British Superkart Association

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British Superkart Association

Castle Coombe 

8th / 9th August

Rounds 11 and 12  - Pro-Clean MSA British Superkart Championship Races

Rounds 9 and 10  - RG Racing BSA 125 Open Superkart Championship Races

	Results

RG Racing and Pro-Clean sponsored the weekend racing at Castle Combe.

Report By Gary James - To Follow

Photos by Jon Bunston - Gallery for 250’s and 125's now live at www.motorsport-photography.net  Click gallery links on the right side of the page. It includes Practice, Qualifying and both races. Some mega shots.

Saturday                         

MORGAN MAKES HIS MARK

Lee Morgan had two scintillating drives on his aider chassis to win both rounds of the championship ad move to the top of the points table with two rounds remaining.

The entry at Castle Combe was disappointing with various drivers missing for a variety of reasons. Most notable absentee was championship leader Dan Edwards who was getting married. Lee Morgan had an untroubled run in qualifying to secure pole position and was joined on the front row by Chris Needham. Louise Colin head row 2 but was struggling badly with chassis set up. The ripply track surface was causing her massive oversteer and when she came through Camp Corner the kart was looking a real handful to control. Catherine Foster made the long trip from Scotland and completed the second row. Ben Willshire only managed one flying lap before the seat mounting bolts broke and he headed row 3 joined by John Hutton.

At the start of race 1 Morgan led from Needham, Colin and Willshire and the positions were unchanged at the end of lap1. Any challenge that Morgan may had had vanished on the next lap when Needham dropped out with a broken throttle cable. Morgan charged away at the front and won comfortably by 15.1s. Colin inherited second place and after keeping Willshire at bay over the opening laps, eased clear with some consistent lap times to finish 11.1s ahead. Willshire was happy with his third place and had backed off over the closing laps to safeguard his position. Foster and Hutton had lonely drives and secured 4^th and 5^th places respectively.

RESULTS:

1^st Lee Morgan (Raider SGM)

2^nd Louise Colin (Anderson Pavesi)

3^rd Ben Willshire (Anderson SGM)

In Race 2 Needham got a flying start to tuck in behind Morgan as they headed towards Quarry Corner for the first time. At the end of lap 1 Morgan still had Needham on his tail with Colin and Willshire close behind and Foster and Hutton next through and already losing ground. While Morgan disappeared into the distance again to win by a massive 16s the runner up spot was not a forgone conclusion. Colin took over on lap 2 but had trouble shaking off Needham from the tow. These two edged clear of Willshire and built up a gap of 2.5s. But at half distance Willshire got a second wind and started to peg back the deficit. Starting lap 9 Willshire edged past Needham at Avon Rise and on the last lap outbraked Colin at Quarry Corner to grab second place. This he held to the flag. With his team RG Racing sponsoring the TV coverage of this meeting it was an excellent result. Colin ran wide at the exit of the Esses on the last lap and lost another position to Needham finally ending up in 4^th place at the flag. Foster had another steady drive in 5^th place with Hutton further back in 6^th spot.

RESULTS:

1^st Lee Morgan (Raider SGM)

2^nd Ben Willshire (Anderson SGM)

3^rd Chris Needham (Gold VM) 

Sunday                                                                     

MSA British Superkart Championship, Rounds 11 & 12, Castle Combe 9th August 2009

O’REILLY TIGHTENS HIS GRIP

James O’Reilly left Castle Combe on 9^th August with a double top and one hand firmly on the MSA British Superkart Championship title. Barring exclusions, appeals or cancellations at Mallory Park in September it looks likely that he will be running the No. 1 plate in 2010.

Reigning champion Jason Dredge wasn’t going to relinquish the title without a fight and he topped the time sheets after qualifying on 1m 07.19s. He was happy with the set up of the chassis despite the rippley track surface and was desperate to put his run of bad results behind him. O’Reilly (1m 07.208s) was alongside on the front row, these two dipping below the lap record. “I am thinking of changing the gearing for race 1 to make the engine rev a bit more,” he said afterwards. James Tucker (1m 07.691s) lapped consistently to post the third quickest time with Jon Neville (1m 08.218s) benefitting from a new set of tyres to complete row 2. Dan Clark (1m 09.716s) had a water hose come off but managed to qualify 9^th just ahead of Paul Platt (1m 10.057s). The ex-125cc champion lost all the water in his Honda after the cylinder head insert split and overheated the engine.

