Racing Dates
Round 9 - September 12
Championship 2010
14TH NKRA GRANDE FINAL
For those unaware of the NKRA format, and it is quite a complicated one, it revolves around three separate regional championships, Northern England/Wales, Southern England/Wales and Scotland. The three regional championships are incorporated within club championship rounds up and down the country, up until the weekend, which explodes in a huge carnival of fun, camaraderie and excellent racing, as the regionals all get together for the Grande Final, which is now 14 years old.
It was the perfect venue for such an event. Glan-y-Gors is a splendid, family run circuit, and a credit to it`s owners, Eddie and Tracey Davies. It is a track of a twisty, technical nature, with it`s undulating lines, blind corners and sweeping bends, it offers a real challenge to all levels of drivers, not only that, it is set in such a glorious location that it simply begs you to return, and many do.
It`s difficult to believe that only 12 months or so ago, it was only really known to drivers around the North Wales and North West of England areas, but this season, having already hosted the TKM National Open Championship, and now the NKRA Grande Final, word of this marvellous track has spread far and wide and surely, with planned building work going ahead to improve the off track facilities, it seems inevitable that many more prestigious meetings will follow in future years.
With a four heat format, it made a great deal of sense to run half the heats on Saturday afternoon, with the remaining heats and the finals going ahead on Sunday, leaving lots of time for presentations and celebrations and still giving everyone a chance of getting home at a reasonable hour, whatever the distance. Even the rain, which came hammering down from about Sunday lunchtime, failed to dampen enthusiasm, and the racing itself could only be described as exemplary, clean and fair all day. The Clerk of the Course Iain Blair described it as `the easiest meeting I`ve had all season”.
The Junior Blue class started the afternoon finals in, by now, pretty heavy rain. Andrew Potter had had been very consistent in the heats, finishing as runner up in three out of the four to place himself on pole position for the final, proof that heat wins are not always essential. The heat victories had gone two for Curtis Roberts with one each for Stephen Philip and Josh Cook. Potter, is a well known young man in North West karting circles, having raced at MBKC meetings for several years, and one thing he does like is the wet, so conditions were perfect for him as he streaked away from the outset, quickly pulling out a decent advantage over Dan Street and Steve Moore. By lap six of the 18 lap final, he had turned that advantage into 4.013secs and it was clear that the only thing that could beat him was a lack of concentration or mechanical problems. Fortunately, neither was to ensue, as he moved serenely on to take a really impressive lights to flag victory by 8.112secs from Street. David Wagner came through in the latter stages to take the final podium spot from Moore.
Honda Cadet boasted only a small entry of six. Steven Handford was dominant throughout the heats, taking three of the four, Jack Ryan taking the other and, again in the final, it was Handford giving a master class in how to handle the wet conditions to his rivals as he simply romped away into the distance, leaving 2nd placed William Foster and Jay Fowler trailing far in his wake as he powered away to a massive victory, coming home by 14.160secs from Foster with Fowler third.
A further six entries contested the W-60 Comer Cadet class and, if we thought the winning margin in the Honda Cadet race would take some beating, well, we hadn`t seen anything yet. Macauley Austin had already done a clean sweep of the heats, before simply hacking up in the final. By lap two he had opened up a three second advantage over Tom Read, with Keifer Steyn in third and, by mid point of the 16 lap final, he had increased that to over eight seconds, Read, in second then had a spin, putting himself back to 6th and gifting second spot to Steyn, Owen Hunter coming through to take up third. In the end, Austin came home 24.994secs ahead of Steyn, with Hunter a lonely 8secs back in third place.
Certainly on paper, the race of the day had to be in the Formula Blue class, a formula that now really seems to be making it`s mark. It`s been popular in the South of the country for a number of years, but convincing `us Northerners` is another matter, however, maybe the master stroke was the hosting of the National Open Championship by the Manchester and Buxton Kart Club at the Three Sisters circuit in March. It was an excellent event, won, of course by Ash Davies, which seemed to propel the class and it now looks as if it`s future is assured.
Certainly a good entry here today with a full grid and most of the country`s top drivers present, including the aforementioned Ash Davies and his brother Matt, the son`s of the circuit owners Eddie and Tracey, together with a comprehensive list of top drivers, including James and Sam Fugett, Duncan McLeod, Trevor Andrews, Nicky Taylor, Jamie Watts, Alastair Wayman and several others. It needed six heats to sort out the final grid for this class, and these all went to different drivers. Matt and Ash Davies had a win each, with Stephen Andrews, Wayman, James Langham and James Fugett all taking one each. It had been Sam Fugett and Ash Davies on the front row for the final, but Fugett quickly had problems and was almost immediately out of the reckoning, as Wayman, Ash Davies and Stephen Andrews were very closely bunched at the head of the pack in the early stages, but it was Wayman and Ash Davies who gradually began to pull away from the rest as Watts edged through into third. For a while, there was a real battle going on between Ash Davies and Wayman, before, possibly, Wayman realised he had a championship to win, whereas Davies, only entering the final, not having done the majority of the series, therefore no threat to Wayman championship wise, was there to win the race. Whatever the reason, once Davies got his nose in front for the third time, he began to pull away and it looked as if Wayman was, at that stage, happy with the comfort of second spot, which he held comfortably in the end from Watts, Davies powering on in the later stages to take up an eight second advantage on the penultimate lap, before easing right down in the final half lap and starting his celebrations a little early, as he crossed the line still some 5.192secs ahead of Wayman who was a further 4secs ahead of Watts, though with the overall championship in the bag, Wayman was more than happy with his weekends racing.
