04/05 Winter Series Race Reports

04/05 Winter Series Update (Following Rounds 1 + 2)

Needless to say, the first two rounds of the Ulster Karting Club’s winter series were wet, delighting all those who have competed with the infamous Nutts Corner mixture of water and dirt which we love so much. In fact the first round featured a dry set of heats but normality had returned in time for the finals. In the first final of the 04/05 rainfest, those who managed to source an umbrella were treated to a great battle in the Cadet class, between the youngest driver in the field, Michael Gordon and Stefan Lyttle. Gordon took the win in both heats and the pre-final, followed home by Lyttle on all occasions and so the two lined up together on the front row for the final. Having been outpaced by Gordon throughout the day, Lyttle managed to put in a great performance when it mattered to take the full ten points with Gordon taking six for second.

Round two was an absolute copy of the opening meeting, with Gordon sweeping the two heats to take pole for the final (with there being no time to run a pre-final). Once again Lyttle followed him home in both races, but in the final Gordon made amends for the first round by taking the ten points. Lyttle came in second and so now the two drivers are tied at the top of the table on sixteen points. Adrian Sweeney, having followed the two home in all seven races so far holds third in the standings, although on current form it appears likely that the championship battle will be solely between Gordon and Lyttle.

The results of the Minimax heats at the first round told a familiar story, with defending winter series champion Rikki Gordon taking first and second place finishes in the dry conditions. Further down, Chris Smiley quietly recorded third and eight positions, giving no real indication of the pace he would show in the final. Clearly Smiley’s combination of kart and driver suited the wet conditions as when the rain fell in the pre-final he moved quickly through the field from fifth to second, setting himself up well for the final. Also revelling in the wet conditions was Steven Bradley, who took the win and pole for the final. In the final Smiley simply drove away from the rest of the field to take a convincing victory. Bradley battled hard but lost out to both Wayne Boyd and Josh Gault, the two having started from the second row of the grid.

Smiley reinforced his wet-weather form in round two with another maximum points score. It was not quite so easy this time as he had to work through the field after a lowly position in heat one put him down the grid of the final. A great battle developed early on and raged throughout the race, treating the spectators to a display of top quality driving at close quarters. In the end Smiley was able to untangle himself from the battle to come home first ahead of Gordon, Gault and Derek Martin. Smiley is now well clear on twenty points ahead of Gault and Gordon on eight apiece.

Junior Max produced a very close fight throughout the first round. In only his second race in the class, Nathan Coulter gave established name Raymond Lusty a run for his money, following him home in the first heat but then reversing the positions in the second. These two were well clear of the rest, lining up alongside on the front row for the pre-final which was to be won by Lusty, whilst the drive of the race came from Alan Davidson. After trouble in the heats, Davidson started the pre-final from dead last but managed to work his way up through the field to take third place on the grid for the final. At the start of the final Lusty pulled out a narrow advantage over Coulter and appeared to have the race under control. Coulter fought back, however, and by mid-distance he was right with the leader, looking for an opportunity to pass. Lap after lap he tried to get close enough down the main straight but with two laps to go he got a bit too close for comfort to Lusty’s back bumper. The resulting wild moment, in which the two karts fortunately kept going in a straight line, perhaps made Coulter decide to settle for a safe second allowing Lusty to take the win and the ten points. Davidson held off Callum Hughes to take third.

Lusty’s fine form did not appear to carry over into the first heat of round two, where a mysterious axle failure put him out of the running. However by the end of the day he was certainly back on form. Johnny Clyde started the final from pole with Lusty a few rows further back but by half distance the latter had made up several places and was beginning to close in upon Clyde , who had turned his pole position into a considerable advantage over the rest. Lusty was clearly the fastest driver on the track and before long had taken the lead which he would hold to the end. Clyde took second ahead of Davidson, taking another third and moving up into second place in the points standings behind Lusty.

Ryan Magennis made a one-off appearance in World Formula at the first round, immediately taking two wins in the heats. However the wet finals told a different story. Nigel Stewart turned the tables by taking the win in the pre-final and more importantly the final, with Magennis taking the runner-up spot in both. Apparently Stewart waited until after the final to tell his younger competitor about the different technique required to drive one of the four stroke karts in the wet!

In the second round an entry of four karts expanded to six, with Michael Curran and Southern driver Ivan Thompson making one-off appearances. Stewart, however, continued his winning form and was dominant throughout the day, taking both heats and the final. C plate winner Liam Curran took second in the all-important final ahead of Michael Cox, who has move up into second place overall in the championship standings.

