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Location	Rye House Circuit, Hoddesdon
Date	13/10/2008
Cost	£95
Spaces	36
Deadline	06/10/2008
Event Information	This event has now taken place.

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A good turn out for the final race of the 2008 season. All of the championship contenders were on hand to try and take their share of the double points on offer. One thing was sure, not everyone was going to get them!

Early on, there were the usual grumbles and gripes about some of the karts. With lots of spare karts in the pitlane, things got gradually better through the day in readiness for the sprint finals.

For this final event of the year the important races were played straight - with the fastest at the front and the slowest at the rear. However, Allan did have a play with the first race of the day - staggering the grid around the track based on weight.

Chris took advantage of his love of food and a good kart to take the lead early on and did not see anyone else for the remainder of the race. In the other half of the draw, Kevin T won his first race with CSMA - congrats.

So it was onto the qualification races for the finals. After an early slippery track and some sketchy karts, the times really began to hot up. Some close and clean racing split the field into the A and B finals.

The B final saw close action throughout. With the top 2 places being advanced into the A final, there was everything to play for for some of the faster drivers who hadn't made it through on the first cut. Gary took the lead early on and gradually moved off into a 12 second gap by the end of the race, securing his spot in the A final. Behind him, all manor of close racing was taking place. M1 had a great start moving from the rear of the grid right to the sharp end within a couple of laps. Throughout the field some great early tustles saw the pack staying close for the first half of the race. The mid field had spread out by the middle of the race but the second place in the A final was still very much open until then end, with an on form Kevin W taking the final spot by less than a second from Matt H. A little further back, the tustle for the heavy weights was being faught between the early flourishing M1 and the late surging Ian D. At the line, Ian pipped M1 by 0.22 seconds.

Would the A final live up to this epic? We were about to find out. A fantastically clean start by everyone got things off to a good start but if the spectators or drivers were expecting things to spread out - they were in for a surprise. Early on, Drew and Dave M moved ahead of Alan W and Tony, who found himself in an off pace kart. However, Tony was driving super clean laps and scratched out just enough speed in all the right places to stay ahead of a growing pack of drivers hungry for points. Terry, starting at the back after a run of bad karts, found himself in a great car for the final and moved through the field and the pack relatively easilly on his way to chase down the leaders. Out front the racing was close and after a minor error, Dave M tagged the back of Drew's kart. This sent them both spinning, gifting Alan W and Terry the front of the field. The recovering Drew and Dave found themselves smack in the middle of a train of karts which had now grown to 8 strong, nose to tail. There was movement back and forth within the train but with Tony keeping everyone at bay and some fantastic clean racing, this close racing remained until the very end of the race.

Right at the sharp end, a mistake by Terry out of the very last corner saw Alan try and take his chance... Would he make it? Across the line, nobody knew! It was that close. In fact, it was the closest finish we've seen so far with Alan just pipping Terry over the line by 0.02s.

A recovering Drew faught back to 3rd place abd Dave M followed through in 4th. Then came the train... Tony leading the way through followed by pretty much everyone! 7 karts went across the line in the space of 1.5 seconds! Great racing by Dave P and Dave G saw them snatch up vital championship points, with Gary also taking Chris in the final few laps taking the final middle weight points, this was all going to prove crucial in the overal Championship table.

A review of the speeds of the final, there were 11 drivers out of the field of 16 who were in the 41 second bracket. Brilliant!

So, what effect did this all have on the championships? Well, we'd find out after the endurance in the afternoon.

There was an end of school feel to the final on track action of 2008. The pace was again hot, with a couple of the teams dipping into the 40s bracket as the fuel burned off. Things were relatively spread out but as ever in the endurance, everyone faught hard but fair with anyone on track near them - you never really know whether you're racing for position so it's better to be safe than sorry right!?

Highlights of the race? Well, surely that has to be Kevin W deciding that you could take the final hairpin flat out and continuing in this unurring believe even when the outside edge of the curb had long since been a memory of the tyres. Ending innevitably in the barrier, his commitment was such that everyone standing in the pits took two paces back and ducked! As it turns out he put a hole in the conveyor around the tyres and ended up facing backwards. Seemingly unshaken he calmly turned the kart around and continuted on his merry way - with everyone in the pits remaining just that little pace backwards from the wall each time he went by! This wasn't the end however, after handing over the kart to Chris, it turns out the crash had done more damage to the tyre than first thought. About half way through Chris' stint, the tyre finally let go with an almighty bang - right by the pitlane again just for show! Lucky it didn't go in any of the fast bends.

At the end, Rob and Tony found themselves in a good lead with "Team Duke" in second and Terry and Dave G (who had had an earlier disagreement) teaming up nicely to take the final podium slot.

So, onto the final championship positions. The double points certainly Mixed things up in the ultra competitive middle weight class. The light weight and heavy weight class remained relatively unaffected. However, great racing all day by Dave P and Dave G saw them leapfrog Chris into second and third respectively. Drew's attendance moved him to the middle order.

Overall championship saw Alan close to within 3 points of Terry at the top of the sheets with M1 sneeking past Tony into 3rd.

Complete championship standings are available on the Championship page of the website and full results from the days racing can be found on the reusults page.

So, this all brought 2008 proceedings to an end. It's been a long year of great events taking us thoughout the South-East. A huge note of thanks goes out from every person who has raced this year to Allan Goddard for his tireless efforts to make sure that we all get good and varied racing wherever we go. It's said a lot, but it's true that these events just wouldn't happen without Allan. Thanks also to Drew who puts in time and effort way beyond the call and makes sure Allan is kept in check!

And now, onto 2009! Starting on 2nd March, 2009 looks like it might throw up some interesting twists and turns with an added competitive element with a North vs South challenge. Keep an eye one the website which will be updated with all the confirmed rounds and events for 09. We'll also be running some evening indoor events aimed at attracting beginners. Again, keep an eye on the website for full details. If you know of any indoor circuits that would be suitable for us, please drop an email to mail@csmakarting.co.uk

See you all in 09.

Chris

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