MATT CORSON had most to celebrate from the hotly contested senior 100 class as the new summer season opened at the Track. Eleven drivers came to the start line, several of whom have spent heavily to extract that extra bit of speed.
Last year’s champion Andy Ward has invested in a brand new Maranello outfit, while Ayrton Hockaday is driving a new Wright kart.
Corson, meanwhile, has reverted to his original Tony chassis.
Heat one got off to a cracking start with Ward taking the lead from John Watson on lap two, a position he kept until the flag. Behind Ward, Corson worked his way through the field from his back-row grid position to take second with Watson third.
The second heat saw Corson lead from start to finish with Ward second and Colin Laine third.
Dave Hockaday finished fourth, a great performance from the 53-year-old who has returned to racing after a 25-year break.
For the third heat, Ayrton Hockaday and Laine had the front row grid positions with Watson and Corson on the second.
Corson had a blinding start and took the lead on the first corner only to go off line for the second and Hockaday and Laine storming past.
However, on the next lap Corson overtook both of them to regain first place.
Ward had an unfortunate incident when a stone kicked up by a kart hit his helmet and rebounded to take the cap off his spark cap, ending his chances in that race.
With two firsts and a second place in the heats, Corson claimed pole position for the final with Ward alongside.
It was the fast race everyone expected with Ward and Corson jointly recording equal-fastest laps of the day with 19.27sec.
But after 20 laps of hard racing it was Corson who took the chequered flag from Ward in second and Laine in third.
The cadets saw Dexter Le Sauvage enjoy a clean sweep of three heat wins and the final, while newcomer Jordan Caradeuc put in a fine performance and was only just over a second a lap off the pace of the front runners.
Adam Law dominated the junior minimax class, taking four-tenths off the former record, winning two heats and the final.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ridley collected a first in the heats and was second in the final.
The Junior Rotaxmax class saw pre-season favourite Charles Falla win the opening heat in his brand new Maranello kart, but come the final, Jersey’s Joel Wroe-Johnson was on top and Sheldon Davey had lowered Chris Laws’ class record with an impressive 19.91sec., a time of which some seniors would be proud.
There was drama from the off in the 125 gearbox class with an overeager Simon Davey knocking Matt Ford into the grandstand and causing damage to the latter’s kart front and writing off the wheel.
After the red-flagging, Davey was excluded from the restart by the clerk of the course and with Ford out, Daniel James and Oli Sarre fought it out, with James taking the win.
Article posted on 15th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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