EUMSC
Edinburgh University Motor Sport Club

Karting Championship 4th Round

The O’Neill Ring in the Rain

Before we get into what happened that night I’d just like to say a big thank you to all of those who came and it was nice to see some lifers turn up!

The venue: Raceland outdoor track…in the wet…with slicks…spells disaster

 As we arrived at Raceland, everything was already set, the track was damp, the karts had rai…dry! tires on and the floodlights were lit (take notice of the word ‘flood’ in floodlight).

After everyone was kitted out in wet overalls and a helmet we had another safety briefing before a few practice laps were given, just so we could calibrate our braking distances for the corners (which were on thescale of an aircraft carrier trying to dock into port) and get a feel for the karts in the wet.

 click here for the current championship standings!

With all that out of the way it was time for the first heat, and my god was it something: The karts were positioned on the track, Oly starting on pole. The flag was dropped and the karts raced towards the first corner; successful. The karts then hurtled down the first straight into the bottom right handed hairpin, and wham! Tires flying, karts spinning, water splashing and in one case we even had a kart flipping (I was sure by then the race was going to be restarted…but no!). I had witnessed this from the back of the grid and decided not to plough straight into the back of everyone (as I knew I couldent stop in time), and decided to ditch the kart on the grass. In hindsight this was probably the worst decision that could have possibly been made, as my kart was then bogged down in the grass and mud and needed two people to physically lift it out and plonk it back on the track, needless to say, safety first meant I was last! The end of the first heat saw multiple spins into mud, stones, grass tires, however all in all it was damn good fun! Calum Hughes managed to take 1^st followed closely by Steven Campbell and Euan Brodie.

Heat 2 saw Pawel Milto start out in pole. Finishing positions: 1^st Pawel Milto 2^nd Michael Stanyer 3^rd Eren Ozdogan

Heat 3 saw Steven Campbell start out in pole. Finishing positions: 1^st Steven Campbell 2^ndEuan Brodie 3^rd John Swinburn. Heat 3 also saw Steven Campbell put in a tidal wave of a lap of 48.02 seconds.

Heat 4 saw Daniel O’Neill start out in pole. Finishing positions: 1^st Euan Brodie 2^nd Andrew Clarkson 3^rd Calum Hughes

Heat 5 saw Adam Corlett start out in pole. Finishing positions: 1^st  John Swinburn 2^nd Scott Douglas 3^rd Lena Lungstrass

Heat 6 saw Jamie Seth start out in pole. Finishing positions: 1^st Aaron Platt 2^nd Richard Crozier 3^rd David Forrest

AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE FINALS!!!

Final 1 starting positions: 1^st Euan Brodie followed by 2^nd Scott Douglas with 3^rd Steven Campbell hot on his heels, next was 4^th Pawel Milto 5^th Calum Hughes 6^th John Swinburn, 7^thRichard Crozier, 8^th Andrew Clarkson, 9^th David Forrest, 10^th Michael Stanyer, 11^th Lyubomir Yanev, 12^th Eren Ozdogan, 13^th Matt Holland and in 14^th Oly Mccollum.

And it was go go go! All karts left the grid, just! With one kart having to be jump started! An incident in turn 2 (yes that right handed hairpin) saw a shuffling of the positions, with Matt Holland and Richard Crozier jumping up a few places. Unfortunately for Calum Hughes a mixture of an unlucky kart and engine troubles saw him slowly retreat to the back of the grid. Meanwhile the leaders of the pack Richard Crozier and Scott Douglas were battling it out for first place and the fastest lap. Scott Douglas putting in an incredible 47.67, however laps later Richard Crozier managed to put in a jaw dropping 47.24. The last few laps saw Richard take Scott, which earned him 1^st place and the winner of the O’Neill Ring in the Rain 2009, Congratulations.

Finishing top 3 (more details on the website) 1^st Richard Crozier (47.27) 2^nd Scott Douglas (47.67) 3^rd Lyubomir Yanev (49.45)

Grand Final 2 then followed (which in my opinion was faaaaar more important than final 1 for obvious reasons lol!) and saw the following starting positions: 1^st Daniel O’Neill 2^nd Jamie Seth 3^rd Lena Lungstrass 4^th Elias Saltiel 5^th Liam Macpherson 6^th Neils Chlupka 7^th Adam Corlett 8^th Sebastian Schroth 9^th Ewan Leeming 10^th Aaron Platt 11^th Daniel Pinchassoff 12^thFergus Simpson 13^th David Idebulo

An eventful race with many overtakes, incidents and kart retrievals from the grass/mud/tires saw Daniel O’Neill coming in 1^st followed by Jamie Seth in 2^nd and Fergus Simpson in 3^rd.

All in all a good evenings karting that has had its effects on the club championship standings making it more close than a…well a very close thing!

Once again many thanks for coming and we hope to see you at the next event , back at raceland indoors track.

 click here for the current championship standings!