EUMSC Karting Championship Report: Round 2
A cold, dark Falkirk was the venue for the 2nd round of the Motorsports Club Karting Championship, where 38 drivers had turned out to battle it out to see who could be the next Jenson Button! Xtreme karts was a fitting venue, as to go along with their tight twisty and slippery (especially on the up and down bits of the ramp) track were the monster Evo V karts, so quick that you had to feather the throttle out of the tight corners to avoid too much oversteer. Awesome.
After the now standard hilarious safety video and a brief practice that was just about long enough for you to figure out which one was the throttle and which one was the break (not that any of our competitors would ever use it) we barreled straight into the first heat. Stevie Campbell took the honours as after Richard Crozier had stormed into the lead after disposing with Ewan Leeming, he made an uncharacteristic error going into the hairpin before the bridge, running severely wide and leaving the door open for Campbell to take the lead, and a couple of laps later, the win. In a slightly subtler race the dark horse of Ross McAudrey crept up from 5th to 3rd in the first of several impressive drives. Heat two also saw an impressive drive from an eventual A-finalist as Pierre Nicolet made up two places to finish a comfortable 1st ahead of Nick Roberts, who unfortunately despite a strong start would fade towards the end despite consistently fast lap times.
Heat three saw eventual winner Calum Hughes’ first win of the evening with both Fergus Simpson and Valtteri Hyvonen making their way through the field as well followed by Scott Douglas’ first win of the evening from the agressive Pawel Milto and unlucky pole sitter Stephen Walls. Heat five was the start of Sean Lynch’s evening, an impressive win was a good start for him, though he owuld eventually just miss out on the B final. Heat six saw Ewan Leeming make amends for his disappointing first heat with a win, that although didn’t qualify him for the B final, did make it two wins in two races for the aggressive Scotsman; the man who lost out from this was Wojciech Koziel who was on the other end of a few dodgy moves throughout the evening but would have the last laugh by comfortably making the top 20 in only his 4th time in a kart. Heat seven was the start of Robin Kyle’s charge to the front, the veteran karter using every ounce of his experience to come from 4th on the grid to the win, just ahead of the impressive Kirsten Dallas. Heat eight was full of experience with Crozier, Campbell, Simpson, Adam Corlett and Andrew Clarkson all being involved, not to mention Freshers’ Karting finalist Calum Thompson being in the mix as well. A tightly fought contest saw Crozier come out on top with Clarkson slipping from pole to 3rd by the chequered flag. Heat nine was a case of The Walls Strikes Back as after losing form pole in his first heat Stephen Walls took the win from the now championship leader Nicolet with Roberts in close attention. Heat ten saw another win for Hughes to make it two from two as Sean Lynch was again impressive along with JUlia Madrzak who did well to keep her nerve against some fierce competitors.
So on to Heat eleven, where by now everyone had started to get to grips with the track and karts, so the standard went up a gear. Douglas won again from Milto after a rather dodgy move on Koziel at the start that the marshals somehow managed to miss, while Stefano Bonino started to show some of the form we’d witnessed during Freshers’ Karting the month before. Heat twelve saw Hyvonen do a sterling job in managing to hold off a charging Kyle, with Sean Gibson showing some impressive opportunism in coming from the back to finish third; it was this form that would see him to a comfortable and well deserved 15th. Ashley Wright achieved a similar accomplishment in heat 13, managing to hold off the trio of Campbell, Clarkson and Leeming to take an assuring win from pole. It was form like that which would see Wright qualify for the B-final. Another eventual B-finalist, Jan Cullens also showed his hand in heat 14 taking a confident win from the flying Nicolet who was followed through the field by Simpson. Heat 15 was won by Antti Makela, some impressive lap times saw him hold both last year’s champion and runner-up off in a drive that would see him assume 3rd in the Championship standings by the end of the night. It was however more rotten luck for Callum Thompson who again was paired with some tough drivers, thwarting any efforts to make his way up the points board. Heat 16 saw a win for eventual A-finalist McAudrey, as Milto took yet another second place in front of Walls. Corlett then finally took a victory in Heat 17, winning from pole after his previous heats were effected by some shunting. It was a testament to his driving on the night that he managed to qualify for the B-final after some truly awful luck with other drivers. Heat 18 saw Douglas take his third win from three heats as he came from 4th to take the win after Mike Borozdin suffered some bad luck from pole (and also the unfortunate luck to have BOTH of his names misspelt by the Xtreme Karting staff). Heat 19 marked the beginning of some form for Bruce Holborn who after an iffy start made up for it by claiming 2nd place, only losing out to Stevie Campbell, of which there is no shame in. Heat 20 got a bit feisty, while Makela and
drove off into the distance, Leeming and Crozier had a few coming togethers that would end up wrecking both of their evenings, the two trying to find out what happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object. Their battle also managed to effect Nicolet who would have been guaranteed a better starting position for the final if he hadn’t got involved in there petty fight.