After a disappointing round one, at which only Stephen Rutherdale turned up, the TKM class boasted a relatively healthy grid of eight at the second round. Grand Prix winner William Smith made a comeback during time off from studies in England , pushing Rutherdale hard in the heats but problems meant he finished down the order in both. Rutherdale took both wins and lined up in pole position for the final with consistent finisher David Crawford alongside and Smith directly behind in third. Smith attacked at the first corner, taking the lead from Rutherdale, the two preceding to pull out an advantage over the rest of the field. Rutherdale then took the lead for a few corners before Smith regained the position, a process which repeated throughout the race. With only two laps to go, Smith was in the lead with a narrow advantage over Rutherdale, who challenged and took the lead at the top of the circuit. Trying to regain the place, Smith spun on the slippery surface of the horseshoe, leaving Rutherdale to take the win unchallenged. Smith regained the track, but not in time to prevent Robbie Stevens going through into second place.

The driver on form in the Pro-Kart class at round one was clearly Mark Dunlop. A win and a third in the heats should have been enough to place him on pole position for the pre-final but two consistent second place finishes gave the position to Sean Doherty. The other heat was won by Vincent McCaffery, who had problems in the second and would have to start the pre-final from further down the grid. Dunlop made no mistake in the wet pre-final and cruised home to a pole position for the final, which he went on to win as well. Doherty came in third in the pre-final behind John Laffin, but went on to take another second place in the final.

Laffin and John Clarke shared the heat wins at round two, with pole for the final going to former as he took a second place as well. The final, however, saw Mark Overend overhaul poleman Laffin to take the win and the ten points, moving up the championship standings from fifth to first. Going into the third round the scores are very tight with Overend on twelve with Dunlop and Laffin on ten apiece.

Rotax Max produced large grids as usual for the first round. However the other fifteen drivers could only sit back and watch the domination of one driver, Alistair Jackson. After winning the first heat from fifth on the grid and then the second from fourteenth on the grid, winning the pre-final from pole would appear to be no problem. But then few drivers in the other classes were able to transfer their pace on the dry track to an equivalent pace in the wet finals, and with company such as Brian McCarte, Stuart Henderson and Ryan Magennis a sweep of the finals would by no means be plain sailing for Jackson . As it turned out nobody could touch Jackson in the wet and he stormed both finals to take the maximum ten points. James Tumulty moved past Tony Rodgers in the final to take second, with Andrew Herron taking fourth place.

Round two saw one driver dominate again, but the driver doing all the winning this time was Brian McCarte. McCarte stormed the two heats to claim pole for the final, before going on to take the all-important race as well. Ryan Magennis ended the day with a second place finish in the final whilst Scott Taggart took his best place for a while in third. Jackson and McCarte now tie at the top of the standings on ten points each, with Magennis only two points behind in third. Clifford Martin is currently leading the 175 class ahead of Ciaron McKee and Brian Cherry on ten and six points respectively.

Report: Stephen Rutherdale

04/05 Winter Series Round-Up (Following R4 - 28/02/05)

With the Formula One, Moto GP and other major championship not yet off the ground, the first karting titles of 2005 have already been decided. The fifth annual winter series at Nutts Corner drew to a close on a beautiful spring day at the end of February, and here’s hoping it will not be the last. All that can be said about the future of the circuit is that it is very uncertain, due to the ongoing sound problems. If it were to go it would be a terrible shame as well as a minor disaster for karting in Northern Ireland .

The circuit has a long history as being the main place for karting in the province. As well as this, it is undoubtedly amongst the best tracks in Britain , with long straights, sweeping bends with huge variation and countless overtaking opportunities. Compare this with certain circuits in England , Scotland and Wales , where the track is much narrower and largely consists of slow speed hairpins and chicanes, with the driver unable to put his or her foot down for a sustained period of time. Also the long circuit, despite being short in comparison to many across the water, consists fully of challenging corners and is largely enjoyed by all the drivers, judging particularly by the success of the Super 4 meeting held back in 2002. Some may complain about the condition of track surface of both the long and short circuits due to other forms of Motorsport, but sure it’s the same for everyone and it all adds to the already impressive challenge.

The drivers were clearly keen to make the most of what may be the last winter series held at the circuit, with respectable numbers turning up for each event. The racing was top class in every category with the majority of classes seeing their championship go down to the wire at the last race.

