Karting News from Karting1.co.uk » Blog Archive » Edgar’s Hyundai Super One Rotax Series Round 4: Larkhall on 7th/8th July 2012

Edgar’s Hyundai Super One Rotax Series Round 4: Larkhall on 7th/8th July 2012

By Karting1 ~ July 16th, 2012. Filed under: Announcements.

Only a week after the MSA Series had packed up and left, the Rotax and Honda Cadet drivers descended on the Scottish circuit for their Round 4. And although the Saturday timed qualifying was wet, Sunday stayed dry to give some fantastic racing from the 160 competitors. The starts and general standard of racing was exceptionally good, although MiniMax drivers had some issues at the bottom hairpin.

max sean babington
Sean Babington is in irresistible form. Pic by TSR Productions

Honda Cadet

Connor Grady just pipped Zip mounted Elliot Harvey and local ace Sandy Mitchell in the timed qualifying and it was the O Plated Mitchell and Harvey who won the heats. For the first final, Harvey was rapidly shuffled back to third by Sam Munro and Ewan Tindall. But Harvey fought back, briefly reached the front once more only to have first Mitchell and then Kiern Jewiss establish themselves ahead. With two or three laps to run, Harvey slipped ahead, only to have Mitchell nip inside at the second hairpin with Jewiss following, Harvey having to settle for third. Tindall had fallen to the back, Munro lost many places but came back to fifth whilst Luke Wooder stormed through from the back to fourth.

The same three broke away from the pack in the second final, Harvey then Mitchell then Jewiss taking turns to lead whilst Wooder lost many places when pushed wide onto the grass. He had to come back through once more to finish fourth again. Jewiss may have thought he was in for a win, Harvey thought otherwise as he executed two swift moves from third to first. Mitchell made a last gasp retrieval for second but failed to hold off Jewiss on the line by a whisker.

MiniMax

Both MiniMax finals were punctuated early on by the all course yellow and black quarter flags for pile ups at the bottom hairpin, Dave Wooder quick to pass Lando Norris and pull away in the first final only to be sidelined by an electrical fault. Norris had been fastest in timed qualifying going onto win the first and third heats, Connor Mills the second. Once Wooder had retired, the pressure was on Mills to keep his lead despite the best efforts of Norris whilst a little distant Philip Rawson and Connor Hall contested third with the Chinese Guan Yu Zhou a lonely fifth.

For the second final Mills led almost the entire race, and when Zhou caught him out Mills struck straight back and held off Rawson who was pipped at the end by Dave Wooder in a remarkable comeback from last place. Jai Nijjar had joined the lead group on the last lap, whilst Zhou fell to seventh behind a slightly ailing Norris.

Junior Max

On the combined timed qualifying list Raoul Hyman showed his speed over Kyle Fowlie, each having a heat win with Oliver Myers taking the other. Hyman was never headed in the first final, the South African eking out a gap over the chasing pack, where Fowlie was slicing through after a terrible start from the front row. Ross Gunn had slipped inside second place Marsh, the latter running onto the grass as Fowlie followed through and immediately barrelling inside Gunn at Pits corner for second. Marsh recovered to re-take Gunn, Rob Holland following.

In the second final from the outside of the front row once again, Fowlie only fell to fourth and soon dispatched Holland and Marsh before trading the lead with Hyman three times. Once on top the Scot survived a rubbing of sidepods on the penultimate lap to take a popular local victory. Danny Keirle stormed through to sixth after coming off in the first final.

Max 177

For the big boys and Masters, Tom Holland pipped Ben Walker in the TQ session with current champion an unaccustomed ninth fastest. And Orrock was still on the back foot as Holland claimed both heats, the first from Matthew Nicholson, the other from Dominic Russell with Orrock twice third. The champ leapfrogged Nicholson on the opening lap of the first final, and then slipped inside Holland at the second hairpin of the complex.

But Russell, who had dropped away a little at the start, came on strong and successfully challenged Orrock for the lead and defended to the chequer flag. In the second one, Orrock fell back to fourth at the start then David Griffiths tried a move which pushed Orrock onto the escape road. They came out still in their original positions but whereas Griffiths lost some places for an eventual sixth, Orrock narrowed the gap to Russell and Holland but was not quite close enough to do more by the end. So Russell had a lights to flag victory over Holland, Tim Penton coming up to fourth.

Senior Max

Wet or dry Sean Babington totally dominated proceedings from TQ through his heats and in the finals, having a distinct edge on all his rivals at times several seconds to the good. Oliver Hodgson took the other heat. Charlie Eastwood was initially nearest in the early stages of the first final after taking Scott Harrison until Andy King nicked through at Pits corner. Hodgson came up for a close fourth, whilst reigning champion Ed Brand fell back to ninth.

In the second final Eastwood showed he might have been able to stay with Babington only for his engine to seize with a broken piston. That left Hodgson and King trading second, finishing in that order, with Brand doing better for fourth.

Results

Honda Cadet

Final 1

1 Sandy Mitchell (Project One) 21 laps in 16m05.57s; 2 Kiern Jewiss (Project One) +00.27s; 3 Elliot Harvey (Zip); 4 Luke Wooder (Project One); 5 Sam Munro (Project One); 6 Myles Apps (Project One).

Final 2

1 Harvey 21 laps in 16m05.90s; 2 Jewiss +00.12s; 3 Mitchell; 4 Wooder; 5 Rory Hudson (Project One); 6 Ronan Graves (Zip).

MiniMax

Final 1

1 Connor Mills (Tonykart) 23 laps in 15m53.09s; 2 Lando Norris (Tonykart) +01.39s; 3 Phillip Rawson (Kosmic); 4 Connor Hall (Tonykart); 5 Guan Yu Zhou (Tonykart); 6 Alex Stott (Tonykart).

Final 2

1 Mills 23 laps in 16m11.70s; 2 Dave Wooder (Alonso) +00.72s; 3 Rawson; 4 Jai Nijjar (Tonykart); 5 Stott; 6 Norris.

Junior Max

Final 1

1 Raoul Hyman (Alonso) 24laps in 15m41.91s ; 2 Kyle Fowlie (Gillard) +00.73s; 3 Sam Marsh (Tonykart); 4 Rob Holland (Tonykart); 5 Ross Gunn (Tonykart); 6 Levi Coombs (CRG).

Final 2

1 Fowlie 24 laps in 15m49.39s; 2Hyman +00.10s; 3 Marsh; 4 Oliver Myers (Tonykart); 5 Luke Whitworth (Tonykart); 6 Danny Keirle (Jade).

Max 177

Final 1

1 Dominic Russell (Tonykart) 24 laps in 15m44.97s; 2 Lucas Orrock (Kosmic) +00.09s; 3 Tom Holland (Alonso); 4 David Griffiths (GMS); 5 Matthew Nicholson (Tonykart); 6 Tim Penton (Kosmic).

Final 2

1 Russell 25 laps in 16m15.17s; 2 Holland +00.34s; 3 Orrock; 4 Penton; 5 Colin Davis (Tonykart); 6 Griffiths.

Senior Max

Final 1

1 Sean Babington (Alonso) 25 laps in 15m59.62s; 2 Andy King (Tonykart) +03.85s; 3 Charlie Eastwood (Formula K); 4 Oliver Hodgson (Tonykart); 5 John Stewart (Tonykart); 6 James Singleton (Tonykart).

Final 2

1 Babington 25 laps in 15m59.58s; 2 Hodgson +01.97s; 3 King; 4 Edward Brand (Formula K); 5 Singleton; 6 Stewart.

Rotax S1 Gallery by TSR Productions