having taken two out of the three heats by a comfortable margin, she started on pole position in the final and, whilst she was briefly headed at the start by Graham Payne, who had taken heat three, she soon took up the mantle, and quickly stretched her advantage to an unassailable one, driving a virtually faultless race, except for a slight incident involving a back marker late in the race to take the victory by a comfortable 2.048 seconds from John Fuller who driven well himself from the middle of the race to take the second spot comfortably from Ryan Lindsay, Graham Payne eventually slipping back to end a rather distant fourth.

The 125 gearbox class provided some interesting racing throughout the day. It was effectively two races within the one grid, with the hosting of the NKF Super ICC round being hosted in addition to the 125 gearbox club drivers. The Super ICC`s saw an immaculate drive from Sam Moore, who quickly powered into the lead after Peter Mitchell had made the early running, to give himself a comfortable advantage towards the finish, taking victory by 1.617 secs from Jonathan Neville, who himself had looked quick throughout the day, coming through to get past Mitchell by lap 7 for the second place. The club race saw a first gearbox victory for Steven Chapman, the current MBKC Rotax 177 champion who has moved up into the gearbox class this season. He took a comfortable win by just over 2 seconds from Chris Needham, with Chris Whitehead coming through late on to clinch third place.

A smaller than usual Junior TKM grid due to the Super 1 round proved to be a triumphant day for Philip Smith. He had some quick drivers around him despite the delpeted entry, particuarly in the shape of Billy Patterson, Robert Stanley and Oliver Slade, but he was in unstoppable form, taking two heats and starting the final on pole. The final itself was a terrific battle between Smith and Patterson, with Patterson holding the lead for several laps before Smith took it up on lap 7. Coming into the final lap it was still close, although it looked as though Smith was probably going to hold on for the victory when, entering Rogersons for the final time, Smith was able to slip by a couple of back markers, while Patterson, much to his annoyance, became blocked, hence making Smith`s victory somewhat more comfortable than it might have been. Back in third, Oliver Slade finally took the last podium spot after another great battle with Robert Stanley.

Arguably the race of the day belonged to the senior TKM class which, despite clashing with the Fulbeck Super 1 round, still boasted a grid of 28. A number of `racing incidents` scattered throughout the opening 8 laps saw no fewer than 10 non finishers, but at the front of the field, John Halliwell, who had looked impressive throughout the heats, powered ahead despite fierce pressure, initially from Paul Phelan and Dean Golba, but later in the race it was Wayne Macauley, who had earlier won a heat very impressively, who came through to take up second place and put immense pressure on Halliwell. All credit to Halliwell however, who defended his line superbly for the final three laps to take the narrowest of victories by just 0.118 secs from Macauley with Paul Phelan never far back in third place.

The emergence of a number of female drivers has become apparant over the last few months, with many doing very well indeed and, following Louise Colin`s stirling efforts in the 210 challenge, the Minimax class saw the front row made up from two young ladies in Amanda Lassu and Gemma Stephenson who had both done extremely well during the heats despite some strong competition. From the front row, they commenced battle in the final and it was very close indeed, with the lead swapping hands on a number of occasions, behind them, a battle was developing for third spot between Alexander O`Sullivan, Nick Kelly and Josh Butcher. It looked like being a really close finish with Lassu just holding off the challenge of Stephenson, although never by more than a whisker, but, unfortunately on the penultimate lap, a rare slip by Stephenson allowed Lassu to take what was ultimately a sizeable advantage going into the final lap, not only that, it also allowed O`Sullivan to briefly take up second place, although Stephenson quickly regained her runner up spot, with O`Sullivan settling for third spot. Lassu taking the victory by a margin of 2.661 secs.

A fairly small grid of Rotax 177 drivers saw earlier heat winner Paul Manton blast away from pole to open up what ultimately proved to be an uncatchable advantage. Behind him, current championship leader Dean Bednarek, himself a heat winner earlier in the day, took up a comfortable second place with Graeme Hunt equally comfortable in third. Late in the day, Bednarek did pull back a little time on Manton, but it still finished with a fairly comfortable margin of 0.507 seconds for Manton.

