CKC Winter Champs Rd 2 - Jack, Toby, Luke, Will & Henry
The Preston/McDonald pairing from Round 1 and PF continued to gather momentum at the wet Surrey circuit, with Will Forber on his first yellow plate race and Jack Clements looking to join the battle from his novice plates the ingredients for a great day were in place, all this rounded off with a seriously excited Henry Pidgeon on Bambino and the Christmas meeting had everything the team could have wanted.
We were even blessed with the prescence of Engine Building Supremo - Matt Charters from DK to keep an eye on his latest motors.
The practice was a steady affair with varying setups to “home in” on the right setup, it was quickly clear that all the lads were there to get the job done and with Luke’s infectious laughter filling the awning the atmosphere was spot on, Ethan Perry now helping with the Bambino mentoring and race monitoring provided more smiles to keep the lads on track as well, a nervous Will paced around the pit area and Jack went to watch the first Bambino trial where Henry was desperate to make his mark on the historic track.
H1 saw plenty of swapping around but Toby managed to grab 2nd and Luke 3rd, with Will 9th and Jack at the rear it was a good result as Jacks times were only 2 tenths off Will so it was just a matter of experience.
H2 Luke 2nd, Toby 5th, Will 7th and Jack 12th, all the lads were doing well overall but some flustered driving by others left Toby 2 places of his rightful position, he wasn’t overly troubled especially having won his first Iame heat, he was in the mood for trophies and wasn’t willing to compromise next time out.
Honda Final
Following 45 mins of debate between our Dartford expert, our Iame expert Alan, the Super One side and myself the tyre decision was made, aided by two phone calls off site to kart manufacturer’s etc you have guessed it was a important 50:50 call, we were serious though and thankfully the right call was made as we went to the dummy where we had an inters/slicks mix between all the drivers.
Luke and Toby in that order drove away on the lights and it really was between the two lads for the duration - they dominated the Honda final and pulled out an impressive gap over the rest of the field. Luke kept a steady head but Toby had no intention of letting him go and several reminders to his Wiltshire teammate made Luke aware this was not going to be a walkover, toward the end an incident in the new complex caused water to cross the track and with Luke the first to arrive he was caught out and Toby drove by and shut the door, despite his best attempts and fastest lap of the race Toby’s experience kept Luke at bay and the “deadly duo” take the war to round 3 with Toby finishing 1st with Luke snapping at his heels in 2nd.
Will had a tough battle in the pack, continually swapping places and gaining some great racing experience. Crossing the line in a commendable 7th overall, Will did a brilliant job. Meanwhile Jack was battling with the other novices lapping in times that should have seen him in 8th but after some avoiding action, finished 13th but gaining in experience.
Henry had been getting quicker all day and despite having half the experience of the others found himself with a medal and a commendable time to take home before Santa arrives.
Toby rounded the day off by also winning the Iame class fooling another battle and had problems removing his lid with the grin he could not contain.
All the lads did really well, the efforts put in were not fully reflected in the end result but CKC of course is not a forgiving track and if you error you lose a lot of time and in Honda it can be painful, the lads went home happy, with the Christmas boxes and ready for Christmas having had a great season, we have names to look out for as we go and with Ben Huntley arriving on the scene as the Teams Junior Max in the Jan round we have lots to look forward to.
Have a great Christmas, we will see you out there somewhere in the wind and rain simply having a great time in our favourite sport but until then...
Keep it flat!
