Premier Wines taste victory in karting league

(CNS): The first corporate league at Cayman Karting proved a huge success with its fair share of delight, despair, controversy, excellent driving, terrible driving, black flags as well as one race-stopping red flag. The results of 120 people racing in 20 teams over the past 8 weeks are posted below in the final AI Group Spring Corporate League Table. The final round of races in the league began with Premier Wines in the lead and six teams closely bunched in the chasing pack. (Photo by Andy Anderson – L-R: Carrie Stein, Chris Echenique, Daron Mclean and George Manderson)

 Ajoni Ambersley from Team Valvoline set the fastest time of the month (31.213s) in the process of picking up all the points in the first race, while Maples Road Haugs produced a solid performance to deliver a clear second place behind them. Matt Bodden also registered an impressive 31.941s fastest lap, but two black flags put paid to Eurocar Cayman 1’s race ambitions.

LRPF Walkers took a clean sweep of the points in the second race, although a strong drive from Fiona Brander and an extremely consistent performance across the team saw McAlpine Lightning follow them home. The results of those two races meant that LRPF Walkers and Team Walkers could not be separated on points at the top of the league table.

The penultimate race in the league saw a dramatic finish with plenty of action right at the end of the 50 lap race. Maples Stars in a Reasonably Priced Kart took a commanding race victory with Christie Walton, now the third fastest female on the track, proving her value, but behind them the three chasing teams were nose-to-tail for the final laps. Harneys clipped a barrier to send them down to fourth while a beautiful overtaking maneouvre on the hairpin saw Bobby Hulse edge Team Parker’s past the Butterfield A team with half a lap left to grab second place.

Everybody then waited to see whether title favourties Premier Wines would trip up in the final race of the league. The race was a suitable finale to a thrilling season featuring four of the fastest five karters on island: Daron Mclean and George Manderson in the Premier Wines team and Jordan Seales and Alexander Conolly in the Butterfield B Team. Premier Wines’ General Manger Carrie Stein also holds the fastest female lap time.

Premier Wines began knowing that second place was good enough to wrap up the league title and with a 100% record to date not many people expected an upset. The Butterfield team, however, stole the show qualifying in pole position, setting the fastest lap and taking the chequered flag. Whilst Butterfield gaining revenge for defeat by Premier Wines earlier in the season was not a total surprise the shock came when Track Stars out-qualified Premier Wines leaving them in third place on the grid and pushing them into a title losing position. After 5 laps George Manderson did manage to overtake the Track Stars kart only for that position to be lost again when Track Stars seized their opportunity in a hairpin pile-up mid-race. Premier Wines nevertheless kept cool heads and an effective pit stop strategy saw them emerge ahead of the Track Stars. Daron Mclean put his disappointment from engine failure in Jet Around Cayman the previous day behind him to guide Premier Wines home to the second place they needed.

Those 6 points were just enough to put Premier Wines one point ahead of the chasing pack and hand them the inaugural corporate karting league title. In a testament to just how tight the end of the season was three teams ended up just one point behind Premier Wines meaning second to fourth places were decided on a results countback. LRPF Walkers took second place, Team Valvoline third and the B Bandits B fourth. Congratulations to all four teams for some excellent racing over the past couple of months.

A new summer corporate league starts on 28 June with the registration deadline on 23 June. E-mail info@caymankarting.com for more information.