Super 1 Disaster!
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 12:49
The first 2 rounds of the British championship were held at Clay Pigeon in March, and last weekend, 5/6 April at Shenington.

After a successful test weekend at Clay, the team went into the weekend extremely confident. Throughout Friday unofficial practice, Danny was consistently top 10 pace. On Saturday, he was just as fast, and qualified 7th in group in the wet.

‘I think we did a reasonable job with the kart in qualifying, although we didn’t quite maximise the grip on the kart. Nevertheless, 7th in group is an ok result, and we will look for some solid heat results on Sunday morning. This should give us a good placing for the final,’ commented Tom Smith.

The circuit was wet but drying on Sunday. Dangerous conditions all day saw a total of 40 red flags, and 5 drivers taken to hospital. The first corner at Clay Pigeon is a flat out left hander, and the outside line was wet all day. After being taken out in all 3 heats at the first corner, the team decided to call it a day.

‘To send any driver into a 70mph first corner in the wet on cold slicks is dangerous. When there are 30 karts all vying for position it is even worse. We didn’t make it round the first corner all day, but I am relieved that Danny is not one of the unfortunate drivers in Hospital. The race meeting should not have gone ahead. The MSA are aware of this, as every team has written to the organisers’ about the poor quality of the officials decisions.’

The team rolled into the Shenington paddock on Thursday 3rd April with high expectations for the weekend. After coming from 24th to 1st in the test the month previous, we knew that the pace was there.

Once again, Friday and Saturday practice were good for the team. Danny was the quickest man all weekend, both in the dry and wet. Qualifying was close, and we put in a time that kept us in contention for the race day.

Danny topped the timesheets in Sunday morning practice, and everything was looking good. Once again, the negligence of the organisers saw a red flag in the first race of the day. The meeting was declared open, and the circuit was still wet. 5 drivers did not finish the heat. Our first race was on slicks, although there was a river running across the circuit at the fastest point.

Danny made a good start from 10th up to 5th, and was starting to catch the lead kart by lap two. He was pushed from behind into the bottom hairpin, and 5 karts came off the track. The race was stopped and restarted because of this. However, in their wisdom the officials would not let him re-enter the race, although his kart was fine. An argument with the officials followed, which resulted in Danny being excluded from the race meeting.

Overall, the Super 1 has been poorly run throughout the first two rounds. We have been unfortunate to come off worst (apart from those drivers with broken bones!). We will not continue to support a series where the driving standards are dangerous, and the officials allow this to carry on. 3DR Motorsport have pulled Danny out of the series, with a view to concentrating on other championships, and possibly entering 1 or 2 rounds of the European Rotax championship.
 
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