Into the karts for the first time. Also new are the trial name tags.

Tut tut Richard. A little too much curb there, and right under the noses of Race Control...

Nick Pascoe forces an error from Simon Spiers, also taking liberties with the curb.

Mike Wood on the move - slicing past Lee Graves...

... and approaches Simon Spiers at Turn 6...

...who defends to the end of the lap at Turn 8 and beyond.

Round 2 – Friday 02 May 2008   -   Race 1

The grid-allocation lucky-dip had produced a truly random starting order, with the regulars scattered throughout. Poleman Simon Spiers had next-door neighbour Richard Weber over his left shoulder and BA’s Rob Creer immediately behind.

Starting fourth was Rein Zwolsman with Duncan Hope fifth. Of the pace-setters in practice, Nick Pascoe was seventh, directly ahead of Tim McDermott (ninth) with Julian Berry down in 14th.

With the grid complete, all eyes locked onto the lights… which was a pity, because the lights were in fact temporarily u/s and the race was to be started by a green flag. Most folk seemed to react to this unexpected development quickly enough, and the field roared out of their starting positions pretty-much as one, but the FMR’s Technical Committee made a note to check this for future events.

Blaring down to Turn 1, Simon, Richard and Rob formed a tight grouping through the corner. By the end of Lap 1, Rob had got past the two others, Richard slotting into second place and closing the door to put Simon in third.

Satisfied that his six o’clock was reasonably secure for the time being, Rich now lowered his head and began to take the fight to Rob. Faster by 0.6s on lap 2, Rich was with him on lap 3. The ensuing overtaking move unsettled Rob and cost him about 2.5s, but he quickly regained his composure and his laptimes returned immediately to the 51s bracket.

However, Rich was now quicker still, well into his stride and pulling away by as much as 0.6s a lap. Richard would remain P1 until the flag, but he would not be out there in splendid isolation for long…..

Elsewhere, others were taking advantage of the still-tightly-packed nature of the field to make early gains. Steve McLean was up to fourth by the end of lap 1 (from sixth on the grid), improving further to third by the end of lap 2.

Up from grid seventh came Nick Pascoe, completing lap 1 in sixth place and moving into close line-astern formation behind Duncan Hope. Tim McDermott, his kart clearly very much to his liking, came from ninth on the grid to seventh on lap 1, and then hacked his way past the Hope/Pascoe battle on lap 2. P4 at the end of the lap, he was P3 at the end of lap 3, this coming at Steve McLean’s expense. Now his target was Rob Creer, who was trying to regain his rhythm having lost it during Richard’s move. A 51.35s lap allowed Tim to close on Rob by 1.8s, and he made up a further 0.8s next time around. By the end of lap 5, the deed had been done, and Tim was in second and chasing after a distant Richard Weber.

With a little space around him at last, Tim seemed to have a small speed advantage over Richard (their fastest laps being 0:50.058 and 0:50.357 respectively). For the remaining 18 laps he slowly reeled-in his target, although a small number of minor slips occasionally allowed Richard a moment’s respite from the pressure. But Richard wanted this one, and after 20 minutes’ racing it was his, even if the gap to Tim was only 0.37s. Intense stuff… until you see what was going on elsewhere…

There had been a distinctly orange hue to the back of the starting line-up, Mike Wood, Maarten Bouwman and Steve Alford occupying P19, 20 and 21 respectively, with Clare Jarvis P22. All four got off the grid cleanly and made up four spaces, as first lap argy-bargy slowed Justin Undery, Julian Berry, Simon Kerry and Lee Graves.

There had been a distinctly orange hue to the back of the starting line-up, Mike Wood, Maarten Bouwman and Steve Alford occupying P19, 20 and 21 respectively, with Clare Jarvis P22. All four got off the grid cleanly and made up four spaces, as first lap argy-bargy slowed Justin Undery, Julian Berry, Simon Kerry and Lee Graves.

Next time around, it was Kevin Cracknell and Keith Jarvis who had been plucked from mid-order and reinserted at the back of the field – this did not get discussed at the ‘debrief’ in The Wheatsheaf at lunchtime, but the suspicion must be that they had taken each other off. Having started P15 and P12 respectively, both had started well, and finished lap 1 as P11 and P10 before the altercation.

Meanwhile, Messrs Undery and Berry were straight back into contention, finishing lap 2 as P13 and P15 with Maarten Bouwman sandwiched in the middle. There were further gains for this trio on lap 3, Justin crossing the line in tenth while Julian (now in 12th) sized-up Maarten for an overtaking move.

