2006
Kelly Rogers Racing
Bank Holiday Monday saw the team travel to Castle Combe for round 3 of the Championship. Qualifying stated at 11 am with glorious sunshine beaming down on the circuit, Kelly hadn't had much luck in the first 2 rounds so hopefully his luck would change. Castle Combe is a very fast circuit but also a bit bumpy, a good handling car and bags of straight line speed is needed. Kelly made sure he was happy with the car for the first couple of laps after the incident at Brands Hatch yesterday. The car felt good so Kelly slowly started to push hard, the times were starting to come down to a reasonable pace which Kelly could maintain for the complete race distance. After 12 laps Kelly recorded a time of 1:18.766 which put him second on the grid for the race later on in the day.
All lined up in the assembly area at 4.30 pm
ready for the race to start in 10 minutes, Kelly sat quietly in the car
until the whistle blew for the cars to roll onto the grid to take up there
positions. The green flag lap was the time to check the feel of the car for
10 laps of sheer flat out racing. All lined up on the grid, the revs rise of
eighteen 1300 'A' series engines as the red lights come on, then as the
lights go out the whole pack accelerate hard to the first corner at Quarry.
The drag to Quarry saw Bill and Kelly neck 'n' neck as Kelly stays on the
outside line and then tucks in behind Bill to the chicane. The slip
streaming affect at this circuit is immense and all the drivers try to use
this to there best advantage. Lap 2 and Kelly is matching Bills speed and
ability but when someone is holding the right lines to drive around the
outside is very difficult. Mean while the battle behind is letting Kelly and
Bill pull a good few car lengths from the pack which are swapping places at
every opportunity. Lap 3 and Kelly got a perfect exit from camp corner to
out drag Bill along the main straight and up to Avon rise going into Quarry
corner. Kelly's car was on rails going through Tower corner and Bobbies so
he was able to pull a few car lengths from Bill and the chasing pack who
were slightly gaining on the two leaders. Lap 4 and Bill manages to get
passed Kelly out of camp corner so Kelly tucks in behind and sits and waits
for another lap of the slip streaming game. Amazingly the chasing group are
now all bunched up going 3 wide along Farm Straight reeling in the leaders
to only a few metres. Kelly knows that if the pack tag on the back of them
the job will become much more difficult to attack Bill at every corner just
to show him that he is not out there alone! Lap 5 and Kelly was still
sitting behind Bill waiting to make a move that would stick with no come
back. Lap 6 and Kelly had made his last move for the lead, Wager, Hall and
Hack were just feet away from the tail of the leaders. Lap 7 and Bill was
desperate to try and find away round Kelly but to no avail, Lap 8 and 9 saw
this battle royal at every corner and along every straight. Lap 10, the
final lap, Kelly had to defend his position all the time, into Quarry was
Bill's last real attempt to cut up the inside of Kelly and try and out drag
him to the esses. Kelly seemed to have more mid range power than Bill's car
so Kelly was able to shut the door very convincingly and push hard to tower
corner. Kelly was approaching Camp corner and Bill was trying a last ditch
attempt to beat Kelly to the line but Kelly had worked hard for his first
victory of 2006 and there was no way he was going to let that happen. Kelly
crossed the line 1st with Bill second and Hack third.
After the race Kelly commented " I knew the car
was good and my bad luck had just ran out so roll on the next race meeting".
Round 3
Castle Combe
Round 12
Donington Park
