Three Sisters November 2004

Things were close for the final round of the Championship, with 1 point separating Andy and Johnson, Johnson 159, Andy 158, although Johnson would have to drop more points.

 

Saturday practice

Fastest three drivers were Andy, Russell Small and Paul Monks, all doing 43.3 second laps throughout the course of the day, 2 tenths off the lap record.

Heat 1

Andy had pole for heat 1 and was never troubled in this wet 1st heat. Conditions were treacherous but Andy managed to extend his winning margin to 5.1 seconds. Russell Small was 2nd, Halliwell 3rd, Paul Monks 4th and Johnson 5th, making a Venom Sidewinder top 5.

Heat 2

Andy, having been pole for heat 1, was 24th and last for heat 2. A decent first corner was then followed by a disastrous 2nd corner, as Johnson’s brother Oliver, braked suddenly directly in front of Andy. With nowhere to go, Andy hit the back of Johnson and span backwards into the grass. Frantically restarting, Andy managed 22nd, and posted the fastest lap of the race. Paul Monks won the heat from Mark Rainford and Russell Small. Johnson managed 4th spot.

Final

Andy was faced with a heavy task for the final, starting way down in 9th after the collision with Ol Johnson, with Luke starting 3rd. Paul Monks had pole with Small 2nd, with Halliwell accompanying Johnson on the 2nd row.

Monks and Small made a good start and immediately began to break away from the rest of the pack, as Johnson was way too cautious into turn 1 and was passed round the outside by Halliwell. Andy maintained his ground and began to make his charge through the field, first passing Ian Walmsley, then Paul Hooper, and Paul Phelan. Andy then muscled his way past a defiant Mark Rainford at turn 1 on lap 4, moving up to 7th place.

By this time Andy was 2 places behind Johnson, Andy Woodvine the driver separating them. Onto the main straight for lap 6 of 12 and Woodvine went for a move on Johnson up his right hand side. Luke however was having none of this and forced Woodvine onto the grass, gifting Andy an extra position. Meanwhile Monks and Small had pulled away and Richard Crozier was trying to find a way past John Halliwell for 3rd spot, Halliwell leading this group since the beginning of the race.
Crozier made a mistake at turn 1 and Luke slipped past into 4th position, but onto the main straight once again and Crozier got a run on Johnson and got up his inside. However Johnson, tried the same tactic on Crozier that he did with Woodvine. It didn’t quite work so well this time, they tangled together and lost momentum, and Andy, seeing his chance, drove right around the outside of BOTH drivers into turn 1, Johnson outbraking himself and losing a further 3 places to Crozier, Woodvine and Phelan.

Andy, now in 4th, set his sights on John Halliwell in 3rd position, and onto the main straight on the same lap made his move. Halliwell moved all the way over to the right to block the move but Andy made it stick and took 3rd place, and put a few kart lengths into John thanks to a backmarker.

Russell Small took the race honours from Paul Monks, but some 7 seconds back, after a massive battle, Andy came across the line in 3rd and took his 2nd straight MBKC title, Johnson fading to 8th position after being pipped on the line by a charging Callum Craw. 4th to 10th place were separated by less than a second!!!