Lightweight Sprint - Round 6 - Ellough Park, 2nd August 2009

Introduction and Qualifying

The title has essentially become Lee Kemp’s to throw away now, with three wins and a second, his lead gets bigger with each round, and if he could keep it together at Ellough, the chances of anyone catching him of their own volition were getting very slim indeed. Even the recent form of Matt Brooks, again getting through the heats very efficiently and taking 3rd on the grid, and the determination of Glen Beard, who with a win, 2nd and a 3rd in the heats pipped Kemp to pole, still wasn’t looking like a match for the championship leader, who, once again, got through the heats with no dramas and landed himself on 2nd spot for the A final. Behind those three, Eddie Hall got through the heats unscathed and had Dan Gore and Zach Seward behind on row 3. Richard Higham, following a win here in the enduros was in 7th with the rapid-looking youngster Liam Nolan in 8th. Greg Owen qualified well in 10th, with Simon Young only managing 11th. Tim Clark got himself into his 2nd straight A final with Sami Seppala directly behind him in 15th. Notable lowly starters included James Akehurst, having an exhaust ripped off in a heat, Andrew Green with mediocre heats and a penalty to boot, and Aaron Stapleton who looked quick but ragged. Darrell Boyle however was in the B final after some poor heats along with Seth Deuchar who had at least made it onto the front row so stood a good chance of progressing.

There would be a small C Final of 11 runners, graced by the presence of Rob Yates making his first appearance this year and for once not containing Andrew Capaldi, who had at least managed to get into the B final.

C Final

Sven Ritter led the small field away from pole, with one spinner, Jaymin Vadhia. Stuart Martin tried hard to get past the leader and got himself all out of sorts coming out the hairpin which nearly allowed the experienced Rob Yates through. The front four of Ritter, Martin, Yates and Paul Rhodes all broke away, and Christian Foyer spun at the final turn. Stuart Martin took the lead on lap 2 down the straight after getting a better run out of the final hairpin and Rhodes very nearly got past Yates at the infield left hander but Yates held him off well. Down the back Walid Norris got past Lee Fulton but had his work cut out to catch the leaders. Yates found a way past Ritter on lap 4 and at the front, Martin now with clear track started to pull out a big lead back to Yates in 2nd.

Meanwhile, Paul Storton and Norris had made their way up into 5th and 6th and were starting to pressurize Ritter for the last B final slot. Rhodes, who had been in 4th, had a spin and retired. Storton got past on lap 7 and then on lap 8, Yates spun, putting Storton up into 2nd and Norris, who had also got past Ritter up into 3rd. Martin was leading out front by 5 seconds. Ritter seemed to find his feet again and passed both Norris and Storton to climb back up to 2nd and Norris slotted in behind to take 3rd. By the end Martin had built up a lead of over 9 seconds whilst the others fought between them, and it was Ritter, Norris and Storton to get another 15 laps in the B final.

B Final

Laurence Tombs led the pack away at the start, followed closely by Seth Deuchar. Darrell Boyle got up to 6th from 11th at the start making progression to the B final look promising and Andrew Capaldi, qualifying for the B final for once spun at turn 1. The front 5 of Tombs, Deuchar, Julian Miller, Ray Morgan and now Boyle started to build up a lead back to Martin Joyce in 6th; Boyle looking like he would make a move on Morgan any time soon. Boyle made it into 4th on lap 4 as he got past Morgan at the hairpin, then a lap later he took 3rd off Miller, again into the hairpin and easing up to the back of Deuchar who was pressuring Tombs for the lead. Morgan had a queue of karts amassing behind him, including Joyce, Henry Jones, Ross Britten and William Farrar.

Down the field, Keith Segal was running in 11th until he got completely mugged at the pits hairpin and passed by Matthew Clark, Steph Walters and Rich Ward. Then, whilst attempting revenge into the final turn Alan Beckley got past too. Boyle was still all over Deuchar, but looked like he would settle for 3rd rather than try anything risky. Lap 10 and Farrar put a harsh move on Jones to take 7th on the final turn, and then Farrar started to rough up Morgan on the next lap. Farrar did make it past at the hairpin and Jones tried to follow him through, but Morgan held him off. Joyce went to take 4th off of Miller into turn 1 on lap 12, but hit him and spun him out, a shame as Miller would have made the A final. Joyce collected a 4 place penalty for the contact, and then suddenly dropped back anyway, perhaps collecting some damage in the incident. So it was Farrar promoted to 4th. Deuchar finally managed to get the lead on lap 14 at the flat out left hander and Boyle tried to follow him through. Boyle and Tombs negotiated the hairpin and the chicane side by side, but it was Boyle that had the inside for the pits hairpin and claimed 2nd. Tombs had a 3 second lead over Farrar in 4th anyway, so was safely through to the A final.

A Final

At the start, Lee Kemp got caught up behind the slow to move pace kart, which allowed Glen Beard a comfortable get away into turn 1, the whole of the inside line following close behind. Kemp only managed to lose 1 place to Brooks though and by the hairpin he was back through into 2nd with a lovely out braking move into the tight switchback. Into lap 2 though, Kemp made a mistake and Brooks was back past, with Dan Gore following into 3rd on the run up to turn 2. Kemp tried hard to hold on to 3rd, but Gore drove round the outside of the hairpin and just about hung on. This let Beard pull out a big lead in the opening stages and was soon 2 seconds in front with Kemp stuck behind Gore in 4th. From all angles it looked like Beard was going to have an easy victory here, maintaining the 2 second gap back to Brooks in 2nd. Kemp found his way past Gore on lap 5 at the end of the main straight, but this move had let Brooks pull away slightly. Meanwhile behind, Eddie Hall was holding onto 5th, with Liam Nolan doing well in 6th, Zach Seward in 7th with a frustrated looking Richard Higham in 8th. Greg Owen was also doing well, up in 10th.

Higham managed to sneak past Seward on the inside at the infield left hander and was straight onto the bumper of Nolan. Up front, now Kemp had cleared Gore, he was on the tail of Brooks and visibly pressuring him, Brooks had cut Beard’s lead to 1.6 seconds, and was catching him at 2/10ths per lap, with 7 laps remaining, they looked on target to be on his tail for the final tour if they could keep it up. Gore had dropped back from Kemp, but had also dropped Hall in 5th, he himself making a gap back to Nolan who lost his 6th place to Higham, and in doing so, lost speed and Seward got back past them both. Higham got back past Seward pretty quickly though and turned his attention to catching Hall – setting fastest lap on the way. Kemp got down the inside of Brooks into turn 1 with a little contact into turn 2 to take 2nd and set about catching Beard. Once past Brooks, Kemp stuck in some awesome laps – he took half second chunks out of Beard’s lead and was on his bumper within 3 laps. Once there, he made it past the leader – albeit with a fair amount of side pod rubbing – very quickly at the hairpin. Kemp pulled out another 8/10ths over Beard over the remaining 2 laps, who now had to deal with pressure from Brooks to the end, and Higham made it past Hall for 5th on lap 14.

So Kemp took his 4th win with a brilliant drive to come back from 4th, and continues to dominate the championship. Beard and Brooks took the remaining trophies with Gore, Higham, Hall, Seward, Nolan, Owen and Simon Young rounding out the top 10. With five race left, it is Kemp’s title to throw away, but he has plenty of people behind ready to pounce should he slip up. It will be an interesting autumn.