Fast But Unfair!

The 2011 Rotax Pro Tour travelled to Port Macquarie last weekend (29th April – 1st May) for the fourth round of the series, with torrential rain looking like it was set in.  Luckily qualifying was able to be run on a dry circuit, however clouds threatened and continually changed the track conditions throughout the day.

C.I.C / KNOX Engineering driver Brinley Gread put together two qualifying times strong enough to place him 8th overall leading in to the three heat races. Not the start he hoped for.

“To be honest I thought we might be able to get a bit more speed out of the new tyres today for qualifying,” said Gread.

“Eighth is a fair way back from pole, and is something I now have to work on through the racing to make sure we are in a good position to start the Final on Sunday.”

The heats were also lucky to be raced on a dry circuit, but the conditions were different in each session.  In heat 1 Brinley moved forward to finish 6th, later to be improved to 5th position after a competitor  in front was disqualified for weighing 2kg under weight.  Heat 2 was looking promising after moving up to 5th early in the piece, however a broken axle ended the run and forced Brinley out of the race.  Heat 3 was the last race on the Saturday afternoon, and ended with Brinley in 6th place after a few passes and pretty close racing.

Returning Sunday morning to a clear blue sky, the circuit began to absorb a bit of grip as the karts warmed the circuit up in morning practice, preparing for the pre-final. With the results of the heats combined, Brinley started from 9th position in the 16 lap pre-final. He struggled a bit for enough kart speed to move significantly forward, but managed to finish in 7th turning out two axle key in the process which were lucky not to fall out and cause both rear wheels to fall off.

After making a few changes to fix the problem with the axle keys, Brinley lined up on the grid in 7th for the 22 lap Final.  On the out lap from the pits Brinley pulled in to the break-down lane needing to change a spark plug. Due to the break-down lane being closed he was unable to do so.  Returning to the circuit he was then unable to retain his starting position of 7th as the race was started while he was still around 50m behind, approaching the field.  Following what seems to be incredibly unfair, Brinley charged through the race as quickly as he could to finish in 7th position, closely chasing 6th by the end of the 22 laps.  It was a disappointing result, and one that should have been a lot better.