Site last updated:
 15 April 2008

More fun at Whilton Mill - 19/5/97

 Well the Podium was as always a 3-tiered creation, manufactured from plywood I think, the bottom two levels I cannot comment on regarding, condition, comfort or even the view, as once again we have only been able to take the top podium position .

 After sampling the delights of the podium yet again, (for the second time actually) we once again made our way to the Bar for a few beers, taking great delight in explaining why, and how we won the race.

 Well I suppose you want to know how we got to there. I would say to you all... come along and find out for yourself, but for those who are unable to do so here is a brief account

 Whilton Mill Open 2-hour endurance 19th May.

 It rained quite heavily up until about half an hour before the race started, so it was decided that I (Tubby Trapnell) should go first , seeing as I love the wet so much. The grid positions were drawn from a hat, and I drew pole position.

 This race was our first at WM using their new 200cc engines, practice, despite the wet track, showed them to be promising. The track itself has some interesting lines in the wet , I was determined to make the most of these, as it was obvious that it would not rain again and a dry track was sure to develop, with that I would lose my advantage over the lighter drivers.

 Our strategy was (aaahhh that's a secret), anyway our strategy was a surprise to the race director and many other teams, but it worked!

 All was going well, and I had a reasonable lead over the second place team, the track was beginning to develop a dryish line in places, when I had a spin on what can be a tricky corner in these conditions, I also must have had a mental blackout as I forgot the WM rules about getting out of the Kart... as I got out to get it straightened, thought I was at Daytona for a minute... any way I was overtaken and was given a black flag - stop go penalty.

 I was really quite unhappy with myself for that .. and went on a charge, my team mates indicating my position (I think) with a 2 fingered gesture, pretty soon I was getting just the one finger , so I presumed (correctly) that I had taken the lead once more. The drying track providing some unexpected grip, or not - depending on how many other drivers had spun off and brought water / mud back on to the racing line. This made it quite fun!

 We changed drivers and Louis went out, as always he progressively and consistently made my lap times look silly on what was by now a virtually dry track. Louis had a relatively sedate drive , in that there was no real competition to race with. With his usual exceptional driving, and the driver / refuelling tactics he extended the lead to several laps by the end of his stint.

 Kam went out for the last stint, so did however a number of other fast drivers, and Kam found himself with a battle on his hands, primarily with the second place team, the driver of which did manage to get past him, ha ha, they were still 4 laps down though !!! Kam took the flag and also set our teams fastest lap time of around 32 seconds.

 Nice T shirts and fizzy stuff all round, and a rare chance to sample the views of Northamptonshire from the heady heights of the podium.

 Our view on the new 200cc Karts - Excellent - perfect for that circuit, lap times are I think about 6 seconds quicker than with the 160cc.

 We cannot tell you enough about what you are missing at Whilton Mill. The track and the Karts may be smaller than Daytona , but it is fantastic, it feels just as fast as Daytona, if not more so due to the nature of the track.. With the old 160cc Karts you could pretty much drive flat out all round the circuit, not any more! YOU MUST TRY IT at least once.

 NB NO electronic wizardry to slow you down.

 Ray Trapnell

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