Typical November weather took a lot of the drivers enjoyment out of this meeting and cut down the entry to around the 120 mark and even the Morecambe-style presentation was curtailed as Simon Smith of Midlands TV huddled behind the Club Caravan to escape the biting wind. Simon who, besides being one of TVs leading sports commentators, is also president of the Chasewater Kart Club and after attending the last two meetings at Morecambe, is showing great interest in the production of another Morecambe spectacular and has charged Bert Hesketh and glamour girl Steve Hilton, Chasewaters Competition Secretary, to produce for him an outline plan to interest the TV Moguls and it is hoped that this may lead to something really big in the coming season. The usual high class entry in Class IV International brought out a very interesting comparison. In February this year out of an entry of 23 in this. class 20 machines were 200 cc and only three of the new 250 cc class. Todays meet attracted 20 250 cc machines with only three 200 ccs which in itself is a true indication of the popularity of the new class which during its first year has done much to popularise karting with the public and give them racing that they can identify with their preconceived notions of motor racing. Unfortunately, World Champion Graham Liddle had mechanical problems before he reached the circuit and was grounded on the East Lanes road with no clutch in his Cortina. This took some of the bite out of what had promised to be a very interesting afternoon as Kelvin Hesketh now has the new Victor Mk Ill handling as well as any of its competitors and the research that he and Mr. Benham have put into this project is now available for everyone and the Brands and Silverstones have a formidable competitor for supremacy in the big boys class. In the absence of Liddle and with Mike Goodwins Bultaco not behaving itself, Hesketh won all the heats with the greatest of ease in a style reminiscent of his earlier days, only to be sidelined in the final when a piston peg came adrift and allowed a ring to be trapped in a port, leaving Keith Benson to underline his recent successes with another fine win. Chris Bolton had come to grief with a broken track rod which on any other track would have taken him right into the path of the traffic going in the opposite direction, but from which awful fate he was saved by the Morecambe protective barrier. China Barrow whose efforts up to date have never really been taken seriously by the top boys, confounded all his critics and after a very mature drive managed second place and if he keeps this up will no doubt become a serious contender in 1970. In Class IV, Dave Leslie regained his old superiority and shrugged off the efforts of everyone to take his place at the front and a great fight between Kevin Gribbons and Maurice Newsham for second place made the spectators forget the bitter cold. Lower down the lists, Norman Brown, recently elevated from Novice rating impressed against some very hot opposition and Tommy Gough, Gentleman Stuart Longton, Handsome Alf Dixon and Jim Livesey kept the leaders on their toes throughout the afternoon, In the Junior Class, John Beck although trying very hard was severely handicapped by an off-tune motor, and announced his intention of joining the 250 International brigade on his birthday in January, when he will be able to have a fully competitive motor with anything in the country, and David Horton and Alan Kerry dominated the rest of the field. Class I saw an influx of visiting Scots, and Gordon Reid from Falkirk showed that recent form was no flash in the pan with another fine victory. David Ellison also maintained his recent improvement and was much faster than any of the local opposition with John Edwards, Donald Piper, John Ashe, Dave Ayr°, Paul Proctor and Sid Minskowski pushing them hard and leading the rest of the field quite a dance. Junior Final Right from the drop of the flag Kerry went into the lead pursued by Horton, Hoyle, Beck, David Wilkinson, John Smith, David Miles and Derek Price. Price soon fell by the wayside and Kerry and Horton pulled away from the rest of the pack. John Hoyle got the better of John Beck and with Smith pushing these two hard the race settled down and though there was no change in the order, maintained interest to the end as Horton tried might and main to find a way past the flying Kerry. Kerry held him off to the flag and Hoyle kept ahead of Beck in thirdplace with only Smith, Wilkinson and Miles on the same lap as the leaders when the flag fell. Class IV B Final Tom Donnell snatched the lead but with Graham CharIson right on his tail had to put everything into it to keep there. By lap three Charlson had been passed by Brian Smith but try as he might Smith could not displace Donnell at the front. Dave Leslie Junior, now a Class IV man, was in this race but as yet does not show the command of his more famous father, but still did enough to show that with one or two more meetings under his belt the double pronged Leslie challenge will be a serious threat, and one wonders if this combination of father and son will reproduce some of the skilful team racing that we used to see in the palmy days of Pop and Paul Fletcher who were undoubted masters of the art in Class I just a few short years ago. There is no doubt that it would enliven the scene and provide a great tactical challenge to their contemporary drivers. On this occasion however, young Dave was left behind and as Charlson fell away with unspecified troubles, Norman Brown and Malcolm Walker moved through to push the leaders. Donnell held it to the end with Smith on his tail and Brown and Walker stayed just ahead of Char!son, Hadfield, Kersey, Joyner, Cauldwell and Balderstone with the rest of the field trailing. Class I Final Away went the two Scots, Piper and Reid to lead with Ellison, Edwards, Cuthbert, Proctor, Ashe and Minskowski challenging for places and the rest soon being outpaced. By lap four Ellison was past Piper but Reid had got well away while this dog fight had been going on and although Ellison held the leader