The first race of the year saw us return to Pontefract, the scene of 2 epic races last year. We had hoped for a bigger turn-out this time, but for some reason or another several drivers that may have been expected to show didn’t, and instead we went backwards, with a slightly disappointing 11 drivers making the trip. Although, that perhaps turned out to be a good thing, as there was enough karts for one each, creating the ingredients of promised to be a classic race. Upon arrival, the drivers were greeted by a modified layout. Who would ultimately benefit? And who would suffer?

The drivers were assigned their kart numbers by an independent adjudicator. OK, no they won’t. They were supposedly going out in alphabetical order by their surnames, but Tom decided he didn’t like the sound of Kart 9, and went out in Kart 1 instead. Sam Firth was in Kart 11, but otherwise everyone was in the right order.

ENTRY LIST

1. Tom Smith
2. Mark Foley
3. Kev Gambles
4. James Hancox
5. Sam Jackson
6. Mike Miller
7. Josh Overhill
8. Roger Palmer
9. Marcus Stuttard
10. Rob Stephenson
11. Sam Firth

QUALIFYING

Tom led everyone out in the qualifying session, as everyone tried to create some space to set a flying lap whilst trying to get to grips with the new layout at the same time. Kev Gambles’s hopes of getting a good slot were dashed by a problematic kart, and he was unable to set a flying lap before the problem was resolved, and he was forced to start from the back. Josh qualified on pole, as the 5 execs locked the top 5. It was Josh, from Sam, from Mike, from Tom, from Mark. Mike and Tom were separated by a mere 4 thousandths of a second. Marcus was the only one anywhere the execs in 6^th, with 7^th-placed Roger nearly a second slower.

1. Josh Overhill – Kart 7 – 21.437
2. Sam Jackson – Kart 5 – 21.669, +0.232
3. Mike Miller – Kart 6 – 21.907, +0.470
4. Tom Smith – Kart 1 – 21.911, +0.474
5. Mark Foley – Kart 2 – 22.050, +0.613
6. Marcus Stuttard – Kart 9 – 22.251, +0.814
7. Roger Palmer – Kart 8 – 23.186, +1.749
8. Sam Firth – Kart 11 – 23.265, +1.828
9. Rob Stephenson – Kart 10 – 23.476, +2.039
10. James Hancox – Kart 4 – 23.590, +2.153
11. 11.   Kev Gambles – Kart 3 – 29.046, +7.609

RACE

The drivers were lined up on the grid, and anxiously awaited the lights to go out. The intelligent system used in the Pontefract karts meant it was impossible to rev the karts, so a very slow start was anticipated. When the lights went out, Josh made an OK start, but moved over to prevent Sam taking him round the outside going into Turn 1, and was safely in the lead going into Turn 3. But behind them, there was proof that being on the outside wasn’t such a bad thing, as Tom was ahead of Mike by the end of lap 1, and Marcus had also passed Mark.  Sam held onto second, and was defending the chasing pack like beavers, which allowed Josh to sneak away and build a big margin with only a few laps gone. With the pack so close together, Tom and Mark found themselves squeezed out and at one point were as low as 6^th and 7^th respectively, as Sam Firth jumped up impressively to run as high as 5^th. Marcus was the first driver to break Sam Jackson’s resistance and took 2^nd place having started from 6^th. But a maybe the turning point of the race came shortly after Tom had taken Mike for 4^th, and attempted to pass Sam for 3^rd, but as Sam defended robustly from Tom going into Turn 1, the two tangled and Sam was in the wall. No blame apportioned, simply a racing incident was the verdict of the marshals. But this had dropped Sam to 11^th and last. The yellow lights were deployed, and some drivers went slower than others, but again all speeds were deemed legal and the race was soon back underway.

Josh now had a big lead, but was all too weary of Marcus’s pace which he has demonstrated at each and every race he has been to since joining this year. Tom was now up to 3^rd, with Mike 4^th and Sam Firth in 5^th. But Josh would soon have another problem to contend with, backmarkers. Blue flags were waved, and while some drivers jumped out the way immediately, others proved slightly more difficult. Kev would even briefly re-pass Josh as he lapped him. But the chasing pack would soon have the same problems.

Mark had now passed Sam Firth for 5^th, whilst Roger and Kev fought tooth and nail for 7^th, passing one another constantly for several laps. Sam Jackson was still last at this point, but would soon pass Rob and James to climb up to 9^th. Mark then turned his 5^th place into 4^th, dispatching Mike, and was now lapping as quickly as Josh, whilst Tom ensured there would be a close battle for 2^nd as he closed in on Marcus. But at the front Josh stretched his lead even further, and had now lapped the entire field.

The remainder of the race descended into a bit of lull, but suddenly livened up right at the death as Tom caught up with Marcus, and on the last lap Tom would briefly take second as they raced side by side, but Marcus was just in front as they crossed the line and took second by just hundredths of a second. Josh had won, the new layout seemingly suiting much better. Another driver who preferred the new layout was Mark, as he took 4^th, just ahead of Mike in 5^th. But elsewhere opinions were divided as to what was better out of the two layouts. Roger, just held off Kev to take 6^th, and in the battle of the Sam’s, Firth stayed ahead of Jackson to take 8^th by just a second. 6^th to 9^th were separated by only 10 seconds.

1. Josh Overhill – 71 laps
2. Marcus Stuttard - +1 lap
3. Tom Smith - +1 lap
4. Mark Foley - +1 lap
5. Mike Miller - +2 laps
6. Roger Palmer - +3 laps
7. Kev Gambles - +3 laps
8. Sam Firth - +3 laps
9. Sam Jackson - +3 laps
10. James Hancox - +5 laps
11. Rob Stephenson - +6 laps

Estimated race time: about 25 minutes and 5 seconds

FASTEST LAP CLASSIFICATION

1. Josh Overhill – 20.60 (lap 66)
2. Tom Smith – 20.81 (lap 17)
3. Marcus Stuttard – 20.93 (lap 30)
4. Kev Gambles – 20.93 (lap 62)
5. Sam Firth – 20.94 (lap 54)
6. Mark Foley – 20.96 (lap 58)
7. Mike Miller – 21.03 (lap 52)
8. Roger Palmer – 21.10 (lap 68)
9. Sam Jackson – 21.13 (lap 28)
10. Rob Stephenson – 21.74 (lap 52)
11. James Hancox – 21.80 (lap 39)