Strawberry Racing Marches On In Super One

press release

“I worry more about not winning, than winning!” confided Strawberry Racing Team Manager Warwick Ringham, after watching his drivers once again stand on the Super One Rotax podium (26 June).

Larkhall in Scotland hosted the fourth round of the Championship, and it proved to be a largely happy hunting ground for the official UK Tony Kart team. In Mini Max Harry Webb battled gamely to protect his points lead and was rewarded with 4th and 5th in the two finals. His Chinese team-mate, Zhou Guan Yu – or ‘Joe’ as he prefers to be known in Britain – continued on his steep learning curve, but showed that he possesses a fine turn of speed.

Above: Harry Webb
pic - Alex Roache

“He’s getting there,” observed Warwick. “He’ll be okay. Larkhall looks easy but it’s not. You have to be really patient and not try too hard. Otherwise you’ll come unstuck. Joe’s got all this to learn, but he’s doing very well.”

Despite not being able to quite match the pace of his fellow front-runners in Lanarkshire, Webb made his rivals work hard. “Harry made it into a race. Fair play for him doing that. I think he knew it was going to be an uphill struggle in terms of going for a podium, but he wasn’t going to roll over and let everyone disappear into the distance. He scored good points and maintained his title advantage, so it’s not all doom and gloom.”

The squad’s four Junior drivers all figured strongly at different points of the weekend, but it was Nathan Harrison who returned home with the biggest smile. The Oxford driver won the two finals to keep up the pressure on Jack Barlow, whose drive from the midfield in the main final to 2nd was one of the highlights of the event. In doing so Barlow maintained his advantage in the Championship table and his blistering pace will give him added confidence going into the next round at Buckmore Park next month.

Above: Team celebrations with drivers Jack Barlow and Nathan Harrison
pic - Alex Roache

In only his second race with the team, Alessandro Latif posted the fastest time in qualifying group and was 2nd overall - but a sparkplug failure in his opening heat put him almost immediately on the back foot. However, he delivered a superb fight back from the back of the field to finish in a creditable 13th. Jay Goodwin had another positive weekend (16th in the main final from p22 on the grid) and continues to make progress. Ringham is happy but wants more: “Jay qualified well but, like Alessandro, had some bad luck in the preliminaries. We need to work on a few things and once we have, I’m sure we’ll see both lads go to the next level.”

Ed Brand’s 100% podium-scoring record continued at Larkhall, where he claimed 3rd and 1st respectively. Consequently he has a commanding Championship lead - but will be aware that he cannot afford to be complacent. Especially as former Junior star Jack Marshall is now beginning to find his feet in the class. “Jack drove well throughout and was always battling up there. He deserved his 5th and 4th finishes and on the evidence of his Larkhall performance could well be on the podium at Buckmore,” noted Ringham.

Above: Ed Brand
pic - Alex Roache

Ed and Jack’s other team-mate Barrie Pullinger had been set for his strongest run of the 2011 campaign, but a driving infringement in the opening moments of the second final put paid to his chances. Before then, he had led Marshall home in the pre-final to claim 4th but his disqualification from the main final had Barrie’s supporters “bouncing off the limiter,” as Ringham aptly put it. “Like Jack, he’d driven well all weekend and deserved a better result for all the hard work he’d put in beforehand.”

Putting this incident aside, “it was a really successful meeting” reflected Warwick. “It’s hard to pick one aspect of it that outshone the others but I’d have to say Nathan winning both finals, Ed’s victory and Jack’s drive to 2nd were very satisfying.”

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