COVKARTSPORT . . .

News updated: Sunday 29th November 2009

HURRY = WE ARE NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR OUR SUPERB ANNUAL DINNER & AWARDS EVENING! Please click this link to find booking form.

"KARTMANIA-09" A GREAT SUCCESS!

COVKARTSPORT's major Prizewinners (above) at the  "KartMania 09" show, after being presented with their trophies on the main stage on Sunday 29th November 2009. From left: John Stanton, Vince Cogzell, Jack Macauley (at front), Jo McCarthy (behind), Adam Wheeldon, Ashley Carter and Ciaran McDonald.

Martin Capenhurst did a great job organising the exhibition which was bigger, busier and better than ever now that it has been located at the Ricoh Arena - which is where it will be again next year!

The eye-catching COVKARTSPORT stand looked good and was situated at the corner of an island in a very busy part of the exhibition. We handed out our A5 photo-publicity cards together with our full 2010 events calendar and M&S's finest chocolate biscuits!

The Organisers would like to thank the many COVKARTSPORT club members who worked so hard on our stand at the show this weekend, in particular Martin Stone, young Mark Wyllie-Mackay and David Whitehouse and his girlfriend, Sara.  We would also like to say a big "thank you" to the hundreds of visitors who came to speak to us, and especially to the many new members who signed up for the COVKARTSPORT 2010 season at the "KartMania" Show.  _________________________________________________

WINTER SERIES CONFIRMED!

Please note that our 2010 Winter Series is now finalised:

Round 1 - January 31st - Sutton Circuit, Leicestershire

Round 2 - February 21st - Priory Park -  Tamworth, Staffs

Round 3 - March 21st - Rednall Circuit - Shropshire

The Winter Series format is CHANGED for 2010 and will now consist of 10 minutes practice and timed qualifying plus two 10-lap sprint races for every driver. The first race is in qualification order with fastest on pole. The second race is a reverse order from the starting grid in the first race.

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2010 RACE DATES:

We are currently working hard to finalise our venues/dates for next year. We hope to have a full calendar of events published by next weekend so that you can all have a look at the "KartMania" Show. We can confirm that our "Welsh Open" Championship meeting will again be held on the superb Glan-y-gors Park Circuit. This will take place on Sunday 23rd May 2010 and will also double as Round 2 of the 2010 Covkartsport Championship - so this is a great excuse to take some days off, with your family, in the beautiful countryside of Snowdonia! There is no F1 Grand Prix on this day either! We have averaged between 80 and 90 competitors (plus many spectators) at this excellent event, for the previous 3 years, so make a note of the date in your diary and get yourself a piece of the action! This event is open to "All-comers"!

>>>>> MEMBERS: PLEASE RETURN ALL CHALLENGE TROPHIES NOW !!!!!

STOP PRESS: Macaulay and Cogzell tie after thriller ! 

Many congratulations to young Jack Macaulay (above left) and the immensly experienced Vince Cogzell (above right) who have both tied for the title of overall 2009 Covkartsport Champion! The final round of our Championship, at the excellent Ancaster track, was closely fought - right to the end of the day!

In the final Junior  race Jack managed 3rd place which meant that Vince would be outright Champion if he finished his final race in the top-3. As it was, in the very last race of the day, Vince managed an excellent 4th from near the back of the 19-kart grid and so the overall title was deserrvedly shared by two very good racers!

Jack has just finished his first year in Covkartsport's standard Junior class (up to 60kgs) where he has made a big impression and Vince joined Covkartsport's standard Senior Heavyweight class (80 to 90kgs) back in 1999. Since that time Vince, who is also a Club-100 racer and works with the Renault F1 team, has always been a consistent front-runner at the club! Both Jack and Vince shared 311 points (after dropped scores) and they both took 9 victories, 3 second places and 2 third place podiums from their 18 races with just 4 non-podium finishes each! Both of their names will be engraved upon the Silver Challenge Cup and they will each share it for six months! Congratulations to all who took awards and commiserations to those who didn't. 2009 was, yet again, extremely close and competitive throughout! Jack and Vince will be presented , together with all of our Challenge Trophy Winners, at the "KartMania" Show on stage at noon on the Sunday.
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Karting magazine

14/11/2009: The December issue of "Karting" magazine is out today! Covkartsport Round 5 is reported on page 40 and there is a preview of the "KartMania" Show with a floor plan showing Covkartsport on Stand No.23.

Links:   Karting Magazine    KartMania 09

Will all Members please note:

With immediate effect (from 25th October), will anyone who has any queries or problems relating to Covkartsport, or the Covkartsport Championship please contact Vice President Peter Realf on 0780 123 5851 or Stuart Lindsay on 07711 443715 or via e-mail at Covkartsport@aol.com. If we are unable to resolve your queries at the time, we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

This is to try and ensure that Nick and his family get a little break from Covkartsport matters, and allow him some time to recover after his spell in Hospital. Thank you.    

Peter Realf.

