January 30th 2005

Andy made a terrific comeback in round 2 of the MBKC Winter Series by taking the win and setting the fastest lap.

After light drizzle in the morning, and less than perfect track conditions due to a supermoto event the week before, leaving the track covered in mud and dust, Andy made consistent finishes in both heats to line up 2nd alongside the current Junior TKM club champion James Duxbury in the final.

Taking the lead on lap 1, Andy relinquished the lead to Duxbury once due to a small error but reclaimed the top spot on lap 4 and from then on was never headed, Duxbury making a mistake and falling into the clutches of Paul Monks towards the later stages of the 12 lap final. Andy took the win by just over 1.3 seconds from Monks and Duxbury, and moves up to 2nd in the winter series, albeit some 23 points behind Duxbury due to the new points system.

 

Heat 1

Light drizzle in the morning had made the conditions very slippy, and every driver took the option of running red label wets, apart from a select few on the older, less sticky greens.

Vanessa Murphy had the pole slot for this heat, with Andy alongside in 2nd. Two other key players would start right behind Andy, John Halliwell in 4th, and James Duxbury immediaitely behind him in 6th.

As the green light came on and the drivers dashed down towards turn 1, Andy had a slight run on Murphy round the outside, but a cheeky nudge from Duxbury saw Andy go wide and slip back into 4th, behind Duxbury who had taken the lead, Halliwell who sneaked through, and Murphy. Andy dispatched Murphy fairly quickly and set about catching Halliwell. However, although being later on the brakes into turn 1, he had trouble getting the rear grip to get the power down out of the major corners and as a result could not catch John. Duxbury took a comfortable victory from Halliwell and Andy, with Paul Monks sneaking through into 4th spot from 12th, ahead of Paul Phelan and Alan Lea.

Heat 2

The drizzle had stopped and a dry line had formed on the track, but conditions were still extremely slippy due to a layer of dust covering the track. Once again wets were the option although a couple of drivers chose slicks. this would prove to be a mistake as there was not enough grip on the track.

Ian Ashworth would start this heat on pole position, with John O'Brien 2nd, David Crutchley 3rd and Stephen Calvert 4th. Andy was 25th on the grid directly behind Halliwell, with Duxbury 21st ahead of Halliwell.

A nightmare start saw Eddie Donald's engine die at the line, forcing Dean Golba to take evasive action. Peter Crease piled into Golba and skewed across the track, t-boning Halliwell and bending his rear axle. Halliwell pulled straight into the pits, and from further back, Mark Morton careered into Crease and barrel rolled out of his kart!

After a daring move at turn 2 by Duxbury which saw him come off, taking Calvert and a couple of other drivers with him, the red flag was shown, and a full restart was called. 7 drivers didnt make the restart, meaning that Andy would now start in 19th directly behind Duxbury in 17th.

Andy and Duxbury made good starts, although Duxbury got a break halfway through lap 1 and managed to get to 2nd by lap 2, Andy managing 8th from the start. As Duxbury took the lead, Paul Monks went straight on at paddock bend and went across the grass, rejoining ahead of Andy on Rodgersons straight.

At the line Duxbury took the win from Monks, with Andy in 3rd.

Final

Wets again were the option for all the front runners as the dust meant that the slicks would simply not grip as well, even though the track would normally have been dry by this point, the layer of dust made conditions treacherous, especially round the flat out turn 2, the right-left after the dummy grid straight, and Lunar Bend.

Duxbury had pole for this 12 lap final, with Andy alongside, Paul Monks and Alan Lea forming up row 2 ahead of Alex Jones and Dean Golba.

The start was clean and Andy slotted in behind Duxbury, with Monks having a little look at turn 1 but not enough to trouble Andy.

Andy immediately got a run on Duxbury towards the hairpin and took the lead, James giving him a couple of little nudges down Rodgersons Straight. Andy held the lead until lap 4 when he ran wide at lunar and onto the greasy line, Duxbury seeing the mistake and driving up the inside. Andy immedately got the run onto him again into the hairpin on the next lap and outbraked Duxbury again, taking the lead. Andy would never be headed from this point to the flag.

It was still desperately close between these 2 until Duxbury made a small mistake coming onto Rodgersons, 4 laps from the end. This gave Andy a bit of breathing space and dropped Duxbury into the clutches of Paul Monks, who then took 2nd place from James.

After passing a few treacherous backmarkers, Andy took the flag some 1.3 seconds ahead of Monks, with Duxbury another 0.5 seconds behind in 3rd. Alan Lea put in a very solid effort, his first race for over a year and a half, to come home in 4th. Andy had the fastest lap at 46.748, Duxbury very close with a 46.775, and Monks with a 46.987. This result moved Andy up to 2nd in the winter series, Duxbury still holding the top spot by 23 points.