British Superkarts Rockingham – F125 Open

Rounds 7 & 8 of the British Superkart Association’s National Championship for the F125 Open were held at Rockingham the other weekend (10^th August 2014). Chris Needham extends his lead in this fast and furious championship by taking another double win at this new venue for the series where severe weather and red flags were the order of the day. Words by Gary James.

Qualifying

There was a disappointing entry for this meeting for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless the top ten in the championship were all present. The timed session was held in dry, cloudy but breezy conditions. Liam Morley was soon on the pace and banged in a time of 1m 10.502s to claim pole position. “We hadn’t made any changed since this morning and had a target time that was half a second quicker. We bolted on a new set of Dunlop’s and went for it. When I saw the time come up on the datalogger I was happy that I had the job done,” he said. After topping the times in the morning warm-up, Chris Needham was struggling to get near the time as his Hoosier tyres were past their best having done three meetings. He pitted and put on a set that were only one meeting old. On his second lap he set a time of 1m 10.563s just 0.061s behind Morley. Lee Harpham (1m 11.465s) secured third place on the grid but he was suffering from understeer and went off twice at Brook Corner. Only 0.022s slower was Matt Isherwood (1m 11.487s). “The motor is a bit down on power. I could get more out of the kart but I am not sure how,” he said. Recently crowned English champion Kirk Cattermole (1m 11.563s) was fifth quickest. He had cured an understeer problem but the motor was cutting out through the long right handed Kirby Deene section. Sam Moss (1m 11.995s) was first out on track but struggled with a lot of oversteer but persevered and set his time on the last lap. Danny Butler (1m 12.303s) reverted back to his F1 chassis for this meeting feeling that the new HRK chassis and a new circuit would be too much to learn. Unfortunately, he ended qualifying with a seized TM motor. Completing row 4 was Louis Wall (1m 12.733s). He pitted after one lap having scrubbed in a new set of tyres before going out on a set used at Anglesey. He had a slight misfire through the Kirby Deene section so decided to park the kart rather than risk any damage. Dan Edwards (1m 12.876s) was a lowly ninth quickest. He had changed from Hoosiers to Dunlop’s but hadn’t changed then gearing so he was only pulling 12k along the straight. Neil Robinson (1m 13.816s) rounded out the top ten.

Race 1

As a result of Hurricane Bertha paying a visit to Rockingham, the first race was delayed by 1 ¼ hours. With skies brightening the Superkarts went out on wet tyres and were given two laps behind the pace car to acclimatise. When the lights changed Morley bogged down on pole position and this allowed Needham and Isherwood to get past on the run to the first corner with Moss also getting ahead. Sam then drove round the outside of Matt to grab second place.

At the end of lap 1 Needham had an advantage of 0.534s over Moss while Harpham, who had his TM load up at the start, passed Morley up the inside at Tarzan hairpin to take third place with Isherwood shuffled back to fifth spot. Needham doubled his lead on lap 2 with Harpham closing in on Moss while Isherwood wasn’t having a good time and lost another place to Wall.

Moss then found the track conditions to his liking and halved the lead setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. He was noticeably quicker than Needham and at Yentwood on lap 4 he made a challenge for the lead but wasn’t quite close enough. Next time around Moss made the same manoeuvre and this time he was through and into the lead. So at the end of lap 5 the order was Moss, Needham, Harpham, Morley, Wall and Isherwood. But then a red flag was shown with seven minutes still remaining on the clock. Simon Rushforth and Tony Long had gone off without damage at Gracelands but were deemed to be in a dangerous place so the officials had little choice but to stop the race. The results were then taken counting back one lap so Needham regained the top spot. “Sam drove a good race. I wasn’t going to fight him for the lead as I knew that he wasn’t challenging me I the championship,” explained Needham. Moss accepted the decision of losing his win, “just one of those things in racing.”

Results:

1 Chris Needham – Anderson Vortex

2 Sam Moss – Anderson TM

3 Lee Harpham – F1 Redspeed TM

4 Liam Morley – Anderson Vortex

5 Louis Wall – Anderson RW TM

6 Matt Isherwood – Anderson Magnum Vortex

Race 2

With grid positions determined by lap times in race one, Moss was on pole position with Needham alongside. After the circuit was lashed with rain again, the sun came out and we had blue sky. Half an hour behind schedule the grid formed up with the track dry enough for slicks, although there were a couple of damp patches.

Moss didn’t make the cleanest of starts and allowed Needham to take the lead. Morley looked for a way up the inside of Moss entering Brook but got on a wet patch of tarmac and this allowed Isherwood into second place. Isherwood then outbraked his team mate into Tarzan hairpin to take the lead at the end of lap 1 while Morley had displaced Moss at Yentwood to take third place and Cattermole passed Moss on the exit of Tarzan to claim fourth place. Dan Edwards was next ahead of Harpham who had lost out again at the start when his TM loaded up.

Needham repassed his team mate on lap 2 and opened up a useful lead as the rest squabbled over second place. Isherwood was struggling with the handling of his Anderson. Cattermole and Morley got past at Yentwood while Moss drove round the outside at Gracelands to push Isherwood back to fifth place.

By lap 4 the race had settled down with Needham 2.017s ahead and Morley firmly established in second place ahead of Cattermole. Moss, Isherwood and Harpham were dicing over fourth place but Isherwood lost ground on the pair on lap 5. Edwards was holding seventh place but he spun at Yentwood letting Butler and Wall past. Butlers race ended 200 yards further on when the big end in his TM failed.

Needham set the fastest lap of the race on lap 6 and continued to increase his lead over Morley. Cattermole lost his third place at the end of the following lap when he pulled into the pits with a broken split link on the chain which left Moss and Harpham to fight over that position. Moss was struggling with oversteer while Harpham also had some handling issues. They were locked together for the next three laps and then Harpham seized his chance when they came across backmarkers at the end of lap 10. Harpham drew alongside on the exit of Tarzan hairpin and moved ahead as they started lap 11. But then we had another red flag. There was some confusion as to why but the reason given was debris on the track. (Ask Gordon Cuthill for the full story). With results taken back a lap Needham was declared the winner while Moss benefited on the count back and secured third place.

Results:

1 Chris Needham – Anderson Vortex

2 Liam Morley – Anderson Vortex

3 Sam Moss – Anderson TM

4 Lee Harpham – F1 Redspeed TM

5 Matt Isherwood – Anderson Magnum Vortex

6 Louis Wall – Anderson RW TM

BSA F125 Open Championship 2014 – Positions after 8 rounds

1 Chris Needham – 197pts

2 Matt Isherwood – 169pts

3 Liam Morley – 147pts

4 Lee Harpham – 129pts

5 Dan Edwards – 94pts

6 Louis Wall – 86pts

Many thanks to Gary James. Photo by Dave Robinson.

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