Further back, Simon Kerry was busily reclaiming places lost at the start plus new ones, Steve Alford was making progress, and so was Clare Jarvis, brother Keith chasing hard with Kevin Cracknell immediately behind.

Lap 7. More drama. A lap of 0:56.44 for KJ (demoting him to P19) suggested another excursion from the racing line, while a 0:59.48 at the same time for Mr Cracknell explained his sudden appearance down at P22. Again, the suspicion has to be that the two events were probably related. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the field, events were about to take a disastrous turn for Steve McLean.

Having got all the way up to third by lap 2 from sixth on the grid, he had come under sustained attack from Hope and Pascoe. Duncan had made it through into P4 on lap 6, defensive driving costing Steve almost 2 seconds and allowing Nick to close up and have a go. Now, on lap 7, Nick took  P5. A bitterly disappointed Steve, desperately trying to defend his position, drew the attention of the Race Director.

On lap 8 he was summoned to the pits to help the marshals decide what colour wallpaper they should have in the back office next time they decorate. The whole episode cost him about 25s and saw him rejoin P22, although he would be scrapping for P20 by the end. This finishing position did not convey an accurate impression of his race overall… better to note that for the rest of the race he lapped regularly in the low-51s bracket, and set a personal fastest lap of 0:50.767. Race 2 would be very different…

At mid-distance (lap 12), the race had broken up into a leading string followed by several small, intense battles. In front was Rich Weber, slowly being caught by Tim McDermott. Rob Creer, race leader early on, was now in third and, despite very consistent low-51s lappery, was being caught by Nick Pascoe, who had Mike Wood a couple of seconds behind.

Mike had just managed to get round Duncan Hope, and Duncan was about to become an occasional player in the Justin Undery/Julian Berry scrap. This had been running since lap 4, was briefly interrupted by Wout Oostenbrink and then by Mike, before resuming on lap 8. It would continue until the end of the race. Julian and Justin both passed Duncan on lap 14, but were unable to shake him off, and when Justin spun on the last lap, Duncan was there to capitalize and take P6.

Back to the lap 12 sitrep. Another small but intense feud had been simmering since lap 6, when a slip by Simon Wennberg brought him back onto the racing line in P11, directly in front of Maarten Bouwman. These two would spend the rest of the race at each other.

Very closely-matched pacewise (Simon’s best lap being 0.175s quicker than Maarten’s), it was generally Simon who was in front, although Maarten took the lead from him on three separate occasions. Rob Creer became embroiled in the fight on lap 16 when Maarten caught him, Simon getting past on lap 18, and then managing to jump ahead of Maarten on lap 21. At the flag, Simon was P8 by a mere 0.13s from Maarten.

Having started 17th, Simon Kerry eventually got himself up to 11th on lap 14. Finishing 1.92s behind Rob Creer, his laptimes suggested he might have been able to have a look at passing given another four or five laps. Interestingly, had the race gone on this long, it’s likely that Clare Jarvis would by then have been directly behind… although her closure-rate was lower, she was much closer, being only 0.79s adrift at the end of lap 23.

Clare got to see brother Keith several times during race 1. Keith had a miserable race, his adventures on laps 2 and 7 having been described elsewhere. Each time he gamely got stuck-in again, and each time he seemed to come up against Clare. The lady must have had a strange sense of déjà vu when, on lap 16, she passed him again.

Lapchart data suggested that Steve Alford was also involved in this racing incident. Steve’s lap 16 time was a good 1.1s longer than normal, indicating a major twitch, while Keith’s lap was a full 4s longer than usual, pointing to an actual spin. Clare nipped through into P12, Steve recovering quickly to claim P13 and close the door on Wout, Kevin and Keith, all close behind.

Led by Steve, this gang of four now busied themselves trampling and jostling each other, while Clare exploited the break she had been given and scampered off into the distance - by the end she was over 7s up the road. The guys finished in the order Oostenbrink - Alford - Jarvis – Cracknell, a mere 1.54s covering all four.

Kevin was 1.15s ahead of Lee Graves at the end, Lee’s laptimes suggesting he had really been getting to grips with the unfamiliar circuit in the second half of the race. Lapping regularly in the low-51s zone, he had been catching the four ahead, their times all increasing towards 52s as they engaged in furious defensive driving. Lee had Alistair Mackie 1.74s behind him, holding a watching brief.

