S1 News (9)
Round 3 - Rowrah
Round three of the Super One Championship took place at the Rowrah circuit back in April. Ash took a promising start to the weekends events, second place and fastest lap in Saturdays Race 3 looked to be the pre cursor for the weekend. Sunday saw a third place in race 10 good enough for P3 in the first of the finals. Carnage and a dropped chain saw Ash sitting on the infield as a mere spectator for the remainder of the race.
Final 2, a DNF in the first final put Ash at 26 on a grid of 28. "Ash said I knew it was a going to be a big ask to get anywhere near the front runners from that position. I pushed as hard as I could, unfortunatley I pushed a bit to hard. I tried to make a move, that quite fankly wasn't on and paid the price for it." he went on "All in all not a good weekend's racing, having to go away empty handed but never the less a little wiser.
Round 4 takes place the weekend of the 26th June.
It's not all doom and gloom however, 2nd to 8th places in the championship table being seperated by a mere 30 points making a podium finish to the championship still a possibility.
Shenington - Super One - Round 2
A blistering Shenington was the venue for round 2 of the Super One Championship on th 10th of April. The heats and Final saw Ash qualify on P2 for in the Grand Final. Ash said " It wasn't the result I really wanted, P2 at Shenington is difficult for a good start, you either need P1 or P3 particularly when you are up against the class of drivers competing.
It proved to be another hard fought race. Ash took to the grid between Andy King (Kart 39) and Ed Brand (Kart 5), from the off the three drivers soon started to pull clear of the chasing pack. Throughout the duration of the race the lead passed between the three of them several times. The closing laps of the race saw Ed Brand in the lead with Ash and Andy King fighting it out for second and third. Andy King managed to defend his second place. The skirmish allowed the pursing drivers to close in on the tail of Ash who took the finish line in third with Lewis Plato hot on his heels just 2/10ths behind.
After the race Ash said " The kart lost some of it's pace towards the end and didn't quite have enough to get past Andy and I didn't want to end up defending my position from Lewis. It was a case of having to settle for third, taking the points and living to fight another day". The result of the race was issued provisionally due to a protest which is due to be heard at the next round of the Super One Championship which takes place at Rowrah on June the 5th.
Ash's assault on the 2011 season got underway at round one of the Super One series which was held at his home circuit of Whiltom Mill on the 13th of March.
Fifth place in the first of the two finals was good enough to put Ash on P5 behind Eastwood on pole alongside Ed Brand. Sean Babington and Oliver Hodgson making up row 2. Ash was progressing very nicely thank you when the engine let go, and it was all he could do to limp home across the finish line in 15th.
Ash said " It was a shame because I had been getting progessively quicker all weekend, that is until the engine let go. The engine has subsequently been stripped down to reveal a broken piston, there's not much you can do about that but its only the first round of the series so I'm just going to have to go a bit faster at Shennington which is the next venue for the Super One series."
Shenington Super 1 - Round 5
The weekends racing at Round 5 of the Mobil Super 1 Championship at Shenington was filled with incident for the P1 Racing team.
Ash had a good day on the Saturday and was well up on the pace, however on Sunday things started to go wrong. In the first of Sundays heats Ash's kart was not performing as it should have despite starting at P7 he struggled to bring the kart across the finish line in 11th. A few adjustments to the kart set up and in the Pre Final Ash's kart is looking a lot more competitive.The poor result in the preceeding heat put Ash at P9 for the start. By lap 6 he had moved up into 6th and then a three or four way tussle on the start finish straight ends up with Ash's kart being launched into the air, and deposited on the infield of the track. By the time he got going again Ash had lost a lot of places making it impossible for him to recover his race position in the amount of time left. As a result of the crash one of the side pods was severley bent out of place and he was flagged for a technical. A quick stop off at the pits straightened it out, but by the time Ash rejoined the race he was at the back with all hope of a decent grid position for the grand final gone.
Ash started the final near to the rear of the grid at P23 and soon started to make his way through the pack. Ash was fortunate in that he was able to avoid the mayhem in front of him resulting from the crash involving his team mate Elliott. A red flag brought the proceedings to a temporarye halt while Elliott recieved treatment and the track was cleared. The race was restarted and Ash went on an immediate charge relentlessly ploughing through the field to make up 14 places by the time the chequered flag went out.
On the up side however Ash had spent a fair bit of of Sunday with race champion Oliver Rowland who is currently preparing for the up coming KZ1 World Cup at Sarno this Saturday (6th October). Ash said " I was really pleased that he could spend time with me. I really learnt a lot by just talking with him. The tips he gave me did make a difference, It's just a shame I couldn't have put them into practice from somewhere near the front of the grid. I now know a little of what makes him the champion driver that he is and hope that all goes well for him this weekend."
