Cadwell Park May 21/22 2011 Quick Report

Parkland Frolics

Cadwell Park is in one of the flatter counties in the country - which is why it's home to so many military airfields.Yet Cadwell is one of the most contour-full, hilly tracks you will ever see, with a twisty sinuous "woods" section and a fast, open parkland section. Glorious. And Mono was there today.

SATURDAY

Cadwell Superkart record holder James O'Reilly debuted his ex-John Carding Speads with a pole and seemed to be taking a commanding lead until an excursion by Steve Cave caused a safety car period after which James's Speads didn't seem quite as quick. Dax Ward passed James for the win, with Adrian Wright third. A tremendously brave drive to fourth for Ewen Sergison in his newly acquired Swift SZ99 gave him the 1800 win ahead of Pete Bragg and James Chapman. With Jeremy absent with a broken CV joint cousin Jason won the 1600 class, and with former champion Dave Parkinson retiring, Geoff Fern drove the ex-hillclimber FVJ to second ahead of Eddie Guest who mounted step 3 of the 1600 podium.

Fresh from a 2 second gap for pole, Malcolm Scott initially led but was passed by Tristan Cliffe for the lead. With TopMarx prodidgy Steve Patania third (all 3 Dallara mounted), Jim Blockley was fourth overall in his Classic RT3, and as it had been "some years" since he had last raced here, that was especially impressive. Peter Venn was second Classic and Francis Philips third. The race was red flagged about 3 minutes early after Terry Clark and Jim Timms collided at Coppice, whilst the results awarded Chris Hill the 1400 prize despite his race finishing off track with the car said by the excellent commentators to be briefly on fire. Chris was rthe sole 1400 finsher as Geoff Fern dropped out after 3 laps. The other retirement was Anthony Bishop with a mother of all blow ups, smoke drifting over the Coppice area.

SUNDAY

Sunshine on Saturday turned to rain on Sunday. James O'Reilly took the win, by 4 seconds from Dax Ward who in turn was a second ahead of team-mate Marc Fortune. Pete Bragg returned to the top step of the 1800 podium, with James Chapman second and Michael Dale third. However, it was impressive that all three 1600s were within a 5 second band, the Timms reliability luck of Saturday having been washed away by the rain to leave Jeremy ahead of Jason, and David Parkinson in third. Considering that Jeremy and Jason are held in such high regard by all knowledgeable folk, Dave must be delighted to be so competitive (time for a Dallara, Dave? - asst ed).

The 2000/1400 race was run in drying conditions. Malcolm Scott, second on the grid, made a poor start but rapidly caught pole amn Tristan Cliffe and was within a second of him for most of the race. Tristan pulled out a slightly bigger lead at the finish, but both were 30 seconds ahead of the third man. Who was none other than yestderday's fourth, Jim Blockley in his faithful, 27 year old RT3, showed that a fast, talented driver can still hack it in a slightly older car. Steve Patania was third in the 2000 race. Peter Venn was second classic behind Jim, with a very popular third for Mick Kinghorn in the Mygale Novis. With the OMS hors de combat, Geoff Fern was sole 1400 runner.

Results here

Tony Cotton. Pix Nigel Bland and Tristan Cliffe

Disclaimer: The above represents only the unofficial view of the writer and not of the Monoposto Racing Club in any way whatsover.

The Avit innovative cooling system repair. On-the-spot reporter Tristan Cliffe writes: The car was overheating, and traced to a dodgy water pump and naff radiator ducting. A new pump was fitted, but the inlet and outlet were different (only spotted after fitting), so a collection of blue silicone hoses were used to make it work. (Asst ed believes it's part of a secret blown diffuser system.)

Jeremy Timms's errant drive shaft/CV joint

Dax Ward and James O'Reilly

Antonio Impieri, Geoff Fern, Mick Kinghorn, Kevin Otway, a recovering Richard Purcell and Richard Snuggs debuting his Dallara 387.

Which is more amazing, Jim Blockley or the Ralt?