This was a much closer race than we’ve had in the past. It’s often the case that some of the back-markers finish several laps down on the leaders, but that didn’t happen this time. Even at the back of the pack, 51s times were being recorded. Of 22 drivers, 21 finished on the lead lap. Anyone want to admit to getting some sneaky practice in beforehand?!  

Pretty impressive stuff.

Stopped on the back straight, ready to be pulled out in Race 1 Grid Order.

Race 1, lap 1, and Duncan Hope (bmi), Nick Pascoe (BA) and Mike Wood (easyJet) hustle through Turn 2.

Alistair Mackie (13, BA) leads Steve Alford (21, easy) and Simon Kerry (17, easy) through Turn 1, 
with the Jarvis pair of Clare and Keith chasing. 

Duncan Hope (5, bmi) pulls into the pits as Keith Jarvis (12, bmi) chases down his sister. Again.

Keith again, this time leading Justin Undery (18, BA), with Steve Mclean (6, BA) being hounded by
Mike Wood (19, easy). Clare Jarvis has probably already gone passed...

The back straight saw plenty of overtaking action.

Round 2 – Friday 02 May 2008  -  Race 2

Seconds out, race 2.

Clare J led the pack out onto the grid, Steve Alford moving across into the P2 slot. Into P3 went Maarten Bouwman, with Mike Wood P4. Quickest in race 1 had been Julian Berry and Nick Pascoe; both had managed sub-50s laps in the first heat, and now they lined-up P9 and P16 respectively. Only slightly slower in race 1 had been Tim McD, with a 0:50.058 quickest lap; Tim was P14 on the grid.

The lighting situation had been rectified and all eyes strained on the gantry. Reds on….wait for it…wait for it…greens on – GO! Clare was off immediately, head down, running straight, a foot from the right-hand side of the track to force the opposition wide into turn 1 without exposing the inside of the corner.

Steve Alford, on the outside of the track, already had Maarten coming up the inside with Mike Wood edging into the gap between them. Simon Kerry, getting a flyer away from P6, was closing with the leading four and Justin Undery was edging-up behind Simon.

Lee Graves was rapidly being swamped from behind, Kevin Cracknell was having another nightmare, and Wout Oostenbrink and Tim McDermott – what was happening there? P13 and P14 on the grid, both were being deluged by karts from the back of the grid. Some sort of coming together – look into it later.

Julian Berry, Keith Jarvis, Simon Wennberg and Nick Pascoe were capitalizing on openings ahead. Simon Spiers, Rob Creer and Rein Zwolsman were all several places up already, so was Duncan Hope. Rich Weber was well up having started P21, and Steve McLean… blimey, Steve was into the front half of the pack from grid 17.

An angry-sounding swarm of karts elbowed and nudged its way through the turns 6/7/8 ‘stadium section’ and onto the main straight. Take a breath. See who’s around you. Roll the shoulders and flex the fingers. Glance at the transponder – if it’s working, it might be able to tell you whether you’ve gained places.

Across the line they flashed, Clare leading with Mike just behind (up from P4), Simon Kerry and Justin Undery inches behind him from grid 6 and 5 respectively. Maarten Bouwman holding fifth, from Julian Berry (up from ninth) and Keith Jarvis (up from grid 11). Then Steve McLean, now eighth having come all the way from near the back.

Steve Alford  P9, ahead of Alistair Mackie in P10 – one of only two drivers to finish lap 1 in the same position in which they started. Simon Wennberg up one in 11th, Nick Pascoe and Duncan Hope behind him, both having got away well. Then Richard Weber, now up seven places from P21, Rein Zwolsman and Rob Creer close behind, both having made four places on this initial lap.

Right at the back was Tim McDermott, a first lap of 1:11.09 suggesting that he’d been off in a fairly serious way. Tim’s fightback would begin immediately.

A gentle tap by Simon Kerry on lap 2 was enough to put Mike Wood sideways momentarily, and both Simon and Justin  were through in an instant. In P5, Maarten was about to experience another ‘moment’, this allowing the Julian Berry – Keith Jarvis – Steve McLean juggernaut through and dropping Maarten to eighth. In the densely-packed lower field, Nick Pascoe took P11 from Simon Wennberg, and Rob Creer nabbed Rein’s 15th place. After disappointing first laps, Brett Cash, Kevin Cracknell and Tim McDermott all began making-up lost ground.

