September Race Update
6th September 2011
Since Ryan's great result last time out at Dijon where he and team mate Derrick Collin won their class, Ryan has had three more race events to date.
The first being a 24 hour kart race at Teeside Autodrome where 76 karts took part in the annual event which once again proved to be a great success.
Ryan and a good friend Philip Hodson put alot of time into organising their team for the race and sorting everything out and it all came together a week before the deadline - the other 3 drivers to complete their 5 driver line up were, Richard Smith - a college friend of Ryans, Joe Watt who is a son of a driver Ryan has competed with in the past, and an Australian Formula Ford driver called Geoff Uhrhane.
Practice went well for the event on the Friday with the team putting in competitive times in the wet conditions and by the end of the day were all feeling confident for a solid qualifying and race result
Ryan started the race from 34th on the grid and 5th in class and made a good start to move up to 27th overall by the end of lap 1 - each stint for all the drivers would be between 1 hour 30 mins and 2 hours and as the race developed, it was clear that this team that had been put together quite late, was going to be challenging for a podium finish in class throughout the whole 24 hour race.
During the night time the number 46 kart had a couple of problems, but nothing serious enough to deny the team taking the finishing line at 1pm on the Sunday afternoon in 27th place overall and 2nd in class - a tremendous result all round.
The following day on bank holiday Monday - Ryan obviously hadnt had enough of karting, as he headed back down south and to Buckmore Park kart circuit for round 6 of the 1 hour Man of Steel championship which he's been competing in all season for some fun close racing - it was another great result, as he took pole position for the race and won by 15 seconds as well to move within 5 points of the championship lead with two rounds to go.
The third event was over the weekend of 4th September and was round five of the european v de v championship at Paul Ricard in the south of France - having had a class win last time out, confidence was high with Ryan and team mate Derrick Collin to repeat the result.
Practice was solid and the car was performing well, which carried over into qualifying where Ryan was once again able to qualify a great 6th position overall and 2nd in class.
The weather stayed dry for the 4 hour race and Ryan made a good start moving up to 3rd position by the second corner and only dropping back to 5th position against the quicker cars by the time it came to the first driver change at the 1 hour 30 mins mark.
Derrick left the pits for his 1 hour 20 mins stint and did a brilliant job of keeping the car in 5th position the whole time, even though the car had developed a downshift gear selection problem.
Ryan took over again for his second stint and had to nurse the car home over the next 1 hour 10 mins and was able to achieve another superb result by finishing 6th overall and 1st in class making that two in a row and now Ryan and Derrick are leading the championship in the Open class.