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Provisional 2009 Ulster Cup / NIKA SR's
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2003/2004 Winter Series Reports03/04 Winter Series R1 - 27/12/03 After the cancellation of round one in November due to flooding, the rescheduled event was held slightly with better weather. However conditions were still very difficult because of the poor condition of the track which together with recent rain made it very slippery for the drivers. In Cadets Gary Thompson was on top form with a first and second place in the heats, putting him on pole for the final. Derek Martin took the win in the second heat to secure second on the grid. In the final Thompson shot into the lead which he would hold to the finish but Martin quickly fell back after a spin shortly into the race. Darren Sutton made his way up the order from fifth to come home second behind Thompson and just ahead of Christopher Smiley who took the Honda win. Rikki Gordon began the day well with a win in the first Minimax heat which he followed up with a fourth place to secure pole position for the final. Kevin O’Hara was also on strong from with a fifth place and a win to start second. O’Hara quickly took up the running in the final with his only threat being Steven Bradley who stormed through to second from ninth on the grid. O’Hara however was able to pull away from Bradley by setting the fastest lap, securing a well deserved win. Rikki Gordon came in third ahead of Samantha Thom and Nathan Coulter. Andrew Fegan was unstoppable in Pro-Karts with two convincing heat wins. In the final he took advantage of his pole position to take the win with a gap of over eleven seconds. Behind Fegan, Mark Dunlop and Tommy Fegan were fighting for second until interrupted be one of the TKM drivers, Richard Body who had started from the back of the grid. In the end it was a Fegan one-two with Dunlop in third followed by Jason Morrow. In TKM Robbie Stevens took second behind Body. In the small field of only five Junior TKMs James Davidson and David Crawford shared the heat wins. From second on the grid, Crawford took the advantage after Davidson hit trouble and was able to pull out a huge lead of over half a minute by the end. Aaron Newell drove solid race to take second ahead of Davidson who recovered to take third. Kris Loane was on strong form in Junior Max and took pole for the final after a win and a fifth in the heats. William Cochrane, risking slicks on a slightly damp track started alongside Loane in second. Be the first corner in the final it was evident that Cochrane had made a wrong choice as he quickly slid of the track. Loane took up the lead and Alan Davidson quickly worked his way into second from seventh on the grid. Despite setting the fastest lap, Davidson could not catch Loane and took a well deserved second place. Alistair Jackson came in a distant third with Isaac Lyons in fourth. Mark Hamilton appeared to be the one to beat
in Rotax Max after a first and second in the heats, putting him on pole position
for the final alongside Ryan Magennis. Gary Turkington started third on the grid
but was able to make his way into the lead which he would hold to the end,
taking the win by just under two seconds from Report: Stephen Rutherdale 03/04 Winter Series R2 - 24/01/04 Cold
and wet conditions were once again the order of the day at Nutts Corner for the
second round of the Winter Series although some drivers got to use their slicks
before the rain returned. The quality of the racing was excellent and the
contenders for the championships are now firmly established. The
Cadet final was by far the closest of the day with the first two covered by only
0.03sec. John Norris was the victor after starting the race from second on the
grid beside Gary Thompson who began from pole. The two could not be separated
throughout the race and it was a well deserved victory for Norris. Derek Martin
had featured in the battle early on in the race but a mistake cost him all
chance of victory and he had to settle for third ahead of Kyle Price. Junior
TKM ran along with the Minimax due to an ever-decreasing number of entries and
