The 924 season opened at Mallory Park with two tremendous wins for Kamal Kalsi. Last seasons champion Matt Davies, will not be contesting all the rounds of the championship this year and several of the other leading drivers have also moved on to other things, leaving the contest wide open in 2009.
Qualifying saw Matt Upchurch take pole with Kamal in second from Nico Ferrari and Will Penrose. When the lights went out Matt converted pole into a race lead and he headed off into the distance pursued by Kamal. Andrew Hannington also had a brilliant start from seventh emerging at the end of lap 1 in a strong fourth place and challenging for third. But things did not go smoothly for everyone. On lap 14 Matt spun at the esses dropping him to fourth and was then plagued by a misfire leaving him to finish sixth. Andrew’s strong start faded away on lap seven when his clutch broke. At the finish Kamal was followed home by Will Penrose and Alastair Kirkham.
In race 2 Will took the lead from the start ahead of Kamal and a good start from Nico Ferrari put him in third ahead of Matt Upchurch who also gained two places. Kamal outbraked Will from a long way back to take the lead on lap two to make an impressive pass. Matt moved up steadily, eventually reaching second on lap 12 and setting fastest lap before retiring with a recurrence of the misfire which hampered him last year.
Nico Ferrari battled with Will for several laps until he passed him for second place allowing Kamal to pull away and win.
Further back there was a good race between between novice John Davies, Martin Hall, Alfred Pietcher and Mark Marshall with John coming through to finish in sixth having started from the back row after a non-finish in race one.
Kamal now leads the championship by six points ahead of Will Penrose but there is a long way to go!
Well done to everyone for a brilliant weekend’s racing. Exciting close and fair!
Next Sunday ( 3rd May) the championship is at Rockingham for the third round of the championship. |