Rotax Max boasted only a relatively smallish entry of fourteen, although it looked a pretty competitive affair with Charlie Owen, Martyn Gange, Kevin Westphal, Peter Baybutt, Bryn Hawkins and Daryl Burgess all taking part. It was the track specialist, Peter Baybutt who was the undisputed king of the heats, taking a clean sweep and putting himself in pole spot for the final.
The final though was going to prove a much closer affair. Indeed, Baybutt did take up the early mantle but Burgess and Hawkins were certainly in no mood to let him have things his own way, still, at midstage in the 20 lap final, it still seemed that Baybutt held all the answers, even though he was starting to come under greater pressure from Hawkins in particular, then, sadly it was to all go wrong for Baybutt as, in the wet conditions, he suffered a spin entering the carousel section of the circuit, dropping him back to third, leaving Burgess in the lead as Hawkins lost a bit of momento in the incident. It was an anxious final two or three laps for Burgess as he held on doggedly to the lead, finally coming home ahead of Hawkins by the narrowest margin of the day, just 0.237secs with Baybutt having fully recovered to take a very comfortable third place.
Final race of the day came with the Minimax class. It looked like this would be heavily contested between Andrew Smart, Jamie Fegan and Elliot Thompson after they took a heat each. Jack Holden had taken the fourth heat, but it was Smart and Fegan on the front row and this pair got away well at the start, tracked by Thompson, as it quickly developed into a three kart battle as they pulled away from the rest of the field headed by Jack Williams. It was a really good battle for a number of laps between Fegan and Smart, with Thompson ready to pounce on any mistake, although as the race wore on, despite Fegan still leading, it began to look as though Smart was holding the upper hand. Finally, with six laps still remaining, he slipped into the lead, and immediately made his advantage tell, pulling away in the closing laps to record a comfortable victory by 3.906secs in the end from Fegan, who must have been pleased to see the flag as the quick finishing Thompson bore down on him.
A great finish to a fabulous weekend and, as the presentations and celebrations began, ironically it had stopped raining, but by then, I don`t really think anyone even cared.
Roll on 2007!!!
Report by: Mel Tipton
GRANDE FINAL RESULTS
JUNIOR BLUE
Andrew Potter (Octane/Lynx)
Dan Street (Minarelli/Lynx)
David Wagner (Intrepid/Lynx)
HONDA CADET
Steven Handford (MW/Honda)
William Foster (Trulli/Honda)
Jay Fowler (Trulli/Honda)
COMER W-60 CADET
Macauley Austin (Zip/Comer)
Keifer Steyn (Zip/Comer)
Owen Hunter (Zip/Comer)
FORMULA BLUE
Ash Davies (Tibi/Lynx)
Alastair Wayman (Minarell/Lynx)
Jamie Watts (Redspeed/Lynx)
ROTAX MAX
Daryl Burgess ( /Rotax)
Bryn Hawkins (Gillard/Rotax)
Peter Baybutt (CRG/Rotax)
MINIMAX
Andrew Smart (Cavallo/Rotax)
Jamie Fegan (Gillard/Rotax)
Elliot Thompson (Wright/Rotax)
FINAL NKRA CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
FORMULA BLUE
1/ Alastair Wayman (South)
2/ Jamie Watts (South)
3/ Stephen Andrews (South)
4/ Nicky Taylor (North)
5/ James Fugett (South)
6/ Jason Glen (Scotland)
7/ Cameron Craig (Scotland)
8/ Duncan McLeod (South)
9/ Chris Taylor (North)
10/ James Langham (South)
FORMULA BLUE (TOP WEIGHT)
1/ Peter Booker (North)
2/ Peter Atkin (South)
FORMULA BLUE (MASTERS)
1/ Peter Atkin (South)
2/ Trevor Andrews (South)
JUNIOR BLUE
1/ Andrew Potter (North)
2/ Dan Street (South)
3/ Steve Moore (South)
4/ Curtis Roberts (North)
MINIMAX
1/ Andrew Smart (North)
2/ Jamie Fegan (Scotland)
3/ Elliot Thompson (South)
ROTAX MAX
1/ Daryl Burgess (South)
2/ Peter Baybutt (North)
3/ Bryn Hawkins (North)
4/ Steven Hopewell (South)
HONDA CADET
1/ Steven Handford (South)
2/ William Foster (North)
COMER W-60 CADET
1/ Macauley Austin (South)
2/ Keifer Steyn (Scotland)