he could make up little ground on Reid who never looked like making a mistake and who was really flying. Malcolm Evans showed briefly on the leader board but fell away and Edwards moved up behind Ellison. Piper spun off but restarted and managed by lap eight to get back into fourth place just ahead of Ashe but could make no impression on Edwards who was pressing Ellison at every turn for his second place. Reid drove serenely on to win and Ellison completed a good afternoon with a fine second place after a great dice with Edwards who was never more than a karts length away. Piper as already reported was back in fourth spot and John Ache led the Super Class machines although in fifth place on the road. Cuthbert also Super mounted got past Ashe just before the flag fell leaving Dave Ayre fifth in his class and seventh on the road just ahead of Proctor and Minskowski with the others cruising home at least one lap adrift. Class IV A Final And with Mr. Immaculate back in top form it was just a question of Who is going to be second? From the start it was Maurice Newsham with Tommy Gough and Handsome Alf pushing him, but a determined drive by Kevin Gribbins got him through to third place behind Newsham. On the penultimate lap Gribbins made his big try and with a superlative piece of driving sneaked past Newsham to snatch second place with Gough, Livesey, Dixon, Longton and Smith through from the back row after his B Final success all within striking distance, and a great mid-field battle for the remaining trophies going on between Kersey, Joyner, Moffat, Bradbury, Swire, Follows and Tyson. This race result put Gribbins and Leslie in a tie for points in the Club Championship, and as everyone who has seen the Club Championship trophies are aware, the fight to gat one always means a lot to the drivers and the next meeting should produce a fantastic race between these two to resolve who guards the three foot high trophy for 1970 and keeps the treasured replica, and should both these drivers fail at the next meeting Newsham and Williams are both in a position to step in with a good performance and oust them from the top. Class IV International Final Away went Kesketh into the lead and it looked all over bar the shouting when he pulled out again, with a broken piston peg as already reported, and Benson took over. From then on the result was never in doubt and using every ounce of his superior power Benson just pulled away from the field. China Barrow made second place ahead of Phil Hilton but as the race settled down, Rod Mackay with a brand new outfit which he was running in opened the taps a bit and pulled ahead of Hilton, then settled down to complete his running in whilst holding third place in accordance with the frantic pit signals of father John who was expecting an engine seizure on every lap. Mackay however had plenty in hand and was running with the motor very rich and had no trouble. Dave Morgan, usually the slickest of starters, had got away from the grid incredibly badly and had to work his way through some very heavy traffic to take fifth place just ahead of Mike Wilcocks, Colin Birkbeck, George Dunsmore, Walter Robertson and Paul Volante, with Kenneth Higham leading the 200 cc brigade well down the field. This result puts Benson in an almost impregnable position as regards the Club Championship and this is no mean achievement in a club that boasts the British Champion and the Team Captain amongst its members and regularly fields six or seven Green Hats in this class. Despite the cold wet weather, the meeting had run smoothly to the programme and although the presentation was drastically curtailed to allow us to get home and back to a warm fire, we found time to express our sincere thanks to Simon Smith for making the long drive from the football match he had covered in the South for TV the previous day and hope that he will come again and bring some of his Chasewater compatriots to the big meeting in 1970. Due to fixture muddles in the area the 1970 programme is temporarily held up, but as soon as there are sorted out the club hope to announce a full seasons programmes with meetings with big money prizes for all classes. It is already confirmed that next years World Cup winner will receive £150 for his efforts and that the other prize money is to be increased to match, and the moment that we can give the sponsors definite dates it is hoped to announce similar competition for all classes. One sponsor has withdrawn due to the fact that he cannot have the date he was first promised but others are at present being consulted with a view to taking over the new dates which the club have been forced to accept. In the fond hope that this may be published in time may be at Morcambe wish everyone in Karting a Merry Christmas and an exceedingly happy and prosperous New Year and hope that we shall see you all at the World Cup circuit in 1970 for at least one of the five-star events. Northern Correspondent RESULTS Class IV International 1 Keith Benson (Zip/Hesketh Bultaco) 2 Mike Barrow (Zip/Norton Bultaco) 3 Rod Mackay (Zip/Hesketh Bultaco) 4 Phil Hilton (Zip/Philjon Suzuki) 5 Dave Morgan (Zip/Hesketh Bultaco) Class IV A Final 1 Dave Leslie (Victor/Leslie Villiers) 2 Kevin Gribbons (Zip/K.R. Villiers) 3 Maurice Newsham (Quantum/Newsham Villiers) 4 Tommy Gough (Zip/Gough Villiers) 5 Jim Livesey (Blow/Livtune Villiers) 6 Alf Dixon (Victor/Dixon Villiers) 7 Stuart Longton (Zip/Villiers) 8 Brian Smith (Blow/Villiers) Class IV B Final 1 Tom Donnell (Blow/Villiers) 2 Brian Smith (Blow/Villiers) 3 Norman Brown (Zip/Hesketh Villiers) 4 Malcolm Walker (Blow/Villiers) 5 Graham Char!son (Blow/Villiers) Class I 1 Gordon Reid (Barlotti/Reid Komet) 2 David Ellison (Barlotti/Ellison B.M.) 3 John Edwards (Zip/Philjon Komet) 4 Donald Piper (Zip/K77) 5 G. C. Cuthbert (Birel Fox/K88) 6 John Ashe (Sprint/Ashe PeriIla Mk 16) Juniors 1 Alan Kerry (Zip/B.M.) 2 David Horton (Voodoo/Horton B.M.) 3 John Hoyle (Zip/Hoyle Komet) 4 John Beck (Zip/K77)
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 21:25:57 +0000
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