Another highly anticipated RHPK round and was sold out after just 5 hours on the Monday after round two, however, a 5-week wait between rounds prompted a number of teams to test during the weeks up to the race.

This month we welcomed a brand new team, Chess Racing – sporting number 60. It was the teams first race in a Pro-Kart Series and were taken under the wing of CET & Silverline Racing – fantastic introduction by our two regulars. Sticky Dickies was back, having debuted last month, Richard was back! Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, two teams were unable to make it last minute – LR Racing & Neptune. We hope to see both teams in the up and coming months.

Morning practice started off with rain – which was a little surprising considering the warm and dry weather we’ve had on the run up to the race.

We welcomed back Chris McCarthy who will be returning to commentate for the series for the rest of the year.

The RHPK pace car this month was a Pirtek Racing Group C Proton Satria GTi track car. Perry punt in a decent amount of laps in the Proton before starting Round 3.

After the British F4 driver Billy Monger’s horrific crash at Donington Park, this month the Sausage fest included a collection for Billy #billywhizz. We raised an incredible £729. A big shout out to all of those who donated and bought stickers (Which were sold out in less than 5 minutes!)

Lunch provided by Team Lambo was sponsored by Team Amigos & SJ Lambo – all proceeds to the food went directly to Bill Monger. A real tribute to the Team Lambo camp. We can’t thank you all enough.

Qualifying

As the qualifying was about to being the sky looked very dark causing some spots of rain to fall – it was enough for the whole field to be waiting on the dummy grid waiting for the session to start just in case it poured!

Yet another round where qualifying was mightly close, just over one and a half tenths separated the top 5. 7th place down to 25th was separated by just 1 second! ABA who went out as soon as possible took a firm pole position with a time of 41.635, Helicopter Services just missed out with a time of 41.706. This month we only had the presence of RPM 1 who took the second row of the grid in third with a time of 41.766. HRS 1 looked back on pace this month with a time of 41.792.

In Clubman we saw an equally close race to pole position, Polish Lambo took the pole with a time of 42.205, just fractions behind was JND Racing with a 42.260. A stunning qualifying session for Artifex Racing saw them take the 3rd spot in Clubman with a 42.270, fantastic to see the guys right in the mix in Clubman. SJ Lambo looked very strong in qualifying jsut missing out on the 3rd spot with a time of 42.318.

We were in for a very close race!

Race

Chris McCarthy was back this round to conduct his famous grid walk.

As the green flag dropped it’s ABA Racing who lead the pack into the first corner closely followed by RPM 1 & Titan Motorsport who are all on the inside, Helicopter Services on the outside looking for space.

Disaster for Silverline Racing as they spin off on the first hairpin, Pelam are also caught up and a number of karts narrowly missing them.

First lap, ABA Racing in the lead, followed by RPM 1, Helicopter Services, Titan Motorsport and HRS Racing. HRS make a move on Titan on the second hairpin and make it stick. JND Racing leads the Clubman battle from hard charging SJ Lambo, Polish Lambo, KA Racing and March Racing all nose to tail.

Our biggest mover on lap 1 is HRS 2, gaining an incredible 8 places after the first lap. Artifex after their stunning qualifying position fall victim to an incident on track and drop 18 places!

Custom Rods taking a place from Spectre Racing, Custom Rods losing out on the start on the outside.

Lap 3 and there is a change for the lead, RPM Racing 1 take first from ABA in a closely thought battle. Lap 4 ABA Drop another 2 places as both HRS1 and Titan go through. Lap 5 Custom Rods briefly take Helicopter Services but it’s short lived and the Helicopter takes the place back – Custom Rods struggling for pace this weekend.

Lap 7 and there is a mighty battle for the Clubman Lead – JND Racing drop 2 places as overtaken by both SJ and Polish Lambo. SJ now in the lead and looking very strong.

Lap 9 and KA Racing take the place from JND, what a race! A real 4 way battle in Clubman, a couple of laps later Polish Lambo take SJ and pull through KA Racing for first and second in Clubman.

Lap 14 APL take 20th place from HRS2 and Team Eyrie Also take Team CET for 23rd place.  Most of the field nose to tail.

We saw quite a serious incident on the first hairpin invoiling Team JAM which resulted in them breaking their brake pedal – unfortunately it removed the team from any decent result this round. We heard from Team JAM over the weekend, Jason’s foot is a little sore but recovering is well.

Lap 53 and it is still a full on a battle for SJ Lambo at the top of the clubman class, KA Racing takes 1st from SJ, who takes the place back on lap 67 in such a closely fought battle. Less than a second separated the top 3 in Clubman after 68 laps! Lap 69 Polish Lambo take KA Racing for 2nd in clubman chasing down SJ Lambo. JND in striking distance.

In Super, another epic battle is raging between front runners, ABA Racing who are leading to RPM 1 in second and Helicopter Services in 3rd – all separated by less than two-tenths of a second.

Lap 99, Artifex after an incident on the first lap are pulling themselves up, now up to 21st place, taking two places in one lap. New team, Chess racing are in a very respectable 28th place, in their first race and Championship!

As the battles rage in both classes, we hit the pit stop window.

Despite both Lambo’s epic battles in the first half of the race and looking certain to do well this round, both Polish and SJ Lambo have to pit to fix their front bumpers – absolutely gutting for both teams which you could hear in Chris McCarthy’s voice over the Microphone. A real turn of pace for SJ Lambo this month, stamping their mark on the highly competitive clubman class.

Team Eyrie Also was black flagged in the later part of the race for overtaking on a yellow flag, once completing their stop-go they fall victim to a rear hub failure causing them to put again, taking them completely out of the race. Team CET and Chess Racing collide on the first hairpin, CET have to pit to replace a bent stub, but manage to get back out again.

