CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 11 - 2004

So, finally there we were, the final chapter of an exhilirating season, probably the most successful season in the history of Manchester & Buxton Kart Club, and another paddock bursting entry of 213 as drivers of all classes came together for the last time of this memorable season, some simply to enjoy the thrill of the race, others with the more serious issues of championships still to be won.

At this stage, the Directors and Committee of M.B.K.C. would really like to, yet again, take this opportunity to thank all the member drivers, guest drivers, pit crews, mechanics and, out on the circuit, marshalls, timekeepers, race officials and indeed everyone who has played a part, however small, in making this season the most successful of all, not only that, but for creating an atmosphere of such friendliness and camararderie around the paddock and out on the circuit, that people enjoy returning. We sincerely look forward to welcoming everyone back in January for the start of the winter series and for the rest of the 2005 season. For now, it just remains to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a truly successful and prosperous New Year.

As I said, there were many championship issues to be resolved, and as such, the racing seemed to have a little extra edge all through the day. Unfortunately, we did have a couple of rather serious accidents, and a speedy recovery is wished to all competitors who suffered injuries in these incidents.

The first final of the afternoon really set the tone for the day, as the Cadets took to the grid, and, as it has been all season, it was down to the wire in the W60 class between Daniel Murphy and Chris Warburton, the pair starting the day on 190 points each, although, in truth it was Murphy who really held all the aces going into the final, knowing that so long as he was able to finish second to Warburton the championship would be his, due to the fact that Warburton having completed the full compliment of races would be forced to drop the points from his worst meeting, whereas Murphy, having missed one race, had no points to drop.
Warburton had won both the earlier heats, and the final took up a similar vein, with Murphy happy to sit in just behind Warburton and wait for any slight errors or slip ups. Where Warburton is concerned however, these don`t happen often, and he simply sat there in the lead for lap after lap, frustrated in the knowledge that he could do no more than win the race, but, unless something went badly wrong for Murphy, sat in his slipstream, then he could still only finish second in the championship. Nothing did go wrong for Murphy, he happily sat in second place and gleefully punched the air as he passed the flag, second on the day, but the 2004 W60 champion, Abigail Gerry drove a fine race behind the front two to collect the final podium slot.

The S60 cadet championship had already been sewn up by Thomas Balmer and, whilst he had a day off, Charlotte Manson took an easy victory over Cameron Lewis, with Bradley Ord an even more distant third.

Great things had been anticipated for the WTP cadet class at the start of the season, but it has, quite simply, died a slow and painful death, so much so that, at the recent club AGM it was decided not to run the class as a championship for next season. The championship itself for this season was finished a long time ago with Josephine Ferrada winning by the proverbial country mile. For the record, the final race of the season was contested by novice drivers Calum Stephenson and J Carnell, with Stephenson taking the victory by a huge margin.

The second final of the afternoon was the senior TKM event and this still had some interest in that 2003 champion, Andy Wilson, still had a bit of work to do to retain his championship for 2004 and, following a few problems in the heats, he wasn`t in the greatest of shape grid wise for the final itself. From the start, the final became a two horse race, and a great battle it was too, between Russell Small and Paul Monks. In fact, by mid point of the race, these two were so far ahead, it was difficult to remember that the `real` battle was going on back in the pack, with the Bradford based Wilson really putting a charge together to finally come through into the third position he wanted. In fact, on paper, this was really like a victory for Wilson, since he collected the full 25 winning points due to the fact that both Small and Monks are non club members, therefore they do not collect championship points. It didn`t stop them having a really good joust however, with the lead swapping hands on a few occasions before Small finally got up to grab a hard fought and narrow victory from Monks, but it was Wilson who had his hands raised in triumph as he crossed the finish line to retain his championship.

Minimax had nothing to resolve so far as the championship was concerned, Liam Fenwick with 8 victories in 9 races had won by a big distance and had in fact left the class to move on to Junior Rotax for the final two races of the season, nevertheless, we had a good early battle between Josh Butcher, Oliver Webb, John Church, Ryan Denton and Conor Stephenson, in fact, it proved a real five way battle for several laps until a tangle with a back marker saw Butchers chances virtually disappear. This left Webb in the ascendency with Denton coming through late on to nip into second spot ahead of Butcher who had made a tremendous fightback into third spot, however, it was the fast finishing James Theodore who had the final say for the third spot, getting up past Butcher in the final stages to pinch the last podium spot.

The Junior TKM final proved a rather strange affair. The championship race itself was an intriguing affair between the two James, Duxbury and Campion, with the outcome in the balance. It actually looked to be all over on the very first lap, as Campion got involved in a little contact and spun out, however, in another incident, the red flag came out, giving Campion the chance to get back for the restart. On the restart, it was Duxbury who made the best start, taking it up from Rossi Worswick, Max Buckley and Campion in fourth. Buckley then quickly moved into second spot, then took up the lead, as a terrific five way battle began to take shape. Lee Morgan too was becoming prominent as he edged Campion into fifth. The lead was reguarly swapping places as first Rossi, then Morgan took up the mantle, before a final lap of real drama saw Rossi take the lead back and hold on for an impressive victory with Morgan holding down second spot, Duxbury punching the air as he came through in third, knowing he had done enough to take the title, Buckley fourth, with Campion just losing out on championship glory in fifth spot, but what a fantastic battle it had been.

