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New 2005 Junior Royale Champion Seth Scott Deuchar had a disappointing final round to the season at Lydd International Raceway. After qualifying on pole position in the final, a clutch problem cost him his fourth win of the season. However despite this he still won the overall championship by over 40 points, and the Light category by over 100. Ryan Presley took the Intermediate title from Carla Wellings by only 3 points. See the new photos in the Photo section of the website!
It was a cold and damp morning at Lydd when the IMSD team arrived. The team were in good spirits, as they knew that whatever happened, Seth would walk away as overall Royale champion of 2005.
Lydd Raceway is one of the circuits on the calendar that runs with timed qualifying. Seth managed to find himself some clear space in qualifying and started to blast in some hot laps. He set his fastest lap on his last one and this was the fourth best time. A reasonably good result, but he was still starting behind Michael Gibbons, Carla Wellings and TKM Junior Champion Kieran Vernon, returning to Royale for this race only.
In the first heat Seth made a good start and got up to third behind Wellings and Vernon. Wellings was running well until her choke slipped, causing her to lose speed. Seth passed her and then remained second until the end of the race, under considerable pressure from James Llewellyn.
For the final heat he also finished second but this time behind pole-sitter Michael Gibbons. A first corner incident eliminated Llewellyn and Haines, and delayed Vernon.
These good results gave Seth pole position for the final alongside Gibbons, with Vernon and Wellings behind. After a first corner clash with a fast-starting Gibbons, Seth led for the first two laps before his clutch started slipping every time he accelerated onto the straights. He quickly lost three places on one corner, and then another two, and was about to pull into the pits when the engine picked up again. He managed to get to the finish, at reduced speed, down in 7th place. It later turned out that an excess of oil had been dripping steadily down from the chain guard onto the clutch, causing the slippage and ruining Seth’s race. After the broken chain in round 1 of the championship at Bayford, this was Seth’s first mechanical failure all season.
Gibbons won from Vernon, Presley, Llewellyn, Wellings, Ip Tin Wah and Scott Deuchar. This meant that Presley narrowly took the Intermediate title from Wellings, by just 3 points.
Seth’s drivers of the day: Ryan Presley, for coming from 5th on the grid to finish 3rd, and Carla Wellings, for battling it out to the end.
Final overall championship positions:
1. Scott Deuchar (872 points from best 10 races)
2. Presley (824)
3. Wellings (821)
4. Gibbons (761)
COMING SOON! WATCH THIS SPACE! The Speedyseth Official Review of the 2005 Season by IMSD team boss Stephen Deuchar: a completely unbiased assessment of the drivers, the karts, the circuits, the results, the dads, the crashes, the heroes and the zeros! To be posted before the end of the month.
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