Photograph copyright James Merrett, reproduced with kind permission.

Mallory Park in Leicestershire was the venue for the 3rd meeting in the MR2 Challenge calendar. Dark heavy clouds were hanging ominously overhead as Karen’s entourage arrived at the circuit.

The race car was unloaded from the trailer and immediately given its first wash since having the new front body panels fitted after the damage received at Cadwell in the previous meeting. Shortly afterwards it was straight into scrutineering where Karen was asked to demonstrate the electrical cut-out, and luckily Richard had spent a fair few hours the previous weekend getting it to work correctly after some recent difficulties. The car passed with flying colours.

The qualifying session was due not long after, by which time the rain was coming down fairly steadily. There was a growing patch of standing water towards the exit of Gerrards and the surface on the exit of the Shaws hairpin was rather slick under power but otherwise the grip levels seemed fine. Karen felt her performance was pretty good considering the conditions and the fact that she kept in touch with Rob Howes #7, who’s usually a strong performer.

Richard and his friends were busy taking rough lap times and were impressed with her pace, as she’d already improved upon her previous times in the wet at the circuit. Unfortunately for Karen, it seems everyone else’s times had also improved. That and the re-merging of the MK1 and faster MK2 fields saw her qualify in 25th place overall, 14th out of the MK1 cars. However, a group of 6 other cars failed to make the final 30 places and were relegated into running in a separate race organised by the CSCC.

Race 1 was due to begin at 1pm and by that time the weather had improved dramatically with no more rain and the track drying rapidly. There was some confusion as the marshals attempted to assemble the large grid of 30 cars in the assembly area. Seemingly still not right, it led to cars sitting high up the Devil’s Elbow as positions were sorted out. At this point, the field were waved off under a green flag. Jason Jesse #37 immediately overtook Karen and John Wilson #17, before realising his mistake much later on and falling back behind them when they reached the Devil’s Elbow!

Karen assumes that when the grid re-formed, numerous cars were still not in the correct positions so another green flag was waved. Jason overtook Karen again, this time almost running straight into the back of John! Once more he realised his mistake, and returned to his position as the cars drove slowly around. Meanwhile, at the pointy end of the grid Andrew Hutchinson #21 and Sarah Wherry #23 were coming to blows as they fought for the lead of a race that wasn’t even in progress! The end result of this saw them both removed from the grid and sent to the Clerk of the Course.

The actual start of Race 1 began using the red lights, with Karen’s progress hampered by the sheer weight of number of cars trying to go around Gerrards. Things began to thin out slightly as the cars powered along Stebbe Straight, but as the front runners entered the Lake Esses all hell broke loose! The video footage below clearly shows the damage done to several cars in the incident:


video copyright www.ifdevracing.net, reproduced with kind permission.

Karen was blessed with luck and skill in equal measure and managed to zip through a narrowing gap in the melee, losing only the passenger door mirror in the process! For obvious reasons the race was immediately red flagged. Due to the previous amount of time wasted the officials abandoned the re-start, preferring to attempt it at the end of the day.

Race 2 began at about 4.30pm, but of course it was now effectively Race 1! The grid positions remained the same and the start of the race saw Karen managing to keep Jason at bay. Things were still tight the first time through Gerrards though. Karen snuck inside the MK2 of Andy Winterton #8 at the Lake Esses but lost the place again as he powered past out of the Devil’s Elbow.


Photograph copyright Derren Phillips, reproduced with kind permission.

Karen was in a struggle with Jason for a fair while and at one point they were neck and neck along the Stebbe Straight. Bradley Philpot #50 had possibly re-joined the circuit after an incident and was seemingly cruising down the middle of the straight. As Karen and Jason approached him they seemed set to shoot past on either side until Bradley moved across – right in front of Karen! Jason flew by and Karen was left caught behind Bradley for another half a lap until Bradley seemed to clear whatever problem he was having and accelerated away, leaving a rather disgruntled Karen to begin chasing Jason down all over again. After a few laps of continually closing the gap to him, their battle was disrupted by the front running MK2 cars lapping the field and Jason was gone again.


Photograph copyright Sarah Wherry, reproduced with kind permission.

With a couple of laps to go, Hugh Gilmore #98 was now beginning to pressurise Karen. In the penultimate lap, whilst braking down for the hairpin, Hugh gave Karen a hefty tap from behind sending her straight onto the grass rather than turning into the corner! Karen recovered well enough to chase Hugh down the Kirkby straight where she spotted the last lap board. Thinking she was now in last place, Karen made sure to dispatch Hugh by beating him into the Lake Esses and she actually finished in 21st overall from 24. 10th place in Class A. (Production MK1).

A slightly disappointing finish, with the MK2’s seeming to distort the results and the racing itself thanks to having to make way for the lapping cars. There still seems to be an issue with Karen’s front suspension making itself evident through the left hander of Devil’s Elbow, which certainly lost her at least one place during the course of the race. The re-run of Race 1 was cancelled at the end of the day due to a lack of time before the racing curfew at 6pm.