Race Report Sheni 18th Sept 2011
ABkC 125 KZ2
A couple of months have passed since the last round, and we have a change in the pack. Liam Morley has taken the GP plate away from Dan Borton, but seems content to stick with the O plate won at Sheni earlier in the year, with Borton sporting the A plate of the Scottish Champion. Raceday dawned dry but threatening, although the S4 classes were unaffected by the sole shower seen in the day. This was the first time I’d officiated at Shenington, although I have been here before reporting on Super 1 back in the 90’s, and it seemed surprisingly narrow in parts compared to my distant memories.
Only 3 heats this time, with wins going to Borton, James Glenister and Tom Moore. Dafydd Iles was 1st on the road in heat 3, but was excluded for his part in an incident on the rolling lap which saw Josh Mulholland take a technical DNF with a broken rear bumper.
That put Borton on pole from Glenister and Mat Dittman, row 2 containing James Mudd, Tom Duggan and Richard Palmer, and the 3rd occupied by John Church, Tom Witts and Jason Edgar.
Borton got the drop on the start, followed by Glenister and Dittman, with Tom Duggan and James Mudd very close behind. The run into Wilkins first time round saw Glenister up to top spot with Duggan following him through, Borton dropping to 3rd with the pack very close in attendance. Lap 2 saw the demise of Jade Paveley with another seize and Iles drop to the back after getting involved in someone else’s tangle. He was joined next time round by Joe Charlton, who failed to exit Stratford the way he wanted to and lost a shedload of time in the process. Glenister was starting to pull a bit of a gap on Duggan by the 5th tour until we lost the latter a couple of laps later. Mudd also failed to come round where expected on this lap, and he reckoned he had been turned into in Bruno’s, resulting in a trip to the banking. Duggan’s demise had promoted Dittman, although Tom Witts and Borton were within 0.5s of him and pushing hard. Morley was next up and looking to get on terms with the leading group and have probably his best finish of the Championship, but the pace was pretty even and it wouldn’t be easy.
Into the last third of the race and Witts was in a tenuous 2nd spot, Borton and Morley close in and Dittman dropped to 5th ahead of a fast closing John Church, who had set the fastest lap of the final on the 8th tour. As the final drew to a close, Glenister was comfortable out front, but still pushing hard, Borton had regained 2nd spot from Witts but nothing to choose between them and the challenge from Church was over as his exhaust started to crumble. Fortunately for him, the technical flag came out along with the chequer and he was spared in scrutineering.
So the win went to Glenister from Borton and Witts with Morley, Dittman and Church completing the top 6. Rounding out the top 10 were Richard Palmer, Tom Moore, Charlie Robertson (making up an exceptional 4 places on the last lap) and Josh Mulholland.
The championship goes into the final round at Kimbolton in October, with Borton top of the pile, but not in a Vettel-esque position just yet. Should be good!!
Result
1st James Glenister Kosmic/Vortex
2nd Daniel Borton BRM/TM
3rd Tom Witts Energy/TM
4th Liam Morley Tony/Vortex
5th Mat Dittman Tony/Vortex
6th John Church Energy/TM
ABkC 250 National
As the season wears on, numbers generally reduce, and here we had 10 contesting the championship, although it was looking to be a three-horse race between James Hassall, Lee Stamp and Nick Willcox. The latter was getting the measure of Stamp and was tempted into some rather wild lunges, some of which worked better than others.. Some sage words of advice were offered on the likely success of these moves by the CofC, with Stamp being slightly less sage in his advice.
Clean sweep in the heats to The Hoff and he would naturally take pole from Stamp and Steve Pipes. Row 2 had Willcox (one heat lunge went rather badly wrong and he spent a lap trying to restart), Alex Burrows and Tim Woods, with previously rapid Ian Thomson chasing a mystery misfire and unable to get full chat for anything more that a lap at a time.
Pipes got the best start of the lot and led briefly on the approach to Stratford before the Hoff slipped out of the tow and into a lead he wasn’t to lose. He drafted Stamp along with him as Burrows kept Willcox down in 5th early doors, however normal service was resumed next time round as Willcox was up to 3rd and chasing down the reigning champion. The battle raged for a good few laps and allowed the Hoff to break the tow and start building a steady lead until he stabilised it at about 4 seconds.
Lap 3 saw a change for the podium spots as Willcox put a move on Stamp and dragged Pipes with him into 3rd. Stamp wasn’t having that and set about minimising the damage to the championship by having a go back at Pipes and 3rd spot. He eventually succeeded, but by that time, Willcox was gone and he had a bit of a rearguard action to fight before Pipes slipped back into the grasp of Burrows and the following group. That all went a bit pear shaped when Burrows rotated and shuffled the pack a bit, allowing Tim Woods his moment of glory in 4th place, Pipes and Richard Morris having a strong scrap over the remaining laps.
The flag went to James Hassall with a 4 second gap over Nick Willcox, who had 3 seconds in hand over Lee Stamp – the latter must now surely need a miracle at the last round to retain the number 1 plate. 4th was Woods from Pipes, Morris and Martin Smith with Burrows bringing up the rear. Ron Stamp and Ian Thomson were the sole retirees on what was a race of very high speed action.
Result
1st James Hassall Jade/Honda
2nd Nick Willcox Jade/Honda
3rd Lee Stamp PVP/Honda
4th Tim Woods Raider/Honda
5th Steve Pipes Anderson/Honda
6th Richard Morris Jade/Honda
Report by Iain Blair
Pics by Sharon Blair.
