Newsletter May 20th- Kimbolton Round 2 – 210 ‘0 Plate
The 210 brigade contesting their coveted 210 ‘0’ Plate were lucky enough to have pit spaces purchased as we were joining in with the busy 10th anniversary of the East Anglian Trophy which was also a double header for the Club Championships. The Challenge was slotted into the race programme for practice on the Saturday, which did turn out to be a little on the damp side. Sunday’s weather however looked hopeful and with 7 minutes plus a lap for the heats and a 9 minute heat plus a lap for the final whispers were going around the pits as to the favourite to walk off with the ‘0’ plate at the end of the day! Would Whyte keep the accolade or would…………
Heat 1
D. Bury lead heat 1 for the first 2 laps until Whyte travelling alongside him down Hines Straight into Stow Corner courageously kept his line and demoted D. Bury to 2nd, Fowler was lying in 3rd spot, Perkins 4th and Woodward 5th. By lap 8 Whyte had edged his away from the chasing pack whilst D. Bury, Fowler and Perkins had closed the gap between themselves. Henry in 6th was attempting to get to grips with his new chassis and encouraging it to continue in the forward facing direction!! On the last lap Fowler spun into Stow Corner, Perkins narrowly missed him to take up 3rd position.
1st Whyte, 2nd D. Bury, 3rd Perkins, 4th Fowler 5th Henry
Heat 2
Plain led from start to finish although he did disappear from the timing sheets due to a transponder malfunction. Perkins, D. Bury, Henry and Fowler fought it out for the first few laps with Henry succumbing to another ‘got to master this chassis moment’. By lap 3 Plain had the length of the Hines Straight between himself and the chasing pack who were now Perkins, D. Bury, Woodward and Whyte. Lap 5 saw both Woodward and Whyte pass D. Bury. Woodward was on a charge and on lap 7 passed Perkins safely on the exit of Stow Corner to claim 2nd, Whyte was to follow suit on the next lap to claim 3rd. As the flag fell we witnessed a photo finish between Woodward and Whyte but Woodward just clinched it with 0.02 of a second to spare!
1st Plain, 2nd Woodward, 3rd Whyte, 4th Perkins, 5th D. Bury and 6th Fowler
Heat 3
It was time to get a different view of the racing so your roaming reporter based herself at Stow Corner facing the oncoming karts!!! Fowler led the pack around Stow very closely followed by Plain, W. Cox, D. Bury, Woodward and Whyte. As they entered Stow for the second time Fowler spun directly in front of 2nd place Plain and the rest of the field. Luckily he was inches from Parc Ferme and his able mechanic was waiting with the starter motor. This handed the lead to Plain and put Fowler a lap down. At the same time Perkins joined Fowler at Stow to readjust his carb and re-join just ahead of Fowler. On the next lap Woodward had passed both D. Bury and W. Cox to claim 2nd and Whyte passed D. Bury for 3rd. On lap 6 Fowler spun again in front of Plain at Stow but was able to successfully carry on. Plain led Woodward 2nd, Whyte 3rd, D. Bury 4th, W. Cox 5th and Henry 6th who seemingly had passed his spinner virus onto Fowler. On the last lap Fowler spun for the third time but was unlucky and had to pull off. (Made a mental note to go back to reporting from the Grandstand for the Final!!!???)
1st Plain, 2nd Woodward, 3rd Whyte, 4th D. Bury, 5th W. Cox and 6th Green
Final
Whyte and Woodward hosted the front row with D. Bury and a late Perkins taking a short cut to join him on the second row. As the lights changed it was Woodward who rounded Stow in the lead with Perkins 2nd, Whyte 3rd, Fowler 4th, D. Bury 5th and Henry 5th. Lap 3 saw Whyte having previously passed Perkins take Woodward around Stow Corner to take the lead. On the next lap Fowler was up to 3rd. Mid race distance saw Woodward succumbing to gear change related problems with Fowler passing him to claim 2nd , Henry, Green and W. Cox were having a good dice as were S. Cox and T. Bury. Fowler had another dizzy moment with Stow Corner but had a good distance from D. Bury not to lose his 2nd place. By now Whyte had taken command of the race and cleared off into the distance. He came in victoriously, the 2018 210 ‘0 Plate winner with nearly 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place man Fowler.
1st Whyte, 2nd Fowler, D. Bury 3rd, Green 4th, Henry 5th, W. Cox 6th, S. Cox and first placed Novice 7th T. Bury 8th and Perkins 9th.
Congratulations Tom Whyte 2018 210 ‘0’ Plate Champion
Kate