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October 23, 2016
Overview
Turnout at half-term fixtures are always unpredictable, especially when the meeting date has been moved from its regular slot, but on this occasion numbers more than held up with forty-two in the GX200 Extremes and twenty-three Extreme Cadets. Made all the nicer with some unseasonal hot and sunny weather!
Driver of the Day was awarded to Lewis Johnson, formerly a GX160 ProKart, for his efforts in sticking with his new Extreme class, where he finished a respectable seventeenth in the Final this time before the scales got at him. A bit more lead, or perhaps an extra pie or two at lunch time should sort that out.

Best Presented Kart was Extreme Cadet Matthew Marshall. It’s often difficult to spot a clear winner and maybe the monthly prize of a cup, print, and the kudos of having your photo as the banner on the FaceBook page has raised the bar, which will give the judges even more cause for headscratching in future months. The decision was taken half-way through the meeting, and just as well as Matthew retired in the third heat with a snapped front panel retainer. Dad Andrew beavered away with unobtrusive cable ties and duct tape and goodness knows what else, superglue? and with the blessing of the Scrutineer, Matthew took to the track for the Final from the back of the grid, just grateful to be able to race, but bagging four places by the end!

Extreme Cadets
With one race meeting to go this year, it’s tight at the top with only a double handful of points separating Harvey Charter and Thomas Short. Factor in all the mathematics of dropped rounds and next month should be a real nail biter.
We didn’t get a two-way Championship shoot-out this month, as Lucas Ellingham once again entered the fray and, this time, there were no mechanical issues to spoil his day. This meeting has attracted any number of top drivers, dropping in to race at this premier International circuit, and Ellingham, reigning 2015 Champion, was out in front for most of the day, his total clean sweep only frustrated by Charter on the very last lap of Heat 3. Charter clung to Ellingham lap in/lap out with a great deal more tenacity than Peter Pan’s shadow ever did and came second to him in the Final by 1/10 s.

They each got a fastest lap time with the other two going to Charter’s Quantum team mate Harry Wainwright – unlucky in the Final with a mechanical when running third — and to Blake Angliss. None of them however came anywhere near beating Daniel Holdsworth’s record, surprising given the good track conditions.
While these two were inseparable up front, Thomas Short was consolidating his position at third and protecting his Championship points, which he did admirably especially as he had to defend on the last lap against a resurgent Scott Smith – a likely third in the Championship this year – who had battled up from P5.
Smith had to retrieve three more lost places before working himself up into fifth and overtake Angliss who had looked pretty solid in fourth for much of the race until the last lap. Five seconds later, there was a four-way tussle between a tight-knit group of Oliver Phillips, Miss Morgan Kidd, Sandro Ballesteros, and Jim Barty and then, after a gap of fourteen seconds Jack Plant and Airijus Jomantas headed the rest of the field.

GX200 Extreme ProKarts
Charlie Bingham produced a clean sweep of victories, against a backdrop of increasingly fastest lap times. Third-placed Ben Cook got two of them, runner up Austin Munday another, but the Final one was set by Matt Dorling, who equalled Bingham’s record of 1:05:15 s.
The top three finishers held their positions from lights to flag — with occasional incursions from Sean Dorling — and indeed, the top six finished in the same positions as the preceding Heat. The actual finish was as tight as the race itself with only a second separating the top three, and a bare tenth between second and third.

Sean Dorling had looked nailed on for a podium until the last lap when he lost out first to Cook and then to Lewis Cannon and it might have been even worse for him with Jonte Beswick and Ronnie Rowe chasing him down.
Two seconds later, Matt Dorling lead in the others with ample space between him and the leaders to produce the best lap time of the day.

Final Positions | ||
Extreme Cadets | GX200 Extremes | |
First | Lucas Ellingham | Charlie Bingham |
Second | Harvey Charter | Austin Munday |
Third | Thomas Short | Ben Cook |
Fourth | Scott Smith | Lewis Cannon |
Fifth | Blake Angliss | Sean Dorling |
Andrew W Webb
Sprocket Photography
07850 693495 / sprocketphotography@yahoo.co.uk