Newsletter – Kimbolton Round 1

What a fantastic showing we had at Kimbolton for round 1. All four races were filmed, you can find this on https://www.youtube.com/live/60qaCpUn_ds The commentator sang your praises by saying they were beautiful Karts which put on a really good show. 2025 membership currently stands at 25 drivers who are fully registered. We welcomed David Smith (No. 96) and Jack Perkins (No.84), son of R. Perkins to the grid for the first time and welcomed back Shane Cox (No.69).

Heat 1 (36:00 on video) saw R. Perkins take the lead with Fowler tucking in just behind. By lap 5 Sifleet and D. Bury had passed Fowler who now had Henry close up behind. T. Bury and Masson were also in the mix. On lap 8 just before Kestrel Corner R. Perkins and Sifleet were fighting it out with a lapped Hutton taking to the grass to let them both through. Sifleet literally squeezed passed R. Perkins to claim the lead. Sifleet went onto win the first race of the season with R. Perkins only centimetres behind in 2^nd, D. Bury 3^rd, T. Bury 4^th, Fowler 5^th and Masson 6^th.

Heat 2 (1:37:08) and it was Sifleet who led the pack for 2 laps before pulling off having succumbed to Villiers gremlins. D. Bury took up the lead with R. Perkins in 2^nd having made up 18 places. 3^rd – 7^th spot was closely fought for by Masson, Fowler, Hopes, Henry and T. Bury. On lap 3 T. Bury spun out of contention but went onto pass quite a few to finish 6^th. By lap 5 D. Bury had a considerable lead over R. Perkins, however as the race progressed Bury was slowed by overtaking back markers and R. Perkins began to reel him in. D. Bury finished 0.90 in front of R. Perkins 2^nd, Henry 3^rd, Hopes 4^th, Masson 5^th and T. Bury 6^th.

Heat 3 (3:11.44) It was at this point your roving reporters batteries in the Dictaphone began to fade, hence I sounded like a Chipmunk on heat!!! Hopes and Sloane hosted the front row but it was T. Bury who led for the first lap from 8^th grid spot. R. Perkins took over at Stow Corner, T. Bury in 2^nd closely followed by Henry, Fowler, Stone and D. Bury. Glad we had the race footage. By lap 4 2^nd – 6^th spot was hotly contested between, T. Bury, Henry, Fowler, D. Bury and Sifleet, all so very very close. By lap 7 Fowler had broken formation and was up to 2^nd Sifleet was up to 3^rd. With two laps to go R. Perkins was leading by a country mile with over 11 seconds ahead of the rest. Sifleet had managed to get passed Fowler to claim 2^nd. 1^st R. Perkins, 2^nd Sifleet, photo finish for 3^rd Fowler and 4^th D. Bury, 5^th T. Bury, 6^th Henry

Final – (4.:58:00) Weather had been good until just before our final when the heavens threw done torrential rain and hail. So the grid chose to all go out on wet tyres. As the lights went out it was R. Perkins and D. Bury who made the most of their front row positions. Sifleet, Fowler, Henry, T. Bury, Hopes and the rest giving chase being mindful of a wet but drying track. Lap 2 saw D. Bury put R. Perkins under pressure with Sifleet doing the same to Bury, a three way battle at the front ensued for another 3 laps until D. Bury made his move on exiting Stow Corner. By mid-race distance Sifleet just couldn’t catch the pair at the front, Fowler wasn’t far behind in 4^th, Henry in 5^th. Hopes in 6^th was having a great dice with J. Perkins in 7^th which continued for the duration of the race, our first time out Novice who was having a fabulous day. Not far behind was another newbie to the Challenge and showing great skill was Smith who was chasing Masson in 8^th, and would pass him on lap 6. Another two having a great race were Father and son Bill and Oli Shelley with Oli having the edge. On the last lap Perkins began to slow, sending him closer to Sifleet, but Fowler had been edging ever closer to Sifleet and had passed him the lap before. 1^st D. Bury, 2^nd R. Perkins, 3^rd Fowler, 4^th Sifleet, 5^th Henry, 6^th Hopes, 7^th J. Perkins, 8^th Smith, 9^th Masson and 10^th Owen.

Podium 1^st D. Bury, 2^nd R. Perkins, 3^rd Fowler, 5^th Henry.
First Novice J. Perkins