No doubt about the closest finish of the day. This came in the Junior Rotax class. It had been a fascinating class throughout the day with the final primarily being contested between four drivers in Jack Hawksworth who had started on pole, Daniel Cammish, Liam Fenwick and Sam Pollitt. Hawksworth it was who made the early running from Cammish, but both Fenwick and Pollitt looked increasingly threatening as the race developed. There was never much between this quartet and although Hawksworth had slipped back to third as Fenwick and Cammish turned up the heat late in the race, it was still any one of four going into the final lap. Despite the best attentions of Cammish, we have seen Fenwick defend leading positions time and again over the recent years and, once again, he kept a cool head to hold on and just take the victory by 0.097 secs, which, in the final analysis, is little more than the length of a nose cone. Hawksworth was a further whisker back in third with Pollitt in fourth.

Final race of the day was the Rotax Max class. Matt Bedford and Daniel Chesters shared the front row and a good battle quickly developed between the two of them, Chesters holding the early advantage, before Bedford took it up on lap 4. Behind these, a whole train of karts were battling for position with Jeremy Naylor, Dean Parker, Martin Farmer and Gary Foster all battling for places. Quickly making their way through the pack after experiencing some problems in the heats were Paul Pendlebury and Tristram Oman and, in fact, Pendlebury was really building up a head of steam, moving into third spot behing Chesters with 4 laps to go and really starting to bear down on the front two. Out in front it was still the consistent Bedford holding the lead, but it was becoming a close run thing as we moved into the penultimate lap. Pendlebury was looking even more of a threat, but disaster struck when, at the end of the straight he collected Chesters, taking them both off. Chesters managed to get back immediately, though it did cost him a couple of spots, but for Pendlebury, with a stalled engine, his race was over, although he did manage to limp home in 28th place. This left Bedford in a clear lead, and he negotiated the final lap in comfort to take the victory by 2.427 secs, from Martin Farmer, who, after the last lap incident found himself in a comfortable second place, the other main beneficiary being Oman who came home third with Chesters just hanging on for fourth place under heavy pressure from Parker.

Report by: Mel Tipton

Results

Full Race Results from Round 5...

CADET W-60
Chris Warburton (Zip/Comer)
Abigail Gerry (Zip/Comer)
Ethan Patterson (Zip/Comer)

CADET WTP
Oliver Rayne (Shark/WTP)
Jordan Barnes (Top/WTP)

210 GEARBOX CHALLENGE
Louise Colin (Lazer/Villiers)
John Fuller (Motiv/Villiers)
Ryan Lindsay (Anderson/Villiers)

NKF SUPER ICC GEARBOX
Sam Moore (Energy/AFRTM)
Jonathan Neville (Energy/SGM)
Peter Mitchell (Maranello/TM)

125 GEARBOX (CLUB)
Steven Chapman (CRG/AFRTM)
Chris Needham (Gold/TM)
Chris Whitehead (Birel/TM)

JUNIOR TKM
Philip Smith (P1/TKM)
Billy Patterson (JKH/TKM)
Oliver Slade (JKH/TKM)

SENIOR TKM
John Halliwell (Venom/TKM)
Wayne Macauley (Gillard/TKM)
Paul Phelan (Blade/TKM)

MINIMAX
Amanda Lassu (Tony/Rotax)
Gemma Stephenson (Tony/Rotax)
Alexander O`Sullivan (Maranello/Rotax)

ROTAX MAX 177
Paul Manton (Gillard/Rotax)
Dean Bednarek (Tony/Rotax)
Graeme Hunt (CRG/Rotax)

JUNIOR ROTAX MAX
Liam Fenwick (Tony/Rotax)
Daniel Cammish (Intrepid /Rotax)
Jack Hawksworth (CRG/Rotax)

ROTAX MAX
Matt Bedford (Tony/Rotax)
Martin Farmer (Intrepid/Rotax)
Tristram Oman (CRG/Rotax)

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