As lap 3 began, Clare was beginning to come under pressure from Simon. Exiting turn 2, Simon’s kart stepped-out at the back, nudging Clare. Instantly, Justin was through into the lead, Clare quickly gathering it all up and slotting into second ahead of Mike and Julian. Keith Jarvis was having a difficult lap, as Steve McLean came alongside. With both momentarily disturbed from their usual lines around the circuit, ‘Flying Dutchman’ Maarten coolly pressed home his attack; P8 at the start of the lap, he was P5 by the end, Steve and Keith following him across the line.

 

Up two more places were Alistair Mackie and Nick Pascoe, Simon Kerry finally rejoining behind Nick. So closely-spaced had been this pack that, although Simon’s incident showed-up as a 55-second lap on his printout, it cost him eight places on the track.

A little further back, Rich Weber and Rob Creer were running close together; both got past Duncan Hope this time around, and other misfortunes elsewhere on the circuit resulted in both finishing the lap three places higher than when they started. At the back of the stream there was more movement; Lee Graves and Tim McDermott were each up two places, while Brett Cash, Kevin Cracknell and Wout Oostenbrink were up one apiece.

By lap 4, a tight quartet of drivers were beginning to open up a small gap to those following. Undery was looking relaxed in the lead, with Wood, Berry and Bouwman close behind. On lap 7, Julian tried a lunge down the inside of Mike’s kart as they skittered through the left-hand turn 3. Coming from a kart’s length behind, Julian could not help making contact and Mike twitched sideways. In a trice, Julian and Maarten were through, Mike scrambling to catch up.

As they crossed the line to begin lap eight, a regal-looking Undery turned languidly in his seat to survey his followers in their new order; Berry, Bouwman, Wood. Justin’s relaxed body language contrasted with the feverish activity immediately behind him, but despite all the twitching and jinking the others were unable to close-up and the running order at the front would now remain unchanged for some time.

Behind, the race was evolving into a number of running skirmishes, with McDermott becoming briefly involved in each one as he moved up from the back. At the rear, Crazy Dutchmen Wout Oostenbrink and Rein Zwolsman had become entangled on lap 8 and would spend much of the rest of the race battling enthusiastically.

Ahead, Simon Wennberg, Brett Cash, Steve Alford and Lee graves had their own little war going on, this really getting going from lap7. In its early phases, this conflict also featured Kevin Cracknell, but Kevin managed to work his way to the front of the fighting on lap 9. From there, he was able to leave it behind, tangling next with Keith Jarvis, then with Duncan Hope and Rob Creer.

Further up still, Rich Weber was gaining places every few laps, eventually mugging Nick Pascoe for P9 on lap 9. Nick had the place back on lap 11 and was P8 a lap later as he dealt with Clare Jarvis, Richard then following suit next time around.

Through all this was coming Tim McDermott. With only occasional exceptions, Tim was doing 50s laps, and towards the end he would be regularly into the 49s speed range

. Up to P15 on lap 7, a lap later he was P12. On lap 9, when Rich Weber took ninth from Nick Pascoe, Tim went past both of them, as well as Alistair Mackie and Rob Creer to claim P8. On lap 11 he took P7 from Clare, and then P6 from Simon Kerry on lap 14. He was now within sight of the lead battle.
    
Back to the front-runners. On lap 16, Berry made another enthusiastic bid for glory. This time the location was the uphill left-hand turn 4 and the target was Justin. But Julian had overcooked it, and both he and Justin  were off. They were lucky to be able to rejoin immediately, Julian now in third and Justin fourth, but the four seconds lost had delivered them into the jaws of the pack behind.

First on the scene was Steve McLean. But Steve was given no chance to exploit the situation, as an incensed Undery set off after Berry, setting a 0:50.281 on lap 17 – his quickest of the race. On laps 17 and 18, Justin pulled away from Steve at almost a second a lap, but Steve now had other factors to consider, for bearing down upon him was Tim McDermott.

Tim had been hauling him in relentlessly, sometimes by as much as a second a lap, and on lap 17 he was through into fifth. Leaving Steve behind, Tim immediately set off after Justin, now only just over 1.0s ahead. At the end of lap 17, the gap was 1.08s, then 0.89s next time around. The Lapchart showed Tim coming through P4 at the end of lap 20, but the lap times suggested he had been all-but-alongside as they went over the line at the end of the previous tour.