Junior TKM was another truly complex affair. Matthew Proudlove looked favourite to take the championship, but there were several twists possible, and, sure enough, several took place.
Sam Pollitt, himself with an outside chance took the early lead from James Blanchard, but it was the newly crowned minimax champion Liam Fenwick and another ex minimax champion, Stevei Taddei, who quickly took up the front running and, whilst a great battle ensued between these two, it was, again, what was going on behind that was occupying a lot of attention. Proudlove, never really got going, apparant kart problems holding him back until he finally retired, leaving him to sweat on the finish of others. Pollitt was holding on to the leaders coat tails very well, but he really needed the win to take the championship spoils, similarly, Tom Stackhouse could get no higher than fifth, when a fourth place would have seen him take the title and Robert McArthur could only finish down the pack, when, again, a higher finish could have given him the crown. In the end, it all fell just right for Proudlove. Taddei took a very close victory from Fenwick, with Pollitt taking a very competitive third spot, but just not quite enough for him. The calculators were out at the end, but Proudlove had got it by a point from Stackhouse, with Pollitt and McArthur two points back.

The Rotax Max class had, unusually, already been settled, Jonathan Hobbs taking the championship at the previous meeting. In his absence, the impressive Tristram Oman took up the mantle, quickly pulling out a sizeable lead from Simon Sheridan, who had briefly lead, and Matt Bedford. Bedford in fact quickly moved into second place with Lloyd Savage coming through into third, but Oman it was moving serenely on in the lead, virtually untroubled for the entire race, although Savage was certainly putting in some blinding finishing laps, which saw him edge out Bedford for second spot, then start to hunt down Oman and he did get much closer at the finish, though whether Oman was doing a little engine preservation at this point is unclear. Right at the very death Jonathan Walker got past Bedford at lunar bend on the final lap to edge third place.

The Rotax 175 championship had come down to a straight battle between Barnsley based James Taylor and the Merseyside driver Steve Chapman. Taylor held the advantage coming into the final day, but Chapman was determined not to let the moment slip by, although on the opening lap neither were too prominent, with Chapman, needing the win, back in fifth and Taylor in eighth, the leader at the start being Stephen Cobb, followed by Dave Higgins, Richard Messenger, and Nigel Wakefield, who still had the slightest of championship ambitions depending on what happened to his rivals. By lap three, Chapman had moved ominously closer, coming through into second spot, then, by now driving like a man on a mission he slipped by Cobb and into the lead. Cobb took it back briefly, but Chapman was not going to be denied and he quickly retook the advantage. Meanwhile, Taylor too was starting to make headway as he battled his way through to take up fourth spot and give himself every chance, however a mistake two laps from home saw him slip back to fifth, a position he could not improve upon, whilst Chapman brought it home in front to see him win the championship by just three points from Taylor, whilst Wakefield finished a creditable third on the day, behind Cobb, and third overall in the championship, for an excellent season`s racing.

Finally, the Gearbox final and the championship was still a three way battle between Andrew Hazlehurst, Jonathan Neville and Peter Mitchell. Both Neville and Hazlehurst could win the championship by winning the race, Mitchell would need Neville to slip up as well.
A nasty incident at the outset saw the red flag out for a restart, and Neville it was who quickly powered ahead, from Nathan Freke and Sam Moore, Neville in fact always looked very comfortable with Freke tracking, but never able to get close enough for a strike, Moore a little way back and Mitchell unable to do anything about the situation sitting comfortably in fourth spot. Neville did what he had to do and won the championship.

Report by: Mel Tipton

RESULTS

W60 CADET
1. Chris Warburton (Zip/Comer)
2. Daniel Murphy (Wright/Comer)
3. Abigail Gerry (Zip/Comer)

S60 CADET
1. Charlotte Manton (Wright/Comer)
2. Cameron Lewis (Top/Comer)
3. Bradley Ord (Zip/Comer)

WTP CADET
1. Calum Stephenson (Wright/WTP)
2. J Carnell (Birel/WTP)

SENIOR TKM
1. Russell Small (Venom/TKM)
2. Paul Monks (Venom/TKM)
3. Andy Wilson (Venom/TKM)

MINIMAX
1. Oliver Webb (Gillard/Rotax)
2. Ryan Denton (Tony/Rotax)
3. James Theodore (Haase/Rotax)

JUNIOR TKM
1. Rossi* (TKM/TKM)
2. Lee Morgan (JKH/TKM)
3. James Duxbury (JKH/TKM)

JUNIOR ROTAX MAX
1. Stevei Taddei (JKH/Rotax)
2. Liam Fenwick (Zip/Rotax)
3. Sam Pollitt (KMS/Rotax)

ROTAX MAX
1. Tristram Oman (CRG/Rotax)
2. Lloyd Savage (Mach1/Rotax)
3. Jonathan Walker (Tony/Rotax)

ROTAX MAX 175
1. Steve Chapman (CRG/Rotax)
2. Stephen Cobb (Arrow/Rotax)
3. Nigel Wakefield (JKH/Rotax)

GEARBOX
1. Jonathan Neville (Gold/SGM)
2. Nathan Freke (Top/Pavesi)
3. Sam Moore (Energy/TM)