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The team enjoyed a much better day at Buckmore and came away with their first top 10 finish since Shenington in March by driving a solid and clean race to finish 9th.
Fine weather welcomed the drivers for the Bank Holiday weekend race at Buckmore Park and with a driver line-up of Eddie Hall, Ian Wilson and the returning Stephen Deuchar, confidence was high for a good result.
They had limited running in practice after a kart change and a mixture adjustment on the replacement kart. Nevertheless, all three felt comfortable and went set good laps in their few practice laps.
As usual, it was Eddie who qualified. Getting held up by traffic on his first two runs, and admitting to small mistakes on his final two runs, he could only manage 15th on the grid, albeit only a couple of tenths off a top 6 grid slot.
Ian Wilson started the race and he maintained position in the early stages. Being one of the last of the mid field runners to pit worked to their advantage and by the time Stephen took over, they were already well established within the top 10.
Stephen spent most of his stint battling with Jenny Tools Racing and Red M1st – a battle that would continue for the entire race.
Eddie took over for stint 3 and ran for most of the stint nose to tail with Chris Davies (Red M1st) and Gavin Knight (Jenny Tools) as the trio made their way through the backmarkers.
Being slightly quicker at this stage and doing a better job in the pits bought Ian out in front. By this stage, however, all three drivers were complaining of mild under steer, which was losing them valuable tenths in the corners and Ian couldn’t keep their rivals behind for long.
Again, it was excellent work in the pits that kept them contention for a top 10 finish and Stephen emerged right with them on the track. However, by this time the under steer problems seemed to be worse and Steve lost several seconds to Spencer Fortag (Jenny Tools) and Davies from Red M1st.
Short stinting Steve and a brilliant final stop brought Eddie out just ahead of Simon Mace (Red M1st), the two wheel to wheel as Mace emerged from the pits a lap later. Jenny Tools were a few seconds further up the road and seemingly uncatchable. Struggling with under steer, Eddie was just delaying the inevitable and a small mistake at the second hairpin allowed Mace to nip past. Despite struggling, Eddie was able to keep right on the tale of Red M1st as they continued to fight their way through the traffic.
A late race incident dropped Jenny Tool’s Spencer Fortag out of contention so Eddie crossed the line in 9th, just a second behind Mace. |
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