Karting Results 2007

 

QUALIFYING

In a rain soaked qualifying, race favourite Tony Guy was quickest to find his feet and dropped his kart on pole ahead of Mark Stocks [ Flopp ] by over 4 seconds. Ricko and Adam Guy were within 3 or 4 seconds of the front row and then it was miles back to find the others. Shock of the day was seeing Gary Stocks start dead stone last in 20th with a time of 32 seconds slower than the pole sitter which was incredible. Shaun and Danny Mellor kept their cool to start on the 3rd row in 5th and 6th after being tipped to struggle while some of the others expected to show well started well down the back ;most notably Nathan Mansfield, who was down in 18th, Ben Harrison in 16th and Richard ' Mister Gobby ' Snell in a lowly 17th.

 

THE 30 LAP GRAND PRIX

Tony Guy got off to the start he wanted and led after lap 1 closely tracked by Mark Stocks. Ricko and Adam battled for 3rd for the first 5 or 6 laps until an error saw Ricko lose plenty of time. Back behind...Mister Gobby and Gary Stocks were working their way through the field as James Snell encountered problems with his machine and had to change karts on 2 occasions in the race. By lap 10 though, he was already into 5th place albeit 43 seconds behind 4th placed Ricko. By lap 10 Olly Preston had dropped to the rear of the field as he found things tough on his debut while Simon Couch on his debut, Michael Chantler and Sean Haley all were working overtime to stay in touch at this point. Sean was also trying to recover after Mister Gobby Snell chopped him up and left him with tyres on top of him and his kart buried in the wall ! Nathan Mansfield was having an off day and was already nearly 2 laps down after the first 10 laps while in the midfield Shaun Mellor, Matt Bennetts and Ross and Nick Blatchford all battled it out closely. Danny Mellor was still holding his own up in 7th ahead of Steve Dash in 8th. Justin Metherell was not liking the conditions and despite good track knowledge, was way down in 15th and losing touch. Mark Stocks led Tony Guy by 5 seconds after 10 laps with Adam Guy in 3rd by less than 1 second and Ricko a further 20 seconds adrift in 4th. Mark Stocks still led as he completed lap 20...3.6 sec ahead of Adam Guy who had just overtaken his dad Tony. Ricko had closed the gap to 18 seconds but was well held in 4th. James Snell had closed to 39 seconds behind Ricko [ was 44sec on lap 10 ] but was a mile clear of Gary Stocks in 6th. Mister Gobby moved past Dash and Danny Mellor to go into 7th but was still 45sec behind Gary at this stage and the marshals were not happy with some of his reckless driving over the kerbs although he didn't really care once the money was paid :) Shaun Mellor was flying again by lap 20 as he took 9th ahead of Danny Mellor and closed in on Dash in 9th. Ross Blatchford and Bennetts were still locked together for 11th and 12th and Bennetts infuriated marshals when missing his braking point and going straight on at the 2nd to last bend and taking a trip through the gardens. Marshals were heard shouting ' It's a go kart not a fu**ing land rover you tw*t !!! ' to the amusement of Mr Bennetts of course. Ben Harrison was still in 13th, Justin STILL down in 15th and having a total nightmare, while Sean Haley was regretting going out for drinks the night before and waking up naked in a bath on race morning ! ha-ha Michael Chantler was closing in on Sean Haley and passed him down the pit straight in a good move as they crossed the line on lap 17 while Simon Couch and Nathan Mansfield continued to sit out the back with Olly Preston a further lap down behind them. As the 30 laps began to run out, the track began to dry out and some drivers began to lose concentration with a lot of place changes in the final few laps. Adam Guy drove a superb race all morning and his challengers dropped away as Tony Guy and Mark Stocks both made errors which cost them the race. Tony finished a huge 19 seconds behind in the end with Mark Stocks a further 8 seconds back in 3rd. Ricko whacked the tyres hard with 2 laps left causing red flags to be waved but still only finished 17 seconds behind Mark to come 4th while James Snell was consistent in the conditions to finish 5th, but 44 seconds behind Ricko. Gary Stocks was another country mile back in 6th but proved best of the rest as he saw off Mister Gobby and an improving Ben Harrison who really found some speed as the track began to dry out in the closing stages. Ben could be one to watch in the next dry race. Justin Metherell found some pace near the end to and moved into the top 10 for the first time just as the laps began to run out. He was only 1 second behind joint second favourite Dash as they crossed the line. Dash showed weakness on the wet track and will be praying for sunshine next time. Ross Blatchford pipped his brother into 11th while Shaun Mellor didnt have the best of run ins as he slipped to 13th by the end and a long way behind the 12th, although he did see his brother Danny off into 15th by 20 seconds ! Michael Chantler finally got the hang of it when the track dried up a bit and he moved up 3 or 4 places in the last 8 or 9 laps and he did ok in the end. Matt Bennetts lost out to the usually erratic driving of Danny Mellor by just 1.63 seconds which was annoying for him. Danny had earlier pulled off a classic as he had tried to ram speed demon Tony Guy off the track when being lapped by him ! ha-ha. Tony only just kept it on the road. Sean Haley will want to probably forget his painful afternoon as he probably hit more tyres than anyone by the end lol. Simon Couch pipped him to 17th despite many errors in the treacherous conditions will should be better next time. Nathan Mansfield will probably regret calling himself "The Stig" as he finished a whole lap behind the wild Sean Haley and a further 5 laps behind the leaders. I thought the Stig was supposed to be fast ? :) Mansfield will hope to bounce back at Menheniot in 2008 when he showed good speed there this year in the dry. His kart could have been faulty at St Eval this time because he was so far behind. We shall never no. Olly Preston took home a piece of rubber tyre for his last place performance to the delight of fellow drivers Ross and Nick Blatchford. Olly ended up 32 seconds behind Mansfield in the end. Overall : A tricky race for novices in the wet conditions. Favourite backers would have been counting their losses as even Tony Guy lost his head near the end in the testing conditions. On a dry track things would have been so much closer but it takes a good drive to win and to just keep it on the circuit. See you for the next one hopefully and well done to everyone for racing...hope you enjoyed it and thanks for coming along ... :)