The Cadet results were dominated by two drivers for the opening three rounds of the championship, Stefan Lyttle and Michael Gordon taking the top two positions in each race. Lyttle entered the final round with a four point lead over Gordon, having won two races to the latter’s one. The maths showed that the positions could only be affected if the two finished in the top two places, in which case whoever finished ahead would take the title. The final round however proved to be a very closely fought affair with no less than six drivers involved in a mammoth battle for the win. Lyttle and Gordon finished line astern in fourth and fifth places respectively, whilst defending NI champion Kyle Price made a strong comeback after a layoff of a few months to take the victory. Price came home only seven hundredths of a second ahead of Adam Stirling, with the top six karts covered by just under two seconds. The championship positions at the top therefore remained unchanged with Lyttle taking the spoils ahead of Gordon in second. Consistent driving saw Adrian Sweeney take third in every event and third overall in the championship.

Pro-Kart saw the largest number of point scorers with fifteen drivers scoring points over the three rounds. With only the top six drivers scoring at each round, it once again demonstrated the close racing in the class. Six drivers had a chance of taking the title at the last round. Mark Dunlop headed the table going into the final event ahead of Mark Overend with Garry Armstrong not far behind in third. On the day it was an Armstrong whitewash with Garry winning both heats and the final with William finishing second in each race. Dunlop came in third and had to settle for second overall in the standings, with Garry Armstrong lifting the championship title.

From the first round in November it looked as though Chris Smiley was heading towards the Minimax title, with two crushing wins in the first two races. However the dry conditions of round three were not quite to his liking, but his fifth place still gave him a seven point lead over Derek Martin. Rikki Gordon still had an outside chance but he would have to win with Smiley finishing lower than fifth to pip him to the title. Smiley would no doubt have preferred wet conditions for the final round as in the dry conditions Gordon had a significant advantage. Wayne Boyd put up a strong fight against Gordon but the latter held on to win by half a kart length. He would have to wait to see were Smiley finished up to see were he stood in the final standings. Smiley had a tough race and could only manage ninth, thereby giving the championship to Gordon. Boyd jumped up to third overall as Martin slipped to fourth.

The Junior Max title was sewn up before the last round, Raymond Lusty having taken two wins and a second in the first three races. The battle was still on for second with Nathan Coulter holding the position ahead of Samantha Thom, who took a sensational win at round three in her first race in the class. The final event turned out to be one of the closest races of the championship. Champion Lusty was on pole but grid positions proved to be of academic importance as a fierce battle broke out for the top place between Lusty, Coulter, Thom and Alan Davidson, the latter three battling over second overall in the standings. As the train of karts headed for the chequered flag it was Coulter who held the advantage and took a narrow victory ahead of with Lusty, Thom and Davidson all covered by just over half a second in that order. Coulter’s victory gave him second in the points standings behind Lusty with Thom and Davidson taking third and fourth places respectively.

Despite encouraging numbers at the December event, TKM saw low numbers at the rest of the events, allowing Stephen Rutherdale to secure the championship easily before the last round, which he chose to sit out. With three karts turning up for the final event, second place was already decided in the favour of Robbie Stevens. The last race saw a close battle between Stevens and Clifford Wylie for the win, a fight that was decided when Stevens came off after the pair collided on the penultimate lap. Wylie took the win and third place overall ahead of James Turkington who took second at the final event.

A win and a second in the first three races saw Alistair Jackson head the Rotax Max standings going into the last round. However Jackson was absent from the final event and so it was possible that the overall win could be snatched by one of four drivers, with second place being equally undecided. Gary Turkington, brother of BTCC and VX Racing star Colin, took pole for the final with another famous name, Isaac Lyons, brother of Formula Nippon and Japanese GT champion Richard, alongside. Turkington led away from the start and held the lead for a large proportion of the race with Lyons in close tow. With only a few laps to go Lyons pulled out and went by to take a lead he would hold to the end, with Turkington beaten into second. The win by Lyons saw him jump up to second overall in the standings and also ensured that Jackson took the championship title. James Tumulty took third in the race and fourth overall, just ahead on the track of Neville Bell who took third place overall in the final standings. Clifford Martin drove well throughout the series to take the 175 title in only his first season of racing.

Nigel Stewart took maximum points in World Formula to take an easy championship win. Unfortunately low numbers are beginning to plague the class that looked so promising at the beginning of 2004. Michael Maguire nevertheless took second overall ahead of Michael Cox in third.

Report: Stephen Rutherdale

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