It has been another good month for CRG UK, with the promise evinced during the 2011 Super 1 Series curtain-raiser at Whilton Mill concretised in style in the second round at Shenington, as Andy King and Ash Hand demonstrated that the ‘Dark Knight’ will be ‘a force to be reckoned with’ indeed this year.
Having proven to be on-the-pace but out-of-luck at Whilton, King headed to Shenington sitting 11th in the Senior Rotax national title standings and targeting a brace of solid top ten finishes. Andy has graduated to Senior level in 2011 from Junior Rotax, and he concedes that with the calibre of the opposition being so high and so experienced, ‘you’ve really got to be on top of your game’. He is well aware that he is on a steep learning curve, but the goal, he reveals, is ‘to get a seeded number this year and then go from there’.
“You have to drive a lot harder, and at 110 per cent all the time simply to be able to keep up with the others,” he explained. “A lot of them are adults – whereas I’m just a 16-year-old who goes to college during the week! I wouldn’t have said Shenington was one of my strongest tracks, to be honest, but it’s one that I know well and I felt confident going into the weekend – we knew from the club meeting prior to Super 1 that we had the pace there with the CRG.”
If his rivals are predominantly bigger, older and more experienced than him, King did not let that intimidate him in the slightest around the high-speed Oxfordshire circuit, and qualifying fifth placed him firmly in the ballpark. A dominant triumph allied to a competitive third place in his two heat races then provided a timely confidence boost and left him second on the grid for the opening final.
“With being on the outside line, I dropped a place at the start, but I knew straightaway that I was faster than the two guys ahead of me and I was confident in both the kart and the motor,” he recounted, describing his CRG chassis as ‘brilliant’. “I managed to pass them both, establish a gap and then just edge away from there. Once I had a two kart-length advantage, I got my head down and didn’t look back once.
“I was able to keep putting in consistent times lap-after-lap right the way through, and when I knew I had a comfortable lead, I eased off the gas to save my tyres a bit for the second final. It was a great race, and to take my first Super 1 win at Senior level by the margin that we did just topped it off. I came in and thanked my dad and gave him a big hug. I was ecstatic, just over-the-moon – there were so many emotions!”
More than three seconds clear at the chequered flag, truly, nobody could live with him, and in a second final that developed into rather more of a dogfight amongst the three pace-setters, King displayed laudable maturity by using his head to secure a superb second place, making him the highest points-scorer of the meeting and significantly boosting his championship standing.
“It was just a brilliant weekend,” he enthused, thanking his dad, CRG and Ogden Motor Sport engines and vowing plenty more where that came from. “We had the pace right from the word ‘go’, and with the kind of results that Ash Hand and myself have been getting, a lot of people are really beginning to acknowledge that the CRG is a force to be reckoned with now.”
Hand, indeed, was on similarly impressive form at Shenington, with a brace of runner-up finishes in the heats paving the way for a pair of similarly feisty performances in the two finals. The Tim Parrott Motorsport star duelled energetically with both King and class benchmark Ed Brand for the podium positions, yielding second and third places at the close – the 16-year-old’s maiden rostrums at Senior level.
“It was good to come away with a couple of podiums, and all the points we gained have massively helped my championship position,” mused the Voi Jeans brand ambassador. “Senior Rotax is definitely harder than Juniors, and there are some excellent drivers who are consistently at the front – but with CRG, we’re right up there with them. It’s a good challenge for me – and I’m enjoying it. It’s a tough championship, but if we just put everything together and get it all right, Brand is definitely beatable.”
“It’s been another successful month for us,” concurred CRG’s UK sales and marketing director Mark Collings. “There are 44 karts on the Senior Rotax grid in Super 1 and only five are ours, but all of them made it through to the finals at Shenington. Ross Wylie claimed a top ten finish despite suffering from an incident in one of his heats, and Josh Collings and Charlie Turner came home as the top two rookies.
“Andy King and Ash Hand were simply outstanding; they’re both running out of small teams taking on the UK’s major players – and they’re not only competing against them, but beating them. To go from Junior Rotax to Senior Rotax is a big step for a driver; it requires a different style of driving, the engine has different power characteristics and it’s a far more competitive field. They’re racing against a higher standard of drivers – Ed Brand is second in the world, for example – and they’re competing on an even keel if not better.
“Andy and Ash will be up there and running at the front all the time; Ross has settled in now and I think he will also be amongst the front-runners; and our two rookies Josh and Charlie will only progress further. Jack Bartholomew had a bit of a disappointing weekend in Mini Max at Shenington because he was struggling with an injured hand – but he has shown plenty of flashes of potential.
“It’s been a brilliant start to the season overall, and it really shows that the CRG can compete at the very top level. We’ve got a lot of confidence now looking forwards.”