The racing didn’t let up in the last hour. Piers Prior from ABA Racing jumped in the seat to replace Andrew Bishop who drove a fantastic middle stint – one of his best drives that we’ve seen from him, nominated as driver of the day by a number of teams. Piers job is to close down RPM1. As the clock is ticking down their is a real chance that he can do it – as the gap closes to less than 2 seconds in the closing stages of the race he collides with Amigos which puts him out of the race for first. A stunning chase from both drivers and a real testament to their race craft through the field.

In Clubman a battle is raging as Evolution chasing down Stickies in the closing stages of the race.

As the chequered flag drops the win goes to RPM Racing by just 7 seconds to ABA Racing who have to settle for 2nd. Helicopter Services take 3rd and Titan Motorsport takes 4th. A well deserved 6th place for JRH Racing.

JND Racing take a well-deserved clubman win, March Racing take 2nd and Artifex Racing who were strong in qualifying find their hard work pay off to take 3rd spot in clubman – their best result this year! Well done guys. Burton Power Racing take 4th on the podium.  A well deserved 5th place goes to Amigos 2, Roy Grassie driving for Amigos 2 this round.

 

Round 3 - May 2017 Qualifying

Pos	Kart	Team	Class	Laps	Best
1	3	ABA Racing	Super	11	41.635
2	1	Helicopter Services	Super	27	41.706
3	17	RPM 1	Super	29	41.766
4	14	HRS 1	Super	11	41.792
5	19	Titan MotorSport	Super	12	41.801
6	2	Custom Rods	Super	13	41.956
7	24	Spectre Racing	Super	42	42.197
8	32	Polish Lambo	Clubman	39	42.205
9	22	Amigos	Super	28	42.214
10	55	JND Racing	Clubman	41	42.26
11	8	Lambo Racing	Super	30	42.269
12	41	Artifex	Clubman	33	42.27
13	57	SJ Lambo	Clubman	27	42.318
14	33	Silverline Racing	Clubman	32	42.365
15	4	JRH Racing	Super	35	42.415
16	53	March Racing	Clubman	39	42.436
17	54	Burton Power WAGS	Clubman	41	42.444
18	36	KA Racing	Clubman	33	42.45
19	56	APL Racing	Clubman	37	42.489
20	31	Burton Power Racing	Clubman	36	42.52
21	10	Karting Magazine	Super	28	42.608
22	59	Amigos 2	Clubman	29	42.637
23	42	Team Eyrie Also	Clubman	33	42.784
24	7	Team JAM	Super	16	42.876
25	37	Pelam Racing	Clubman	34	43.183
26	34	NMA Racing	Clubman	19	43.266
27	61	ZJ Racing 2	Clubman	18	43.29
28	38	ZJ Racing	Clubman	31	43.581
29	43	Evolution	Clubman	23	43.74
30	58	HRS 2	Clubman	11	43.754
31	40	BMH	Clubman	36	43.868
32	67	Sticky Dickies	Clubman	19	44.188
33	35	Team CET	Clubman	8	44.392
34	60	Chess Racing	Clubman	20	45.864

Round 3 - May 2017 Race

Pos	Kart	Team	Class	Laps	Behind	Best
1	17	RPM 1	Super	340		41.6
2	3	ABA Racing	Super	340	7.737	41.514
3	1	Helicopter Services	Super	340	40.452	41.614
4	19	Titan Motorsport	Super	339	1 Lap	41.782
5	2	Custom Rods	Super	337	3 Laps	41.867
6	4	JRH Racing	Super	336	4 Laps	42.061
7	55	JND Racing	Clubman	334	6 Laps	42.279
8	22	Amigos	Super	334	6 Laps	42.249
9	14	HRS 1	Super	334	6 Laps	41.678
10	8	Lambo Racing	Super	334	6 Laps	42.078
11	10	Karting Magazine	Super	333	7 Laps	42.3
12	53	March Racing	Clubman	332	8 Laps	42.259
13	24	Spectre Racing	Super	332	8 Laps	42.323
14	41	Artifex	Clubman	330	10 Laps	42.248
15	31	Burton Power Racing	Clubman	330	10 Laps	42.412
16	59	Amigos 2	Clubman	330	10 Laps	42.271
17	54	Burton Power WAGS	Clubman	330	10 Laps	42.343
18	36	KA Racing	Clubman	329	11 Laps	42.199
19	56	APL Racing	Clubman	328	12 Laps	42.637
20	32	Polish Lambo	Clubman	325	15 Laps	42.251
21	40	BMH	Clubman	323	17 Laps	42.918
22	58	HRS 2	Clubman	321	19 Laps	43.044
23	43	Evolution	Clubman	319	21 Laps	42.998
24	67	Sticky Dickies	Clubman	319	21 Laps	43.768
25	35	Team CET	Clubman	318	22 Laps	42.838
26	7	Team JAM	Super	313	27 Laps	42.421
27	57	SJ Lambo	Clubman	310	30 Laps	42.208
28	33	Silverline Racing	Clubman	299	41 Laps	42.401
29	42	Team Eyrie Also	Clubman	298	42 Laps	42.522
30	60	Chess Racing	Clubman	295	45 Laps	45.18
31	37	Pelam Racing	Clubman	284	56 Laps	43.082
32	61	ZJ Racing 2	Clubman	262	78 Laps	42.856
33	38	ZJ Racing	Clubman	261	79 Laps	43.346
34	34	NMA Racing	Clubman	216	124 Laps	43.037

 

  Alpha Timing Results