Easykart Rd 3: Clay Pigeon, Dorset (1 June 2008)

New winners fire up Championship …

Hirst, Langley and Parias take victories at Clay Pigeon

Three drivers recorded their first victories of the season at the Dorset track on 1 June - putting pressure on the series leaders.

Easykart Junior

Elliot Rice’s early stranglehold over the Junior class was finally broken with Luca Hirst taking a hard-earned victory. The start was by marred by a crash that took out seven drivers, which turned the race into something of a strung out procession. Hirst and Rice did their level best to entertain, with a race-long battle between them. Avoiding the carnage behind them, Hirst snatched the lead from poleman Rice. On lap 8, Rice retook the advantage with a superb late-braking manoeuvre going into Turn 2. Luca piled on the pressure, and five laps later was through. With Brad Fairhurst five seconds behind him, Elliot sensibly opted to settled for 2nd spot and extending his points lead in the Championship table.

Easykart Light

As expected, the Lights final produced a thrilling start. As the pack stormed through Billy’s Blind and ran to Turn 2, Barnaby Pittingale threw his kart sideways and into the lead. “Aw mah gawd” said one onlooker, gasping at the spectacle of 25 karts barrelling towards her.

Poleman Terry Langley was forced wide, but managed to work his way into 3rd behind the fast-starting Adrian Crockett in 2nd. Despite not knowing why he had been consistently two tenths faster than his nearest rivals, Langley was aware that his superior pace would be beneficial once the race had settled down. Having passed Crockett, he harried Pittingale - who threw his kart around like a squirrel in a bag in his attempts to keep Langley at bay.

All this allowed the impressive Sam Smithson to close and briefly take the lead. Langley said, “I looked over my shoulder and there was Sam. I thought, I’ve got to get ahead of Barney, but Sam overtook me. He then put Barney wide and I went with him. Not long after that I launched it up the inside, Sam gave me the room and I pulled away from there.”

Unable to respond, Smithson and Pittingale were simply left fighting to see who would be first of the losers. Barnaby settled it and reeled out the remaining laps to score more important Championship points, and consolidate his lead in the title race. Smithson survived a late challenge from local ace Tony Longstaff to secure his first Easykart podium.

Afterwards, Langley admitted that his victory was “a relief – it was a long time coming. Whilton (Mill) was horrendous and at Rye (House) it all just went wrong. So I’m relieved that it finally all came together at Clay.” He added, “On dropped rounds I’m 2nd in the points now and would like to think I can win the Championship. It’ll be very tough to beat Barn’ (who leads) – he’s consistent and I haven’t been, but I’ll be there or thereabouts.”

Easykart Heavy

Brian Parias put himself into title contention with his first win of the season. Oliver George chased him from start to finish, but a back-marker put-paid to his chances of a last-lap bid for the lead. After a disastrous start to his season, Firas Bilbeisi was all smiles after taking a hard-earned 3rd place.

This was a feisty encounter with many karts’ sidepods bearing the signs of contact. Tim ‘Sir Timothy’ Hill - who had had a fantastic start from the back of the grid to get up to 11th - got into a bit of a joust with Karl Annear, the pair banging wheels on the run into the Hairpin. Glen Beard and Ashley Bablee tested their friendship after they tangled at the Horseshoe and blamed each other.

Jack Bruce deserves mention. Not least for his Hair Bear Bunch-esque hat, but mainly for a great performance in the pre and main finals. Enjoying his best round of the season, the popular Scot looked set to take 3rd - but Bilbeisi’s relentless pursuit of him ultimately proved irresistible. The ‘Fiery Jordanian’ later saying that he was shouting “tal habibi” (effectively ‘come here’ in Arabic) inside his crash helmet, willing himself to catch Bruce. At the start Bilbeisi lost several places, and it took five laps for him to find his rhythm and begin to move forward; first displacing Gary Poynter, then Howard Kayman, followed by the combative Kieran McCullough and finally, Bruce.

Nearly six seconds ahead of Firas, Oliver and Brian went into the lap nose-to-tail. Brian said, “Oliver hung onto my back bumper throughout the race, but I didn’t think he had enough to get past me. However, I couldn’t leave anything to chance, and so used the back-marker to create some space. As we came out of the Hairpin and ran to the Horseshoe, Darren (Price) looked over his shoulder but carried on at racing speed. I cut in front of him and then hung him out wide, where I thought Oliver might try a move.”

It worked a treat - he crossed the line over a second ahead of the frustrated George. As for his title hopes, Parias only has one – to win. “I’ve not been to Ellough or Llandow before, but neither have a lot of people, which will make it a level playing field. At Rowrah, I hold the 177 Max record so I think I’ll be okay there. I just need to keep wracking up the points and then we’ll see.”

Easykart Light – A Final

1st: Terry Langley
2nd: Barnaby Pittingale
3rd: Sam Smithson
4th: Tony Longstaff
5th: Adrian Crockett
6th: Owen Jenman

Easykart Light – B Final

1st: Richard Hudson

Easykart Junior

1st: Luca Hirst
2nd: Elliot Rice
3rd: Brad Fairhurst
4th: Shaun Hollingsworth
5th: Liam Nolan
6th: Jack Mitchell

Easykart Heavy – A Final

1st: Brian Parias
2nd: Oliver George
3rd: Firas Bilbeisi
4th: Jack Bruce
5th: Kieran McCullough
6th: Gary Poynter

Easykart Heavy – B Final

1st: Aiden Kirwan