ELF / Hill House Hammond Super 4 National Kart Championships.

Round 4 -: Kimbolton

Just a fortnight after Fulbeck, Kimbolton hosted the next round of the championship.                         The entry list had grown slightly as a number of guest drivers decided to measure their talents against the best Super 4 had to throw at them and with the increase the necessity of B finals for 125 National and 250 National.

 Sky TV’s cameras were also televising the event and unlike previous visits the weather was particular unkind, very windy, cloudy and a couple of brief showers during the heats was followed by more persistent rain just as the finals began and then with racing over out came the sun, Typical!

 Racing itself was close although the rain didn’t help and a few fell fowl of the slippery conditions.

 With the B finals out of the way, 125 Open was the first of the main finals run. After concentrating most of his 1999 efforts into Europe, reigning Champion Peter Budd was making a guest appearance and managed to win one of the heats, as did Dan Grieg and Paul Ozanne.

 Joining Grieg and Ozanne on the front row was young Damien Fernendez, but even before the green light a broken coil wire put him out of the running. Grieg didn’t make the best of grid one but Ozanne opposite did and led the field into Stow Corner, by the close of the lap Mark Brookman had slotted into 2^nd from Wesley Crankshaw, Dave Fricker, Nelson Rowe and Mark Fell, unfortunately Grieg had slid off at Kestrel Corner ending his effort.                                                                 Ozanne was quickly into his stride and with a couple of laps run was already building himself a good lead. Behind, Brookman continued to hold 2^nd, Crankshaw tucked right under his bumper, Fricker briefly held 4^th but on lap 3 he pulled off the circuit with a snapped chain, Rowe the benefactor, Fell was next from Ian Pratt, Peter Palmer and Peter Budd.                      Outfront Ozanne was reveling in the slippery conditions and continued to extend his advantage every lap, by mid race he was over 10 seconds clear and with neither mechanical failure nor driver error he would eventually build over half a laps lead at the chequered flag.The battle for 2^nd was tight, Crankshaw had demoted Brookman into 3^rd on lap 5, but it was Rowe who was on the move, dispatching Brookman of lap 7 he set about Crankshaw and on lap 9 he moved into 2^nd place, once ahead he soon had a small 10 kart length cushion. Crankshaw had a similar advantage over Brookman and that’s how they would finish, Fell completed the top 5.

  F250`E` rolled out next, Carl Kinsey had swept all before him in the heats but the final was a different proposition, Paul Kennings made the better start, Kinsey followed from Tom Stambach and Richard Lietner.The damp conditions suited Kennings and he slowly began to pull away, Kinsey chased but Kennings extended his lead every lap eventually taking an untroubled win, Kinsey followed him home in a distant 2^nd, Stambach had briefly held 3^rd but Lietner pushed him back a place on lap 3, Stambach eventually retiring on lap 5 which allowed Paul Troalic to take 4^th.

 The rain had increased and the circuit was very wet as the 250 Internationals came out for their final, Andy Holmes, John Riley and Dave Harvey had shared the heats.                                                                                                                      At the lights it was Harvey who led the charge down to Stow, but a brave move by Riley saw him dive down the inside and into the lead. Holmes was an early casualty; a punctured rear tyre forcing him out, a spin by Graham Lewis dropped him to the rear of the field and Boyd Barrington suffered a similar fate, Jamie Blackburn held 3^rd followed by Stephen Peace, Robert King and Rob Millar. Lap after lap Riley continued to stretch his lead and would take a comfortable win, his first for the Anderson camp since moving from F1.Harvey and Blackburn had pulled clear of Peace and were having a great scrap, on lap 7 Blackburn moved past and looked to be on his way to 2^nd, but as they rounded Stow Corner for the final time Blackburn looked over his shoulder and a moments lapse in concentration ended in a spin, Harvey avoided and went on to take 2^nd place, Blackburn did manage to recover and just held 3^rd ahead of Peace; after his earlier mishap Barrington did eventually work his way back into 5^th place by race end.

  Unexpectedly a rather disappointing entry of only 10 Europa`s at Kimbolton. Charles Long, Rodger Barrell and Dave Morris logged wins in the heats and it was Morris who led them round the opening lap, conditions were very slippery and a spin allowed Charles Long through into the lead Barrell was next from Neil Adlington and Russell Spence.Circulating very cautiously, Long was at home in the wet and gradually pulled clear taking a relatively unchallenged victory, Behind Barrell would take a comfortable 2^nd place whilst Spence managed to get the better of Adlington to take  3^rd.

     Paul Platt, Carl Hulme, Kevin Pinder and Richard Ward had taken the heats but with a bumper entry a `B` Final was needed to sort of 125 Nationals, the first four would join the back of the `A` Final and those were Mark Burrows, Charlie Johnson, Andrew Agnew and Mark Craig.                                                                                                                     Pinder made a peach of a start and led them on the run down to Stow Corner, behind Paul Platt got it all out of shape and collected Alan Moffat and Mark Craig in the process, all managed to rejoin albeit at the rear.By the close of the lap Pinder continued to lead, Scott Neal held 2^nd from Simon Scott, Matthew Bett, Carl Hulme and Chris Pike.                                  As the race progressed Pinder and Neal eased clear of Scott and Bett, Pike managed to squeeze past Hulme on lap 3 but would retire on lap 4 and that left Hulme leading a train of 10 karts.                                                                                     By mid race things had settled down, There were no change in the top five positions Pinder and Neal had a small but useful advantage over Scott and Bett, they were clear of Hulme, who had Jeff Stewart and Richard Ward harassing him. Sandy Bonner led a group just behind Ward and that consisted of Paul Parsons, Jason Sammut and Dennis Gale. As the remaining laps were run, it stayed very close and that looked like being their finishing positions, but on the last lap the top four regrouped and that allowed Scott to steal 2^nd place from Neal at Kestrel Corner.

  In 250 National Neil Burroughs, Andrew Walker, Don Kennedy and Kevin Ridley took the heats and again another bumper entry necessitated in a `B`Final.                                                                                                                                           At the green light Roy Bennett caught the field napping and blasted into the lead, early casualties included Ridley, off at the Hanger Complex and Nic Reynolds who spun and rejoined.                                                                                           Burroughs briefly held 2^nd on lap 1 but Kennedy moved ahead on lap 2, once past he set his sights on Bennett and a lap later was right with the leader, lap 4 and he now led the race and that’s were he would stay for the duration.Continuing his downward spiral Burroughs pushed Bennett further back on lap 5 and although he pushed hard to catch Kennedy he would have to settle for 2^nd place, Bennett continued to fall back and would eventually finish 12^th. Malcolm Witts had Andrew Smith breathing down his neck for most of the race. Smith did briefly put his outfit in front on the penultimate lap but Witts regained before the drop of the flag, Stephen Clarke drove a super race and after lying 13^th a lap 1 he worked his way through to claim 5^th ahead of Andrew Walker by race end.

Robin Haworth