Ash with kart star Olver Rowland
Red light spoils Super 1 championship for Ash
Ash Hand - Super 1 - Larkhall - Round 4
Following the long haul up to Larkhall for round 4 of the Mobil Super 1 championship, the return journey was tainted by the bitter taste of a penalty being imposed during the first of the two finals.
The team has always advocated the use of the Unilogger to help level out the playing field and prevent infringement of the rules. The Unilogger is a device which basically monitors the axle speed over the engine speed, and is therefore able to collect data in respect of clutch slip. Should a clutch slip past the prescribed limit it is signified by displaying a red light.
Ash had good qualifying rounds and was well on the pace recording the fastest lap in heat 2 , as a result he went into the the first of the two finals from fifth on the grid. All was going well and he took the chequered flag set for a convincing second place. That is until he came off the track and the Unilogger was showing a red light. This rightly resulted with the intervention of the Clerk of the Course. Early indications from the collected data showed the clutch had started to slip some eleven minutes into the fifteen minute race, the clutch slip was occurring right at the top end of the rev range, this was further supported by the Alfano which showed Ash's pace to be dropping away. The decision of the Clerk of the Course was to give Ash zero points for the first of the finals and resulting in him going off in the final right from the very back of the thirty strong grid for the second final.
The officials had the clutch stripped and cleaned, and the kart held in parc ferme until the final. Despite all the whispers and inevitable finger pointing that went on around the paddock, Ash showed a maturity well beyond his years and unbowed started the second of the finals from rear most on the grid and determination to prove a point. It has to be said he drove like a man possessed to make up eighteen positions to take 12th, and again record the fastest lap. Having come off the track one of the officials commented "Well I think that has just proven a point".
Brendan reflected " It's a bitter pill to swallow, and realistically it's cost Ash a shot at winning the championship, I think the best we can look at now is third place. I know Ash is bitterly disappointed. The points he would have picked up would have put him third in the championship table. The data showed the clutch starting to slip well into the race is something that the team or Ash couldn't have any influence over, more than that it also showed a disadvantage us. This could have happened to any of the drivers out there and is likely to happen again at some point in the future. Uniloggers are good but the rules say it's an infringement regardless of the data. I think the Clerk of the Course used as much latitude as he could by zero pointing Ash and putting him at the back of the grid for the second final. I'm sure if it had been shown that we had gained any advantage Ash would have been excluded from the meeting. I feel the rule needs to be looked at and the Clerk of the Course allowed to view each instance on the available data and if considered appropriate to let the actual race result stand despite Uniloggers red light. I know this is a serious concern as a number of other teams and engine builders have already beein touch to find out what happened; they now realise, it could quite easily have been themselves affected. I'm proud of the way Ash dealt with this. His drive in the second final was outstanding and had he started from where he should have, he could have quite easily won. The kart having been in parc ferme between the two finals, it's performance in the final demonstrating you do not have to bend the rules to be quick. You just need the kart set up to be spot on and the driver to be focused and we had both in spades".
Ash was upbeat about the whole thing saying "Of course I'm disappointed to see the top step of the podium slipping away because of this. Come the end of the championship I will be up there; maybe not the top step this year though. Look what's happened to Lewis Hamilton this season; I've taken a lesson from him - I might be down but I'm certainly not out yet, it's not over until that last chequered flag drops in the last race of the championship - anything could happen yet"
There were no indications during the 10 minute test sessions that there was likely to be a problem, however we believe that the longer duration of the race it'self may have a had bearing on the tempreature / viscosity of the chain lube used, and that it's this, that's could be at the root of the problem. P1 Racing will continue to work with the officials to ensure that we all get to the root cause as we don't want for ourselves or anyone else to fall foul of this issue again.
In conclusion the Unilogger data MUST be used or what is the point of having Unilogger in the first place and then to compound it further with the rules; because the Unilogger is showing RED it must be an infringement, never mind what the collected data says. We all understand the officials have a difficult job to do, so the sooner the data is correctly analysed to determine if there was a benefit/advantage gain or not the sooner we will all see the real benefit of the Unilogger
Ash delivers Super One performance at Wigan
The final round of the Super One Championship was held at the Tree Sisters Track, Wigan over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of October 2010.
This years Super One Championship this year seems to have been dogged with problems of one kind or another culminating in a bit of a debarkle at Shennington where the wheel came off literally.
