Edinburgh win Scottish Students Karting Championship

Edinburgh University were the winners of last week’s inaugural Scottish Students Karting Championship (SSKC), which was held at the indoor circuit in Larbert, Stirlingshire.

The format was a two-hour endurance race with both Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt strong enough to field two teams.  They duly shared the top four places between them after a close, race-long fight. Heirot-Watt claimed second and fourth, Edinburgh B third.

EUMSC Captain Kirsten Dallas, driving on the Edinburgh B team, “We’re really pleased with our performance and really enjoyed this whole event.  It’ll be good to compete again in the future, hopefully with even more teams from even more places.”

Qualification signalled how close a race we were in for; just 0.01 seconds separated the top four teams on a considerably fast course layout.  Edinburgh locked out the front row, pole being snatched in 21.72 seconds by Nick Roberts of Edinburgh A ahead of Ross Hughes of Edinburgh B.

Heriot-Watt A and B were in close formation behind, with a SAC & Oatridge Agricultural College team and the two University of West Scotland teams a little further adrift.  Dundee University were a late withdrawal after one of their drivers was seriously injured in the Formula Student competition.

All the karts got away cleanly at the start, although it was only a few laps before Edinburgh B’s Ross Hughes was receiving the black-and-white penalty flag.  Some fierce racing saw the Edinburgh man slightly overstep the mark.

As pit-stops and penalties began to force the frontrunners out of sync, Heriot-Watt A took the initiative.  Stephen Walls briefly retook the lead for Edinburgh A before his pit-stop, with a smart move around the outside of the hairpin, but Heriot-Watt’s Neil Halliwell soon had clear track again at the front.

He was doing his best to ensure it stayed that way too, as a red flag on lap 70 prompted him to clear several backmarkers – a reaction of questionable legality.  This was much to the consternation of Edinburgh’s Walls on the pit wall.

A handful of unnecessary penalties would, however, see Halliwell hand the initiative back to Edinburgh A.  Indeed, when Ross Hughes returned to the track for Edinburgh B, their second place came under serious pressure.  After an hour the front three were all still within a lap of one another.

The competition at the front was unrelenting and the final fifteen minutes saw some tactical driving and occasional outright gamesmanship from both Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt.  Edinburgh B’s Sally Skinner alternated well between rapid lap times and slowing the progress of Heriot-Watt A, whilst Heriot-Watt B received a penalty for shunting race leader Nick Roberts.

Heriot-Watt’s Halliwell emerged for a cameo in the final five minutes, for one more punt at victory.  Edinburgh A were almost a lap ahead, so with a straight fight out of the question the Heriot-Watt driver attempted to get Roberts penalised for crashing into him.

However, both the Edinburgh team and the marshals were wise to this.  The race was concluded at a comfortable pace and Edinburgh took the chequered flag in first.