The event was held on sunny day at Buckmore. The format being 33 drivers competing in 3 heats, followed by 3 finals (A,B , and C).
To give everyone a chance the drivers were seeded Expert, intermediate and novice. Luke, aka spinderella, and I (Paul) were classified as expert but Tim was down graded to intermediate after his legendary but laughable performance at Clay Pigeon in July…. Tim was none to happy and already the red mist was descending…. Toby didn't race because he was consoling himself about becoming a step closer to mid-thirties… Also racing were a number of guys from the Mercator challenge and Simon (19 stone first timer !!) and Belinda who stood in for me at Clay and based on her performance on the day she was also classified as an expert…. Tim by now was apoplectic !!
Damien another member of Team HSBC also came along - at least if he had an accident this time it wouldn't be in our kart !!
The way the heats were drawn meant that I was racing against the Nat West guys in all three of my heats presumably so that we took points off each other - Luke by some fluke missed out on this and had varied opposition in heats…. The heats showed reasonably predictable results with Luke and I finishing in the top 4 in each of our three…. The grids were designed so that if you won a heat then you started at the back in the next and so on… Because the karts are so evenly matched and the races only 5 laps long you had to take every opportunity especially if starting at the back…. much contact ensued, in fact I think Luke thought he was in bumper cars. In all my three heats I ended battling wheel to wheel with Steve True (Natwest)….. and I managed to just edge him out in all three - but only by a second or less !!
Luke faired pretty well in the heats as did Tim who managed to win one !! Much happier !! Belinda and Damien seemed to struggle though…. Perhaps a bit rusty…. The finals saw Simon mid field in the "C" final but Damien on pole (having been taken out by Tim on the last corner or the last lap in the heats !)… he romped home and got "promoted" to the back of the "B", three places behind Belinda…. Unfortunately neither managed to win so their day was over.
The A final grid was Darren Norris, Taiji Okada, Me, then Luke …. And Steve True back in 6th and Tim in 9th (but happy that he had redeemed himself and was in the A final !!). It was going to be hairy !! But the first corner went without incident and I was second. Half way down the back straight I realised my kart was the best I'd had all afternoon and was soon all over Darren's back bumper….. a victory was definitely on…
The final was over 10 laps so I had some time to play with but after 4 laps of being joined at the wheels I finally snuck through when he ran slightly wide. Meanwhile Luke was battling it out in a pack of four for 3rd - 6th…. he eventually got close to the front of the pack and was heading for a podium position… I eeked out a small cushion between me and Darren and when I saw that there was only one to lap to go I felt somewhat relieved as the steering was getting unbelievable heavy and the pack were closing… Luke meanwhile was desperate for the podium and lunged for third with a lap to go….. oh dear, spinderella does it again, 4th to 10th in one easy move… Tim meanwhile was satisfied with a well deserved seventh.
Roll on the next Max race.
Saturday 21st Sept - Prokart race - Paul wins Mercator rematch
