Karting News from Karting1.co.uk » Blog Archive » July 2010 Round 5 FEKC Club Championship and Inaugural Help For Heroes Festival.

July 2010 Round 5 FEKC Club Championship and Inaugural Help For Heroes Festival.

By Karting1 ~ August 2nd, 2010. Filed under: Announcements.

The sun was shining for round 5, with the club incorporating the first Help For Heroes Festival in raising monies for this great charity, after the fun events, great racing, trolley race and Army Catering Corp providing the weekend’s food ala Helmand Province style, the club expects to have raised over £10,000 for this great cause. Tiff Needell hotfooted it back from Goodwood to hand out trophies with Caroline Noakes, MP for the area.

Another big grid of competitors greeted the race circuit, Minimax being the first A final to take to the track had Elliot Hall on pole with Piers Hickin alongside, a good start from Hall saw Hickin tuck in behind with David Wright just behind and the trio started to pull away from the pack. At mid stage Hall started to punch fastest lap after fastest lap to ease away from Hickin, and with Wright’s kart seemingly going “off” he started to drift back into Lewis Bowles’ reach. At the chequered flag the first five finished as they gridded with Hall unchallenged for a fine win from Hickin and Wright taking the final podium slot just ahead of Bowles.

Another substantial grid in Rotax delivered a great day’s racing with Forest Edge old boy Barry Thomsit making a welcome return from Super 1 to sit on pole, Scott Smart alongside. Thomsit took advantage of his pole, heading into Haynes Loop in first place and this pretty much set up his final, with a great drive Thomsit took a lights to flag victory and the Heroes Festival trophy, in this class sponsored by Coles Racing. Behind Thomsit the action was thick and fast with Smart’s tyres drifting off mid race, falling back into the reach of Henry Easthorpe, Alastair Wayman and Dean Hale with less than half a second separing all four across the finish line. Smart drove a mature race, nursing tyres through to the finish to hold Easthorpe by half a kart’s length from Hale.

In the combined Masters and 177 Steve Pratt took pole, Dan Bushell alongside, Pratt got the better start, Nick Maton easing through from 4th to second early on edging Bushell wide at Midgetts, Jamie Drabble just tucking in behind the pair and looking for an option to get past that never looked to open up. The respect shown in the class was admirable and with the trio battling to get on terms with Pratt they ultimately slowed each other up allowing Pratt the opportunity to ease away to take the win. Maton, with some quick laps toward the end utilised his pace to hold off Bushell and Drabble by less than two tenths of a second to produce a nail biting finish. The Masters had Pete Thomas on track grid position of third place and just lose out early on to the “Youngsters”, yet with his old wise driving head, settled in behind them to take first Masters home with lap times on par with the front battle, Charlie Watson took second place Master with Jim Plunkett taking the final podium slot and his first ever trophy!

A smaller grid of TKM than normal saw blistering pace from Sam Grogan on pole drive away from the field in dominating style with Martin Kirby this month having to settle for second.

The libre grid of cadets had Comer shod Jordan Gilbertson drive away to take first on track and class, behind a thrilling race developed between the Honda of George Thompson and Matteo Zanetti’s Comer shod BRM, a kart bumper separated them at the line with Zanetti taking second on track and Comer, Thompson third on track and first across the line in Honda. The new track seems to be bringing the Honda’s closer to the Comers on ultimate pace with Jason Duffett’s Honda finishing just behind Thompson, Simon Carr’s Honda just following home Duffett. The top eight saw four Hondas and four Comers to show how equally matched the youngsters are in both classes to show Cadet Libre racing at its very best.

Junior Max continues to be one of the biggest grids in the South, Sam Cassidy with three good heats took pole from Ollie Pidgely. Cassidy got a great start , Pidgely was left on the outside of Haynes loop with no way to cut back in, Levi Coombs came through from row two to sit on the bumper of Cassidy, after the first few corners those two started to pull away from Cody Tree and Jack Mayle. Cassidy looked to have the race under control with a mature drive, pinpoint lines and no mistakes. Two laps to go Coombs timed a move to perfection and outbraked Cassidy going into Midgetts and edged away slightly for the remainder of the lap, Cassidy now the hunter upped his pace and produced his fastest laps in the hope of catching Coombs. At the line Coombs held off Cassidy to take the McLaren sponsored trophy with Cody Tree taking third place from Jack Mayle and Matthew Duffett.

A resurgence of gearbox continues at Barton Stacey with the track changes appealing to the drivers, Andrew Gulliford took first place in 250 from Kenton Ashforth who struggled in the first half of the race, finding his form a little too late to impact Gulliford’s lead. Jamie Garvie secured first 125 gearbox home being less than 2/1000ths of a second slower then Ashforth’s fastest time! James Berio took second across the line from Garvie.

A great weekend’s fun and racing, a huge sum raised for Help For Heroes and the start of the Heroes Festival that promises to run for as long as the charity is in existence, the club wishes to thanks the wider karting community for donating so many prizes toward the classes and the auction, the Army Catering Corps who were fantastic in providing a unique karting experience of full English Breakfasts and mandatory Saturday Army style curry.

Watch out for next year when this event promises to be even bigger and better with more prizes, more fun and more Army to make the event even more special.

Comer Cadet

1st Jordan Gilbertson, BRM

2nd Matteo Zanetti, BRM

3rd James Thompson, Zip

4th Adam Worley, BRM

Honda Cadet

1st George Thomson, Project 1

2nd Jason Duffett, Project 1

3rd Simon Carr, Project 1

4th Fletcher Trueman, Project 1

WTP

1st Joe Pfiffner, BRM