CLUB100 Sprint championship - Round 2 - Whilton Mill - March 18th

Lightweights

Introduction and Qualifying

Perhaps mothers day kept the some drivers away but whatever the reason, it was disappointing to see a mere 35 LW drivers on the grid for round 2, hopefully the class will grow in size and status over the next few races. Anyway, all that aside, round 1 winner John Pethick was no doubt hoping for another wet race whilst the other podium finishes were not present, two of a number of drivers who had valid reasons to be absent (so I’m told!). Therefore, the competition for Mr Pethick was likely to come once more from Vince Bond, Zac Seward, Matt Brooks, John Whiteley, Tony Simpson and Andrew Smyth.

Intermittent rain meant some of the heats were a tad damp and even the drier heats presented difficulties for the drivers although nothing seemed to dampen the speed of Andrew Smyth who raced to pole with two wins and a second before crossing his fingers that it stayed dryish for the final! Tim Gibson lined up a worthy second ahead of John Whitely with round 1 winner John Pethick looking menacing on grid 4! Keith Segal looked rather rapid; especially on a damp track a heat win enabling him to line up 5th ahead of the impressive Darren Pullen. Ben Summers and James Akehurst joined forces on row 4 ahead of Zac Seward and Michael Perfect whilst Matt Brooks was a little off the pace down in 11th. Also in the wars was Simon Young (13th), Tony Simpson (17th) and Vince Bond (19th) whilst Josh Hill was joined on the back row of the A final by impressive newcomer David Palmer.

A rather depleted B final was headed by Alan Beckley and Andrew Green with Colin Beckley and Ashley Davies on row 2. Jason Sichel had been hoping to make the A final this time out but had to be content with 5th ahead of Rob Moss, Matt Wise and Julian Miller. Bringing up the rear were the likes of Stuart Proctor, Tom Kearney, Richard Higham, Richard Smith and Nigel Latham.

B Final

Alan Beckley led the field away with Andrew Green slotting in behind, these two still heading the pack at the completion of lap 1, the pair of them over a second ahead of Ashley Davies, Colin Beckley, Matt Wise and Richard Smith whilst the wet track had already caught out Tom Kearney, Rob Moss and Jason Sichel all three restarting at the back. On lap 2, Green moved past Beckley to pick up the lead, swiftly pulling clear and leaving Beckley to fend off Davies, the flying Stuart Proctor (up from grid 9 but 7 second further back), Matt Wise, Smith, Nigel Latham and Colin Beckley.

A concerted effort by Alan Beckley saw the latter back in front by the completion of lap 4 with Green and Davies close behind whilst Proctor was making gradual progress towards the top 3 but was still some 6 second further back at this stage. Smith remained 5th some 7 second behind the top 4 with Wise and Colin Beckley in close company with the rest a long way back, all having spun and recovered at some point in the opening laps! Davies fine effort came to nothing on lap 6 when he spun down the order promoting Proctor to third, the latter now just 4 seconds behind the two leaders but well clear of Colin Beckley who had picked up 4th having moved ahead of Smith and Wise in consecutive laps.

On lap 8, Beckley made a small mistake but it was enough to allow Green back into the lead and promote Proctor to 2nd place whilst Alan Beckley emerged in third and then appeared to take things a little easier to ensure he and Colin (Beckley) made it through into the A final. At the flag it was a win for Green who just held off the charging Proctor, the gap down to just 0.84 at the flag with the latter setting fastest lap on the final tour! Alan and Colin Beckley rounded out the top 4 whilst Smith finished 9 second further back in 5th ahead of Higham, Wise and the recovering Sichel.

Star Drive - Stuart Proctor - charged up the order early on to ensure a place in the A final with fastest lap to boot.

A Final

Polesitter Andrew Smyth benefited from some level of visibility to lead the pack up the hill, extending his lead to over a second as the leaders completed lap 1 with Tim Gibson and the fast starting Keith Segal filling the next two places ahead of Jon Pethick, Matt Brookes (up well from grid 11!), Zac Seward, Ben Summers and John Whitely, the latter dropping down the order after being swamped (excuse the pun!) on the opening lap. Stuart Proctor was a first lap casualty along with Rob Yates and Darren Pullen, joined a lap later by Simon Young who had been allegedly nerfed off by Seth Deuchar. By the end of lap two, Segal was through into the lead whilst Pethick was up to third behind Smyth having passed Gibson on the same lap. On lap four, Segal made a slight mistake and lost some revs allowing Pethick through into the lead, the championship leader completing the lap 2 seconds ahead of Smyth with Seward, Segal, Brookes and Whiteley (recovering well) in close attendance.

On lap 5, Segal's fine drive came to an end with a Spin at Inkermans all this after moving back up to second briefing on the same lap. As Pethick disappeared into the distance, Seward and Smyth swapped placed until both were caught and passed on lap 6 by the flying Whiteley. Up front, Pethick was having to deal with some stubborn backmarkers although he still completed the lap some 6 seconds ahead of Whiteley who still had Seward and Brooks in close attention whilst Smyth’s great day had ended with a self induced spin at Zulu as he tried to get back into second place on lap 7. Behind the top 4 were Vince Bond, the latter having carved his way up the order from grid 19 although he was too far back to do much about the leaders with Tony Simpson and Tim Gibson close behind, the latter seemingly struggling in the wet conditions.

Despite the ever worsening conditions, Pethick soldiered on up front, extending his lead lap after lap and putting on a class demonstration of wet weather driving whilst Whiteley was knocked out of contention by a (later) apologetic backmarker although some swift attention from a nearby pusher kart enabled him to get going again quickly. This left Seward and Brooks battling over second ahead of Bond (some four seconds further back) with Simpson, Gibson and the restarted Whiteley in close attendance as well. On the final lap, Brooks had a look inside Seward into the last corner but spun his fine third place away, elevating a grateful Bond to third as Pethick made it two out of two, this one a damn sight easier than the first! Seward was a delighted second although some 12 seconds behind the race winner whilst Bond inherited third ahead of Gibson and Whiteley, these latter two recovering well over the final few laps. Simpson had followed Bond through the pack to take 6th and was up to 4th until a small mistake towards the end allowed Gibson and the flying Whiteley through whilst the ever improving Joshua Hill had again kept it on the island as he moved up from 21st to 7th with newcomer David Palmer an even more impressive 8th, again from the back of the grid!

Star Drive - David Palmer - in his first ever sprint and in very difficult conditions, the newcomer stayed on track and finished a very creditable 8th!