Cream Rises to the top at Rissington
Tuesday, 04 October 2011 15:30
The team travelled to Rissington last weekend for the penultimate round of their championship season. With a relatively inexperienced, fresh driver line up (Jones in Snr Max, Bartlett in Jnr Max, and ‘Simmo’ in Comer Cadet), emphasis would be put on working hard with the drivers to increase their competitiveness ahead of the 2012 season.

Driver coach Danny Russell worked hard with all of the drivers on Saturday, and with full representation in all of the categories racing, the teams hard work prevailed, with all three drivers ending the day posting top 6 times in testing.

In Senior Max, Jones seemed a transformed driver full of confidence, and pushed hard to take a brace of 5th positions and 8th in his 3 qualification heats. Junior protégé Bartlett took 4th, 5th, and 8th in the hotly contested Junior Rotax category. Jake ‘Simmo’ Simpson, the youngest driver in the team, impressed enormously after being hit off on the final corner of the last lap from 9th in heat 1. He recovered well to achieve a 12th, and 9th in his final heats.

Simmo was involved in the days first Grand final. Starting 13th from a grid full of 26 Cadets, he made a controlled start, and used the first 3 laps to his advantage, moving up into the top 10. Over the remaining 9 laps, he picked off 2 drivers and finished the race 7th, on the bumper of the 6th place man, claiming his first ever top 10 finish in his first season of competition!

With the Junior Rotax final delayed, Jones drove out for his Final from the 3rd row of the grid. He drove hard through the first 3 corners, and took no prisoners, coming out of lap 1 in 3rd place. The experience of the top 5 drivers in the category showed, but Jones used shear determination to go with the front pack, and finish the race inside the top 5, and just 3 seconds behind the eventual winner in 5th place. It is worth noting that Jones had never before competed inside the top 10 of a final at this level, so a great result for him to springboard into the leading pack!

After the senior race, the pressure was on young Junior Rotax driver Aaron Bartlett to bag a hat-trick of personal bests for the team. Again, Bartlett was strong at the start, and stayed on through the usual first lap dramas in the junior field. On lap 3, he made the move for 2nd place, and stayed there for half of the race, despite the leader having established a large lead on the opening lap. Bartlett was passed for 2nd with 5 laps to go, and then got embroiled in a 5 way battle for the final 2 podium steps. Missing an opportunity to take 2nd position back o the penultimate lap proved costly for the inexperienced youngster, as he found himself pushed to 6th at the flag. Still, Aaron has improved massively, from the best part of a second per lap of the pace just 3 races ago, to battle realistically for podium positions against tough competition.

Three personal bests ended a fantastic weekend for the team, especially considering none of the drivers had featured inside the top 10 prior to the weekend! Thanks go to all at Cream Racing Engines, Soixante Racing Engines, Martin James, and Strawberry Racing for their support throughout the weekend.

The team travel to Kimbolton this weekend, to try and secure victory in the Senior Max category, and to continue their drivers training ahead of planned championship assaults in 2012.

For more information on the team please contact Tom Smith on: (01582) 665 113 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 
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