27-01-15 Winter League Round 5

Mike Simpson wins the Mardave Final after Team Galbraith trip themselves up
Jack Cook triumphs in the GT12 C Final
Chelle Snowden wins a thrilling GT12 B Final after nail biting finish
James Hart wins again in the GT12 A Final

Twenty One GT12 class drivers this week and five mardave V12

Track
An excellent design this week giving no opportunity to relax concentration!

Qualifying
Three five minute qualifying rounds produced some good racing, James Hart was really flying in the GT12 class and took pole position for the A final, Louis Parker and Darren Ford were closely matched with Louis taking second place behind James.
In division 2 there were only four seconds separating the first four drivers, Mitch Howard was the fastest followed by Dave Tomlinson and Chelle Snowden.
Club Chairman Rob Hambridge got his car performing well and was three laps ahead of the field in division 3 with Jack Cook being second.
Mike Simpson was fastest in the mardave class followed by Jake Galbraith, Paul Galbraith was third after missing the first two rounds.

Finals
The mardave final was first and Mike Simpson took an early lead from pole position but Paul Galbraith gradually made up ground and these two were inches apart for lap after lap until Paul managed to get past with a great bit of driving. It was still very close but a racing incident between Paul and Jake Galbraith let Mike back into the lead and he managed to hold on to the finish with Paul making up ground quickly. A great race this, heated discussions in the team Galbraith camp afterwards – will they need to get McLaren to mediate!
Jake Galbraith was best in division 2 followed by his brother Josh.

Some exciting racing in the GT12 C final between Jack Cook, John Yates and Ted Griffiths, the fastest lap went to John but in the end it was Jack who won by two laps from John in second place and Ted third.

The GT12 B final produced the most entertaining race of the evening, Dave Tomlinson was on pole but after the first bend found himself in last position with Bob Harley leading and Chelle Snowden in second place. There was then a great race between these three, Bob looked to have a win in the bag but Chelle took the lead in the later stages of the race and with one lap to go was just over half a second in front at the final bend only to have problems and Bob stormed down the straight to produce a photo finish at the line. Chelle was the winner by 1/100th of a second, Bob second and Dave Tomlinson third all on 48 laps and less than half a second apart. Can it get any better than this?

The last race of the evening was the GT12 A final, James Hart produced the fastest lap of 8.65 seconds and Louis Parker 8.96 seconds, these being the only two drivers to get below 9 seconds.
James had a comfortable win with 54 laps, Louis was second with 52, Darren Ford third with 51 and a great drive from David Statham earned him fourth place also on 51 laps. Mitch Howard also had a good evening to be the only division 2 driver to make the A final and finished with 49 laps.

20-01-15 Clubnight

Before racing commenced One Minutes silence was observed as a mark of respect for Chris Ward who passed away at the weekend.
Chris was an active member of Burton Buggy Club for many years and was Chairman during 2007 and 2008, he was a great guy and will be sadly missed by everyone.
Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.

An ordinary clubnight this week before the next two rounds of the winter league.

Some very close racing in the club mardave class particularly between Lee Bishop and Mike Simpson with Mike just taking the top qualifying spot and winning the final. Jenson Butlin qualified ahead of his Dad Glyn by a narrow margin of 0.23 seconds and went on to beat him again by 2.65 seconds in the final- well done Jenson!

In the GT12 class James Hart was fastest in qualifying followed by Darren Ford and David Simpson, some excellent driving by Mitch Howard assured him of a place in the “A” final.

New member Ted Griffiths won the “C” final, two laps clear of Alister Hart, Courtney Orme took third place.
Nick Bruty really got his car wound up to win the “B” final ahead of Chelle Snowden who was driving Bob Harleys car, Dave Tomlinson was third and John Yates fourth.
The “A” final was run at a fast and furious pace with James Hart being first across the finishing line with Darren Ford second and Louis Parker third just 0.11 seconds ahead of David Simpson.

13-01-15 Winter league Round 4

Team Galbraith dominate the Club Mardave Class
James Hart is the top driver in the GT12 class
Mitch Howard wins the GT12 “B” Final
Chelle Snowden wins the GT12 “C” Final

Track
Another fast circuit design this week

Club Mardave Class
Paul Galbraith was on top form winning all of the qualifying rounds and then the final, it was a good evening for the Galbraith’s with Jake being the third fastest qualifier and finishing in fourth place in the final ensuring a family maximum points score in both divisions 1 and 2.
Glyn Butlin was second fastest qualifier and finished third in the final.

GT12 Class

Yet another win for James Hart, Darren Ford was second in qualifying a full lap down on James with David Simpson third. In the Final James was two laps ahead of Darren with Louis Parker finishing third.

Bob Harley was fastest qualifier in division 2 followed by Mitch Howard and Nick Bruty, some very close racing here with less than three seconds between the top three drivers.
It was Mitch who came out on top in the “B” Final and Dave Tomlinson just pipped Nick Bruty to second place with a nail biting finish 0.22 seconds ahead, Bob Harley finished fourth.

Rob Hambridge took the division 3 fastest qualifier spot which got him a place in the “B” Final, unfortunately he did not manage to capitalise on due to problems with his car forcing retirement mid way though the race.
Division 2 driver Chelle Snowden won the “C” Final with Jack Cook taking second place and Courtney Orme third.

At the half way point in the league Jake Galbraith and James Hart have commanding leads in Mardave Division 2 and GT12 Division 1 respectively, all the other divisions are very close bearing in mind that only the six best scores from a possible eight count towards each drivers final league score.