It`s amazing how time flies, it certainly doesn`t seem like eight months ago that we were heralding the start of this brand new karting concept with a mixture of great excitement and trepidation, probably in equal measures.

Of course, we now know that our fears were unfounded, the series has been a resounding success, confirming MBKC as the figurehead of U.K. Karting, but, more importantly, placing young and talented karters firmly in the public eye, not only in this country of course, bit throughout Europe and, hopefully, providing new sponsorship deals to a number of talented youngsters, both already during the series, and following these final two rounds, as the final championship placings are completed.

Despite much rumour and paddock discussion, no-one is yet aware exactly what format, or indeed formats, will be seen next season. MBKC are compiling the results from it`s recent online members poll and will be discussing these shortly, prior to any decisions or announcements being  made. There is no doubt that, whatever happens next year, it will be different to this series.
One of the regrets of the series this year has been the unfortunate way it has, at times, impacted upon our members Saturday practice, and the members ARE the club, so whatever decisions are made in the coming weeks, the club will be looking at all its members best interests.

Anyhow, so here we were at the penultimate round, and Iain Blair the Clerk of the Course had arrived from Cumbria to report severe hold ups on the M6 and huge downpours, but, of course, we don`t work to normal UK weather patterns here at Wigan, so we settled for overcast but rain free.

If proof was ever needed that in any form of motorsport, consistency counts, then this series has certainly provided that, with many drivers having been more successful than others individually, but one bad round has spoiled the series, whereas the drivers who have held it together throughout, are the ones now looking at the major prizes as the series draws to it`s conclusion.

The W-60 cadet class has provided us with some incredibly close racing throughout the series, but today it provided a very different kind of race, and a real reminder of just how unpredictable kart racing can be. James Appleton, making his debut, started from the front row, with the championship No`s 1 & 2, Luke Hughes and Daniel Sweeney were starting from the rear of the grid.
Appleton and his front row partner Josh White were quickly away, followed by Myles Hart, but Appleton really had the bit between his teeth and by the end of lap 4 he had really opened up quite a gap on the rest and, by midpoint of the 15 lap race he had extended that advantage to very nearly 4 seconds over Abigail Gerry who had by now taken over 2nd spot, with White and Jacob Hunstone running in 3rd and 4th respectively. The championship leaders had worked their way through the pack to an extent, with Hughes up to 7th and Sweeney in 9th, but they didn`t seem to have the pace on the day to really get right in amongst the leaders, a fact underlined as the race went on, as Hughes, clearly with a problem, began to slip back, whilst Sweeney also appeared to be treading water. Up at the front though, there were no such problems for Appleton, as he continued to stretch his advantage to the flag, to take, what in any class, would be a huge margin of victory at 6.218secs, but in Cadet terms, particuarly after what we have seen in this series, an absolutely massive victory from Gerry in 2nd, with  Hunstone in third. Hart, White and Ryan Burns making up the top 6. Hughes day was completed as contact on the final lap saw him finish a dismal 18th, with Sweeney unable to improve on his 11th spot. All this means that Sweeney takes a four point advantage into the final round from Burns, with Hughes a further two points back in third.

James Theodore is very used by now to setting off from the rear of the field in the Minimax class, indeed, the talented young Telford based driver has led the championship since the first round and his consistency throughout has meant he has never looked like being overhauled. Today, after a few thrills and spills on turn 1, it was Jordan Holmes who took up the early running from Jamie Fegan, but, from the outset, the championships leading three, Theodore, Joe Boullen and Roy Anderson were slicing through the rest of the pack and, by as early as lap 4 they had put thimselves in a five kart breakaway group and, by the end of lap 5, Boullen had slipped past Holmes into the lead and, as he started to pull away, it seemed it would be a comfortable march to the flag for the No2 kart, but, Holmes and Theodore were having none of that. A mistake by Anderson ended his charge, dropping him back into 12th spot, but, approaching the final lap, Theodore was all over the back of Holmes, slipping through into 2nd place at paddock bend, but ultimately running out of time in his quest to hunt down Boullen, who was able to hold on to the flag to take it by 0.279secs, a pretty close run affair, with Holmes a shade back in third, then Fegan, Josephine Ferrada and Ross Anderson making up the front six. Going into the final round, it looks good for Theodore who sports a 25 point advantage from Boullen, who in turn, has a 10 point advantage over third placed Roy Anderson.

