UK Super One Rotax Series, Round 1
Tweetfrom Graham Smith, TSR Productions
Torrential rain spoilt proceedings at the first round of the Super One Rotax series on the weekend (April 28/29), which attracted a fantastic 183 entries from loyal and new customers.
Above: MiniMAX winner Phil Rawson makes a splash before deteriorating conditions forced a red flag
pic - TSR Productions
The Whilton Mill circuit is located on a slope with a variety of tight and medium corners over its 1190m length. The promoters have invested in a new TAG-Heuer timing system which attracted over 7000 visits to the live timing website http://tagheuer-timing.co.uk/Live%20Timing/s1live.html . All the Saturday timed qualifying and heats were held without problems but overnight and continuing rain was flooding parts of the track so practice only commenced at 11 am with further delays running the remaining heats throughout the day.
Eventually the organisers had to give up with the last Honda Cadet heat and all finals still to run. That means the meeting is void for Honda Cadet, but Final 1 points for grid positions in the Rotax classes can be given, so 11 out of 13 rounds instead of 14 will now be counted at the end of the season, and 10 out 12 for Honda Cadet.
Above: Track workers try to clear standing water
pic - TSR Productions
The promoters thanked all the marshals and circuit staff who worked so hard to try and keep the track clear for racing. Further details on http://superoneseries.com
Rotax Max
James Singleton topped the first time trial session from Corby Gormley whilst Protrain’s Formula K aces Charlie Eastwood and Edward Brand topped the other session, the second the faster. Slightly hung out at the first heat start Brand soon closed on Eastwood to win. In the second Singleton passed to lead, but again Brand had superior pace and took another win, sealing a Final 1 pole had there been one, and all without any racing on Sunday. But Singleton had failed to fit a transponder so was not counted in the results moving Sean Babington up, and it was he who won the Sunday heat to earn a front row Final 1 start over Eastwood. Oliver Hodgson recovered from an early mistake in the last heat for fourth behind Lewis Plato, there positions reversed on the final grid classification.
1 Edward Brand (Formula K); 2 Sean Babington (Alonso); 3 Charlie Eastwood (Formula K); 4 Oliver Hodgson (Tonykart); 5 Lewis Plato (Tonykart); 6 Thomas Arme (Kosmic). (38 starters)
Above: Ed Brand leads the Senior MAX pack in his Formula K machine
pic - TSR Productions
Above: Lewis Plato, Snr MAX
pic - TSR Productions
Max 177
Defending champion Lucas Orrock took a break from his new DD2 challenge in Euro Max and totally dominated the proceedings. He was quickest from Dominic Russell in timed qualifying, won the first heat from Liam Murphy and Tim Penton with David Griffiths, the number 2 seed, only managing fourth. Russell was forced to retire but grabbed the lead of the Sunday wet heat until Orrock displaced him, with Penton coming up to second to join Orrock on the theoretical final grid front row, Griffiths and Murphy behind.
1 Lucas Orrock (Kosmic); 2 Tim Penton (Kosmic); 3 David Griffiths (GMS); 4 Liam Murphy (Tonykart); 5 Richard Raymond (Tonykart); 6 Tom Holland (Alonso). (22 starters)
Above: MAX 177 winner Lucas Orrock
pic - TSR Productions
Junior Max
With 50 starters this is the largest class, Luke Hughes topping the timed list over Luke Whitworth, Ross Gunn and Jake Walker. Hughes went on to win the first heat from Ben Hingelely but he had a large time penalty elevating Toby Sowery. Price took the second one from Gunn, the latter going on to win the next from Kyle Fowlie. In the big wet one on Sunday, Sam Marsh took a large lead, with Danny Keirle showing great speed to leapfrog past Luke Whitworth and make inroads on the leader. But Keirle was hit with a 5s penalty dropping him to seventh, and the same on the intermediate classifications. Both he and Coombs had £500 fines for abusive language, in the case of Keirle it was his mechanic. So that left Gunn on a theoretical pole from Price, Hughes and Oliver Myers.
1 Ross Gunn (Tonykart); 2 Josh Price (Intrepid); 3 Luke Hughes (Kosmic); 4 Oliver Myers (Tonykart); 5 Toby Sowery (Tonykart); 6 Josh White (Tonykart). (50 starters)
Above: Jnr MAX winner Ross Gunn
pic - TSR Productions
Above: Danny Keirle, Junior MAX
pic - TSR Productions
MiniMax
Zhou Guanyu and Lando Norris topped their timed qualifying sessions, Norris just quicker but the Chinese driver fell right back in his first heat, won by Harry Williams from Stefanos Charalambous. Zhou came back to win the second heat over Dave Wooder. And in the wet one, red-flagged before the end due to the deteriorating conditions, Lando Norris starred over Philip Rawson whose third and second propelled him to the top of the classification over Wooder and Connor Mills.
1 Philip Rawson (Kosmic); 2 Dave Wooder (Alonso); 3 Connor Mills (Tonykart); 4 Jordan Baines (Alonso); 5 Daniel McAuley (Tonykart); 6 Connor Hall (Tonykart). (37 starters)
Above: Lando Norris bottoms outs in MiniMAX
pic - TSR Productions
Honda Cadet
Luke Wooder in the first session pipped Ethan Andrews, the pair faster than Connor McCarthy and KiernJewis in the second session. Andrews won the first heat that was run from Harrison Huggan and Elliot Harvey, and Sandy Mitchell from Andrews in the second, but no classification could be given due to the abandonment of the third heat.
Heat winners: Ethan Andrews (Project 1), Sandy Mitchell (Project 1). (36 starters)
Above: Sandy Mitchell, Hinda Cadet
pic - TSR Productions