And then there was one

With 4 teams in with a chance of taking the championship, there was a real sense of excitement as the Clubman teams arrived at Buckmore Park for the final round of the 2011 championship. It has been an exciting year filled with black flags, cones, accidents, voodoo and some excellent racing and it all came down to this. The final showdown.

There was drama even before the racing started. Teamcraft’s Dan Underhill suffered a massive testing accident on Friday, resulting in him being forced to miss the race and leave Pete Cowen and Henry Jones to fight as a 2 man team.

As is to be expected at Buckmore in November (well Buckmore full stop) it was wet. Although there was no rain forecast, the track was greasy and was obviously going to take some time for a dry line to appear.

There was a surprise in qualifying as veterans Mullender Associates took pole position. The Lairy Pelican were the highest of the title contenders in second with Overdraft third, Drive Fast Don’t Crash fourth and Rum Racing fifth. British Columbia and Es Car Go could only manage 16th and 17th respectively while Teamcraft had a lot of work to do from 24th.

Despite being a mainstay of the endurance championship, I’ve never spoken to any member of Mullender Associates. The whole team were understandably ecstatic on the grid.

“It’s our first pole for many years. We just found the right line and it all came together. We didn’t put the kart in the anal queue because it felt perfect so it’s obviously a good kart. We just want to try and keep out of trouble today and we’ll see where we end up.”

Mullender led the opening lap but it didn’t take long for the big names to take control at the front. With all eyes firmly focussed on the 4 way battle for the title, it was The Lairy Pelican who held the early advantage but British Columbia and Es Car Go soon made inroads. Unfortunately, an off the pace Teamcraft struggled and saw their title aspirations dwindle over the course of the race.

With his drive at Team Tebbutt at an end due to the outfit disbanding, Chris Hanson was standing in at Drive Fast Don’t Crash and looking for a full time ride for 2012. He didn’t do himself any favours by stacking it into the pit wall.

“Basically I saw the sign to come in and I got on the brakes on a wet patch so it just went sideways and went straight into the tyres. It is a shame because we were right behind British Columbia but this has dropped us right back. A real shame.”

Still, he bought a copy of my book so I like him and agree that this embarrassing accident wasn’t at all his fault. Plus he wasn’t the only one to do it.

Mark Oliver, obviously participating in Movember if his ginger facial hair was anything to go by, is one of the only top drivers who is not superstitious and consequently available for comment during the race. He was pleased with the way the race was panning out and appeared confident.

“We’re doing really well. We didn’t qualify very well because we got caught out by traffic but we have driven well and we are up to first and we’ve built up a nice lead. All we have to do is finish in the top three to take the championship so we’re in a comfortable position at the moment. We decided at the start of the race to just drive as we normally do and try not to think about the championship and that’s all we’re doing.”

Behind the leading 3, Auditing Armageddon were having a strong race. InkJet were not looking as competitive as they had done earlier in the season. HB Racing, Keen As Mustard and Do or Die were all battling in the mid-field. Unfortunately Mullender Associates’ excellent qualifying didn’t translate into race pace and they soon found themselves back in the mid-field bunch.

As the race entered its final stages, Es Car Go had worked their way to the front and pulled out a huge gap over British Columbia. The Pelicans were looking solid in third. This is how they finished with Auditing Armageddon 4th and Teamcraft 5th.

This victory sealed the championship for Es Car Go in what has been an outstanding season for them. British Columbia proved they are premier material with a fine 2nd. It was a sad end for Teamcraft who have suffered some bad luck but will surely bounce back next year.

It hadn’t quite sunk in for Angus Boath when he spoke after the race.

“A brilliant kart, a clean race, the pit stops were all perfect and just a all round perfect day really. I’m still buzzing over being the Clubman champions. After finishing third in the rookies and third in the Inters it’s nice to finally get a championship under our belts. We had a lot of black flags early in the season but we got our heads down and raced cleanly in the second half and our talent came through.”

In what has been a very close year, it has to be said that the best team won. Despite a number of black flags earlier in the year, they have driven faultlessly in the second half and have been the most consistent team all year. With their promotion up to the Premier class next year along with British Columbia and probably the Pelicans too, Teamcraft must surely go into 2012 as favourites… that’s cursed them!