it was James Davidson who took the win albeit a lap behind Stuart Lyness who
took the Minimax win. Lyness started from pole after dominating the two heats
and nobody could stop him doing the same in the final. Steven Bradley finished
second almost five seconds behind the winner and Samantha Thom drove another
great race to finish third. Wayne Boyd took fourth ahead of Josh Gault and black
plate driver Aaron Smith who took sixth. Andrew
Fegan drove a great race to take his second win in the Pro-Kart championship
well ahead of Jason Morrow in second. However it was Paul Wilkins on his World
Formula kart who took the overall victory, demonstrating the difference between
the old and new engines. Fegan and Morrow were second and fourth overall
separated by Another World Formula kart driven by Sean Durcan. Mark Dunlop took
third in the Pro-Kart class by the slender margin of one hundredth of a second
from Tommy Fegan. Alan
Davidson was in top form in Junior Max with a win and a fourth in the heats
securing pole position for the final. Isaac Lyons took second place on the grid
after winning the second heat. However it came to nothing for Davidson as he
moved across the track just after the start and in the process eliminated Two
wins in the Rotax Max heats secured pole position for Philip Harkness ahead of
Stevn Connolly who won the remaining heat. Connolly retired early on in the
final and it was left to Brian McCarte who started third to take the challenge
to Harkness. The latter resisted the pressure to take the victory and McCarte
finished second only two tenths behind. Kris Fitzpatrick and James Tumulty both
drove a great race to take third and fourth places respectively. Report: Stephen Rutherdale 03/04 Winter Series R3 - 25/01/04 With
ice and frost covering the circuit in the morning racing had to be delayed until
it cleared up. Fortunately it did but the greasy conditions left behind made
things difficult for the drivers. With there now only being one event remaining,
the championships in all classes remain open except for Pro-Karts where Andrew
Fegan can now not be caught. John
Norris was on top form in Cadets with two convincing heat wins which secured
pole for the final. Sean Meehan and Derek Martin took a second and a third each
to place them second and third on the grid respectively. The final was a closely
fought affair from the very start as the top three on the grid plus Stefan
Lyttle began to pull out a gap from the rest of the field. Martin and Norris
swapped the lead until the latter outbraked himself at Paddock Bend and went
into the gravel but was able to rejoin. Meehan and Lyttle stayed with Martin but
Norris was quickly catching the trio and soon retook the lead. Martin wasn’t
going to let him get away though and at the flag the gap was only a tenth of a
second with Norris taking the win. Lyttle finished third less than half a second
behind Martin with Meehan only a tenth further back. Wayne
Boyd secured pole position in Minimax with fellow heat winner Stuart Lyness
alongside. With a second and a fifth in the heats Josh Gault was third on the
grid whilst Rikki Gordon took fourth. At the start Boyd took the advantage with
Gault coming through into second after Lyness got stuck on the outside and lost
about three places. Gault began to drop back and Gordon took over second, but he
could do nothing to catch Boyd who simple drove away to win by six seconds.
Lyness recovered from his bad start to finish third less than half a second
behind Gordon who secured the runner up spot. Samantha Thom took fourth ahead of
Gault in fifth. Junior
TKM ran along with Minimax due to a small entry and James Davidson took the win
ahead of David Crawford. A
small entry of World Formula karts ran along with the Pro-Karts. Paul Wilkins on
his World Formula took the overall win with Derek Wilson on his similarly
powered machine. Andrew Fegan was the fastest Pro-Kart with a time only a tenth
slower than Wilkins and he took the Pro-Kart win, securing the championship for
the second year in a row. Sean Durcan on another World Formula took fourth
overall ahead of Robert Robinson who claimed second in Pro-Karts.
