Saturday saw Round 1 of the 2020 Castle Combe Karting Championship take place, which attracted a strong entry of 31 Drivers.
Sam Slater had a perfect run in the heats to lineup on pole position for the Grand Final. He was joined on the front row by James Whitehead. Ben Chick and Peter Harris lined up on the second row of the grid, with Gavin Williams and Billy Cockle on the third row of the Grid. Matt Hallam and James Baker completed the 8 drivers to qualify for the Grand Final from the heats. Shane Lucas and James Harris finished 1st and 2nd in the B Final to take the final two places on the grid to complete the 10 kart grid.
Just before the race started, the rain began to fall making the conditions very tricky. The track was a lot wetter than many of the drivers realized and there was carnage at first corner, a number of drivers got caught out and Sam Slater, Peter Harris and James Whitehead were unfortunate victims of the carnage behind them, dropping down to 8th, 9th and 10th.
Gavin Williams was able to avoid the carnage and come out of the first corner in the lead, with everybody else fighting over 2nd place. Shane Lucas and James Baker both got hit back down the order dropping them down to 9th and 10th.
Over the next few laps, many of the driver were caught out by the conditions, spinning or being hit into spins and three of the drivers received Black and White Penalty Flags for incidents.
Sam Slater was one of the drivers to receive a penalty Flag, but he drove brilliantly to catch Gavin Williams out in front to take the lead and pull away and take victory on the road. However, his Black and White Flag dropped him back down to 3rd. Which meant it was Gavin Williams who took the victory. James Whitehead dropped right back to 10th, but had a fantastic recovery back up to 3rd, which was promoted to 2nd after the penalties. Shane Lucas also drove brilliant after being pushed back down the order as well to take 4th place. Matt Hallam was 5th on the road, he received a penalty as well which dropped back down the order to 7th, so Ben Chick came back up to finish 5th and Billy Cockle 6th. Matt did however get the Fastest Lap of the day. James Baker took 8th Place, with Peter Harris 9th on the road, but also receiving a penalty, dropping him to 11th. Meaning James Harris took 9th Place and John Hallam, who finished 3rd in the B Final, was promoted to 10th in the days results, which was also the best placed masters driver.
Round 2 of the Championship takes place on Saturday 21st March and hopefully the weather will provide better conditions for the final.