Dredge led at the start of race 1 but had been relegated to 3^rd place half way round the opening lap. Tucker led the train into Camp Corner for the first time but missed the apex and O’Reilly charged through on the inside to hit the font followed by Dredge. Neville was in 4^th ahead of Craig Fleming, Matthew Bett, Clark, Martin Goodliffe, Sam Moss and Charlie Johnson.

O’Reilly’s pace at the front was relentless and he eased clear of his pursuers to win by 7.2s. The battle for second place kept the large Britcar crowd on their toes with Dredge and Tucker swapping positions. But a mistake at Bobbies by Tucker allowed Dredge to open up a 2s gap and he looked safe in 2^nd place. But with two laps to go the No. 1 kart was visibly slowing. Starting the last lap Dredge had dropped to 4^th place and suffered further on the last tour finally crossing the line in 9^th place. After pulling the kart apart in the paddock later it was found that a fuel pipe in the tank had become blocked. This allowed Tucker to inherit second place with his Honda engine running a conservative set up to guarantee a finish. Fleming disposed of Neville after half distance to secure 3^rd place with Moss also getting the better of Neville, whose motor went off towards the end, to collect 4^th spot. Bett finished in 6^th place after the close attention of Clark disappeared on lap 5 with a flat tyre. 

Platt was expected to be amongst the front runners. He arrived late at the dummy grid following his engine rebuild and a mix up in the pit lane saw him start three-quarters of a lap behind. He scythed through the field to finish 11^th setting third quickest lap time along the way.

RESULTS:

1^st James O’Reilly (PVP Honda)

2^nd James Tucker (Jade Honda)

3^rd Craig Fleming (Anderson Honda)

Race 2 saw O’Reilly, Tucker and Fleming take up the leading positions initially at the start but Platt made a blistering getaway from row 6 and surprised everyone including the commentator by leading at the Esses for the first time. “I managed to get the balance of throttle, brake and hand clutch just perfect when the lights changed and every gear change was spot on,” he recalled later. At the end of lap 1 Platt was still ahead, just, from O’Reilly, these two having broken clear of Tucker, Fleming, Neville, Dredge and Moss. O’Reilly was glued to Platt’s bumper on the next lap and they were joined by Tucker whose Honda engine was running a lot cleaner than in race 1 having come down 2 main jet sizes. These three had opened up a gap of nearly 2s over the pack. Into the Esses on lap 3 Platt and O’Reilly were side by side and at Tower Corner O’Reilly found a way through when Platt went a bit off line. Tucker looked for the inside line at Camp Corner and sneaked through into second place as Platt started to suffer from oversteer problems. By lap 7 the flying duo were 4.5s up the road with Tucker hounding O’Reilly all the way. The pace was hotting up with the championship still at stake. 

The gap between the two rivals was never more than 0.3s over the second half of the race. Coming through Camp Corner to start the last lap they were nose to tail but Tucker lost ground on the exit. He wasn’t going to give up and chipped away over the final 1.85 miles but at the flag was still 0.327s behind. Such was the pace on the final lap that both drivers set their quickest lap times, Tucker getting the fastest lap of the race for his efforts. “That was a hard race and I was glad to see the chequered flag at the end,” said O’Reilly afterwards knowing that the title was virtually his.

Platt had to settle for third place which he was very happy with but came under pressure from a charging Dredge over the closing laps. The gap had shrunk from over a second to 0.172s at the flag. Moss wrapped up 5^th place despite the motor being down on top end power. He just held off Neville at the flag by 0.481s with both drivers setting their quickest lap times on the final tour. Fleming lost pace over the final laps and dropped from 4^th to 7^th at the flag just ahead of Clark. Matthew Bett couldn’t match his top 6 finish from race 1 when he struggled round in 9^th place before the engine died having lost compression possibly caused by a holed piston.

RESULTS:

1^st James O’Reilly (PVP Honda)

2^nd James Tucker (Jade Honda)

3^rd Paul Platt (PVP Honda)

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Last modified: September 02, 2010