NKRA Grande Finals 2009 at Glan y Gors on 29^th &  30^th September  2009

With a late switch in venue to Glan-y-Gors Park in picturesque Snowdonia the Dragon kart Club took on the responsibility for the Grande Finals of the NKRA – bringing together the drivers from the Southern, Northern and Scottish regional championships.

Racing took the format of 4 heats split over the 2 days  leading to the finals  in a championship, which in addition to prizes for the outright race result the overall NKRA titles are decided on a combination of Results and appearance points to encourage attendance at each round of the championship as it moved around the regions giving everyone a taste of various circuits.

Weather throughout the weekend was a combination of dry/cloudy with occasional showers often giving rise to those difficult greasy conditions where decisions needed to be made regarding slicks or wets?

Proceedings for the weekend started with the presentation of the magnificent Regional Trophies - clearly the NKRA putting a lot of effort & money into providing worthwhile trophies – With an even larger set of trophies for the Sundays Grande Finals.

Honda Cadets

Looking at the results for the heats the Honda Cadets looked to be a walkover for young Robbie Gallier who won all 4 heats, but when it came to the final he was not to have it all his own way with light rain falling, everyone was on wet tyres with Gallier taking the early advantage from Ross Chell & Charlie Harris. The race for the lead may of just been between Gallier & Chell but what an excellent race between them, Gallier holding the advantage for most of the race but he was never allowed to relax as Chell was glued to his rear bumper. Each clearly had favoured overtaking positions as Chell took the lead on a few occasions but on each occasion Gallier fought back to retake the lead by the end of the lap. Great racing with Gallier having a mere .08secs advantage at the flag. Behind Kyle Forgie, Charlie Harris & Yukinori Ishii had a race long battle which went the way of Forgie.

1^st        Robbie Gallier              Llandow
2^nd        Ross Chell                    Llandow

WTP

Despite only having a small grid the WTP cadets had enjoyed good close racing through the weekend with heats wins going to Lewis Seager (2), Benjamin Baulk & Alex Gunn.

With everyone on worn wets on a damp track, Lewis Seager the Northern Region champion looked to be favourite and after taking an early lead from Charlie Keenan who would move through into the lead by the end of lap 1, Gunn would also take a turn at the front before Louis Keenan came through to join his older brother at the head of the field. These 2 would then trade places before Louis took a small advantage and with 2 very nervous parents on the sidelines the brothers kept everything neat and tidy to hold on for a family 1 – 2. Charlie making 1final effort at the last corner but it came to no avail as he spun to a halt whilst his brother celebrated, fortunately with enough of an advantage over 3^rd place  allowing him time to recover and cross the line in 2^nd..

1^st        Louis Keenan               S. Yorkshire
2^nd        Lewis Seager                W of Scotland

Junior Blue

With a full grid for the junior Blues this was always going to be a very competitive class, the entry being dominated by the Scottish region where the class is most popular. Stephen Philip had been dominant in Scotland, but could he repeat this in the final against his fellow countrymen(and women) and against the other regions led by Northern champion Matt Helps.

With 5 heats for the juniors there were heat wins for Douglas Simpson, Colin Noble, Stephen Philip, Fergus Barlow & Blair Simpson, all closely fought – it was all brewing up for a superb final.

With the field on wets for the greasy track it was Philip who had pole from Blair Campbell who along with Mike Falls made an initial break from the main pack which were led by Greg Stark, further back Colin Noble had slipped back from his initial grid position of 5^th from where he would make a superb recovery. Katie Brown spinning out on the first lap to last but would recover to finish 16^th. Falls kept the pressure up on Philip but it was not to be for the Scottish champ as he started to slip down the order and would finish 6^th, but coming through the field with an excellent drive Noble eased his way through into 2^nd with 5 laps to go – still 25 yds behind Falls, could he catch up? He certainly could and would take the lead with just 2 laps to go and punching the air in delight as he led Falls over the line by the closest of margins. Great racing throughout the field and a deserved win.

