NKRA Championship- Southern Round 5 – Lydd 11th June 2023
A beautiful sunny and hot weekend greeted the competitors for the penultimate round of the NKRA Championship, held at the Lydd International Kart Circuit. No need to even think about ‘wets’ – they were firmly kept out of the way!
In the racing itself, Devon Giles continued on his unopposed run to the Regional championship.
The Two Junior Blue were locked together for the whole of the race day. this culminated with contact in the Final race, between the two of them, which in turn resulted in a collision with the safety barriers on the exit to pit bend. Alfie Lenton was the first to emerge from the barriers and went on to win. Rudie Winslow-Morten, once extracted from the safety barrier, also re-joined the race to finish 2nd. Both drives were uninjured, though some of the bodywork looked a little warped.
In the Formula BLUE Class, the first eleven in the Championship were all present making it fiercely competed for. Harry Smithson started the day 1 point ahead of the reigning Champion Anth Cleal, with Mike Bell, only 11 points adrift. Once the ‘dust’ from the heats had settled, Harry Smithson had secured Pole position from Stuart Gray P2 , Anth Cleal on P3 and Joey Foster P4. The third row being taken by Paul Alexander and Alex Kemp. After 17 laps of ferocious racing, Gray emerged the winner over the line from Smithson, Cleal, Foster and Alexander. With the points collated from the start- line up and Final finish positions, Gray and Smithson finished equal 1st on 2 points apiece, though Gray is given the day’s win by virtue of his Win in the Final. Cleal, on 5 points finished 3rd, and Foster on 8 points finished 4th. Alexander came in 5th on 10 points. In the Championship proper, Smithson increased his lead over Cleal to where he now has a slender 4 points lead going into the last round. Mike Bell, having a poor round by his standards, remains in 3rd overall, but the gap to the front two has increased. Kemp moves up to 4th position overall along with Alexander in 5th.
In the Masters sub-class, Gray won the day with 0 points, followed by Cleal with 4 points. Foster took 3rd with 6 points and Alexander 4th with 8 points. Kemp rounded up the top five with 10 points. In the Championship it’s all change at the front. Cleal maintains the lead, though it is Kemp who takes up the Challenge ( by drop option) with Alexander equal on points. David Waldron, unusually, had a poor day and having already used up his drop option slipped to 4th. Steve Groves stays in contact in 5th place.
Gray won the day in the Veteran section, Cleal again in 2nd spot, Alexander in 3rd, Groves in 4th and O’Neill in 5th. It is Cleal, however, that remains in the Championship lead from Alexander, Waldron, Groves and Rob Mortimore in 5th.
In the BLUE Legend sub-class Gray took a clean sweep of points from O’Neill and David Goode. Robin Stoddart-Stones came in 4th ahead of Ron Shone. In the Championship, it is John Hartshorne, using his drop-option, who maintains his lead from Shone, Stoddart-Stones, Gray and O’Neill.
Paul Alexander won with minimum points in the last of the sub-classes, namely BLUE Top Weight. Taylor Waldron finished 2nd with David Waldron, Mortimore and Shone sharing 3rd place on 8 points each. In the overall classification, David Waldron maintains his lead from Mortimore, Shone, Alexander and Tom Parker.
The Championship now takes a long break before the final round, which carries a 100-point non-attendance penalty, at the Mansell Race Circuit, in Devon, on 27th August.
For more results view the Results page on the www.planetkarting.uk website or CLICK HERE
For details and photos of 2022 winners CLICK HERE