Alan
Davidson took pole position in Junior Max for the second race in a row following
a win and a third in the heats. Raymond Lusty started alongside in second ahead
of Richard McAlorum in third. On the first lap McAlorum took over the lead from
Davidson and Stephen Rutherdale slotted into third after starting from the fifth
row. Davidson quickly retook the lead when McAlorum slid wide on a damp patch
and the positions stayed the same to the end of the race. Kris Loane took the
fastest lap to finish fourth behind Rutherdale with Lusty taking fifth. The
Rotax Max final proved to be a very closely fought race with Report: Stephen Rutherdale 03/04 Winter Series Round-Up (following Round 4 - 07/03/04) With the completion of the final round of the Winter Series, the first Ulster Karting Club champions of 2004 were announced after a hard fought four race series. There is no doubt that the winners could all worthily be described as wet weather masters as almost every race in the championship was ran in wet or at least difficult conditions. In the Cadet class Gary Thompson began the series by making his intentions clear with an easy win in the first round ahead of fellow Southern Irish driver Darren Sutton. However it was John Norris, finishing third at that first round, who emerged as a sure force to be reckoned with in the second round. Norris beat series leader Thompson in a clean fight which saw the two finish first and second, only separated by the smallest of margins after ten laps. Derek Martin became the first Northern driver to break the stranglehold of the Southern Irish drivers on the top three positions as he took third and quickly followed this up with second in the third round of the series which was held the following day as part of a double header. However Martin could do nothing that day to stop Norris moving into the lead of the championship by taking his second win after a great drive which made up for a costly mistake early on in the race. Thompson could only manage a difficult sixth, giving the advantage to Norris coming into the last round. However what should have been a great battle for the championship win came to a bit of an anti-climax as both drivers were absent from the proceedings, handing a well deserved winter series title to Norris. Darren Sutton took full advantage of the two favourites absence in the final round by racing to a clear victory and with it third place in the championship. Despite much diminished numbers Junior TKM still produced a good fight for the championship between James Davidson and David Crawford. With only their best three results counting towards the competitors’ scores, the number of wins proved to be the deciding factor and it was Davidson who won the title with three wins to one in his favour. As expected, the Minimax class produce a very close fight in which any one of six drivers could have claimed the title. Kevin O’Hara set the ball rolling by claiming the victory in the difficult conditions of round one but unfortunately this proved to be the last time he scored points in the title race. Consistency appeared to be the key factor for Steven Bradley as he took second in the first two rounds of the series to leave himself a single point behind round two winner Stuart Lyness. However neither driver featured strongly in the results of the last round and it was Rikki Gordon who took the title despite only having been fourth in the points before the deciding race. The two points that Bradley managed to score in the final round allowed him to overtake Lyness after the latter’s failure to feature in the deciding race. In Junior Max it appeared that Kris Loane was simply going to run away with the title after claiming the wins in the opening two races, but the points from a second place in the first round and a win in the third were enough to give Alan Davidson a slender chance of snatching the title in the last round. No other driver had a chance to take the title but going into the final race Richard McAlorum held third after consistent finishes in the first three races. The chance for Alan Davidson of snatching the title was slender indeed as he had to win no matter where Loane managed to finish. He certainly gave it his best shot and drove a solid race under pressure but unfortunately could only manage second, giving the title to Loane. It was Raymond Lusty who took the win in the final round and this boosted him from sixth up to third in the final points standings after McAlorum was unlucky to loose third after being slightly underweight in the finale. It was clear from the very beginning of the winter series that it was going to be difficult to stop Andrew Fegan from taking the title in the Pro-Kart class. Fegan totally dominated that first event, leading from start to finish, ending up with a gap eleven seconds greater than when he began. The dominance continued into the second and third rounds with two further wins securing the title. The battle for second in the championship was pretty intense throughout as first Tommy Fegan and then Jason Morrow held the runner up spot. Going into the final round it was a Fegan one-two, but with both not competing it was left to Robert Robinson, Mark Dunlop and Morrow to decide who would get second place. Not content taking the fight to the last race the battle went down to the last lap with the three covered by little over half a second in that order. After that incredibly close last race it was Robinson’s victory which moved him up from fifth into the runners-up sport behind the dominant Andrew Fegan. Rotax Max was no different from the other classes as the
battle for first place in the championship once again went down to the last
race. Brian McCarte’s steady progression from third to second to first in the
opening three races left him in good shape as far as clinching the title was
concerned. Going into the last round McCarte held a seven point advantage over
his closest rival Gary Turkington meaning the latter had to win to overhaul his
rival to win the championship. Consistent finishes ensured that Mark Hamilton
was also in with a slender chance of taking the title, but he too had to win to
overtake McCarte. In the final race McCarte failed to finish and Turkington took
full advantage of his rival’s misfortune to take a crucial victory which
secured him the title as well. Report: Stephen Rutherdale |
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