1^st        Colin Noble                  W. of Scotland
2^nd        Mike Falls                    W. of Scotland
3^rd        Blair Campbell  W. of Scotland
4^th        Stephen Philips W. of Scotland
5^th        Greg Stark                   W. of Scotland
6^th        Fergus Barlow              W. of Scotland
7^th        Adam Barbour             W. of Scotland

Senior Rotax

The Senior Rotax class had also been keenly contested in the heats with 2 wins apiece to Paul Janes & Joe Waters, but the weather would be a big deciding factor in this one as everyone came to the grid slick shod, and after a clean start  with Waters leading away from Alexander Parfitt the rains returned and with an increasingly wet track lines were wide as the drivers strove for that last bit of grip. The leading due of Waters and Janes were clearly revelling in the conditions as their lap time were consistent, but were also often 2secs faster than the pursuing group. Waters led from lights to flag to take a very deserved win.
1^st        Joe Waters                   Buckmore Park
2^nd        Paul Janes                    Hoddesdon

Senior Blue

  B Final

With a fantastic entry for the Senior Blue race of 46  having to be spread over 8 heats it was always going to be difficult to pick a winner and with the heat wins going to Fraser Wallace, Cameron Craig, Craig Copeland (2), David Wagner (3) & Jamie Crease – all heats producing an excellent standard of hard but clean racing in what were clearly very difficult conditions.

With only 4 to go through to the A final the B was always going to be keenly contested, unfortunately Ron Shone lived up to his speech earlier in the proceedings when he stated that he would likely  be at the rear of the field – I am sure he did not anticipate retiring on the warm up lap of the B final.

The race was led from pole by Alan Young who would lead the pack away but had slipped back to 4^th at the end of lap 1 leaving Robin Stoddart-Stones to battle with David Lyon as Hadfield tried to catch back up to the leaders. By half distance Hadfield had a clear advantage but Young was now all over Lyons who would soon have to give up the position. Young would take back 1^st and win by a mere .3sec whilst behind there was a worrying moment for Dave Lyon as he came close to colliding with an errant backmarker  which could have ruined his efforts to reach the A final. Qualifiers were Young, Hadfield, Lyon and Russell O’Neill who had driven consistently to qualify, Jean Vella (from Malta – the NKRA is spreading far and wide) just missing out on reaching the final.

 Onto the big one with the Formula Blue Senior A Final, and guess what right on queue the rains returned, but this was in no way going to put a dampener on the proceedings, many drivers not having time to put on a wet suit, they would have to endure the 18 lap final in a soggy race suit.

With a clear track ahead of him it was Cameron Craig that took the lead into the first corner closely followed by David Wagner and Jamie Crease, great to see a good clean start in such conditions as they fought to see in the spray, but up at Spoon Crease would loose his chain to take him out of contention plus a couple of other spinners, all leaving Wagner and Craig battling for the lead. These 2 had opened up a small gap over Fraser Wallace and Craig Copeland (starting 7^th). These 2 gradually reeled in 2^nd place Craig by lap 3, it took a while longer to catch the leader but catch him they did demoting Wagner to 3^rd on lap 11. The final seven laps was a fantastic dice between Fraser Wallace (who won the Grand Finals at Larkhall in 2007)  and Craig Copeland, there did not appear to be any way through for Copeland as Wallace defended his position superbly but on the last corner of the last lap he took a brave dive down the inside – knowing it would leave him wide and risking a spin on the wet grass – he held the slide to win by a mere .1sec – What a finish to a fantastic weekends racing.

Thanks must go to everyone at the Dragon Kart Club for hosting the event, To finish of proceedings we had the presentation of the race trophies and the Grande Final trophies which reflect the season results as well.

1^st        Fraser Wallace             W. of Scotland
2^nd        Cameron Craig            Cumbria
3^rd        Craig Copeland            2 Counties
4^th        David Wagner              W. of Scotland
5^th        Kevin Ford                   2 Counties
6^th        Mike Woodside           W. of Scotland
7^th        Duncan McLeod          2 Counties
8^th        Chris Taylor                 Cheshire
9^th        Kirsty Young               W. of Scotland
10^th      Dean Smithers              Clay Pigeon
11^th      Steve Barlow                W. of Scotland
12^th      Chris Derrick                Clay Pigeon
Masters
1^st        Kevin Ford                   2 Counties
2^nd        Mike Woodside           W. of Scotland
3^rd        Steve Barlow                W. of Scotland
4^th        Stuart Gray                   W. of Scotland
Veterans
1^st        Steve Barlow                W. of Scotland
2^nd        Stuart Gray                  W. of Scotland
3^rd        Ian Brown                    W. of Scotland
Top Weight
1^st        Dean Smithers              Clay Pigeon
2^nd        Steve Barlow               W. of Scotland
3^rd        Ian Brown                    W. of Scotland