Race Reports - 2009
Cheshire Kart Racing Club Championship - Round 10 (7th - 8th Nov 09)
In heat 1 Elliott worked his way into second and a few laps later took the lead and managed to gap the chasing pack, however a few laps later his inexperience in the wet showed (having only done one heat in the wet previously) and he dropped a wheel onto the mud coming out of the hairpin dropping him back to second. He then struggled to refined his rhythm and by the time he had and had pulled the leader back in, he ran out of time and so had to settle for second.
Heat 2 for Elliott would see him wondering what could have been, Elliott would start 3rd but on turn 2 he was put into the tyre wall, after dragging the kart out and restarting last, Elliott would put in probably his best drive to date, putting in blistering lap after lap, he worked his back in touch with the tail end drivers, eventually working his way back to 4th position whilst all the time catching the leader, indeed in Heat 2 Elliott was quickest by half a second.
The Final in Senior Blue would have Precision Racing written all over it, with Elliott in 4th, he quickly worked his way to 2nd position What would follow for the rest of the final would be an excellent clean battle between the two drivers, Elliott chased down Paul to get within touching distance of his bumper but could never get close enough to make a move. It finished with Jonathan in 2nd place, his best finsh yet and by far his best drive of the season!
The result for Elliott was enough to give him 3rd place in the championship, an outstanding result for a driver in their first season, something the team is very proud of.
Cheshire Kart Racing Club Championship - Round 9 (10th - 11th Oct 09)
Heat 1 for Elliott would be a mixed affair. Elliott started 8th and quickly moved up to 6th, steadily closing down the lead he moved up to 4th by the mid way point and held the position until the chequered flag.
Heat 2 for Jonny would be a fairly relaxed affair. Starting 2nd and making a clean start Jonny was on the pace but on lap 7 was passed by Jamie Crease and finished a respectable 3rd place.
The final was now upon us and at the beginining Elliott moved to 4th off the start and began hunting the leaders down, as he closed them in it appeared he was the quickest man on the circuit in the opening stages, unfortunately a lack of experience for the young man would show as a charging Elliott clipped the inside curb of the final corner on lap 4 and lost a huge chunk of time, the kart all but coming to a stop. The leading trio pulled around 8 kart lengths in that one corner which was enough to gap Elliott, a gap that on this occasion was simply too much to overcome. An excellent 4th place finish would be the outcome for Elliott, finishing behind three very quick and experienced drivers, and comfortably in front of the 'mid-pack'.
Cheshire Kart Racing Club Championship - Round 8 (12th - 13th Sept 09)
As it was the annual Grosvenor Cup meeting and the raceday format would include timed qualifying. In Senior Blue Jonny Elliott managed a solid 5th place on the grid meaning he could start the 1st heat in touch with the leaders for the first time, a prospect that excited Elliott immensely.
Heat 1 for Jonny Elliott would be very dramatic, after a solid start in which he held position, he was then forced off track when other drivers came together, dropping him to 10th on lap 2. A good show of maturity and mental resilience from Elliott would see him move through the pack and in a ‘damage limitation’ exercise he manager to salvage an excellent 5th place finish.
Heat 2 for Jonny Elliott would be the least dramatic race to date this season for Elliott, something Elliott was surely thankful for in a strange way given the amount of bad luck he’s had this season. Starting 5th and finishing 5th he would remain in touch with the leaders throughout the heat, the biggest positive for Elliott and the team would be that he had broken a psychological barrier after beating his previous personal best of 36.8, getting down to 36.6, a clear indication to Elliott and the team that his progression is coming along nicely given his lack of testing and racing during his first season.
Jonny Elliott would start his final in 5th position, the front 5 made a break at the start and immediately gapped the rest of the field. An epic five way battle would then ensue with some excellent close racing and overtaking keeping the spectators on edge right up to the chequered flag! Elliott moved up to 4th only to drop back to 5th the following lap, then the lap after he moved back to 4th place which he managed to this time build on, a few laps later he engaged in an excellent battle with Chris Taylor for 3rd place, on lap 7 he took 3rd place on to be re-passed the following lap. Elliott dug deep and on the last lap an excellent overtaking move at the end of the straight would see him back into 3rd! By this time Rob Parry has managed to pull the battling duo in after an earlier incident saw him drop from 2nd to 5th and Elliott would have to fight off his attention on the last lap, not yielding to some aggressive driving and holding on to take a superb 3rd place and a well deserved place on the podium!!
In conclusion, it was a fantastic weekend for Jonathan and the Precision Racing team and hopefully a test day between now and the next meeting will help step things up another gear for the next meeting!
