Race Report - Fulbeck S4 Rd3
ABkC 125 KZ2
Fulbeck is a quick and pretty technical track, especially in the tight infield section, so a decent set-up here is crucial, as is a degree of patience waiting for it all to work. Couple this with the hottest day of the year so far, and there wasn’t a great deal of patience being displayed in the early heats, some of the drivers brains appearing to frazzle a bit in the 30 degree heat wave.
An early casualty was Dafydd Iles, on a Tonykart and making it three different makes of chassis in 3 rounds, suffering from an intermittent sticking throttle and having a monster shunt in the first heat, which looked like ending his day early with an injured left leg. He argued that he never uses that foot for braking anyway and was cleared by the medics to go out again in heat two, but the throttle problems persisted and he basically had a new set of tyres for the final, more of which later. Also in the wars was new O plate holder, Liam Morley, getting caught up in other peoples incidents in all three heats and a long way off the front for the final.
The only positive note from the heats was that the starts were bang on…
Heat wins went to Tom Witts, James Glenister and Matt Dittman (the latter having now resolved the problems from round 2) That gave pole position to Borton from Glenister, Jason Edgar and Tom Duggan held the second row with James Mudd and Tom Witts on the third from John Church and Paul Lawson on the fourth. On the final two rows we had Iles, Morley and Tom Moore, who had all suffered rubbish heats and were looking for better in the final.
Borton got the start perfectly, and led the pack round the first lap with Duggan and Glenister following on quickly enough, but the flying Borton had half a second lead on the first tour and was looking untouchable. Everyone had managed to negotiate the first lap without incident and we were set fair for a cracking race, minus the prospect of drivers colliding with each other or large parts of the surrounding scenery. It really did make me wonder why the heats weren’t like this!
Anyhow, whilst Borton was trying to pull away at the front, Iles was disposing of drivers at will, 7th after the first lap and a half and gaining on the guys in front with each passing lap. He would take a driver roughly every ¾ of a lap until he had passed the flying Duggan on the 10th tour and set off after Borton. Although he didn’t manage to get that close to Borton, the gap did reduce by around half a second over the last couple of laps and second place and the fastest lap was his. Duggan finished a close third from James Mudd and Tom Witts with James Glenister rounding out the top six. A few seconds back we had Jason Edgar, Richard Palmer, Josh Mulholland and Paul Lawson completing the top ten. We have Rowrah in two weeks and I am hoping for better from these drivers, at least the rain might calm them down!
Result
1st Daniel Borton BRM/TM
2nd Dafydd Iles Tony/TM
3rd Tom Duggan Energy/TM
4th James Mudd Energy/TM
5th Tom Witts Energy/TM
6th James Glenister Kosmic/TM
ABkC 250
Fourteen drivers showed up for this round, and we were treated to some excellent driving throughout, although the temperature was taking its toll on brakes, several drivers having a spot of bother getting it stopped at the end of the straight. The meeting looked like being a Lee Stamp lock-out, but Tim Woods in the first heat had other ideas and used his power to keep Stamp at bay for the whole race. Newly-crowned O Plate winner, James Hassall, had a bit of a mare with a DNF in heat 2, making it all the harder for him to make an impact in the final. Another casualty was the quick but erratic Ian Thomson, suffering a chassis breakage in one of the heats and dragging his bumper on the deck. He would have it repaired, but failed to make the next race and only lasted a couple of laps in the final.
Pole went to Stamp from Chris Morris, Tim Woods and Steve Pipes on the second row from Nick Willcox and Andrew Williams. The Hoff headed up row four from Alex Burrows with Ian Thomson and Ron Stamp on the fifth.
Stamp took complete control of the final from the moment the lights changed, pulling out almost a second a lap on his chasers in the early tours. Pipes headed up the challenge initially from Morris and Burrows with the Hoff moving up a few places and starting to get on terms with the chasing group in the final.
One who wasn’t was Tim Woods, managing just one slow lap before retiring with Thomson following a lap later.
Meanwhile, back at the sharp end, Pipes was doing a good job of keeping Stamp in sight, but he had the Hoff steaming up behind him and succumbed to the challenge on the 5th tour. Hassall set off after Stamp and managed to slow the rate the lead was increasing, but was unable to do anything about the flying Stamp until he backed off on the last lap. Pipes was a slightly distant third at half distance, but the last few laps saw a terrific four way battle for the place between Willcox, Pipes, Morris and a resurgent Ron Stamp which could have gone any which way with some less clean driving.
As they flew down the straight towards the complex for the last time, third went to Pipes from Morris with Willcox and Stamp Sr following very rapidly behind. Andrew Williams and Martin Smith were pretty close behind as well with the top ten closed out by Richard Morris and Alex Burrows, a spin delaying him during the race.
Great to watch some excellent fast racing with genuine respect between the drivers. Here’s hoping for more of the same at Rowrah in a couple of weeks.
Result
1st Lee Stamp PVP/Honda
2nd James Hassall Jade/Honda
3rd Steve Pipes Anderson/Honda
4th Chris Morris Jade/Honda
5th Nick Willcox Jade/Honda
6th Ron Stamp PVP/Honda
Report by Iain Blair
Pics by Sharon Blair.
