Club Karting Championship

Final Round - Daytona - 16^th October 2002

Report by Julz Coulter.

Individual Drivers Results

Pos.	Driver		Kart	Qual. 	Pts.
1st	Ian Timberlake	19	1st	25
2nd	Brian Cammack	10	2nd	24
3rd	Kevin G		21	5th	23
4th	Dave West		 1	4th	22
5th	Nick Mauger		12	10	21
6th	Simon  Mauger	14	3rd	20
7th	Rob Slinger	 	4	12th	19
8th	Scott Davenport	 5	7th	18
9th	Ryan Ward		15	13th	17
10th	Julian Coulter	13	5th	16
11th	Alex Mace		18	16th	15
12th	Daniel Cammack	11	11th	14
13th	Duncan Gammage	22	17th	13
14th	Ian Hucklebridge	 2	15th	12
15th	John Prior		17	20th	11
16th	Jason House		16	14th	10
17th	Jamie Jackson	 8	25th	 9
18th	James Walters	24	22nd	 8
19th	Steve T		20	18th	 7
20th	Mike A		25	24th	 6
21st	Nathan Gammage	23	19th	 5

This visit to Milton keynes filled quickly with only one cancellation but with 3 reserves at hand we ran at full attendance. With saving complications in mind, arrival time was set at 7.00-7.30 even so we still had the latecomers arriving at 7.59 (1 minute before cop out time!) still looking rather lost and bedraggled. With all present and correct we sat the safety video and then took our positions in our designated karts.

The weather had looked ominous all week with the odd (wimpish) request for possibly postponing the round in the event of rain but the track and weather had remained dry all afternoon, would it hold out for the full duration? For us the wet would stand in our favour and we’d stand a better chance of retaining our championship lead.

As qualification proceeded the atmosphere of seriousness could be cut with a knife but remained un eventful but fast! On our return a few adjustments were requested but on the whole no kart changes were needed. Although I had noticed, while sat in the pit lane, a burning sensation in my groin and noticed that fuel was leaking from my karts tank overflow. With only boxers on under my suit, the added wind was blowing up my race suit legs resulting in ‘nigh on’ freezing my privates - “not pleasant” along with the pending solvent burns. But for once I felt I had a reasonably quick kart and so settled with the thought of competitiveness over comfort!

The race started with all of us in our reflecting pole positions with the firm favourites taking the first 4 positions - I say 4 as I was 5th and was amazed as anyone else, but put it down to cold tyres as I seem to drive better with less traction. Teams and their statistics were soon forgotten as the red mist enveloped most and the dirty onslaught pursued. The track remained dry and positions in the fore field were changing intermittently, collisions and bumping off were taking their toll as regular black flags were waved and pit checks had to be made once your kart had been bumped or driven across the white line marking the boundary of the circuit.

Certain individuals became victims of mechanical failure or incident with broken drive chains, timing failure, and steering problems etc. But the most outstanding accomplishment was actually a kart catching fire and being abandoned trackside, thankfully with no injury although this resulted in 3 or 4 laps under yellow flag while the kart was put out and towed in. The break away group of 6 karts, of which I was 1, was caught by the pack and the spacing between each kart came within 4ft as the green flag was waved, carnage ensued and changed the complete field in 1 foul swoop.

The night was more than entertaining and as with Fomula 1 the ability of driving fast was not the winning factor and I for 1 was becoming more aware of the more complex skills involved in varying race lines, late braking, slip streaming and smooth controlled driving (keeping traction), which put toll to my original tail out rally approach. But above all the ability to manoeuver to overtake without collision proved to me the hardest as it took its toll on myself on more than one occasion, especially lapping back markers.

But what stands out more throughout the championship is the progress that in-experienced drivers and new comers alike have made, especially in lap times and competitiveness. Its only 8 months ago I was scratching my head wondering how the fore runners could drive so quickly and yet through perseverance and watching techniques I and many others have got within reach of those winning times.

The evening, it has to be said, was Ian Timberlakes taking first place confidently and fastest lap time by quarter of a second being the only driver breaking the 1:12 sec barrier on the night.

But to our surprise with Ian’s team mate also taking 3rd place we thought it obvious that throttle had taken the team win for the night but not so! As shown in the previous score sheet. I’ve said before consistency wins the team events, proving this point was team Twin-Cam showing their consistency throughout shown in the championship table below.

“Well D..D..D.D.Da..Dat’s All folks”

Well I think I can say on behalf of TMC that this years championship has been a roaring success many thanks to all those individuals and teams for all their attendance as after all, without your input and reliability this championship would have not been able to run.

I hope you have all enjoyed the events as much as I have and hope to see you all in next years challenge providing I get the go ahead for next year - well here’s to 2003

Congratulations to Twin-Cam (Brian, Nic, and Daniel) for winning the championship !
Well done guy’s! But did I forget to mention in the rules….. The Drinks are on you !

Click HERE to see the final 2002 Championship Points table.

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