Cheshire Kart Racing Club Championship - Round 7 (7th - 9th August 09)
Round 9 of the ChKRC Championship at Hooton Park would see Jonny Elliott in Senior Blue in his final meeting on Novice Plates. Heat 1 for Jonathan had a good feeling about it with only 7 karts on the grid in Seniors the chance for a good result seemed a distinct possibility. After two months out of the seat Elliott could be forgiven for his timid opening few laps, as he found his rhythm his pace began to pick up considerably, he then made a couple of excellent passing manoeuvres on the brakes into the hairpin which to the neutral would make it look as those he hadn’t had a break from racing! Crossing the line in 4th place by the time the chequered flag had dropped; Elliott was visibly more confident going into the rest of the day.
Heat 2 in Senior Blue would be very interesting as Jonny put in a sterling drive, starting from 7th on the grid, taking the initiative from the start Elliott made a couple of places up and by the end of the first lap he was up to 4th. A couple of laps later and another excellent move on the brakes would see him up to 3rd position, over the next 5 laps Elliott would put in some good lap all within a tenth of a second and by the end of the heat was actually pulling in the second place driver!
Heat 3 for Elliot would be pretty straight forward, starting in 7th again, he moved to 5th by the end of the 1st lap and by the end of the second lap he was up to 4th, by this time the leading trio had already pulled a gap which Elliot could never really made any in-roads into. Another solid 4th place finish for Elliot would see him start the final in 4th place.
The final of Senior Blue would see another excellent drive from Elliott, starting 4th Elliott immediately began to apply the pressure to the 3rd place driver, within two laps Elliott launched his attack and moved into 3rd place. He then began to put in some quick laps and initially made some in-roads into the second place driver, however fatigue then became a factor for Elliott and his lap times began to drop, with two laps to go he dropped back to 4th and couldn’t find his way back past for the remaining couple of laps. A discrepancy in parc ferme would lead to the 3rd place finisher being excluded and so Elliott would inherit 3rd place, a richly deserved podium on the evidence of his performance throughout the Sunday after a couple of months out of the seat!
Cheshire Oaks Trophy - Hooton Park (12th - 14th June 09)
During Friday testing Jonathan made good progress getting a good setup for race conditions and posting reasonable lap times, however drama was to unfold later when Jonathan was taken out by a novice who spun in a straight line in front of him coming into the braking zone at the end of straight bending Elliott’s axle as well as other damage. Not the routine test day the team was looking forward too!
Jonny's kart had been repaired and rebuilt ready for the first session on Saturday. He would post good times throughout the day and was around half a second from the quickest drivers (who happened to be some of the quickest in the country as it was also an NKRA round) on old tyres. So things were looking good for the team heading into Sunday.
Jonathan would take an 11th in the first heat after starting from 18th, getting stuck behind a train of karts prevented further progress through the field. Heat two would be a swift affair for Elliott, a pile up at the first corner would leave him no-where to go and a heavy head on impact being the result, the kart being too badly damaged to continue, an unfortunate result of racing as a novice and having to start from the back of the grid.
Jonny would start 18th following his DNF in heat two, it took him a couple of laps to find his rhythm before starting to work his way through the pack. Some excellent overtaking and opportunistic driving would see Elliott pass 3 drivers within two laps and immediately gap them. His lap times also improved to be his best over the entire weekend and it meant he was only around 3 tenths off what the lead pack where doing, this was whilst dealing with slower traffic and also still carrying a bent stub axle, so the signs are positive for Elliott and we are looking for another step forward next meeting. Jonny finished 10th overall and won the 1st place novice trophy. But currently Elliott's biggest challenge is finding some luck!
The next report will be from the August meeting at Hooton Park - Jonathan is having to miss a meeting as the kart will be needing some new parts before it is ready to race again.
Jonathan managed a fantastic 6th overall and won 1st place novice trophy within a grid that was full of very quick and experienced drivers. This was Jonny's only second race meeting and is now starting to show some fantastic pace and consistency. Photographs from the meeting have been added to the gallery and a full race report is coming soon...
Cheshire Kart Racing Club Championship - Round 3 (10th - 12th April 09)
Friday testing would see Jonathan Elliot running in his freshly rebuilt engine, and Phil Gibbons chose to go out for 3 sessions in the afternoon to simply shake off any cobwebs to ensure he was ready for the weekend. Saturday was used to gain some setup data for both karts in considerably hotter weather than either driver had tested in before, so the challenge became to reduce grip to allow the karts to 'release' out of corners but also for the drivers to adapt their driving style to incorporate for the higher levels of grip they would now be encountering. Good progress would made throughout the day and valuable data was collated which was then used a point of reference for Sunday. Both drivers were within half a second of the quickest drivers all day which boosted both drivers confidence and also meant a good result was potentially on the cards for Sunday.
