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Newey Wins At Whilton Mill - 12/03/2010 22:14:29
The final weekend in February marked the first outing of the year for the Team at Whilton Mill kart circuit. Fresh from their warm weather testing exploits in El Vendrell (Spain) both Dan Ticktum and Callum Ilott were joined by Harrison Newey in the team for the weekend. Fellow Wright kart pilot Charlie Barlow was also in attendance.
With prior engagements hampering preparations for the weekend both Callum Ilott and Charlie Barlow had to forgo Saturday testing and try to hit the ground running, with their first laps of the weekend being the 3 lap warm-up Sunday morning.
For three of the four drivers the heats contained two good results and one poor. Charlie Barlow(21,5,8), Dan Ticktum(5,2,DNF) and Callum Ilott(9,8,25), leading to final grid positions of 12th,13th and 14th respectively. The exception to the rule was Harrison Newey with three positive heat results (6,9,6) which led to the youngster sitting on the inside of the second row of the grid (3rd).
As with most racing during the winter months the weather was very temperamental. Going into the final the race looked to be dry enough for slick tyres, however the split on the grid was only about 60/40 in preference of the slicks. Newey and Barlow being the Wright drivers to opt for wet tyres.
The starting line up saw Newey 3rd on the grid, Barlow 12th, Ticktum 13th, and Ilott 14th. The first lap was one of highs and lows.
Newey held station on the opening lap on his wet tyres, then began to close the gap on Gunn after a great start. Callum Ilott also made a great start gaining a couple of places on the first lap, with Charlie Barlow hanging onto his shirttails. Dan Ticktum however didn't have as much luck as his team-mates. With a number of drivers struggling for grip on slicks, the battle behind Ticktum was about to effectively end his race. Coming down the hill on the first lap, a driver two karts back from Ticktum moved to the inside line, braking on the damp line the driver passed one kart and collided with Ticktums rear bumper sending him spinning onto the sopping wet infield.
By lap three it was easy to see that the wet tyres had been the correct decision and Newey had taken the lead from Gunn, and was extending the advantage at a rate of a second a lap. Barlow also looked to take advantage of the wet tyres, and ate through the field at a fantastic rate, moving from 14th to 5th place in just 5 laps, almost matching Neweys lap times as he carved through the field. Ilott had also made swift progress through the dispersing field and was in a comfortable 5th position at the midway point of the race.
As the race drew to a close Newey never looked like being caught and the only possible hurdle was the fast approaching back-markers, all of whom were negotiated with ease. Newey finished way out in front after a dominant performance in the Cadet class, and continues his impressive improvement from the last 6 months.
Ilott maintained his superb form coming 4th over the line (2nd highest finishing slick tyre driver).
Unfortunately Barlows fantastic start was hampered by a cracked wheel hub, which consequently moved in and started to rub on his brakes. This caused Barlow to drop from 4th to 19th within the last 5 laps.
Dan Ticktum moved up ten positions over the course of the race and came home in 17th spot after an impressive fight back after his first lap off.
Final Results: Fastest Time
1 Harrison NEWEY 56.02s
2 Owen GRIFFITHS 56.27s
3 Ross GUNN 56.83s
4 Callum ILOTT 57.50s
5 Luke STARK 57.84s
17 Dan TICKTUM 57.61s
19 Charlie BARLOW 56.94s
Neweys win was a great finish to a good weekend for the youngster, who has improved in leaps and bounds over the past six months. It is also congratulations to Callum Ilott and Charlie Barlow for their efforts in the final and commiserations to Dan Ticktum, whose race was spoilt on the very first lap.
On another day we could have seen 4 Wright karts in the top six places
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2010 Team Race Dates Announced |