In the Junior Rotax class, it has been Joe McKeand in the lead for several rounds and, has been starting to look in a pretty unassailable position, but, starting from the rear of the field there is always plenty to do for the leaders, one of the beauties of this series. Today it was front row driver, George Pike, roaring off in the lead, from Robert Gilmour, who immediately incurred the wrath of the officials with a warning flag at the end of lap 1. It certainly didn`t knock Gilmour out of his stride however, and he quickly took up the inside line at the top of conrod straight to take the lead into turn one at the start of lap3, and soon started to pull out a decent advantage over Matt Hartley, although Hartley certainly wasn`t giving up the ghost as he began to reel in Gilmour, before, on lap 8 getting close enough to make a strike into the lead, again going into turn 1. At this stage, McKeand was back in 11th, and struggling a little by his own high standards. Disaster struck for Hartley on lap 11 as, still leading, he was forced out with mechanical problems, leaving Gilmour with, pretty much, a clear run to the finish. By now, Ryan Tod had found some pace to move up into 2nd spot and move way clear of Daniel Murphy  and Tom Wrigley, but there were no real problems by now for Gilmour, who cruised home to take it by a comfortable 1.543secs from Tod. McKeand decided that some drastic action was required and bustled his way past a number of drivers in the late stages to grab 5th spot, with Ross Wylie rounding off the first six. So, McKeand it is going into the final round as champion elect, although one young man who must be a little disappointed is, third placed today, Murphy, who, of course raced in Minimax for round one, before moving into Junior Max for the rest of the series. Even a relatively minor haul of points would have probably seen him going into the final round at least level on points with McKeand.........so many if`s and but`s.

TKM Extreme, saw a rather smaller grid than previously with 13 drivers loading up, leaders Paul Monks and James Duxbury, separated by just one point, starting at the back. For Monks, it was a day of disasters, and the back was eventually as good as it got, as he was beset by problems from the outset. Luke Caudle was another with problems as he became detached from the pack at the first corner, eventually recovering a little to finish in 8th spot. At the front, it was Steven Napier making a good start and pulling out quite a gap in the early part of the race with Martyn Lyell, Phil Smith and Matt Bell all prominent in the chasing pack, indeed, had it not been for a couple of poor rounds, Smith could have had the championship sewn up by this point, and Matt Bell too, must surely now be regretting not delaying his departure to the Fulbeck Super 1 round and, as Caudle did, complete one lap and collect 20 points, points which would have seen him going into the final round as leader, ah, the benefits of hindsight! That decision must have been even more in mind when he hit the front on lap 5 and quickly started pulling away from Napier, who in turn, was caught and passed by both Smith and Lyell. Duxbury, by this point, had moved into fifth and, although in the later stages, he got very close to Napier in 4th spot, he would have been happy in the knowledge that he goes into the final round 10 points ahead of the unfortunate Monks, with Caudle and Smith both a further point back. In the later stages, Bell underlined his superiority on the day as he powered to a huge victory, coming home some 4.273secs ahead of Smith who was just able to hold off the challenge of Lyell in 3rd, Napier, Duxbury and Wayne MacAuley making up the front six. So, a great position for Duxbury going into the final round, but surely Bell, 17 points in arrears, will be thinking, `if only`.

The final round is on 25th November, make a note in your diary, and book your spot on the spectating hill.........you really DON`T want to miss this one!!!

Report by:  Mel Tipton

Results

 Complete results are here

CADET
James Appleton
Abigail Gerry
Jacob Hunstone
Myles Hart
Josh White
Ryan Burns

MINIMAX
Joe Boullen
James Theodore
Jordan Holmes
Jamie Fegan
Josephine Ferrada
Ross Anderson

JUNIOR ROTAX MAX
Robert Gilmour
Ryan Tod
Daniel Murphy
Tom Wrigley
Joe McKeand
Ross Wylie

TKM EXTREME
Matt Bell
Phil Smith
Martyn Lyell
Steven Napier
James Duxbury
Wayne MacAuley

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