Race Report - Rissi S4 Rd1
The new Championship year kicked off in style with a reasonable entry in both the 125 and 250 categories and some quality throughout both grids.
The weather was playing it’s usual joker at this time of year with a couple of monumental showers on raceday leading to some wet running and a slightly damp final.
The 125’s had a new tyre compound this year as a response to requests from the competitors, and the selected compound was the CIK one used on the continent. This is a bit softer than last year’s tyre and had led to some complaints over wear from competitors and one track in Scotland. Mike Coombs from the ABkC was on hand to collate comments ready to pass back to the gearbox group and a survey was circulated among the registered drivers. There were some isolated problems with punctures in 125 and one 250 driver suffered a major blistering problem, but, overall, once the tyres are run in properly, there seems little wrong in terms of grip and durability. Perhaps, the learning curve for the tyres has been steeper for some than others in terms of set-up and driving.
An accident involving Dafydd Iles and Josh Mulholland in Saturday practice led to a late night for Mulholland, but an eight hour round trip for Andy Fairless to collect a new chassis for Iles with an early start to build the thing up ready for racing. Not an ideal start to any title defence, but at least both drivers were out and competing.
ABkC 125 KZ2
Four heats here to sort out the entry with wins going to Tom Witts, Tom Duggan, Richard Palmer and Dan Borton. However, the vagaries of the Rissi heat points scoring system meant that James Glenister took pole from Borton and Witts, with Tom Moore and Will Miller sharing row two and Joe Charlton, James Mudd and Palmer on the third.
The starts throughout the day had been, shall we say, variable, so the one for the final was watched with great interest. Unfortunately for the poleman, Glenister, he was just coming off the throttle when the lights changed and he bogged slightly on the line as Witts and Borton tore away from him. The rest of them seemed to get away without the heat dramas we’d seen but it took a couple of corners before a semblance of order descended over the race. Glenister had been dropped at the start, but soon got the hammer down and made up a couple of places on the opener to cross the line in 6th after the first tour. Meanwhile, Borton had got past Witts and was setting about trying to build a gap for the lead. Moore was up next with Iles making a storming start through from grid 10 to slot into 4th and start pushing for a podium place.
Glenister was still on the move and slipped into 4th as Moore was deposed down the order on successive laps by Iles and Glenister, Tom Duggan also making decent progress from his 9th place start.
Lap 6 saw a midfield shunt as Mark Brookman was rotated by a lunge from Joe Charlton, leaving Jon Church with nowhere to go and Brookman with busted steering. Charlton and Church were delayed but continued, Brookman out on the spot although Charlton was excluded later for the contact.
Meanwhile, at the front, Borton had managed to get the gap out to a couple of seconds over Witts and Glenister was homing in steadily on the third place of Iles with Duggan also getting in on the act to put the pressure on Iles. As the race entered the final third, Glenister was through into 3rd, with Duggan taking 4th off Iles a lap later as the Welshman’s challenge began to fade – the lack of testing on the new kart just telling in the end.
One other driver on the move was Aaron Byrom, who had look quite out of sorts in the heats and didn’t really switch on until mid-way through the final. Once he had, he put some good times in to finish 11th from 22 on the grid and a respectable end to the day.
As the drivers approached the line for the last time, it was Dan Borton with fist clenched who got there first from Tom Witts and James Glenister, Tom Duggan and Dafydd Iles completing the top five and the top ten rounded out by Tom Moore, Richard Palmer, the impressive Liam Morley, Mat Dittman and Matt Isherwood. All in all a good race, with little to trouble me in the office afterwards!
Result
1st Dan Borton BRM/TM
2nd Tom Witts Energy/TM
3rd James Glenister Kosmic/TBA
4th Tom Duggan Energy/TM
5th Dafydd Iles BRM/TM
6th Tom Moore Energy/TM
ABkC 250
Heat wins here to Ian Thomson (making his S4 250 class debut), James Hassall and Lee Stamp. That put Stamp on pole as he had three top two finishes from Hassall and Nick Willcox, with Louis Wall and Thomson on row two from Alex Burrows, Richard Morris and Chris Morris on the third.
Once again, the starts throughout the day had been patchy, so the one for the final was eagerly anticipated (ish). Fortunately, it went without too many dramas although Louis Wall stalled on the grid and we had a go-around as a result.
Second time of asking, all went to plan and Lee Stamp made the best of it to lead from Hassall, but only just, as they navigated the first lap. Willcox had slotted into third with Martin Smith just holding off Ian Thomson for 4th, although Thomson made it through shortly after and set off in pursuit of Willcox. Up front, the pace was fast and unrelenting as the leading pair soon pulled out a gap of several seconds whilst never more than half a second off each other. Meanwhile, Ron Stamp was getting the bit between his teeth and up to 5th putting clear air between himself and Smith.
With the midfield seemingly settled down, Hassall was all the time easing closer to Stamp (Lee) and made his move on the 11th tour, taking the lead for the first time. Sadly, it all went horribly wrong within half a lap as a broken chain saw Hassall tour into parc ferme and everyone else promoted a place.
With the threat gone, Lee was able to tour the last two laps and ease to a comfy win from Willcox, Ian Thomson taking a deserved, if surprising, third place from Ron Stamp and Tim Woods, who both deposed Martin Smith in the closing stages. 7th was Alex Burrows from Richard Morris, Louis Wall and Steve Pipes.
James Hassall had the consolation of the fastest lap in the final, but it would have been great to see just who came out on top in the final two laps between him and Lee Stamp.
I can’t wait for Forest Edge!
Result
1st Lee Stamp PVP/Honda
2nd Nick Willcox Jade/Honda
3rd Ian Thomson Energy/Honda
4th Ron Stamp PVP/Honda
5th Tim Woods Raider/Honda
6th Martin Smith PVP/Honda
Report by Iain Blair
Pics by Sharon Blair
