Newsletter – June

Kimbolton – Round 3

Well sorry folks after the good response I received from the new format of the last report we are back to the old format for this race report as Kimbolton use Apex Timing and not Alpha Timing.

Kimbolton once again saw the biggest grid of 210’s to celebrate the 60^th birthday of Hunts Kart Club. One Challenge member Tim Woodward actually attended their 30^th Anniversary and won the race!!

As a class it had been arranged for us to practice Saturday and race Sunday. Saturday was truly abysmal with rain most of the day and as most 210 drivers seem to be fair weather drivers not much action was seen on track.

Fowler was sporting the new bright yellow CIK waterproof from Lego land whilst  Masson attempted to hide his man boobs after it took several of his team members to fit him into a rib protector kindly leant by Whyte as he’d forgotten his!!

Heat 1 – Heats were programmed for 8 mins plus a lap and Whyte took the initial lead for heat 1. But by lap 4 Fowler had taken over at the front putting a comfortable distance between himself and Whyte. Woodward was in 3^rd fending off Perkins, L. Sifleet, D. Bury, T. Bury, Callaghan and A. Sifleet with only centimetres separating them.  On lap 6 Woodward managed to squeeze past Whyte at Stow Corner to give chase to Fowler who on the next lap was ahead by the whole length of the Start Straight, L. Sifleet 3^rd, D. Bury 4^th, T. Bury 5^th A. Sifleet 6^th. An incident must have occurred from out of sight and no one was very forth coming but as they came around for lap 7 D. Bury appeared in 3^rd, T. Bury 4^th, A. Sifleet 5^th and Whyte and L. Sifleet now down in 6^th and 7^th!? On the last lap Woodward was seen to go straight on into the tyres at Stow with brake problems, however he did manage to extricate himself from the tyre wall to continue to finish 8^th.

1^st Fowler, 2^nd Sifleet & 3^rd Whyte (having worked their way back up), 4^th A. Sifleet, 5^th D. Bury and 6^th Cox

Heat 2 – T. Bury led the pack around Stow Corner for lap one closely followed by Fowler, L. Sifleet, A. Sifleet and Woodward. It sure wasn’t long until Fowler got the sniff of the lead again (makes mental note…..need to find out was he eats for breakfast) hard as he tried L. Sifleet couldn’t make up ground or pass Fowler so they both remained in station for the remaining 12 laps. Woodward was up to his finishing place of 3^rd by lap 4 whilst it took the next 4 laps for A. Sifleet, Perkins and D. Bury to sort out their positions after constant dicing. A fairly sedate race when all said and done

1^st Fowler, 2^nd L. Sifleet, 3^rd Woodward, 4^th A. Sifleet, 5^th Perkins, 6^th D. Bury

Heat 3 – This heat would be a very very big ouch moment for an up and coming septuagenarian who had displayed skill and endurance in the two previous heats! Callaghan momentarily led the pack for the first lap before Fowler once again took over at the front. L. Sifleet had a brief glimpse at the front on lap 2 in through The Willows but next time round Fowler had retaken the lead and held his line to retain it.  On lap 3 A. Sifleet demoted Callaghan to claim 3^rd. 2 laps later saw Perkins claim 4^th with Hancock in 6^th. The remainder of the race saw Perkins swarming all over the rear of A. Sifleet and on occasions travelling the length of the Start Straight side by side. At the same time Hancock, D. Bury and Whyte were swapping places. On lap 11 Fowler crossed the line once again with a good lead and no one can be quite sure of how or why but at full speed he was forced headlong into the tyres at Stow Corner and whisked off to the medical Centre to assess any injuries. He had badly injured his foot and was lucky not to have sustained anything worse. This of course handed L. Sifleet what would have been his well-deserved win.

1^st L. Sifleet, 2^nd A. Sifleet, 3^rd Perkins, 4^th Callaghan, 5^th D. Bury, 6^th Whyte

Final – After 13 laps for the heats I was really expecting a sheepish representative to amble over and plead to reduce laps as a 12 min final plus a lap was awaiting them. NB All other gearbox classes reduced theirs so proud of you all for your stamina and sticking to your guns.

The front row was hosted by Sifleet father and Son with Pops on pole. As the lights changed L. Sifleet led his son and the rest into Stow, these two would remain in station till the flag some family celebrations would be on the cards when they got home. On lap 2 Callaghan having made up 6 places from his grid spot had passed Perkins to claim 3^rd and try as he might Perkins couldn’t grab the place back; this is where Callaghan remained although he was closing on 2^nd place. The first few laps saw quite a few drop along the wayside and not necessarily through mechanical gremlins!!! At this point the phrase ‘drive in a straight line’ comes to mind but maybe that was the problem!! Midrace distance saw the top 6 places fixed D. Bury was 4^th, Green 5^th and Hancock 6^th. Further down the field Whyte who wasn’t having the best day of his racing career was fending off Cox, Smith and T. Bury.

As the flag fell on the 60^th celebration L. Sifleet came in victorious, A. Sifleet 2^nd, Callaghan 3^rd, D. Bury 4^th Green 5^th, Hancock 6^th, Smith 7th, Whyte 8^th, T. Bury 9^th

Pit Bits –

Paul Fowler – Paul after many visits to hospital is slowly on the mend aided by lots of love and affection from June (aptly now named Florence Nightingale) we hope to see them both soon and wish Paul a continued good recovery.

Photos – Driver profiles – I am hoping to ask Len Slack that at this meeting at Rissi or the next at Shenington to take as many head and shoulder shots of our current drivers to update our website, please smile and don’t worry about oily faces it will give a look of authenticity J

Filters – Please could someone shed some light on what on earth some drivers are doing with their filters? Are we eating them? I have never had to order so many. I was under the impression they lasted a very long time and could be washed out and continually be reused. Just trying to save you lot some dosh.

Checking of engines – This is ongoing and if you haven’t been checked already, don’t worry you will have your turn either this weekend at Rissington or perhaps Shenington. Thanks for your patience.

History – I am still working on the history of our class for the website and it’s come to light that Class 4 is also 60 years old this year. The class as we know it now was implemented on April 1^st 1974 another birthday whammy of 45 years!!! Please see below re a birthday tea. I have attached an article for those who may be interested.

Round 5 – Shenington – There will be a combined Steering Group meeting and a driver get together at Shenington to discuss any issues or ideas you may have for next season. All will be welcome as I thought we could have afternoon tea in the way of birthday cake, scones and cream to celebrate our 60 years. Please bring a chair. We will attempt to do this half an hour after your heat on the Saturday. Let’s see who remembers and has read this!

Kate