In Heat 1 Jonathan Elliott showed some good pace in his first ever heat with only a lack of racecraft letting him down, a very respectable 9th place finish would be the result with his fastest lap suggesting top 5 finish could be on the cards.
Heat 2 would see Jonathan Elliott take a big step forward in his progress, showing some excellent overtaking skills and late breaking. Scything his way through a pack of 5 drivers within 3 laps and then set his sights on the front 4, although he couldn't catch the pack in front to attack them, he matched them for pace lap after lap and even began to gradually pull them in over the closing laps. This heat would be a massive confident boost for Elliot and would propel him on throughout the rest of the day.
Heat 3 would see Jonathan Elliott's best performance of the day, starting 11th Jonathan made an excellent start making up a few places and he then set about working his way through the pack, over the next few laps Jonathan drove like an old pro making some excellent moves and on each occasion making them stick. The reward would be a 4th place finish and showing the pace to match the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, and outstanding achievement in his first meeting an a clear indication of Jonathan's ability.
The final would see Jonathan start in 5th position, an excellent start would allow Jonathan to pull away from the rest with the 4 leaders, the pack of 5 continued to pull away from the rest with Jonathan sitting at the rear of the group and staying in contention. On lap 5 of 10, Jonathan made his move into the hairpin, and although the decision to make the move was a good one, the execution was a little off and Jonathan forced another driver wide (to whom in his credit he apologised to afterwards) but actually ended up going off circuit, dropping him from 5th to 9th. Jonathan's then recovered to catch 7th and 8th and made two excellent moves within a lap to move back to 7th but unfortunately ran wide through the chicane and dropped back to 9th, before the chequered flag Jonathan had managed to move back to 8th which was an excellent result for his first ever meeting and secured him the novice trophy.
Blue Star Challenge Round 1 - 3 Sisters, Wigan (30th - 31st May 09)
The Blue Star Challenge Round 1 at Wigan was looking to be a promising first round as Jonathan learnt the track properly and practiced overtaking throughout on the Saturday practice. On the Sunday it was to be a real test for the whole team. With Jonathan and Jake Coward racing in senior blue and Phillip Gibbons in junior blue, all drivers went out for 3 lap practice, Jonathan using this time wisely to scrub in his fresh tires and ensure set-up was fine for race day conditions. Jonathan had been given 29th, 32nd and 29th on the grid for the heats.
In heat 1, which was Jonathan's first race at Wigan and only the beginning of his 3rd ever race! Jonathan managed to show some great pace and race craft by picking off drivers one by one and eventually finishing in 13th place. This was a fantastic start to the race weekend.
Heat 2 was also promising with Jonathan starting from 30th (two drivers did not start) Jonathan made up a large number of places on the 1st lap capitalizing on mistakes from other competitors and in doing so passing some very experienced drivers in the process. But, Jonny was getting tired and maybe pushed too hard at the beginning of the race and made two big errors. The first one, he went to wide at the hairpin, letting two karts through on the inside. He then went wide again at Lunar and let around 3 -4 karts through. This was the last lap and he ended up finishing 24th from 30th.
In Heat 3, Jonathan again made a good start and gained places. In this heat he picked them off 1 by 1. Jonathan saw the last lap board on the main straight and looked behind him to see if he had to defend for the final lap. Jonathan had actually pulled a large gap on the karts behind him and was leading the novices. He was entering lunar for the final time in the heat when his throttle cable snapped and the kart slowly came to a halt on the grass. Jonathan was very disappointed and knew that this would affect his finishing position in the final. Starting 23rd on the grid for the final, Jonathan’s main rival was starting 21st – another novice.
Jonathan knew what he had to do, to win the novice trophy and had his aims set on performing at his best. The final was very disappointing, with 3 false starts and a red flag even before the race got underway. When the race finally did start, Jonathan got decent run down to the first corner and managed to pass the novice who was in front of him.
On the 1st lap coming into the right left turn before Rogersons Straight, a kart came on the inside of Jonathan and swiped him out the way making huge contact, Jonathan was launched over the front of a competitors kart and went straight onto the grass, where the kart came to an abrupt stop. Jonathan hopes for a 1st place novice trophy and a good finish in the final was over. All he could do now was watch the rest of the race from the side lines. The kart suffered a lot of damage including smashed pods, broken stub axles and a bent steering column.
Jonathan adds “It’s a great shame, I feel like I could have gone on and finished in the top 15 and won the 1st place novice trophy, which would have been great, but that’s racing for you – I will now be focusing my attention on the Cheshire Oaks Trophy and I will be aiming for a great performance there.”