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Location	Whilton Mill, Near Daventry
Date	27/04/2009
Cost	£95
Spaces	36
Deadline	20/04/2009
Event Information	This event has now taken place.

Event Results Available

View results from this event

Event Report

The wet one! I've only just dried out, my trainers are still recovering and have gained a certain damp dog smell that I'm not sure they will ever recover from!
Still, for all the hardships endured by everyone, surely there were just as many high points to make up for them!

So a wet day greeted the 30 drivers at Whilton Mill. The race control building was full of racers all looking out the windows and trying to comprehend just how they were going to get round facing the right direction. Some of the more experience drivers had seen all this before and realised that facing the right way wasn't going to be an option every lap.

We also had a great number of new faces along to the event. Competition winners amongst us no less! Great to see and meet most of you through the day - I hope you had a great time and it'd be great to see you all return at future events.


Getting ready to head out on the soaked track.

Still, we've now got photographs of everyone looking like complete plonkers in fluorescent yellow overalls anyway, so if you don't come back, we'll be sure to leak them all over the internet!

The morning practice and qualification runs came and went. There were plenty of visitors to the grass and if people found very little grip on the track, the grass was worse than ice. Ice covered in oil might just about describe it. Indeed, there were several very funny incidents with drivers repeatedly spinning on the grass whilst attempting to rejoin. In the first session, trying to guess which tyre barrier Kevin W would be embedded in next time round was almost as much fun as controlling the karts themselves.


It really was wet out there! The puddle at the bottom of the hill giving some great shots!

On into the first races of the day. The Whilton Mill rolling start kept everything in order through the first few corners. With the fastest drivers from quali starting from the rear, it was relatively frantic as the grid re-jigged itself. Having said that, most places were probably made up and lost by spins. I think in my race, I overtook 2 karts on track but made up over 8 places when people span in front. The reverse grid did catch some drivers out, especially if they had spins. This saw some regular names slipping down into the B Final.


The weather didn't affect the great racing though.

As ever, not all is lost however, as there were two additional spots available in the A final for the top 2 finishers in the B final.

The B Final got underway and with Terry on pole and Tom in second. Surely the two top spots were already sown up? As the race panned itself out, Tom did indeed blast away, securing his spot in the A final by nearly 30 seconds over the rest of the field. However, Terry slipped back finishing in 5th. Andy R benefitted from Terry's problems and inherited 2nd place at the line by a healthy 12 second margin over Chris L. Chris L didn't have the luxury of a gap at the line and only just kept hold of the final podium step from Philip by just 0.6 seconds. There were other tight finishes through the field but in general, the weather had spread everyone out. Considering the conditions and the fact that a lot of people hadn't been karting before, let alone outdoor karting in the wet, it was incredible just how well everyone was coping.


Trips to the grass weren't uncommon and often involved some manual work to get back on the grey stuff.

Things were a little tighter through the A final. The track conditions had settled a little now and everyone had picked their racing line. Things were still as wet as ever however and travelling in the pack, visibility was terrible. There were some incidents, with Dave M spinning at the top of the hill - only to decide to drive into Chris H as he went by... perhaps in a move to try and get himself facing the right way? Whatever, Chris ended up spinning like a top and dropped down the field. Drew pulled away in the lead, something that he didn't lose through the race, finishing ahead of Rob by 6 seconds. Gary was briefly up to 3rd but was relieved of this by (I think...) John Y. Another case of on track contact of which Gary was victim (apparently...). Either way, John classified in 3rd in the results and was followed home by a resurgent Tom - who started from 15th spot, making up 11 positions through the race - well done!


Concentration required every corner of every lap.

At this stage in the season, the championship is still close. Tom has pulled into a 1 point lead over the field with 2 class wins. He is followed by Drew, Gary and Ian D who have managed 1st and 2nd in class over the two rounds, with Chris H next up with a win and a 3rd so far.

Full championship standings after round 2 can be found on the championship page.

Lunch gave us just enough time to catch our breath and Allan Goddard worked his magic formula to create the afternoon enduro teams. 90 mins split between two drivers. The big news was that the sun had made an appearance. With the karts all circulating, this soon lead to a drying track. Driving through this transitional period is often harder than driving in full wet conditions as the kart gains and loses grip and the wet patches move on a lap by lap basis. Still, for some of the new faces it was an eye opener just how much grip these karts have on dry tarmac. By the end, the track was very nearly dry on every corner and the times tumbled by 25 seconds from the wet sessions.

Out of all the uncertainty, Russ and John came out on top of the field. I am reliably informed (well, actually completely unreliably as it happens!) that Russel also scooped fastest time of the day on lap 65. In second we had the lone driver of Alan W. After a lower than normal finish in the sprint racing, his performance in the enduro was solid! Perhaps the wet weather not agreeing with him earlier during the day. Taking 3rd was Kevin T and Terry C. After disappointing performances for both in the morning sessions, this result rescued at least something from the day.


By the end of the endurance, the weather had broken and the track was dry.

I'm afraid I don't have the final positions for everyone - if anyone has any more positions committed to memory, then please feel free to send them to me at chris@csmakarting.co.uk.

Well done to our on-site reporter, Sue, for getting stuck in. I have to report that at one point, Sue's excited encouragement of her team-mate was mistaken for a call into the pits! Thanks also to Pete for bracing the elements and capturing the event on camera - we look forward to the CSMA Magazine article in the future.

Finally, as ever, many thanks to Allan Goddard for organising and running the whole day. These days really wouldn't happen without him or Drew and for that we are all truly grateful.

The next event is at Lakeside, Thurrock on the 1st June and I for one can't wait. See you there.

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