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SUPERB LLANDOW SETS UP TITLE SHOWDOWN Having moved up the championship table at Buckmore Park, Llandow was seen as an opportunity to place ourselves well for the final round at Clay Pigeon in a fortnights time.
The weather had been perfect all week and the circuit was dry with a fair breeze, temperatures around 13 degrees.
Hopefully the bad luck and niggling errors had been left behind at Buckmore Park, and a clean weekend would give the well positioned A team a boost heading to Clay and the B team needed a good weekend to get the confidence up after what has been a bit of a anticlimax, a top 10 should have been achievable from the start of the year, yet moving in the right direction nonetheless.
ROUND FIVE
Race 1 Oli Knights (B) Started - 18th Finished - 10th
Oli was the first driver out for the B team and had drawn grid 18. Llandow is renound for its dangerous starts as Club100 use the hook section and sure enough Oli was seen mounting the back of the Brookes kart as there was simply nowhere to go. Luckily he managed to gain places through the first lap and was picking off drivers. However a black flag was shown due to repeated contact into the last corner and the early work was all frustratingly undone. Oli did well to get the kart back to 10th place and considering he was racing with what we now understand to be a broken hand it was a great effort.
Race 2 Daryl Henderson (A) Started - 13th Finished - 3rd
Daryl was the first A team driver out at Llandow from grid 13. He was swiftly moving up through the field into the top 5 due a good amount of local knowledge and catching the leaders infront. A great battle took place with the 2nd place driver with only a few minutes left in the race, but sadly the driver was able to resist Daryl’s best efforts. 3rd was still a very good start to the day for the A team and a result for the rest of the team to build on.
Race 3 Sean Robinson (A) Started - 2nd Finished - 1st
William Wood (B) Started - 29th Finished - 13th
Race 3 was the first to feature both A and B team karts with Sean taking his first A team start and front row. Will Wood had a lot of work to do from 29th yet showed speed in Saturdays test and should come through well. Sean made a good get away and held onto second place, pushing hard to keep Plymouth A in his sights. Will Wood gained around 8 places at the start and was trying to move through a big pack of karts which he managed to do but it cost a lot of time and he was left with a big task to catch the top 10.
Sean caught Plymouth in traffic and took the lead with a good opportunist move. After that, the Plymouth driver seemed to struggle to hang on to him and Sean eased away to claim his first BUKC win and give round 5 real promise for the A team! Will Wood managed to finish the race in 13th place which was a great effort from 29th. A higher start and he could have easily been deep in the top 10 on pace.
Race 4 Shaun Dickson (A) Started - 32nd Finished - 6th
Will Albrow (B) Started - 5th Finished - 8th
Both karts were starting race 4 at opposite ends of the grid. Shaun was flying from the word go and managed to move through the lower half of the field very early on. This allowed him to close on the back of the top 10 by mid race and he ended up passing Will Albrow not far from the finish on his way to a superb 6th place from 32nd. The A team had a solid result under their belts for this round already unless Pete Cole could improve on Shauns 6th.
Will Albrow had a kart that wasn't on a par with some around him and he drove it to its absolute limit. He managed to fend of the pack for a long time but he was a sitting duck at the end of the straights and slowly people started to pick him off. In the end 8th place was a good effort and it seems that the B team were heading the right was should Lloyd make the top 10 in race 6.
Race 5 Pete Cole (A) Started - 22nd Finished - 12th
Pete was hoping to have another superb drive from near the back like he has done on many occasions this season. However it all went wrong on the first lap when a kart rode up over his arm leaving him and his suit looking very second hand. Pete soon got going again and drove very well from 32nd and last to finish a credible 12th. On a circuit where overtaking chances are very limited this was a good recovery and luckily the earlier A team results meant that this wasn't as huge a disaster as it could have been if a result was desperately needed.
Race 6 Lloyd Eveleigh (B) Started - 16th Finished - 3rd
Lloyd was in the final race of round 5 and starting 16th. After a good start and some moves on lap one, Lloyd crossed the line in 7th place and on the back on the leaders at the end of the lap. 10 minutes into the race he was up to 4th place and catching the 3rd place driver. After a long battle and a few attempts he managed to clear the 3rd place driver when moving through some lapped traffic and then he pulled away. This secured the B team a much needed 3rd place finish and Lloyd’s highest result in the BUKC to date.
