UK Karting - MBKC 3S Club Championship Race Report

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MBKC - 3S Club Championship

MBKC - 3S Club Championship
Round 6 - Three Sisters - 22nd May 2005

Yet another intriguing day of racing at Three Sisters as 230 drivers took to the track for round 6 of the Wigan club championship. The entry was boosted by the hosting of a round of the ABkC 125 ICC Championship and also a number of guest drivers in advance of next weeks Stars of Tomorrow meeting at the Three Sisters circuit, but even so, still a superb entry in a season that has simply gone from strength to strength.

Sadly, and quite rarely these days, the weather couldn`t oblige us. It was one of those infuriating days where the track would completely dry out in the warm sunshine only to then become subject to a monsoon, leaving drivers staring up at the sky all day pondering tyre selections. Great weather for the local farmers and growers no doubt, but less than ideal for our purposes.

The heats had taken place in mixed conditions, with a short break whilst mopping up operations took place at lunar bend but, as the finals began, it looked like we might get away with a dry afternoon. How wrong was that theory to prove!

In holding with tradition, the Cadet final got us underway. Current championship leader Chris Warburton had some tough looking competition, not only in the shape of his usual jousting buddies James Tunnicliffe and Ethan Patterson, but also the travelling trio of James Godbehere, Mackenzie Taylor and Billy Albone.

As expected it was Godbehere and Warburton who took it up at the head of the pack, with Taylor and Tunnicliffe tucking in just behind, but by lap three the front pair had moved into an sizeable advantage and that was how it stayed until lap 6 when Warburton moved out of Godbehere`s slip stream to take up the mantle, with Taylor moving back into third spot from Tunnicliffe who had held the advantage for a couple of laps. It was all desperately close stuff, and as the final lap loomed, not only was there a great battle going on between Warburton and Godbehere, but Taylor and Tunnicliffe had also pulled themselves back into contention.

At the line however, Warburton it was taking a fantastic victory by a margin of just 0.071secs from Godbehere, with Taylor taking a close run third from Tunnicliffe.

Running on a split grid, a lonely pair of S60 cadet drivers were headed by Jacob Hunstone who took the victory from Piers Packenham-Walsh.

Next up, rather unusually, came the Rotax Max final, however following one particuarly nasty red flag incident, a restart, then another red flag incident, it was decided to give the drivers a chance to settle down and refuel, and the restart was scheduled at the end of the meeting. Thankfully it appears that the drivers involved in the incidents were left bruised and shaken up but with no serious injuries, although not sure the same could be said for the karts!

So, in the absence of a completed Rotax final, it was the turn of the 125 ICC UK drivers to take the track and, with a good entry of 27, it had been hard and close racing throughout the heats. In the final, it was heat winner Thomas Moore, starting from pole, who initially took up the lead, but he was quickly headed by fellow heat winner Lee Stamp, who had started alongside on the front row. Once in front, Stamp never offered so much as a sniff of a chance, driving a faultless race to take a fine victory by 1.508secs from Moore with Hywel Lloyd, who himself had a very consistent day, making up the podium.

The next final was the 125 Gearbox club round and it was frontrow driver Chris Whitehead who made the best start, but, having been forced wide at the hairpin, Andrew Hazlehurst, James Price and Rory Fowler all slipped through relegating him to fourth spot. Hazlehurst held the lead under severe pressure from Price for several laps, but, on lap 10, Price finally managed to slip by and hold on for the last two laps to take victory by 0.602 secs, with Fowler holding on under a late onslaught from Whitehead to take third place.

Next up it was the Junior TKM final and, following the heats this had looked likely to be vigorously contested by Billy Patterson and Phil Smith, both very promenent in the championship race, and so it proved with Patterson, Smith and the ever consistent Robert Stanley quickly pulling out quite a sizeable advantage over the rest, but on lap 5, a big mistake saw Smith outbrake himself at the end of the straight, putting him back to seventh, allowing Stanley to breeze into second spot with Scottish driver Stuart Warnock moving into third place. It was all over so far as the leader was concerned by this stage, Patterson was way ahead and continued to take the victory by just over 4secs from Stanley, with Warnock holding on for third, by now under a little pressure from Smith, who had battled back to fourth following his mistake.

Senior TKM has really re-emerged in a big way this season following a season or two in the doldrums. Full grids and a seriously exciting championship race have placed it, along with Rotax, as the most popular of the championship classes and, again it certainly didn`t disappoint. The earlier heats were taken by three different drivers in John Halliwell and the Scottish chargers Anthony Lester and Jaymie McBlain. In the final, it was Lester and Halliwell who started on the front row and quickly roared off into the distance, leaving a number of drivers including Paul Hooper, Wayne MacAulay and Dean Golba seemingly fighting the battle for the minor placings. A great battle ensued between Lester and Halliwell and, though never more than a kart length or so ahead, Lester was defending superbly well, never giving Halliwell an opening, to hold on for the entire race and take the victory by a mere 0.186secs. In the later stages it was MacAuley who came through to secure third place in a reasonably comfortable fashion. A strong case for driver of the day would have to be made for regular club driver Paul Phelan. Following a mix up involving his race entry he had to start at the back of the grid, but, from number 33 on the grid, he came through to take a 10th and two 7th places in the heats, followed by 7th place in the final.

