WCC Karting 2000 Round 1 Writeup

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Writeup

GAP took the early lead, nearly 20 seconds clear after 20 laps, followed by Windsor Lot, Sucking Drops and Norfolk N Talent. A further 6 seconds back were Hodsons Heros, Mad 2 and Con Air with another short gap to Joy Cannon, IS Solutions and Ericsson 1. Wily Wilderbeast, Ericsson 2 and The Tiger Nuts had already managed to drop 1 lap behind, and Mad 1 having broken the Kart were 2 laps behind.

By 40 laps driver change tactics and Dog House penalties had started to make their mark. GAP had dropped a lap, and Windsor Lot dropped 2 laps, leaving Sucking Drops in the lead with only Hodsons Heroes, Norfolk N Talent, Con Air and Mad 2 still on the lead lap. IS Solutions and Windsor Lot had joined Mad 1 and the Tiger Nuts at the back of the field 2 laps off the pace.

Now things started to settle down in general to a more steady pattern, though some teams that had made early mistakes worked up through the field. At the 80 lap mark Norfolk N Talent lead Hodsons Heroes a lap clear of the rest of the field. Windsor Lot had climbed from 11th to 3rd followed by GAP and Con Air and Mad 1 were still 2 laps off the lead but this meant they had now recovered to 6th just ahead of Joy Cannon and IS Solutions. Sucking Drops and Mad 2 had fallen away, 3 laps down, and then there was a clear lap between each of the remaining teams, Ericsson 2, The Tiger Nuts, Ericsson 1 and Wily Wilderbeast at the back.

Fuel stops came between 100 and 140 laps and shook up the positions for a while, once this had settled out a pattern was clearly developing. Norfolk N Talent still lead with Windsor Lot just back on the lead lap 30 seconds behind. Con Air, IS Solutions and Hodsons Heroes were all 1 lap down with a 2 lap cushion back to 6th placed GAP, Sucking Drops, Mad 1 and Joy Cannon. 10th were Ericsson 2 closely followed by The Tiger Nuts. Wily Wilderbeast, Ericsson 1 and Mad 2 rounded out the field.

By 180 laps Windsor Lot had taken the lead with Norfolk N Talent right on their tail. IS Solutions, Hodsons Heroes and Con Air were still fighting over 3rd place but Mad 1 were closing fast in 6th place just ahead of GAP. Joy Cannon stepped up to 8th as Sucking Drops fell back 2 places to 9th. A couple of laps further back were Erricsson 2 and The Tiger Nuts whilst Mad 2, Ericsson 1 and Wily Wilderbeast continued to contest the rear most position.

As we approached the final 15 minutes and the last driver changes Windsor Lot dropped off the lead with a Dog House penalty. Hodsons Heroes set the fastest lap 0:31.82, on Lap 207. After 220 laps and with only 10 minutes remaining Norfolk N Talent had a clear lap lead, Windsor Lot now only 5 seconds ahead of Hodsons Heroes and 20 seconds from Con Air. Mad 1 were a consistent 3 laps off the leaders (only 1 lap further back than they had been very early on), IS Solutions had dropped to 6th with a 2 Lap cushion from the rest of the field who had settled into their finishing positions.

17 laps later it was all over, aware of their lead Norfolk N Talent eased off and kept out of the way of the battle behind them. But Windsor Lot hadn't given up and fought back to finish only 2 seconds behind. Con Air had closed in even more to finish 3rd just 13 seconds down whilst Hodsons heroes slipped back 30 seconds to take 4th place. In a commendable 5th after their early problems were Mad 1 just ahead of IS Solutions in 6th. GAP were a further 2 laps down in 7th whilst Joy Cannon came home 8th, 7 laps off the pace. Sucking Drops early potential was unrealised in 9th ahead of Ericsson 2, The Tiger Nuts and Mad 2. Bringing up the rear in 13th and 14th were Wily Wilderbeast and Ericsson 1.

So that's it for this event, I'm sure teams other than Mad 1 and Mad 2 had things to say, but they didn't send there comments to me, despite at least 2 promising to do so.

Don't forget to get those entries in for the Easter Parade.

Trevor

Team Reports

Mad1 got off to a terrible start with a combination of bad luck and human error. On lap 5, Marcus Butler stacked his kart into the tyres after the first bend and broke the steering linkage. Two minutes later he was back in a fully functioning but somewhat under-powered replacement. Next up was Iain Betson who flung the car around so violently in the pits that it took a team of Wimbledon ball boys to replace the tennis balls - our 1st doghouse. Then it was my turn at the wheel. I put in a long and competent stint, and, mindful of Iain's previous shenanigans, approached the pits with my concentration entirely on those tennis balls; Took a wrong turn and ended up in the doghouse! Another 20 seconds lost while I drove round again. After that we settled down a bit and put in some consistently fast and error-free driving, with Andy Juniper's final stint dragging our position up to fifth by the end of the day. Best lap: Iain Betson, 33.56.

As for Mad2. Well, they got off to a better start than us in Mad1 (didn't everybody?) reaching 3rd position early on, but it wasn't long before cracks appeared in their organisation. 2 early doghouses (Steve Calleja and Eduardo) for tennis matches in the pits put them well down the field, and then, with an hour to go, the cock-up to end all cock-ups! Mad2 ran out of fuel at the far reaches of the circuit, and had to suffer the indignity of 3 laps of yellow flags while their kart was pushed in for a (presumably never-scheduled) refuelling. And were Mad2 champing at the bit to get going after this minor setback? Were they xxxx! The driver had to return to base to report his adventure to his oblivious team mates who put down their newspapers and contemplated the next move. Oh well. Another doghouse from the hot-blooded Eduardo for pushing "I can't calm down - I'm a bloody European" ensured their 12th place. Best lap: Mike Roberts, 33:86 Worst timed fuel stop: Nigel Ritson

Howard Urmenyi (Mad1)

Results

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