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2011 SMRC Championship - Round 10
Another near clean sweep for Ross Marshall
as he wraps up the Individual Championship Title
After a relatively short break we returned to Knockhill for the final round of the 2011 Championship. Overnight wind and rain eased and the low cloud gradually lifted. But the circuit was wet for qualifying and slippery but drying for the first race. It had dried out completely by the time of the second race but the ‘triumvirate’ called for us to stay on ‘wet’ tyres, i.e. the Federals, the slightly perverse argument being that as we are going to have to use Federals next season it would be a good opportunity to ‘try them out’. We will of course have a further such opportunity at the end of October at Knockill Racing Club’s inaugural meeting. Ali Thom elected not to make the long journey from Orkney and neither Pino Palazzo or Billy Wait could make it. The four newcomers from the early September round - Daniel McKay, David Meiklejohn, Kenny Murray and Henry Dawes - were out again as were Gareth Davies and Fiona Ireland. Kieran Murray had his second run of the season, this time in car 4 and Elliott Mason had his first and only outing of the year in car 22. John Marshall was again at the wheel of team car 03 whilst this time it was the turn of Allan to pilot the Fearnley team car 80. And so a very healthy 26 car grid formed up for the first race. The Racing A fine drive from row 6 of the grid in the damp first race saw Ross Mickel just pip Ross Marshall for the win; the reverse happened in the second race when he was just beaten to the line by Ross Marshall. He went on to take 5th in the final and second overall for the day; his fifth place - by a mere 8/1000th of a second - in the final was sufficient for him to overtake David Hunter for 4th in the Individual Championship by a margin of just 5 points. Another trio of fine drives by Ross Marshall, with two wins and a second place, saw him lift the overall win for the day and secure the individual Championship Title for the second time in three years by the relatively comfortable margin of just over 200 points. Father John Marshall had an utterly consistent day with three 3rd places and not unsurprisingly finishing 3rd overall for the day. From row 7 of the grid, Carol Brown made it through to 4th place in the first race, a fraction behind John. A misfire whilst in the lead of the second race saw her eventually finish 7th but she went on to round off the season with a 2nd in the final and had done enough to maintain her second place in the Individual Championship. Colin Atkinson had a good first race with a fourth place finish followed by a solid eighth place in the second race. But it went horribly wrong in the first attempt of the final when contact towards the front of the pack saw Colin, along with three other cars, beached at Duffus resulting in an immediate red flag. Fortunately no-one was hurt but none of the cars involved could make the restart. Glenn Burtenshaw was again very quick in qualifying (2nd fastest) and went on to take two solid top ten finishes in the heats; but he too was caught up in the above incident. David Hunter went well all day with a sixth and two 7th place finishes also setting an excellent fastest lap in the final; however he could not close the points difference to Gerard McCosh and, even worse, was pipped for fourth place in the Individual Championship by Ross Mickel at the last gasp - another lap and it might have been a different story. Following a surprisingly quick qualifying, Gerard too had three solid drives being just pipped by Ross Mickel for 5th place in the final by 8/1000th of a second in spite of ‘assistance’ from David. And he had done enough in the day to hold on to third place in the Individual Championship. Robbie Burgoyne had a good day although was muttering about a slight lack of brakes. He was fortunate in the final as his propshaft had failed but the long delay before the restart allowed sufficient time to change it; he joined from the pit lane and had a good run to claim 10th place. It is never easy stepping back into a car after some weeks away from racing but Kieran soon found his feet recording a best place of 8th in the final. Likewise, Elliot Mason soon settled back into the ‘family’ car putting in three consistent drives, his best being 9th in the final. As always Robin Webb enjoyed