Newsletter – May – Fulbeck Round 1

The 210 Challenge eventually began the season on May 27^th/28^th at Fulbeck after Rissington cancelled the first round on coronation weekend. King Charles had quite obviously forgotten to put us in his Royal Diary!!! Onwards and upwards as they say! Fulbeck saw a healthy grid with Taylor Hancock (son of Neil Hancock) making his debut as our youngest Novice in quite a while. After mastering an unfamiliar track he showed great potential, a cracking little driver, one to definitely watch out for. Peter Masson returned to swell the ranks after conquering personal health issues and it didn’t take him long to get up to speed.

Heat 1 – saw Perkins take the early lead followed by Rawden, Henry, D. Bury and Masson. By lap 4 Perkins had pulled away from the chasing pack leaving Rawden and D. Bury to fight it out with D. Bury passing Rawden into the ‘Bus Stop’ to claim 2^nd. Henry was keeping Fowler in 5^th at bay. It was all change during the next 2 laps, Perkins snapped his gear stick handing D. Bury 1^st place and a lap later saw D. Bury out and D. Rawden snatching the lead with Perkins managing to continue. The flag fell with many drivers succumbing to G/Box or lever problems. 1^st Rawden, 2^nd Perkins, 3^rd N. Hancock, 4^th T. Bury, 5^th Stone & 6^th Shepheard.

Heat 2. On the first lap D. Bury was witnessed to have a shocking incident prompting the red flag. Suffice to say he sustained some nasty injuries which luckily will heal in time and is now slowly recovering. We all wish him a speedy recovery.
The restart saw Perkins once again take the early lead with Henry and Rawden hot on his heels. Rawden had made it up to 2^nd by lap 3 with N. Hancock lying in 4^th. Fowler was motoring well through the field and would eventually finish 3^rd. As Perkins went through the chequered flag (which was waved too early) and pulled off into parc Ferme the last lap board was shown to the rest of the field!!!! However Perkins was awarded the win 2^nd Henry, 3^rd, Fowler, 4^th Hancock, 5^th Masson, 6^th T. Bury.

Fowler took up the lead for Heat 3 and led for 3 laps. As the field rounded the top corner Sifleet, Rawden and Perkins all made a pass on Fowler and each other. Sifleet took up the lead followed by Rawden, Perkins, Fowler and Henry. By the next lap Perkins had claimed 2^nd. All remained the same at the front until lap 9 when Henry passed Rawden into the ‘Bus stop’. 1^st Sifleet, 2^nd Perkins, 3^rd Henry, 4^th Rawden, 5^th N. Hancock, 6^th Stone.

Pole sitter Perkins had Rawden alongside for the final N. Hancock and Henry row 2, Stone and Fowler row 3. Rawden unfortunately didn’t make the start and was side-lined on the rolling lap. It was Perkins who led the pack around top bend with Hancock, Henry, Stone and the rest giving chase. By lap 2 Sifleet had picked his way through the field to second place but it would take him further 6 laps to catch and pass Perkins. Henry made the most of a slowing Hancock to take up 3^rd spot, keeping it wasn’t easy as Stone got in the mix for 2 laps as they swapped places. Henry got his spot back whilst Fowler in spitting distance made his move on Stone to claim 4^th. Masson and T. Bury were having a good battle with Masson unwaveringly keeping T. Bury behind him in 7^th. The remaining laps saw no change between the top 7. Sifleet romped it home to claim the victory, Perkins 2^nd, Henry 3^rd (1^st Piston Port) Fowler 4th, Stone 5^th, Masson 6^th, T. Bury7th, Sloane who’d had a good race with Skull and Shepheard came in 8^th, Shepheard 9^th Skull 10^th. T. Hancock came in 11^th having lapped his Father, not bad for first time out. New for 2023 is First Piston Port home which went to Stuart Henry.