As we entered the last few heats the leaderboard was starting to take shape, but more interestingly the times were starting to plummet, while at the start only a few were in the 21s region, more started breaking through the barrier including McAudrey in heat 21. he took a dominant victory from Gibson and eventual winner Hughes. Heat 22 saw yet another win for Corlett, as Milto again impressively made his way through the field but broke his run of 2nds by finishing 3rd. Thomson and Thompson also battled it out at the back, with Chris Thompson coming off worse and finishing last, though he swore that if we were competing in a 4×4 competition it would be him crushing everyone else. In heat 23 Simpson notched up his first win, in the meantime ruining Douglas’ perfect score, and Borozdin started getting to grips with the track with a healthy 4th place. Nikos Lykakis also started to become more comfortable in his surroundings, holding off the challenge of Hyvonen and Holborn to win from pole with a pretty nippy time of 22.31s, and that pace secured him a top 20 finish by the end of the night. Heat 25 was a victory for Lynch, followed in closely by Wright and Bonino and in heat 26 Crozier secured another victory that would still not be enough to get him into either final, though a quick mention ought to go for Tom Janson who after keeping up a good pace was unlucky to have dropped back from pole to 4th. In heat 27 Kyle secured his place in the A-final with a victory from pole, just in front of Makela and Clarkson who secured yet another 3rd place and in heat 28 Campbell did likewise with a victory from pole that would see him qualify comfortably for the final, with the impressive McAudrey behind him. Finishing last in the heat was Mohid Hassan, who although coming last overall, managed to knock off 4 seconds from his lap time over the event, and therefore officially being the most improved driver of the race, we look forward to seeing what he can do in the next race with his street-racing experience.Heat 29 proved to be a turning point as Douglas who was the provisional pole sitter had a tough heat starting from the back and having Nicolet, Corlett and Lykakis with him. After a promising start he got smacked from the side by another kart, not only giving him a dead leg but finishing off any hopes he had for pole. 3rd on the grid would have to suffice. Heat 30 saw another win for Hughes, with Samira Bufa showing encouraging skills in coming a secure 5th, while heat 31 saw Milto finally claim a well-deserved victory in a tough heat. In Heat 32 Edgar Bruce couldn’t make the most of a pole position as he lost out to both Kyle and Wright from the start, with Clarkson squeezing by at the end to get his final 3rd place of the evening, simply amazing consistency shown by the lanky Scot. Then, in the final qualifying heat of the night, heat 33 Cullens secured a good win in front of Gibson in 2nd.
So, the heats were over and the finals decided, the B-final (rather cruelly nicknamed ‘the shit final’) would be first with Hyvonen on pole from Makela, Wright, Corlett, Milto and Cullens. Some smooth driving and ever-improving lap times saw the front two of Makela and Hyvonen zoom away from the rest at the start, while behind them Milto was now using his customary aggressive tactics to good effect in battling his way through past Corlett and Wright. After the action quietening down for a few laps, Hyvonen took the win from Makela seeing them into 2nd and 3rd in the championship standings respectively, and while Milto took 3rd there was controversy behind when Corlett took a rather severe shunt that ran him wide on the exit of the last corner to such an extent that he lost two places and finished a rather unjust last. Still, for Adam ‘the Iceman’ Corlett this was no bother as he always has his emotions in check and wouldn’t let something like that rile him. Now it was time for the biggy, the A-final. 34 races and it was down to this. After pre-race interviews from Martin Leeming ‘The Chain’ music started blasting over the speakers as Calum Hughes assumed pole position from Campbell (who couldn’t be separated on points so it was done on lap times, and as Hughes had a lap time 1/100th of a second faster, pole was his), Douglas, Kyle, Nicolet and McAudrey. The lights went out and one of the most boring finals in living history took place, with each driver driving consistently well, not leaving any room for overtaking and every driver dipping into the 21s region. Campbell got close to Hughes in the first few laps but then fell into the clutches of Douglas, who after several laps of being right on his tail went for a rather dodgy move and just about made it stick as he darted in front of him, the marshals deeming it as legal. Then, Douglas went off in pursuit of Hughes, and despite setting a fastest lap a full 0.3s faster than anyone else (a 21.31s) he couldn’t catch him and his very consistent driving. Campbell came in 3rd ahead of Kyle, Nicolet and McAudrey.
So, a great night’s driving that saw Calum Hughes, reigning champion take his first race victory in the EUMSC karting Championship saying that he was "so relieved", while Campbell interestingly said "Scott’s a dick". More importantly though we have a new championship leader, with Nicolet’s 5th place enough to take him into the lead of the championship. Click here to see a full championship table, and if you would like to see the video from the A-final, with full commentary, you can get it on the EUMSC Facebook group.
