INDYBLUE T&T 2023 – SPONSORED BY TORSTER TRAVEL
TORSTER TRAVEL sponsor of the inaugural INDYBLUE CHAMPIONSHIP presented up to £5,000 worth of holiday and karting vouchers. Many of the Formula Blue competitors had rebuilt their engines in order to be at the peak of performance for this event. Mother nature did not, however, play ball, with atrocious weather affecting the Saturday practice and running-in sessions although several drivers managed to get some lappage in before the track became unusable. For many, the task would have to be left until the early heats on Sunday.
Despite serious rainfall during the night, Sunday dawned overcast but damp. Practice took place on ‘inter’ wet tyres as the track gradually dried out . Heat 1 was raced on slicks as the circuit continued to dry. Richard Puddle took the win from James Dawkins followed by Anthony Cleal, Kevin Ford and Mike Bell. Several of the middle laps were under yellow flags whilst Nigel Vickery extracted himself from the barriers at the far hairpin, he had spent much of the race suffering from severe understeer.
Heat 2 was claimed by Cleal despite a ‘drop-nose’ penalty. Behind him, Puddle also incurred a ‘drop-nose’ penalty but whereas Cleal narrowly missed losing a place despite the 5-second penalty, Puddle did not. Dawkins claimed 2nd place. Prior to this heat, a rain shower had left the track wet in certain areas and a few of the drivers had opted for ‘inters’, It proved to be the wrong choice and by lap 3 they gradually slipped back down the order. Ford finished 4th with Gunter in 5th.
The 3rd Heat went the way of heat 2 with a win for Cleal, chased to the flag by Puddle, Dawkins, Ford and Gunter.
The grid for the Final had Cleal on Pole with Puddle alongside. The 2nd row saw Dawkins and Ford with the 3rd row occupied by Gunter and Stuart Adam ( the first of the top weights). From the lights, Cleal forged into a lead he was not to lose and Dawkins outgunned Puddle to lead the chase. Adam failed to start on the grid but got going a lap down. Nigel Vickery had made 3 places by the end of lap 1, having started back in 12th spot. Lap 3 saw Puddle get a mechanical flag signal and pulled into the pits, his chain guard had become detached. Vickery moved up to 8th. By half-distance, the front 2 had broken clear of the 3rd place battle where Gunter managed to outpace Ford for 3rd spot. The race continued without movement for the next few laps. On lap 9 Vickery was up to 6th passing Alexander, with Cleal a second clear of Dawkins and Gunter holding off Ford. On the last lap Alexander made an unlikely move on Vickery stalling the pair of them as they tangled. This allowed Shone through but Paul Wheeler maximised the incident passing all of them! Vickery and Alexander recovered to finish 8th and 9th respectively.
So, at the flag, a jubilant Cleal took the flag from Dawkins. Following post-race scrutineering the results were posted with an ecstatic Diane Cleal rushing off making plans as to where they were going to take their £1000 holiday !!
The final finishing order was.
BLUE OPEN
1st Anthony Cleal – MAC / MAXI – 0 + 0 =0 points – £1000
2nd James Dawkins – TONY / LYNX – 3 + 2 = 5 points – £500
3rd Max Gunter – PRAGA / MAXI – 5 + 3 = 8 points – £300
4th Kevin Ford – RED / MAXI – 4 + 4 = 8 points – £200
5th Mike Bell – OCTANE / LYNX – 7 + 5 = 12 points – £100
6th Richard Puddle – TONY / MAXI – 2 + 11 = 13 points – £50
BLUE MASTER (over 30 yrs)
The first 3 included in Open
BLUE VETERAN (over 45 years)
The first 3 included in Open
BLUE LEGEND (over 60 years)
1st included in Open
2nd included in Top Weight
3rd Robin Stoddart-Stones – MAC / MAXI – 3 + 4 = 7 points – £50
BLUE TOP WEIGHT (over 90 kg)
1st Ron Shone – MAC / LEOPARD – 2 + 0 = 2 points -£150
2nd Stuart Adam – TONY / LEOPARD – 0 + 3 = 3 points – £100
3rd Paul Alexander – TONY / MAXI – 3 + 2 = 5 points – £50
The presentation of the Annual trophies and prize ( holiday ) vouchers will take place at the end-of-year Presentation event, taking place at the Rembrandt Hotel complex on November 25th, this year the main event is being organised by the 2 Counties Club.
For more results and details please view the Tabor Karting menu page / Indyblue pages on the www.planetkarting.uk website OR CLICK HERE
For TORSTER TRAVEL PLEASE CLICK HERE
TO BOOK TICKETS FOR THE PRESENTATION EVENING PLEASE CLICK HERE