his day, battling with David Allan in all three races. David Allan went extremely well particularly coming from near the very back of the whole grid and has clearly got to grips with Legends very quickly. Allan Fearnley had a great second race being involved in a six car dice covered by just two seconds at the line. Both Jeff Pritchard and Kevin Kettlewell were part of the mid-pack dice in the second race but both got caught up in the first corner incident in the final, neither being able to make the restart. Paul McKay did not hugely enjoy the damp race but settled back in on the new tyres on the dry track Neither Gareth Davies nor Daniel McKay started the restarted final (not quite sure what happened) whilst Henry Dawes and Kenny Murray both finished all 3 races, as did Fiona Ireland. David Meikljohn too was one of the casualties of the incident in the final, not making the restart. Paul O’Brien, running well initially, had an intermittent misfire which persisted off and on all day. Whilst he avoided the first corner incident of the final, on the third lap of the fully restarted race he went into the tyres at Clarke’s very heavily; erring on the side of caution (in case of a neck/back injury), the roof of the car was removed to allow his extraction. Fortunately it transpired that Paul was unhurt, other than winded and a bit bruised. Scott Hynds had an important bolt locating the rear axle fall out leading to a dnf in the first race. He didn’t make huge progress in the second race and was fortunate to make the second restart of the final as he’d gone off at the hairpin; but he went on to take a spirited 4th place in the final. |
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| Heat 1 |
8 laps 1 Ross Mickel 2 Ross Marshall 3 John Marshall (T) 4 Carol Brown 5 Colin Atkinson 6 Glenn Burtenshaw 7 David Hunter 8 Gerard McCosh 9 Robbie Burgoyne (R) 10 Kieran Murray 11 Elliot Mason 12 Robin Webb 13 David Allan 14 Allan Fearnley (T) 15 Jeff Pritchard 16 Errico Palazzo 17 Kevin Kettlewell 18 Henry Dawes 19 Paul McKay (R) 20 Gareth Davies 21 Daniel McKay 22 Kenny Murray 23 Paul O'Brien 24 David Meiklejohn 25 Fiona Ireland dnf Scott Hynds Winner's time: 9m 22.81 secs Winner's speed: 65.50 mph Fastest lap: Carol Brown 68.30 secs (67.46 mph) |
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| Heat 2 |
8 laps 1 Ross Marshall 2 Ross Mickel 3 John Marshall (T) 4 Gerard McCosh 5 Robbie Burgoyne (R) 6 David Hunter 7 Carol Brown 8 Colin Atkinson 9 Glenn Burtenshaw 10 Elliot Mason 11 Errico Palazzo 12 Scott Hynds 13 Kieran Murray 14 Jeff Pritchard 15 Robin Webb 16 David Allan 17 Allan Fearnley (T) 18 Kevin Kettlewell 19 Henry Dawes 20 Paul McKay (R) 21 Gareth Davies 22 Kenny Murray 23 Daniel McKay 24 David Meiklejohn 25 Fiona Ireland 26 Paul O'Brien Winner's time: 8m 25.07 secs Winner's speed: 72.98 mph Fastest lap: Ross Marshall 61.41 secs (75.03 mph) |
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| Final |
6 laps 1 Ross Marshall 2 Carol Brown 3 John Marshall (T) 4 Scott Hynds 5 Ross Mickel 6 Gerard McCosh 7 David Hunter 8 Kieran Murray 9 Elliot Mason 10 Robbie Burgoyne (R) 11 David Allan 12 Robin Webb 13 Allan Fearnley (T) 14 Paul McKay (R) 15 Henry Dawes 16 Kenny Murray 17 Fiona Ireland dns Colin Atkinson dns Daniel McKay dns David Meiklejohn dns Errico Palazzo dns Gareth Davies dns Glenn Burtenshaw dns Jeff Pritchard dns Kevin Kettlewell dns Paul O'Brien Winner's time: 6m 22.13 secs Winner's speed: 72.35 mph Fastest lap: David Hunter 61.52 secs (74.89 mph) |
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Another three consistent drives saw Championship Honours for the Day again go to Ross Marshall (585 points) from Ross Mickel (535 points) in 2nd place and John Marshall (510 points) in 3rd. The Driver of the Day award deservedly went to David Allan. The Gentleman of the Day Award went this time to Robin Webb. So that’s the Championship over for another year. It has been another good one with grids averaging 22 cars and both of the "away" trips being well supported (19 cars travelled to Cadwell Park and 23 cars to Croft). And, even though the Team & Rookie winners were settled before the last round, the Individual Championship went right down to the last round. There is one further opportunity to ‘play’ this year at Knockhill Motor Racing Club’s inaugural meeting on 30th October. |
Championship Positions
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