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November 2009 - DISCIPLINARY:

The organisers of Covkartsport have imposed the following ban:

Stuart Stretton, aged 16 years, of Meriden, is barred from taking part in, or attending at, any future event organised by Covkartsport. He has been notified.

 

Stuart, a previous competitor in our Junior Class, had taken part in our Senior Heavyweight Class only at Rounds 5 and 6 of our 2009 Championship. Members had made complaints about his general standard of racing, at both events, which were witnessed and resulted in two of our officials verbally warning him as to his conduct on the circuit at Round 6.

 

On the day after Round 6, but at no time during round 6, both Stuart Stretton and his father, Steven, lodged separate formal written complaints about Mr. Paul Miles who is an ordinary member of Covkartsport also competing in the Senior Heavyweight Class. They hand-delivered these complaints to the home of Covkartsport President, Nick Staveley Stanley, who had not been able to attend at Round 6 due to illness.

 

It should be noted that Mr. Steven Stretton was not present, at any time, during Round 6 as he was abroad at the time. It should also be noted that, whilst Stuart Stretton made no mention of the alleged incident to the organisers on the day and, in fact, seemed to be perfectly happy and jovial after the alleged incident/s, Mr. Paul Miles did make immediate complaint to the organisers about the poor driving of Stuart Stretton.

 

The complaints (made by both Stuart Stretton and Mr. Steven Stretton) concerned alleged altercations that took place, in the pit-area, between Mr. Paul Miles and Stuart Stretton. The Organisers of Covkartsport immediately investigated because of the very serious nature of these allegations. All that we could discover was that the incident was of a very minor nature indeed and we are told that no type of criminal offence had taken place, no threats had been made and there had definitely been no physical contact between the pair. We could find no witnesses to substantiate the Stretton’s version of events but we did find four impartial witnesses (of known reliable character) who stated that nothing untoward had happened.

One of these witnesses is a vastly experienced professional from within the world of motorsport, who (in the absence of Nick), had been drafted-in to help Peter Realf on the day. He felt that the altercation was of such little significance that it didn’t even merit a warning to either driver! The Organisers are in complete agreement that this was the correct decision.

 

The organisers of Covkartsport wish to make clear that this case is very unusual at Covkartsport but it does highlight the need for any person, who wishes to make a complaint, to interview their own witnesses and thoroughly substantiate their allegations before submitting their complaint. In future Covkartsport will not investigate any unsubstantiated complaint as this one complaint has resulted in many hours of investigation, telephone calls and letter-writing for the organisers - all of which could have been avoided!

 

At 16 years of age Stuart Stretton is both larger and heavier than Paul Miles and, as Stuart now competes in Senior Classes of kart racing, he is no longer classified as a Junior. (This would also apply to him in direct-drive karting classes within the MSA!). Whilst we understand that it is quite natural for a parent to want to protect their child from an angry adult we do not have a problem with an adult member justifiably telling off a 16-year old for dangerous driving provided the admonishment remains within lawful limitations. Accordingly, no action will be taken against Mr. Paul Miles.

 

During our investigations we have asked Mr. Steven Stretton certain questions to which he has failed to respond and we also afforded him the chance to make an appeal, on the Covkartsport website, for independent witnesses to substantiate his son’s version of events. Again he has failed to take us up on that offer, which has now been withdrawn. We have not further interviewed Stuart Stretton as he had already provided a very full and clear signed statement as to his version of events.

 

Given the evidence that we have garnered we can only conclude that this incident was blown out of all proportion by Stuart Stretton for reasons only known to him and, accordingly, we have barred him from Covkartsport. We have also accepted the resignation of Mr. Steven Stretton from his Honorary Life Membership of Covkartsport.

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100th event for Covkartsport: A great day of racing at Glan-y-gors Park!

We celebrated our 100th Championship event at Round 5/2009 at Glan-y-gors Park. Event number 1 took place in April 1996! A cake was specially made and decorated by Julie Hill of Coventry. It was then cut into about 100 pieces and eaten by everyone present - during the lunch break at our "Welsh Open" Championship meeting. High-quality Covkartsport woven racing caps were also distributed free-of-charge to our members to mark this milestone in the history of Covkartsport.  Many thanks to Ryan Lindsay for providing members with laps of the circuit in his 520bhp V10 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and to our owner-drivers for their excellent demonstration laps during the lunch break - it all kept the crowd entertained! Over 80 drivers took part and we provided a superb trophy table for them. Many congratulations to both Derek Yates and Connor Hambleton for jointly winning the title of 2009 Covkartsport Welsh "Open" Champion - this big silver cup will be presented at the "KartMania" Show at the end of November!

 

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Ruling on your "Dropped Scores": 15 from 21 to count !

Following discussions after GYG the Organisers have agreed to allow members to drop 3 scores in addition to the voided 3 races at Red Lodge, as it had been pointed out it was unfair on drivers who had already decided they had to drop a round in the early part of the season due to work or family commitments not to be able to do so because they had 3 races voided at Red Lodge through no fault of their own. We felt it actually worked against some drivers who had attended Round 4 but were forced by circumstances to miss another Round, as they were always going to score a zero for at least one race of the missed round.

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