Chris Rogers (Waltham Cross, Herts) stormed his way through the Renault Formula A finals at the B4 Super One kart meeting at Larkhall (Lanarkshire) on Sunday (18th June), but later received a 10 second penalty for jumping the start of the second final.
Rogers took the lead of the second final at the start and held the position to the flag, but was later handed the ten-second time penalty, dropping him to fifth. He is appealing against the penalty to the Motor Sports Association.
He had earlier started the first of two finals which earn points in the Renault sponsored Formula A championship in 14th place. By the second lap of the 20 lap race he had already climbed to seventh place, then spent the next 11 laps working his way through the hard fought top six battle.
He reached second position by lap 13, but was unable to do anything about pole man Riki Christodoulou (Sutton Coldfield), who had opened up a comfortable lead early on in the race.
After Rogers took the lead from Riki at the start of the second final, Christodoulou initially fought back, but then dropped into the clutches of reigning champion Mark Litchfield (Heage, Derbyshire), who climbed from ninth on the grid to fourth. The pair had a race long battle for third place.
“Mark was quicker than me on some parts of the circuit, but in other places, like the hairpins, I was quicker,” said Christodoulou. He eventually made the move stick with just two laps to go.
Litchfield retained his championship lead with ninth and fourth place finishes in the two finals, but after Rogers’ penalty promoted rival Jason Parrott (Crowland, Peterborough) to first place in the second final, the gap between Litchfield and Parrott is just five points with four races to go – reigniting the championship battle.
Parrott started the first final back in 17th place but climbed as high as third, battling Tom Armour (Billericay) and Danny Cruttenden (Dartford), before dropping to seventh place with three laps to go.
Parrott’s improving pace delivered in the second final however, as he quickly worked his way up from seventh on the grid to take a comfortable second place on the track behind Rogers, whose penalty gave Parrott an on paper victory.
Leading female contender Tiffany Chittenden (Chiselhurst, Kent) continued her karting campaign at Larkhall having secured a seat for three races in the Formula Renault with Michelin championship. Her first Formula Renault race with Macob Motorsport will be at Croft on 16th July. Contact from a rival sent Chittenden off track and down to 15th place in the first final, she recovered to finish the first race 14th and the second final in 11th.
Renault Formula A Championship provisional points:
1st – Mark Litchfield 375pts; 2nd – Jason Parrott 370pts; 3rd – Danny Cruttenden 330pts; 4th – Jamie Croxford Gary Catt 329pts; 5th– Chris Rogers 326pts; 6th – Riki Christodoulou 311pts.
