Junior Grand Prix at Rogue Racing - 2009
2nd May:
Another good turnout with 20 drivers arriving for the May Grand Prix event. Could Geri keep up his winning ways and start off another run? The signs were less than convincing as he went out in the practice session and seemed unable to do much about Jordan Donegan out on track with him! With Geri having played his joker last month, the awareness was heightened. Brandon felt the need to pull back the points so played his joker.
Heat one saw Geri straight out on track and starting from pole position, with Matt Hayes, Alex Milton, Jack Bradley, Tom Holland and Daniel Truman lined up behind him. Jack Bradley was a first lap spinner so the yellow lights came on early, but once out, Geri was away. He lapped Jack on lap 4, Matt who had been chasing hard got stuck behind Jack for a lap before finding his way past, by lap six Geri was 3 seconds clear of Matt who in turn was 4 seconds clear of Alex in 3rd. Geri moved further ahead, leading by 5 seconds by lap 8 and going on to win with 8 seconds from Matt who finished 8 seconds clear of the 4 kart battle for 3rd. Geri set fastest lap with 27.32, to Matt (28.32), Alex (28.87), Daniel (28.21), Tom (28.60) and Jack (29.01).
Heat two, Matthew Hopcraft on pole from Jordan Donegan, Luke Doig, Chris Bradley, Ben Humphrey and Carl Donnellan. Chris got left behind from the start while the front three ran together in formation, each a couple of lengths apart. Luke squeezed by Jordan into second place at the end of lap 4, and moved up into the lead on lap 7. From there Luke quickly pulled out a 2 second lead and lapped Chris on lap 8. Matthew lapped Chris on lap 9 but could not pull back the 5 second lead Luke had built up. Luke won with fastest lap 27.59 from Matthew (27.88), Carl (28.42), Ben (28.65), Jordan (27.75) and Chris (31.17).
Heat three, Sam Conn on pole from Brandon Wilson, Callum Bradley, Matt Hayes, William Tregurtha and Joe Sheraton. Brandon went round the outside of Sam on the first corner but his lead was short-lived as Callum got by both of them to take the lead at the end of the bottom straight. Brandon and Sam were in close company and on lap three they crashed leaving Brandon 5th and Sam 6th. Brandon started chasing back hard moving past William on lap 4 to get into 4th place. As yellows came out on lap 8, Brandon moved up into 3rd place while Matt had now found a way past Callum to lead the heat. On the final corner Brandon passed Callum to take second place and maintain his record of finishing in the top two in every race in 2009! Matt won with best lap of 28.14 from Brandon (27.73), Callum (28.18), Joe (28.67), William (27.78) and Sam (29.21).
Heat four, Geri's second race, this time starting from 3rd on the grid behind Will Barker and Daniel Truman with Jordan Donegan, Alex Milton and Patrick Harper lining up behind. Geri moved inside Daniel on the first corner and up into second place but it took him until lap 7 to get past Will at the end of the top straight after getting better drive from the first corner up the ramp. Geri then set the two fastest laps of the day up to that point, 27.11 on lap 7, then 27.08 on lap 8 and built up a big lead. lap 9 was going well until Geri came off the bottom straight where he spund the kart round so he was facing the wall. He was just able to get going again before Will caught up, and then set a new FTD on the final lap of 26.99 to take his second win of the day and his 7th in a row after his 5 win haul last month. Will was second (27.70) from Daniel (27.64), Jordan (27.61), Alex (28.56) and Patrick (28.38).
Heat five, Tom Holland on pole from Carl Donnellan, Matthew Hopcraft, Brandon Wilson, Luke Doig and Harry Macaulay. Carl got put into the wall on the first corner and dropped to 6th straight away, Brandon was having a better time and was up to second by the end of lap 2 with Tom in front. Luke and Matthew were battling over 3rd, Luke finally got by Matthew on lap 6. By the end of lap 7, Brandon had closed up on Tom and was right behind him trying to find a way past. Perhaps surprisingly, Tom was faster on lap 8 and finished the lap 2 lengths clear of Brandon who in turn was 2 laps clear of Luke. It all went wrong on the final lap, coming round the corner off the end of the bottom straight, Luke crashed into Brandon hard, leaving Brandon stuck against the wall and in obvious pain. Matthew got by from 4th to finish second and it looked like Brandon would finish third, except he stopped a length before the finish line and got out of the kart complaining of a very sore neck. This led him to being classified 6th. The results finished Tom (27.47), Matthew (27.65), Harry (28.48), Luke (27.18), Carl (27.77) and Brandon (27.37).
Heat six, Ben Humphrey on pole from Joe Shearaton, Sam Conn, Daniel Truman, Callum Bradley and Jack Bradley. Jack crashed at the start of the bottom straight on the first lap which brought on the red light and a race stoppage. From the restart, Joe spun at the end of the second lap allowing Sam to move up into 2nd place, but already 7 seconds behind Ben who was way out front. Another spin at the same place on lap 6 saw Joe lose 3rd place to Callum. The race ended with a win for Ben (28.32) by 9 seconds from Sam (28.61), Callum just a second behind (28.09), Joe (28.94), Jack (28.77) and Daniel (28.28).
Heat seven and Geri's final heat. William Tregurtha on pole from Patrick Harper, Will Barker, Carl Donnellan, Geri and Chris Bradley. Geri was wasting no time and by the end of the top straight on lap one, he was already up to 3rd, a lap later Geri moved into 2nd place at the same spot and was only 2 seconds behind William up front. In a race of yellows, there were 4 yellow light incidents in the remaining laps, Geri was unable to make an impression on William and had to settle for 2nd place. William won with best lap of 27.51 from Geri (27.62), Carl (28.00), Will (27.65), Patrick (28.62) and Chris (29.58). After the race Geri said he was having to steer left all the way down the straight as the kart wasn't running true. It was then we realised it was the kart Brandon had his big crash in. Still, with 23 points Geri was looking a safe bet for top point scorer, even with three more heats to run.
