July 2004 3 Sisters

A dry 2 days of practice on the Saturday saw Andy quicker than everybody by at least 1/2 a second,
however come Sunday and the Heavens opened up, completely soaking the track.

Three lap practice saw Andy go out on new wets, which took a lap and half to bed in and he was up to a decent speed.

Heat 1

Andy was on pole with John Halliwell 2nd and David Monks behind in 3rd. Dean Golba and Ste Calvert had trouble getting started
and as a result were far behind the grid on the formation lap. Andy, looking behind him, thought the grid was formed and
continued at normal rolling lap pace, but as Calvert and Golba had not caught up, a restart was called. Andy was shown the
warning board for not allowing the grid to form up, but at the time Andy did not know what it was for!
The restart was a success and Andy got a good start and held the lead into turn 1, David Monks colliding with Halliwell almost
causing an off. There were no offs however on turn 1 and everyone was cleanly into lap2
Andy built up a comfortable lead on Halliwell in 2nd while Luke Johnson climbed through the field from 12th to 3rd. Andy Woodvine
coming from 20th to 4th. Andy took the win in the wet conditions by 4 and a half seconds.

Heat 2

The track was still soaking wet and the heavy drizzle was not really easing. Wet tyres were the way to go as in heat 1.
This would be where Andy would need to do the most work, starting from 23rd, and needing to finish close to Halliwell, Johnson and
Woodvine to clinch pole position for the final.
The start saw a few casualties, one of them being Woodvine who went in too deep into turn 1 and was collected by another driver.
Andy started to follow Halliwell through the field, although losing touch slighlty at 1 point due to Halliwell sneakily squeezing past Dave Targett
who shut the door on Andy, but after a few corners Andy was past and onto Halliwell once more.
Down the straight and Andy was right on Halliwell. However John had it covered and held the position.
On the second to last lap and John and Andy were right behind Johnson in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Peter Crease in 3rd outbraked himself into turn 1 and ran wide, onto the grass. Halliwell saw this and also outbraked himself in sympathy, also running wide but still passing Crease.
Andy took the inside line and passed both Halliwell and Crease, and almost taking Johnson at the same time. However Andy was quickly by Luke into the hairpin and took 3rd at the line. Paul Phelan took the race honours followed by Eddie Donald who was pressured by Andy on the last corner.
Johnson was 4th with Halliwell 5th.

Final

Andy had pole for the final, with Halliwell 2nd, Johnson 3rd and Donald 4th. Woodvine despite showing good pace, had the off in heat 2 and as a result started down in 14th place.
Just before the final, in a repeat of the Gold Cup, the rain stopped and the track began to slowly dry out! everyone was anxiously waiting on the grid trying to work out whether to go safe on wets or put slicks on and take the risk. Halliwell chose wets and Johnson slicks, but Andy could not decide until right at the last minute, and chose a full dry setup. the kart was put down on the grid SECONDS before the green flag was shown!
Onto the rolling lap and the track looked definitely like it would suit the full dry setup, and as a result Halliwell was in trouble.
Andy got a fantastic start and Johnson followed him on lap 1 as Halliwell began to slip back.
Turn 5 was a bit slippy onto Rogersons Straight on the first few laps and on lap 2 Johnson came out too hot and took a trip on the grass. This dropped him back down the field but he eventually recovered to 4th.
Andy simply romped away into the distance and took the win by 11.72 seconds in only 10 laps, while Paul Hooper drove a brilliant race to claim 2nd spot. Peter Crease sneaked his way into 3rd while Halliwell dropped to 5th. Andy Woodvine was 6th and 2nd in the championship Paul Phelan had his nosecone destroyed in the early stages of the race.
This meant Andy now extended his championship lead to 30 points, followed by Luke Johnson.
Andys fastest lap, 43.70 was 8 tenths quicker than the next quickest driver, Andy Woodvine on a 44.50.