And the Winners are.....

Ros and I endured a horrible day at Crail for the final round of the Endurance Championship. The weather forecast had predicted warm sunny conditions for the week end, but they couldn't have been more wrong. How they expect us to listen to their 'computer modeled' prophecies of doom and gloom about global warming are beyond me - they can't even get it right for 3-4 days ahead! Anyway, it was pouring when we got to the circuit and it pretty much stayed that way for the whole day.

I did the first 20 mins practice and although there was very little grip, I managed to be 4th quickest. Ros then started the qualifying session but came in after 10 minutes as he thought he was way off the pace - In reality, he was about 6th, but we decided to fit our new wet tyres and send him back out. However, the session had been shortened to 20 minutes and by the time we got him back on circuit, the session was over and we qualified 9th, our worst of the season.

Race 1 was pretty wild at the start, but I managed to stay out of trouble and pick off a couple of folk. We had decided that if I was going well, we wouldn't change over drivers at the mandatory pit stop, and that's what happened. Eric in the Apollo kart was easily the quickest on the track, but I was up to 3rd and catching Mark of XLB in 2nd. But I pushed too hard and had a slight off at the roundabout, losing around 8 seconds. I kept pushing and by the flag was only a second behind him. 3rd was a good result, as Milwalk were 4th and the championship was ours. I also got the fastest lap of the race, which was a big surprise!

For race 2, Ros we decided Ros would do the whole hour. Race 2 is a reverse grid, so Ros again started 9th (18 karts yesterday), but with the slower drivers ahead quickly made his way to second. Eventually, the quick folk worked their way forward and the racing became pretty good, in worsening conditions. With only 2 laps left the 1st and 3rd placed karts fell victim to the weather giving us a lucky 2nd place, again behind Apollo.

I stated race 3 from 3rd place - The officials admitted post race that I should have been 2nd, but it didn't seem to matter on the grid - but just past the start, Jack in the XLB kart had a major slide and knocked me off - Jack should have been 3rd, but started 2nd :-). Even worse was to follow with kart 30 spinning on the entry to the roundabout on lap 2 and I had nowhere to go. The collision wasn't too bad and I managed to get back on track, albeit in last place. Over the next 30 mins, I worked my way back up to 5th, where I came up behind young Dom, who was having his first weekend at Crail. Twice I got along side him only for him to move over - the first time I went off in avoidance, and the second time we touched, but he still didn't see me! The kart wasn't handling properly and when I came in to hand over to Ros the reason was evident - In my second lap collision, the right hand track rod had been bent - Ros quickly straightened it as much as he could and went back out - We were in 5th place and that's how it ended, with Ros finding the kart a real handful - Within 10 minutes of the end of the race the left rear tyre was flat, so at least we knew why! Apollo again won race 3 - After Whilton, Eric and Scott bought some extended front hubs, which were used by the winning Dutch team in the UK 24 hour. They certainly seemed to work well yesterday! I think we'll have to get a set......


Overall, we finished 2nd on the day and won the championship by over 30 points from Apollo with Milwalk in 3rd. Not bad for our first season at Crail.