|
|
|
IMSD Racing took a fine 8th place overall, and 4th in Clubmans' class, at the 4th round of the 2006 Premier Endurance championship at the Clay Pigeon Raceway on 27th May.
Practice was damp and foggy but the kart seemed reasonably competitive despite its apparently high fuel consumption. It was Ian Wlson's turn to qualify and the team elected to do their run at the very start of the qualifying period because they belived rain was approaching. Ian was first out on the track once the 10-minute session began and, as agreed, completed just two flying laps before coming in to conserve fuel for the race. Just as he came in, the dry track became slippery in increasing drizzle and IMSD found themselves on fourth place on the final starting grid.
Ian had put in a fine performance and backed this up by running strongly in the top 8 throughout his first stint. Unfortunately, bad fuel surge from about the 12th minute of the race meant that his pit stop came early, and in the congestion in the pits the team lost about 15 seconds more than they should have been able to achieve in putting Ian Miller out for the next stint. Ian's stint, and then Stephen's, both went well, however, and by half distance the team was running a comfortable second in the Clubmans' class behind rivals In it to Bin it.
Over the final hour, all drivers had impressively fast and trouble-free runs, but once again a disastrous pit-stop as Ian M handed over to Stephen for the final stint cost several vital seconds, leaving the team some 15 seconds behind a podium place at the end of the race. No-one could quite understand how the Flying Lizards took the class win, having leapt up the computer score board from 10th to 2nd on a single lap at mid-distance, whilst running four karts behind IMSD at the time.... A mystery.
"It was a great performance today, Stephen said. "With a kart that could hardly manage 15 minutes before bad fuel surge, we were lucky not to have had to make an additional pit stop. And without those two long waits in the pits we would have taken a comfortable 2nd place in Clubmans. But 8th overall is comparable with our Spa performance, so I think we should be pretty satisfied. Well, we would be if we weren't used to winning....." |
| |
|
