Peel 2004 Editorial

Peel Grand Prix was a huge a success, despite the awful weather on the Wednesday evening, all the races went ahead.

Wednesday
All Senior ProKarts successfully completed their Heat 1 race, the 4 Stroke & Senior Prokart heavies had a few casualties including Richard Allinsons chassis bending incident at the Empire, although the weather was extremely wet, the lap record for the Senior Heavies was set by local man Kevin Hooper at 1:25.97, the only lap record broken for the day. The Rotaxers had their usual race heads on!!! and 6 failed to finish with Julian King being excluded for rather rash driving skills!!!! Gearboxers.......usual failure rate on the Peel streets but no major incidents.

Thursday
Weather was good and with all the repairs carried out racing in the Senior Prokarts was equally as successful as Wednesday evening with only a few not finishing, Brian Seward had a big coming together with the tarmac after a puncture overturned his kart at the Creek. The 4 Strokers had a good day with only one from each class not making the full race distance. Again the Rotaxers are shrouded in red mist....and plenty don't finish the Heat with a total of 10 competitors failing to finish. Gearboxers.....well nearly a full house made it to the finish line of the Heat with only 3 not completing the whole race, however there was some confussion with the use of the batternburg flag with the race leader at the time 'James Irvine' who slowed down by 4 seconds for the flag....... some how I don't think that was slow enough for the MSA.....!!! who excluded him after the race, but was reinstated after a stewards decision. The gearboxers also saw a lap record broken for the 125's by James Irvine at 1:04.99

Friday
Sunny weather made for ideal racing... and there was plenty of crowds spectating, first away was the Senior Prokarts with the lap record being set by Mark Cubbon (90) with a blistering 1:20.43 lap that even the super Paul Wilko couldn't match who won every Heat in the Prokarts. 4 Strokers saw local man and race Sponsor (Viking Office Systems) 'Stan Kieg' had a coming together with the bails and kerb at the Police Station which put his new chassis in the 'bent bin', this was only its second meeting after having bent the last new chassis.....Stan is a competent chassis smasher!!!!, despite this, the race lap records was set by Simon Bayliss in the Biland at 1:08.74, Paul Wilkins in the World Formula at 1:16.80. Rotax saw a red flagged incident when Helen Adcock (75) was pushed into the kerbs at Empire and had to be taken to hospital for check-ups, she was later released that night... and returned to down a few drinks at The Marine Hotel. The Gearboxes had their lowest finish rate of the week with just eleven finishing from a field of eighteen starters....but the 250 lap record was set by Nick Booth at 1:06.22

Saturday
The evening started with drying roads and sunny weather moving in after a rather wet day. The Rotax Heat 3 was run first as this was the red flagged race from Friday, with only Simon Everall not finishing the race, all other competitors finished all 8 laps of the Heat.
Finals
Senior ProKart saw an excellent race with Heat supremo Paul Wilkins loose it with a lost sproket key-way on the 10 lap of the 12 lap final, also a total of 7 local competitors falling by the way side not finishing the final, along with Allan Smith and Sean Durcan. The 4 Strokers saw Allan Smith again fail to finish in the only EcoMotor to enter the event with Simon Bayliss take the chequered flag with a blistering pace 11seconds ahead of second place Kieran Brookfield in the Bilands, Paul Wilkins managed to finish this time in the World Formula to take first from Andrew Fegan in second, both of whom had the fastes lap in identical times of 1:17.61 on different laps, showing just how close the racing was on the 12 lap 1.25 mile circuit around Peel. The Senior Heavy class was won by local man Kevin Hooper who couldn't beat his Wednesday lap record, but did manage to take the win by 9 seconds from second place man Shaun Mulligan. Rotax having their second race of the day saw a win in the final by Ricahrd Durham by 10 seconds from local Man Mark Cubbon, in the Rotax Heavy class the win was taken by Paul Darrington, and second place was Liam Harris....who was later excluded on technical infringement of the rules (wrong engine log book number) so this moved Paul Rolfe up to seconf for this event. Gearboxers saw the win in the 125 taken by Hilton Watson from local man Jason Kitchin by a 35seconds gap, the 250 win was taken by Nick Booth who was ahead of Kitchin on the circiut, second was taken by Chris Cope. The 210's saw a win by GP plate holder Lionel Sifleet, and second was taken by Tim Woodward, last years winner and Peel GP vetran Desmond Black took 3rd place.
For all the results go to Peel GP Results

By Sam Adcock