Newsletter – April 30th
The drivers rolled up raring to go for the first round of the Challenge at Fulbeck on April 22nd. The title of this newsletter should be ‘It wasn’t my fault??’ The Woodward Team arrived with only 3 wheels on their wagon due to pothole city, hopefully this woudn’t continue to become a theme as the weekend progressed with Green losing a wheel in Saturdays practice!! Kevin Woolf had a slight identity crisis and entered as a 250 and Neil Hancock was unable to race due to blending his hand!!!
However Tom Smith was donning his proudly earned red plates for the first time and eager to get out there.
The order of the day had been programmed for heats of 10 mins plus a lap and a lot longer for the final. All agreed it would be prudent to reduce to 7 mins plus a lap for the heats and 10 mins plus a lap for the final. Fulbeck were happy to oblige as they were going to be tight on time.
Heat 1
The first race of the Challenge season unfortunately didnt begin well. As they paraded around on the warm up lap W. Cox (on the inside) forgot that the bus stop (turn 3) was omitted and turned straight into T. Bury, thus putting himself out of the race. The rest of the field behind took avoiding action to wherever they could!!
Plain led the heat from start to finish with D. Bury as his wing man in 2nd. Perkins managed to lose a brake pad on lap 1 sending him straight off at turn 5! However being the seasoned racer he is managed to rejoin a few laps down. Whyte worked his way up through the field passing Woodward, T. Bury, Green and Fowler to eventually claim 3rd.
1st Plain, 2nd D. Bury, 3rd Whyte, 4th Fowler, 5th Green, 6th T. Bury
Heat 2
Fowler took the early lead for heat 2 followed by D. Bury, Woodward, Green, W. Cox and Plain. By lap 3 Plain was up to 3rd demoting Woodward to 4th. Lap 4 saw all the action, Fowler, D. Bury and Plain travelled the Finish Straight 3 abreast whilst a little further back Whyte passed W. Cox and Green to claim 5th. It was Plain and D. Bury who emerged from turn 2 in front of Fowler to claim 1st and 2nd respectively.
1st Plain, 2nd D Bury, 3rd Fowler, 4th Woodward, 5th Whyte, 6th Perkins
Heat 3
Now this is where your lovable race reporter also comes under the title of ‘It wasn’t my fault??’ as I have no idea what happened to the recording of heat 3! Might be a case of #blamesoemoneelse. I think this might have been the race where a very brave pheasant decided to join the challenge, giving both Bury and Whyte some practice with avoidance skills! This is obviously why heat 3 report is missing i was trying to track Mr. Pheasant down to get him to pay the £25 guest entry fee!!!
1st Plain, 2nd D. Bury, 3rd Whyte, 4th Fowler, 5th Woodward, 6th Perkins
Final
Plain with a well earned pole flanked by D. Bury led the rolling pack to the startline. As to what happened next one can apportion quite a few adjectives but I liked the word kerfuffle (a commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views) sent in by Shane Cox. As they approached turn 2 (the top hairpin) karts were seen facing in all directions. It wasnt my fault was back!! Out of the shambles emerged 7 karts those of Plain, D. Bury, Whyte, Perkins, S. Cox (N), Stone (N) and T. Bury. By lap 3 D. Bury was out handing 2nd place to Whyte. S. Cox was now in 3rd and Perkins was fighting with his detached gear stick.On the next lap T. Bury was up to 4th and behaving himself, or so we thought! After the race he was called along with Perkins to discuss a pass he’d made under a yellow, now this really wasn’t his fault as Perkins was having major isues. As the race progressed Plain extended his lead from Whyte in 2nd and came in victoious. S.Cox was elated with his 3rd position as was T. Stone (N) in 6th. T. Bury after post race enquiry remained in 4th Perkins despite all his problems had played his ‘get out of jail free’ card for 5th place.