Ash went into the last round at the Wigan circuit sitting in tenth place. On the heels of his Formula Kart Stars performance at the same circuit Ash was more than confident that he would be able to push his CRG chassis to at least a podium finish.
In the timed trial Sean Babington proved to be the quickest from James Singleton, but the latter had a heat exclusion for driving standards and didn’t really recover despite winning his other heat and the repechage.
For the first of the two finals Ash had qualified on P4 behind Babington on P1, Marshall on P2 and Barlow on P3. Babington’s pace quickley deserted him in and he was shunted down to fourth, firstly by Jack Barlow and Jack Marshall, then by Ash. Ash was able to leapfrog the preceeding three drivers allowing him to go out ahead and take the win, Marshall three tenths behind for second and Barlow six tenths behind Ash for the remaining step on the podium.
Ash made a clean sweep with a lights to flag victory in the second final. Qualifying on P1, a clean start saw Babington, Marshall and Chad Ryan on the backfoot trying to chase down Ash. Babington remained hot on the heels of Ash seperated by not much more than a kart legth for the duration of the twenty two lap race. Ash hit the chequered flag one tenth of a second clear of the current GP plate holder.
A couple of uninspired sixth places was sufficient for Matthew Parry to seal the Championship Winners title.
It was the result Ash had been looking for, and with the final two rounds of Formula Kart Stars and the Championship win in his sights Ash could not be more ready.
Super One - Round 2 - Rowrah
The action at the weekend took place at Rowrah in round 2 of the Super One Championship. Going into the meeting Ash was sitting at ninth in the championship table.
In the timed Qualifying Ash recorded came in as the fourth fastest with only 0.16 of a second seperating the top five. In the two heats Ash took a win and a third which was good enough to give him P3 on the grid for the first of the two finals. During the course of the race Ash had managed to climb up into second place and he was closing fast on Andy King to battle for the lead. A sudden loss of power and Ash found himself losing four places before the chequered flag finally went out, crossing the line in sixth. In the second of the finals Ash was on the third row of the grid at P6. He was unable to show his true pace and was only able to make up a single place in the 21 lap race to take fifth place.
Although Ash was unable to replicate the performance he displayed in FKS Rounds one and two, it was however, sufficient to pull him up the Super One Championship table by three places to sixth. There are currently only fifty five points seperating the top ten with plenty more action in the following five rounds to come.
Ash said "Had it not been for the gremilins I would have been able to take another couple of slots in the championship. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes, It's all left to race for though. I think the remaining rounds will be quite exciting with some good racing to come".
Round 5 of the Super One Championship took place at Larkhall over the weekend.
Ash and his CRG steed managed to post the fastest lap in the qualifier. He went on to win both heats. The first of the two heats was a close run thing with Ash coaxing the CRG chassis across the finish line a full 2.4 seconds ahead of James Singleton. In the second of the heats Ash was able to resist the challange of Andy King to take the win by almost 2/10th of a second.
The performance demonstrated by Ash gave him pole position for the first of the finals. Ash managed a clean start closely followed by P3 man Andy Kingfolowed by the rest of the pack. Ash was able to hold the lead for most of the 24 lap race. On the last lap and less than a handfull of corners from the chequered flag, he found himslef on the defensive which allowed Andy King to poach first place. Despite a vallient attempt Ash had to settle for second place being pipped by a mere 2/100ths of a second.
Over the weekend Ash was racing at Larkhall, this was a club meeting however he was there amongst a number of drivers who are all competing in next weeks round of the Super One Championship which is due to be held there.
Considering that it was a club meeting and where it was, the competition was very strong. Ash's CRG chassis performed faultlessly, although he wasn't on his competion engine he more than showed that he was a force to be reckoned with.
Heat 1 saw Ash away from 10th on the grid, making up 8 places by the time the chequered flag went out to finish in second. The second heat Ash was similarly placed on the grid at 11th this time making up 9 places again claiming second place finish. Heat 3 and a P2 start bringing the CRG chassis home in 1st place.
The hard work in the heats gave Ash a P2 start behind Andy King. Andy King led the race from the off with Ash in close pursuit, a coming together on lap six saw Ash drop a place to Oliver Hodgeson. This was short lived with Ash regining second place on the next lap. King leading the race was relentlessly reeled in by Ash. Lap 13 of the 15 saw King finally fall to Ash's charge. Ash's pace over the last two laps saw him open up the lead to take the win in the A final by almost .7 of a second.
Next week sees Ash back at Larkhall for the Super One Championship and ready to do the business that he loves so much.