ROUND FIVE OVERALL RESULTS
Swansea Metropolitan A 3rd Place 173pts
Swansea Metropolitan B 11th Place 159Pts
Kingston A were winners of round 5 yet this had little impact on Swansea Met A who had outscored leaders Oxford Brookes by finishing 3rd and closed the championship fight right up heading into the afternoon round.
Swansea Met B ended the round in 11th place and outscored many of the teams around them in the standings. More is still to come from the team and once everyone hits that form the top 10 will come. The afternoon was the target for just that.
ROUND SIX
Round Six was going to be run under the endurance format where each team competes in a one hour endurance style race with two mandatory pit stops and a driver change.
Race 1 Oli Knights (B) Will Albrow (B) Started - 5th Finished - 9th
Oli started the enduro event and managed to hold position for the first part of the race. Driving well with a group of fast guys it seemed as though he would be able to hand over to Will Albrow in a strong position and give the B team a top start to the afternoon. However Oli managed to get another black flag for contact and this meant he dropped down the field. After handing over to Will Albrow, he drove well to recover lost ground and after the hour was up they crossed the line in a credible 9th position which considering the black flag was a good start for the B team.
Fastest Lap : 52.37s (Oli)
Race 2 Pete Cole (A) Sean Dickson (A) Started - 19th Finished - 3rd
Pete started the enduro for the A team and moved swifty up into the midfield after a good start. Then Pete unexpectedly pit with a kart problem and it seemed at though it had all gone away from the A team at the worst time possible. Luckily the kart change counted as one stop due to refuelling so the time lost was minimal. Pete drove a great race putting the kart back firmly in the top 8 when he handed to Shaun. Having been fast all day Shaun continued to move through the field and ended the race in a well deserved 3rd place. A win may have been on a the cards but after the problem third was a great job.
Fastest Lap : 50.95s (Pete)
Race 3 Daryl Henderson (A) Sean Robinson (A) Started - 15th Finished - 3rd
Lloyd Eveleigh (B) William Wood (B) Started - 29th Finished - 4th
The final race of the day had both A and B team karts racing. Daryl started for the A and Lloyd for the B. Daryl got caught in a big train of karts not long after the start and was battling hard to move forwards. Lloyd managed to clear a few groups of karts and move up to the back of Daryl as they worked together through the pack. Lloyd decided rather than attacking Daryl at this stage if the season it was better to just cover his back and did so until the first stops. Both stops went well and the karts emerged near enough line astern. Daryl and Lloyd kept picking off karts and handed over to Sean (A) and Will (B) easily in the top 8.
As the second drivers took over they kept up the pace and had to just bring the karts home. It was a solid drive from everyone involved and both karts crossed the line in 3rd (A) and 4th(B) which was Will Woods highest BUKC finish.
Fastest Lap : 51.33 (Lloyd) (B) Fastest Lap : 51.38 (Daryl) (A)
ROUND SIX OVERALL RESULTS
Swansea Metropolitan A 2nd Place 116pts
Swansea Metropolitan B 6th Place 109pts
Round 6 put the A team in a position to possibly win the title at Clay Pigeon in 2 weeks time. If they win the round then the title will come to Swansea for the first time. That is always going to sound easier than it is and the season this year has been so close that anything is possible. Regardless of what happens at Clay, Swansea Met have guaranteed themselves their highest every finish in the BUKC of 3rd, however the sights are firmly set on the 2009 Championship.
The B team had a brilliant round 6 and moved up to 13th in the standings which gives a great chance of matching last years result of 12th. They will be trying hard to maybe break into the top 10 at Clay whilst being very mindful to help the A team in anyway possible when it comes to the championship.
Thanks once again to Swansea Met Student Union who have helped put us in a position to fight for the title and hopefully 2009 can be the year, check back on the 8th April!
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER 2/7 ROUNDS Including Dropped Scores
1. Oxford Brookes A - 291pts
2. SWANSEA METROPOLITAN A - 290PTS
3. Loughborough A - 290pts
13. SWANSEA METROPOLITAN B - 246PTS
Visit BUKC official site in links page for full standings!
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Next Race Meeting: Whilton Mill BUKC R1 + R2 9th February 2010
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