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Reilly and Strawberry begin new season
where they left off
27th February 2009
Exactly four months after they wrapped up the British Super 1 Junior Max
title together, Strawberry Racing and Joseph Reilly again returned to
winning ways with an emphatic victory at last weekend’s (14 / 15
February) Rotax Winter Cup.
And what made Joseph’s victory all the more remarkable, was that this
time it was in the Senior class.
Billed as the ‘ice-breaker’ for this year’s Euro Max Challenge, the
event had attracted a strong field to the impressive Campillos track,
near Malaga in Spain.
After setting the pace in testing prior to the event, Strawberry’s
pairing of Reilly and James Greenway were confident that they would be
able to maintain this early pace through timed qualifying and into the
racing.
This certainly proved to be the case, with James fastest in the warm-up
prior to the first heat and Joseph close, setting the 4th quickest time.
Joe opened his account with a win in his first heat, followed by a 2nd
and another victory to put him top of the intermediate classification.
James meanwhile took 3rd, 6th and 1st place finishes to rank 4th place
overall.
From pole, Londoner Reilly was the class of the pre-final. After getting
the hole-shot over his rivals on the run into the first corner and
allowing the field to settle, Joe extended his advantage to over half a
second and secured a comfortable win.
Skipton-based Greenway faced a tougher scrap - but sensibly opted to
drive for a good top five finish and conserve his tyres for the main
final.
Team Manager Warwick Ringham was pleased with his young drivers’ saying,
“I was delighted. We’d come through the heats and pre-final intact and
both the boys were in the top three rows and on the inside line for the
first corner of the final.”
Again, Reilly aced the start and delivered a perfect lights-to-flag
victory in the feature race. Greenway briefly ran in 3rd but found that
his kart’s tyres were not offering the expected levels of grip and ran
just a fraction off the front-runners’ pace as a result. Nevertheless,
he was pleased with his eventual 6th place, believing it to be a strong
platform from which to build a successful 2009 campaign.
James said, “I’m pleased and yet disappointed. I’ve been rapid
throughout but when it mattered, my tyres just didn’t quite deliver. But
I’ve got great expectations for the year after this performance.”
Warwick acknowledged, “Joseph’s effort and concentration throughout was
fantastic. The kit’s quite good too! Both the lads are progressing
amazingly well. They were up against a high standard and were amongst
the fastest at the start of the week and maintained that pace and
pressure until the end. It’s an encouraging start to the season for us
all.”
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