Hot Shot Gregory... with a Champions commiserations!
2003 CIK/FIA European Championship - Angerville, (FR), Rd 1

Report & Photographs: Mike Hayden
13 May 2003

After making a remarkable recovery from his injuries, suffered in a bizarre incident when he was covered in burning oil whilst out one evening with his team last month, Strawberry Racing's driver David Gregory started his 2003 campaign at Angerville in France at the weekend. Competing in the opening round of the 2003 CIK/FIA European Championship, following on from the cancelled season opener that had been planned for Braga in Portugal the previous month, David's timed qualifying run at Angerville did not go well unfortunately, which left the young ace a bit bemused by his lack of pace. "I was more than a bit surprised," he said on Saturday afternoon before the heats, "but we have made some changes for the first race. It is going to be hard though because of where I qualified." David had qualified in the first of the three qualifying groups, turning in a best of 49.269s in the opening session, but was unable to better his time in the second outing, when he returned a 49.282s lap. This left him 21st in group and 54th overall out of the 85 entries, which indeed was a daunting task for any driver to overcome! And yet that is exactly what the young Strawberry ace did, carving through the pack in each of his four heats, as he pulled off one overtaking move after another, to become one of only three drivers who were able to mount a successful recovery from a disastrous qualifying position, with David the best of those three. With four heat finishes of 8th, 8th, 11th and 13th, David ended Sunday morning with 40 points, which was sufficient to place him on grid 18 for the first final. The Tonykart chassis was handling well, and the Vortex motors were pulling very strongly, revving in excess of 20,000 revs down the back straight. "I knew from the first heat that I could turn the race around," he said on Sunday morning. "I found that I was much faster than those around me and could pass them all quite easily. Realistically I would be happy to make the top ten in the first final, and then from there just see how events would turn out in the second final. The kart really did feel very fast." So fast in fact that David held the fastest heat time from all of the finals, at a very rapid 48.959s, with only one other driver also able to break the 49s barrier, de Gaye at 48.992s. Sadly David would not get the chance to further his position in the finals. After so much effort from him, from Leon his mechanic, and Strawbs on the engines, the two finals did not deliver the expected results. In race one David was fighting hard. At one stage he was ahead of the top Tonykart ace Davide Fore, after making up five places in two laps. But with Fore close behind, David wisely waved the former World Champion past, deciding that the Italian appeared to have a slight edge and that more could be learned by following him. Sadly, when close to the top ten in the closing laps, David's engine 'let go' at the end of the back straight, just five laps from the finish. Then shortly after the start of race two the electrics died, leaving the disappointed driver to pull off to one side in the infield. "It was a bit of a blow," he said afterwards, "but there is always the next race." Tonykart lead driver Davide Fore, who had finished in 2nd place, and despite having already climbed into the winning course car for a lap of honour, showed his commiserations by reaching over to shake David's hand as he walked back to the paddock. Alaharma in Finland is next on the calendar in three weeks time, which is a track that is expected to suit David's style. David however now knows that he has the pace to run from the front, with only the race two winner Bas Lammers edging David's best time with a 48.923s lap, leaving the Strawberry pilote the 2nd fastest driver of the weekend! What David has to do now is adjust to the 24-hours of daylight in Finland at that time of the year... Report & Photographs: Mike Hayden PS: Click here for more great photo's from Angerville!

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