Easykart Rounds 6: Rowrah, Cumbria – 26
July
Rice closes in on title
The second part of the Rowrah double-header produced an absolute
humdinger between Junior title-favourite Elliot Rice and the indefatigable
Jack Sales.
Fitting a European-style bumper to his kart clearly did the trick
for Sales, who was fastest in the warm-up and both qualifying sessions. “The
new bumper saved me two kilos and loosened up the back” Jack
told Karting Magazine.
Elliot however won the pre-final to re-take the upper hand over
his friend and awning-mate, Jack.
After getting the jump at the start, Sales led the field through
the opening lap, pressed hard by the pole-man, Rice. “I led
for about three laps but Elliot was able to overtake me although
it stayed very close for the next few.”
Sales re-took the lead on lap 8, but lost it again just four laps
later. On the last lap, there was still nothing between them and
Rice was now defending into every corner. As they exited the final
corner, Elliot covered the line to foil Jack’s lunge for
the line – his winning margin just 0.14 of a second.
Rice can sew up the inaugural Junior Championship at the penultimate
round with 9th or better but is refusing to celebrate prematurely. “It’s
been a good, close battle with pressure all the way and there are
still two rounds to go. I’m almost there but I still need
the points.”
“Oli was in a class of his own all weekend,” said
Brian Parias sportingly before adding with a wry chuckle, “And
frankly we weren’t quick enough!” Having finished 3rd
in the Heavy pre-final, Brian was destined for a repeat performance
in the main final. With their opposing set-ups further creating
stalemate, Brian found himself unable to just claw back the four
tenths advantage Firas Bilbeisi held to the finish. He said, “I
think our set-ups were different. His was designed to come on in
the early part of the race and mine in the latter stages.”
On the other side of the paddock, the secret of Firas’ set-up
proved to be new tyres - but not in a good way, “We put new
tyres on for Sunday but I was a third of a second slower than I
had been on Saturday. Although they were technically ‘new’,
they were actually three months old and I struggled for grip.” Desperately
attempting to find it, Firas and his team found that they were
trying different ideas in every session. Finding a compromise,
Firas was able to push his way past Winter Series Champion, Mark
Lawrence and set off after the juggernaut-like George.
“For the first five laps I was comfortable following him,
but once his tyres had fully warmed up he was able to pull away”.
After the race had passed its mid-point, Bilbeisi became aware
that Parias was now reeling him in. “I had to defend. I thought, ‘I
can’t live with Oli and had to make my kart ‘reasonably
wide’ to keep Brian at bay.” Bilbeisi’s late
season run of form has propelled from 26th in the championship
to 6th - and he must surely be kicking himself for missing the
Rye House round.
Needing just a top 6 at Llandow to seal the title, Oli was understandably
beaming post Rowrah. “I’ve been racing for ten years
and Easykart is the best thing I’ve ever done. If I can win
at Llandow it’ll be a huge relief. Anything can happen but
I’ll be going for the win.”
“I hate the place! I don’t know why I don’t
like it, I suppose it’s because I’ve never done well
there. I tolerate it and go because I have to…” Was
Terry Langley’s opinion of Rowrah prior to the Light final.
Having finished second behind Sam Smithson the day before, Terry
had opted to revise his Sunday set-up. “We made a slight
change to the rear” he said. “I then gained several
tenths, although I was still only 6th on the grid after Timed Qualifying.
But because the kart was better, I knew I’d be more comfortable
in the races.”
With a game-plan to finish first or second, Terry came through
the traffic to secure a front row start alongside pre-final winner,
Tony Longstaff. Aided by a “launch” from Owen Jenman
behind in 4th, Terry got the hole-shot over Longstaff. “I
tried to be smooth and consistent and get away from the rest.”
Jenman headed the chase, with Longstaff in third and Smithson
in 4th. Knowing that he couldn’t afford for Langley to get
away, Smithson began his fightback, passing, first Longstaff on
lap 4, and then Jenman on lap 8. “Sam was right behind me
and I couldn’t get the kart to turn in” said Terry,
cutely avoiding the fact that he was now eking out a two kart lead
over Smithson – which he held to the chequered. Smithson
gave Langley’s ‘excuse’ some credence, saying
in his post-race interview; “I was a bit miffed. I knew that
I had it in me to win (after Saturday’s success) and not
to do that made it worse. But when we looked at the points, we
saw that we’d leave Rowrah with a good haul.”
Tony Longstaff rounded out the top three and was happy with his
qualifying performance, pre-final win and fastest lap in the main
final time but felt that he needs to work on his racecraft. “If
there was a Championship for grid positions, I’d be right
up there!” he quipped. “I can’t get the starts
right, I always seem to fall back” he said hinting at the
struggle he’d had after the start to get back into a trophy-winning
position.
On dropped rounds, Langley is now leading the title-hunt. Barnaby
Pittingale and Steve Youle gave themselves life-lines by finishing
5th and 6th respectively but will need to deliver heavy defeats
in the remaining rounds if they’re to overturn what is effectively
now a straight fight between the young pretender, Smithson and
the seasoned campaigner, Langley.
“It was a bloody good weekend” reflected Terry, before
confiding, “I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did.
I guess I’m starting to get to grips with Rowrah now. Maybe
I like it a little bit…”
Easykart Junior
1st: Eliot Rice
2nd: Jack Sales
3rd: Brad Fairhurst
4th: Christopher Waldock
5th: Connor Hambleton
6th: Liam Nolan
Easykart Heavy
1st: Oliver George
2nd: Firas Bilbeisi
3rd: Brian Parias
4th: Will Smith
5th: Kieran McCullough
6th: Richard Friend
Easykart Light
1st: Terry Langley
2nd: Sam Smithson
3rd: Tony Longstaff
4th: Owen Jenman
5th: Barnaby Pittingale
6th: Steve Youle
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