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He may have had to put up with 24 hours of daylight, but
when David and the Strawberry Racing crew visited Finland for round 2
(races 3 and 4) of the 2003 European Championship, he did not need the
extr a light
to mark him as a driver to watch out for!
 The unique figure 8 Mika Salo track at Alaharma, with its tunnel,
bankings, hump
back bridge, and tight as well as fast sweeping corners, was made for
the Strawberry ace. David was drawn in Series 1 of 3 for qualifying,
and he immediately set the ball rolling by topping the
"unofficial" early morning time-sheets on his
Tonykart/Vortex/Bridgestone combination, with a 50.333s lap in the
greasy conditions. The first timed qualifying session followed one
hour later, where David set the 3rd best time, now on a drying track,
with a best lap of 45.146s, as Tonykart mounted drivers took the top
four spots. During the 2nd and final session David improved hi time to
a 44.789s, slipping slightly to 8th in group, just 0.230s away from
the fastest driver, although David was untroubled by this.
 "The kart felt really good in qualifying," he said on
Saturday before the heats got underway, "and I know there is
plenty more to come from me. This is my first visit here and most of
those ahead of me have been here before, so I'm not too worried."
On combined times David qualified 28th, and yet still only 0.347s
adrift of the two Swedish drivers from the Ward Racing team from
Sweden.
When
the groups for the heats were announced, David found he was up against
the European Championship leader, Bas Lammers, in Group C. It was a
confrontation he was looking forward to, feeling he needed to show the
pace that had been evident at Angeville last month in the opening
round, but which he had not been able to deliver owing to mechanical
problems. The first heat went well, David finishing in 4th place from
grid 11, just 0.542s away from the winning driver, the Tonykart Racing
team
l eader
Davide Fore, but with the fastest race lap of 44.207s, at an average
speed of 97.722kph.
 The second heat was a little harder and yet still only 5-seconds
separated the top ten finishers. Coming off row six David fought hard
to earn another good result and 10-points, and with it he also set the
second fastest race lap, in spite of the traffic, at 44.531s. Heat 3
and he carved his way past his rivals to chase Fore across the line
for 4th place, comfortably keeping pace with the top finishers,
recording a best lap of 44.323s.
 It was enough to qualify David 8th on the grid for the first final
as he once again comfortably qualified for a European Championship
round. Turn 1 though at Alaharma is a daunting turn and when too man
karts try to go where spaces do not exist, disaster is rarely far
away. Trying to bide his time as the pack swarmed into the apex, David
was hit from behind and launched into the air into retirement, as both
he and the kart were turned upside down. "I'm not too happy about
that," was his matter-of-fact comment afterwards. "Amermuller
was squeezed into me and then the kart just went over," which
flattened the steering wheel and chipped David's helmet, but otherwise
the kart was OK. After receiving words of advice from the Strawberry
boss Paul Spencer, and with 34th starting position on the grid for the
second final, kid gloves were off. On the first lap alone David made
up 12 places. 3 more places came his way on lap two, 1 place on lap
three, 2 places on lap four, and so on. 21-laps later and the
Strawberry no.1 was up to 7th place, after passing no less than 27
other European calibre competition drivers, at an average of 1.3
drivers/lap. To say that David Gregory's pace was quick would have
been a master of understatement, with his times dipping below the 44s
mark to 43.934s, just 0.125s away from Lammers fastest lap, even
though the entire race had been spent getting past other rivals.
"That felt really good," he offered at dinner later in the
evening, with the sun still shining brightly at 11pm! "I knew
that the car was exceptional, and Davide Fore had copied my settings
onto his kart, which helped him to win. It was a lot of fun passing
everyone and I was quite easy really.
The best bit is that it gets me onto the points table with
9-points. I'm looking forward now to Braga in Portugal; I've got a
point to prove, because I know that I could have won the second
final." At just 5.091s adrift f the race winner, even though he
had started 34th and last, few doubted that David Gregory could have
given Strawberry Racing their first European Championship success.
Report & Photographs: Mike Hayden
PS: Click here for more great photo's from Alaharma!
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