Round 3 - Rowrah
Published in S1 NewsRound 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
Published in S1 News
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."
It was quite a year for Ash Hand, was 2010, with the highly-rated young Nuneaton karting star achieving the indisputable crowning glory of his impressive career to-date with British title success – so it is only right that he should celebrate it in some style. F1 style, that is.
As a reward for lifting the ultimate laurels in the Junior Max class of the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship – thereby following in the wheeltracks of 2008 F1 World Champion Hamilton himself – Ash was invited to attend the prestigious, glittering Autosport Awards ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London to claim his trophy, appropriately enough in the form of a distinctly cool, retro-style steering wheel.