Arguably the best final of the day was the Minimax class. It had been hugely close and competitive all day and, all credit to the drivers. Berated for poor driving standards during the previous meeting, the racing was hard but very fair all day. It was Daniel Murphy and Jordan Chamberlain who headed up the final grid and, though Chamberlain made the initial running, Tom Wrigley came through at the end of the first lap to grab the advantage and, midway through the second lap, Wrigley, together with Chamberlain and Murphy had begun to pull slightly clear of the pack, although it soon closed right up again, essentially becoming a six kart battle, with Ryan Denton and Ryan Singleton becoming increasingly prominent, in fact, by lap 10, Singleton got his nose in front and, once there, quickly pulled out a winning advantage, taking it by over 2.7 secs from Chamberlain with Denton a whisker back in third place.

It had become, by this time, a rather eerie setting around the circuit, with the skies totally black and huge flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder as the hapless Rotax 177 drivers entered the fray. Dean Bednarek and Paul Manton headed up the field and these two roared off into the lead, but, by the end of lap two, out of the darkness entered the rain, and what a deluge it was. With the helpless 177`s out on slicks, it quickly became a rendition of `Bambi on ice` with karts sliding about everywhere. Paul Manton, who had been second, suffered a number of spins to put him out of the picture, together with Graeme Hunt who quickly suffered the same fate. After 10 laps, 8 of which had been a total lottery, the drivers were rescued by a red flag to call a halt. All credit must go to Bednarek, who despite driving sideways on occasions, managed to keep it on the blackstuff, and do incredibly well to bring it home for the victory by 4.611secs from Richard Messenger and Chris O`Neill who themselves did admirably. The win, despite the conditions, leaves Bednarek handsomely placed in the club championship.

It was still streaming wet for the penultimate race of the day, the Junior Rotax class, although at least the juniors did have the advantage of some grip on wet tyres. It proved to be a fairly clear cut affair at the head of the race as Thomas Arme quickly took up the lead from Daniel Lloyd, an advantage he never looked like losing, driving superbly in very trying conditions, as indeed was Lloyd, these two pulling quite an advantage on, what by now, had become quite a good battle between Toby Franklin and Henry Surtees, (his legendary father watching events from the paddock) in the later stages, Surtees it was who came through to grab the third place, but he could do nothing about the front two, Arme taking a faultless victory by 0.389secs from Lloyd.

The final race of the day provided one of the great stories. The re-run of the Rotax Max final began with only 18 of the original 34 entry taking to the track and, with conditions still quite appalling it was easy to see why many drivers chose not to take part.

Following the two aborted earlier finals, it would have proved somewhat of an injustice had Daniel Chesters not again been prominent, having led them both at the time of their stoppages, and, once again, from the front row he gained the early advantage, but he was very closely tracked by Dean Parker, however on lap two, a spot of contact between the two saw Parker spin off and though able to return, his race was over. This left Chesters well clear, and seemingly unassailable, with Paul Pendlebury moving into second place with the Devon based driver Adam Murphy in third. A mistake from Pendlebury then saw him slip back leaving Murphy in second spot. By now however, a story was unravelling further down the pack with the, shall we say, veteran driver Gary Foster really on a charge. Starting 16th of 18, he had been steadily slicing through the field to suddenly find himself in third place and putting the pressure on Murphy, who, with three laps left, finally succumbed as Foster took up second slot and, almost incredibly, started to hunt down Chesters. With another couple of laps left it might have been very interesting indeed, but the end came just too soon for Foster and Chesters took what was a very well deserved victory by 1.450secs from the fired up Foster, Murphy hanging on fairly comfortably for third in a brilliant finale.

Report by: Mel Tipton

Results

Full Race Results from Round 6...

W-60 CADET
Chris Warburton (Zip/Comer)
James Godbehere (Zip/Comer)
Mackenzie Taylor (Zip/Comer)

S-60 CADET
Jacob Hunstone (Tony/Comer)
Piers Packenham-Walsh (Wright/Comer)

ROTAX MAX
Daniel Chesters (Intrepid/Rotax)
Gary Foster (Parolin/Rotax)
Adam Murphy (Kosmic/Rotax)

ABkC ICC UK CHAMPIONSHIP
Lee Stamp (F1/TM)
Thomas Moore (Energy/TM)
Hywel Lloyd (Energy/TM)

GEARBOX (CLUB)
James Price (Energy/SGM)
Andrew Hazlehurst (Mach 1/TM)
Rory Fowler (Birel/TM)

JUNIOR TKM
Billy Patterson (JKH/TKM)
Robert Stanley (P1/TKM)
Stuart Warnock (JKH/TKM)

SENIOR TKM
Anthony Lester (Venom/TKM)
John Halliwell (Venom/TKM)
Wayne MacAuley (Gillard/TKM)

MINIMAX
Ryan Singleton (Sodi/Rotax)
Jordan Chamberlain (Tony/Rotax)
Ryan Denton (Tony/Rotax)

ROTAX MAX 177
Dean Bednarek (Tony/Rotax)
Richard Messenger (Birel/Rotax)
Chris O`Neill (Top/Rotax)

JUNIOR ROTAX MAX
Thomas Arme (Kosmic/Rotax)
Daniel Lloyd (Sodi/Rotax)
Henry Surtees (Gillard/Rotax)

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