MOTORS TV ROUNDS 3 & 4 AT ROWRAH

The team returned to their Kenilworth base just before midnight on 15th April exhausted and without any results documentation. This report is therefore based on a telephone conversation with Alan Taddei at 1am, so may need to be amended once the official information is published.

In brief, Friday Mike had a bug, and nearly didn't make the journey. When the team did get onto the track, there seemed to be another driver keen to wreck Mikes chances by bending his chassis with a touch of 'Super 1 afters' in untimed practice. Fortunately championship organiser, Alan Taddei stamped down on this threatening to exclude Martyn from the championship. After a handshake of appology, and showing some remorse for his stupidity, Martyn Lyall was allowed to continue and as far as Mikes team, Klaasen Motorsport were concerned, that would be the end to it.

As it transpired, it was fortunate for Martyn, as he continues to lead the championship, but alas the damage he inflicted on Mike and the Klaassen team was long-term as they then struggled to get him near the front all weekend. The chassis was twisted up and in by 4mm as the bumper was wrecked. When a new bumper and bolts were fitted, its gave the kart too much grip at the back in the bends so it was hard to release and it was 'crabbing' in the straights with too much drag. Mike was only 8th quickest in the timed qualifying. It was only a couple of tenths off the quickest, but with a quality field so tighly packed, that was 20/100ths, which could easily have been 20 places!

The TV footage will tell the complete story, but the championship leaders Mike and Martyn Lyell, started at the back, and a small mid-field crash at the start in front of them, following some 'loading', effectively blocked the track. It meant that the best drivers had a delay in getting round them, which allowed about a gap of 100 metres to quickly develop. Despite his best efforts, a top 10 finish was all Mike could expect. An attempt was made to straigten the chassis, but it needed to be re-jigged at the factory to get back the lost tenths.

Mike went into Sunday 5th in the championship, having dropped 10 vital points behind the new leader Luke Caudle. It was all very close as just 20 points covered the top 6. Wayne McCauley won on Saturday and also went on to win the Sunday round, as he was low down in the championship standings, and therefore benefitted from a start near the front, and again missed the 'loading'. Hopefully the organisers will now punish the driver or drivers doing this as its both dangerous and wrecks the chances of the more carefull starters.

Going into a race having a bent chassis meant that while Mike could plan to use his driving skills to over come the problem round the bends, but he couldn't drive drive round the problem in the straights, where the chassis was sapping up a lot of the engines power. Eventually the extra strain and effort needed to stay in touch, forced his carb to fail and he just had to sit in a track position to protect where ever he was in the race. So dejected with the overall performance, he can't recall where he finished, but we are assured that these are the championship points at the end of the weekend for the top 9. The top six from the first two rounds are all there, but the next three have made some gains.

1) Lyall 394 JKH
2) Tucker 385 JADE
3) Caudle 381 GILLARD
4) Napier 378 JKH
5) Bell 370 JKH
6) Comber 369 TEC-MEC

Still only a spread of 25 points cover the top places but the gap to the next bunch has reduced to 15 points. Unless Mike has a better result at the next round, that gap may dissapear. Mike now has the advantage that he is starting the next race in front of the top 5, so should make some progress, and may now be in reach of a podium, which from 20th in 12 laps is almost impossible.

7) Jones 354 JKH
8) Reed 343 GILLARD
9) McCauley 339 JKH

It would seem that so far the JKH chassis seems to have dominated the Llandow and Rowrah rounds. Interestingly no TONY or VENOM chassis, nor any ARC, TKM or CRG's. Perhaps their chance will come at later rounds. The next meeting is at Glan-Y-Gorse in north Wales, which is another proven JKH circuit, so Mike and those on the other chassis will have to improve matters. Mike is still the only driver in any National competition on a TEC-MEC, so the team are developing it alone, which is currently very frustrating.

Back to Whilton Mill this weekend for some light relief. Lets hope Mike still retains the championship lead in that, as the team have decided that any rounds at Kimbolton, will be for race chassis development. It would seem that Mike would have to miss too many of the rounds at Kimbolton, to be able to stand any chance of Championship victory there. The team tested the other chassis last month, and next month there is a potential clash with Super 1 practice, so we just going for the one club championship in 2007 and will now be attending the Brazillian cup.

Hopefully some pictures for this round may follow, but alas nothing much to celebrate!