And at the very front? Having gifted Maarten and Mike with the lead and second place respectively, Julian did not intend leaving things this way. Quickly back into his stride, only one of the remaining seven laps would be in the 50s bracket. All the rest were faster.

By lap 20, he was swarming all over the back of Mike’s kart like a medium-sized swarming thing with a Leeds accent. On lap 21 he was through and charging after Maarten, but time was not on his side. At the chequered flag, Maarten had the lead by 0.77s, with Mike 1.86s further back. The gap between Mike and the hard-charging Tim McD was still relatively large at 4.17s, Justin Undery being in fifth, 1.91s behind Tim.

Steve McLean in sixth and ninth-placed Richard Weber were only 1.88s apart, with Nick Pascoe and Simon Kerry in the middle. These four had been scrapping for much of the race with very closely-matched lap times, although Nick had a slight edge – by the flag, he had gradually moved towards the front of this Schwarm and crossed the line 0.39s over Steve McLean’s shoulder.

Alistair Mackie left it until the last lap to get past Clair Jarvis and the timesheets suggested they had been battling for ten laps. The lap 8-12 period was complicated in this midfield pack; the Pascoe-Weber combination was faster and came through from back to front in the space of five laps, and Tim McDermott had been quicker still and scythed through the lot of them in only three laps.

Clare lost the most in these frantic minutes, arriving in Alistair’s twelve o’clock on lap 12. The pair of them then traded fastest laps, with Clare being fractionally quicker (0:50.838 compared with Alistair’s 0:50.883, both on lap 16). Sadly for her, three slower laps right at the end allowed Alistair to close up , then overtake on the last tour of the race.

Kevin Cracknell arrived at the flag in the vanguard of a triumvirate which also featured Rob Creer and Duncan Hope. After his dismal start, he had clawed his way up so that on lap 17 he arrived on the tail of Duncan Hope, Duncan having spent the previous few laps slowly reeling-in Rob Creer. Kevin prised P13 from Duncan on lap 18, and then took P12 from Rob on lap 20. They were hard-won gains, and the three were separated by only 2.53s at the finish.

Simon Wennberg, having lost-out in the early laps, finally recovered to 15th at the flag. He crossed the line at the head of a tightly-packed group of five, 0.36s ahead of Keith Jarvis, who had a horrible time. Again. This was one meeting he will want to put behind him. If you see a strange blue-suited figure jigging about in the car park before the race on 30th May, it’ll be Keith doing a rain dance.

By race-end, Brett Cash was beginning to get into a position from where he could have a serious look at deepening Keith’s misery, but he couldn’t quite get close enough. Brett finished P17, 0.88s behind Keith and 0.78s ahead of Steve Alford.

As in race 1, there were signs of impressive progress. Again, 21 drivers out of 22 were on the lead lap at the end. After a virtuoso performance from Tim McDermott, it was easy to overlook the fact that many drivers had improved dramatically. Brett Cash found 0.845s between races 1 and 2, Alistair Mackie was 0.56s quicker and Simon Kerry gained 0.518s. Lee Graves, Rein Zwolsman and Simon Spiers all improved as well.

A tough, close race. Liking this very much.

Postscript

One of this season’s developments has seen the circuit printing two lapcharts per race for each driver. One for the driver, one for me, to help me see exactly what went on. There’s a lot to go through, and I’m having to develop ways of speeding up the whole race analysis/report writing process. So, sorry you’ve all had to wait so long for this report – the next one should be quicker.

Race 2 grid forms up, this time hoping to use the lights...

Keith Jarvis (12, bmi) leads Duncan Hope (5, bmi) but event-winner Tim McDermott (9)
starts another demon overtaking move up the inside of Duncan.

Nick Pascoe (7, BA) leads bmi's Richard Weber (2) on to the back straight, leaving
Clare Jarvis (22) in their wake. 

Kevin Cracknell (15, easy) takes a wide line into Turn 2. No hiding with the new name cards...

Podium or fashion shoot? Mike Wood (easy), Tim McDermott and Julian Berry (Virgin) make karting cool.

Overtaking on the back straight. (9mb)  

Race 2 Turn 1 (8mb) 

1. Richard Weber (2nd on grid)
2. Tim McDermott (9th)
3. Nick Pascoe (7th)

1. Maartin Bowman (3rd)
2. Julian Berry (9th)
3. Mike Wood (4th)