Heat eight, Alex Milton on pole from Harry Macaulay, Tom Holland, Joe Sheraton, Matthew Hopcraft and Matt Hayes. Matt made steady progress through the pack and went from last to first during the race. the order finished Matt (27.89), Matthew (27.97), Tom (27.96), Alex (28.21), Joe (28.88) and Harry (28.54). This left Matt also on 23 points along with Geri, but Geri headed the table by dint of a faster lap.
Heat nine, Luke Doig on pole from Jack Bradley, Ben Humphrey, Patrick Harper, Jordan Donegan and Sam Conn. Somewhat predictably, Luke just drove off, he was 2 seconds clear at the end of the first lap, 10 seconds clear by the end of lap 7 and went on to take an easy win. Luke (27.21) won from Jack (28.81), Ben (28.56), Patrick (28.36), Jordan (27.67) and Sam (29.08).
Heat ten, the final heat and Brandon who only had 10 points so far had it all to do. The grid lined up Callum Bradley from Chris Bradley, William Tregurtha, Harry Macaulay, Will Barker and Brandon Wilson starting from last place. William passed Chris off the start and Brandon had already moved up two places into 4th by the end of the first lap. Then it all went wrong, Chris spun and the yellow lights came on. Will looked to be overtaking across the finish line at that point and may have harshly been adjudged to overtake under yellows, but then rounding the up-ramp, Brandon then followed Will and both of them were shown the black flag, meaning a vist to the sin bin. It was too much for Brandon who retired there and then, while Will got back into the race in 5th place and managed to catch and pass Chris before the end. The race was red flagged on lap 6, from the restart Callum, Harry and William were running nose to tail with Chris and Will running together but a long way back, and Chris a lap down. Callum 27.76) was slowly pulling away at the front and won from Harry (28.05) by 3 seconds with William (27.65) 3rd, Will (27.98) 4th, Chris (29.79) 5th and Brandon (27.50) 6th.
The leader board now read: Geri 23, Matt 23, Luke 21, Matthew 21, Callum 20, Ben 19, Tom 18, William 18, Will 17, Carl 16, Harry 16 and Alex 15 making up the 12 semi-finalists. Brandon was back on 13 points, even doubled with his joker only gives 26 and may well be one of his dropped scores at the end of the season.
Semi final one - Geri on pole from Luke Doig, Callum Bradley, Tom Holland, Will Barker and Harry Macaulay. Callum got inside Luke on the first corner but by the end of the top straight, Luke was back in second place and right on Geri's rear bumper. Geri and Luke were pulling away and running bumper to bumper, Geri couldn't seem to shake Luke off. On lap 4 Geri had a half spin as the back of the kart stepped out allowing Luke to take advantage and overtake Geri for the second month running. We expected Geri to fight straight back, but in reality Luke was ever so slightly increasing the gap and Geri seemed to have no answer - this was about to be the very first time ever Geri would be beaten when starting on pole position. On lap 11 it went completely wrong for Geri, another tail slide at the end of the top straight saw his kart being hit hard and Geri was stuck in the wall. He got going again but was now down in 5th place with a lap and a half to go. On the final lap Geri set the fastest lap of the day at 26.95, but that was only enough to cross the line right on Harry's bumper, still in 5th place. Geri got out of the kart crying and holding his side, he had done that time while crying and in pain - but he was also out of the final for the first time in 14 months even though he was to end the semi-fianls in 4th on points accrued. Luke took a deserved win with best lap of 27.06 (the fastest non-Geri lap all day) from the ever-improving Callum (27.33), Tom (27.99), Harry (28.51), Geri (26.95) and Will (27.98).
Semi final two, Matt Hayes on pole from Matthew Hopcraft, Ben Humphrey, William Tregurtha, Carl Donnellan and Alex Milton. After a first lap red flag and restart, Matt caught Alex by the end of the race but was able to follow him leading the first three across the line. Matt (27.39) won from Matthew (27.74), William (27.67), Ben (28.01), Carl (28.33) and Alex (28.69).
And so to the final. In the first four months of 2009, Geri and Brandon have occupied the top two places on the podium, with three wins to Geri and one to Brandon. With neither of them in the final we were going to have a new winner for 2009. Luke Doig would start from pole by virtue of fastest lap (Matt actually led on points 31 to 29) from Matt Hayes, Callum Bradley (in his first final), Matthew Hopcraft, William Tregurtha and Tom Holland. Callum didn't have his wheels pointing straight on the grid and from the start he bounced off Matt on the inside and then back into the outside wall, and down into 6th place. Luke was never going to lose from pole, he was two seconds clear of Matt by the end of the first lap and drove a steady race to take a comfortable win, his first GP win since March 2008. The positions finished Luke (27.22), Matthew (27.57), William (27.43), Tom (27.56), Callum (27.75) and Matt disappointingly finished 6th (27.91) plainly handicapped by the kart Brandon had his big crash in. Indeed that kart had been an affliction no-one overcame after the crash with Jack and Jordan finishing their heats in 5th, Harry, Will and Matt having finished last. Only Geri and Matthew (in the semi final starting 2nd) had brought that kart home higher than 4th, both scoring a second place.
Hopefully Geri will be able to drop his 27 point haul as one of his lowest two, but he still pulls another point away from Brandon who even with a joker only scored 26. Geri now leads with 209 from Brandon (180) and Luke (174). Next month is important with double points on order for all drivers.
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