Whilton Mill March Race Report

28/03/10

As is becoming the norm at this time of year we were meet with a dry day but a damp drying track when LT Motorsport arrived at Whilton Mill for round 3 of the championship, as with the last 2 rounds the meeting was busy with over 40 competitors in both Mini Max and Junior Max. Martin Murad was making his return to racing in Mini Max after a few months layoff, Chris McCarthy & Ravi Shoker were in Junior Max, Paul Bell was running In 177 Rotax and Lee Torrie Was just running on Saturday to keep his race fitness up.

Martin got straight into the grove in Mini Max and was soon keeping pace with the front running bunch, while Dad Paul was learning the ropes with the mechanics of the kart under the watchful eyes of Lee and Bob. Chris was running very well and often in the top ten in time, considering the state of his tyres this pace was very promising for Sunday. Ravi was hoping not to repeat last month’s meeting and his pace in practice also looked very good as did his improvements with his overtaking.

Paul continued to make progress in the 177 class and worked on the less is more approach to his driving and again finished the day with good times. Lee used the day to do some setup work and try out some different carburettor setting ending the day happy with his work.

Sunday Morning was dry and sunny at Whilton and everyone’s practice session went well. With over 40 drivers in Mini Max Martin was to have his work cut out! In the Heats Martin scored a 12th in heat 1, 16th in Heat 2 and 7th in heat 3 giving him 13th on the grid for the A final. A good start and some good avoidance skills on the opening few lap help Martin to gain a couple of places, a few mistakes in the middle part drop him back down the order a little but Martin managed to cross the line to finish in 14^th place, a good result considering the quality of the field.

Paul was missing just a bit of pace in the heats but managed to finish heat 1 in 10th, heat 2 in 10th and heat 3 in 9th, giving him 9th on the grid for the final, Paul made a good start and didn’t allow the pack to get away from him in the first few laps. As the race settled down the field became quiet spread out leaving Paul to run on his own and eventually finishing in 8th place.

Chris and Ravi also had a field of 46 drivers to deal with, Chris won his first heat with a great drive, he had a 14th finish in the second despite a last lap crash and finished the 3 heat in 8th putting on 6^th for the A final. Ravi was having a very up and down day, he had carried over his pace from Saturday but the luck just wasn’t on his side, with finishes in the heats of 22nd,29th and 24th this resulted in 15^th place start in the B and a lot of work to do. Ravi’s run of bad luck continued in the final after being held up badly at the start he made every effort to catch and pass the field in front but time just ran out and he finished the B final in 12th place. Chris made a great start despite some pushing and shoving and started to work his way up the field, at one point ran as high as 4^th place but in the last few laps drop back to finish in a great 6^th place after the race Chris commented” the kart was great but it came on a bit early so the last few laps were a bit of a struggle, but with the quality of the drivers in the field I’m really pleased with the result”

LT Motorsport now go off to Rowrah in Cumbria with Chris and Danny McCarthy for the 1^st and 2^nd rounds of the Formula Kart Stars Championship on April 2^nd – 4^th.