Surface tension:
Changing weather puts dampener on team’s chances 
Euro Max title challenges still on thanks to pre-final successes
1st June 2010


In a rare twist of fate, sunshine rather than rain put paid to Strawberry’s chances of repeating their earlier pre-final success at Wackersdorf last Sunday (30 May). 

The team’s quartet of Mats van den Brand, James Greenway, Tom Fawcett and Barrie Pullinger had all featured brilliantly in the first final, with Tom leading home James in fine style. Pole-sitter Mats finished in 7th with Barrie just ahead in 6th. His performance was all the more remarkable considering he had qualified for the race via the repecharge.



With the regulations stating that drivers and their karts had to be in the holding area twenty minutes prior to the start of the televised main final, tyre choice was critical. As Strawberry’s Dave ‘Dodge’ Gregory explained, “When we went down to the dummy grid during the Junior final, the track was really wet. We looked at what the other front-runners were doing and they had all gone with wet weather tyres. We knew there was a chance that it would stop, but we didn’t know for sure, or when.”

Initially their choice appeared to be vindicated and all four drivers ran well inside the top ten, and looked set for a similar result to the pre-final. The heavy rain suddenly stopped, the clouds rolled back and a blazing sun quickly dried the track.

“It was incredible. The circuit had steam rising as the water evaporated. The lads did their best, but the tyres had started to shred on the bone dry surface. The guys who had gambled on slicks, came into their own and we just had to sit and watch as they came through.”

As the race approached ¾ distance the rain returned with a vengeance. Karts skittled off the track as the drivers on slicks and those on now ruined wets were caught out by the conditions.

“The rain came down very hard, our visors became really dirty and you just couldn’t see properly,” was how Tom described the conditions. The resultant crashes brought out the red flags and the race was promptly stopped. With the result declared from lap 14, Barrie took an excellent 5th place, ahead of Tom in 8th, Mats in 15th and James in 19th. 

“Despite what happened in the main final, it’s really close in the championship points. Tom is still 2nd while the other lads will be in touching distance of the leaders. We were fortunate that most of the people we’re fighting the championship for were also affected by the weather,” observed Dodge.

The team’s sole junior driver, Joel Affolter suffered cruel luck in his final. After strong performances in the heats, the young Dutchman finished 3rd in the pre-final and was running strongly in the main race when his chainguard suddenly fell off, ending his hopes of repeating his Salbris podium. However, he too will still be challenging for overall honours as the Euro Max season heads into its second half. 

The team now switches its focus back to the British Super 1 Championship and is preparing for the next round, to be held at Buckmore Park in Kent on 26/27 June.

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