The final round of the State Closed Series was run at the Archerville circuit north of Launceston yesterday and today. The City of Launceston club title was also up for grabs. 

Due to our non-attendance at the second round of the series and a poor showing at Highclere, Robert was not in the running for a decent placing in the state series. Consequently the focus for this meeting was to challenge for the City of Launceston club title.

The days leading up to the meeting had been wet, which was great for the farmers, but the forecast for the weekend promised more rain. We were greeted with thick fog in the city on Saturday morning, but on our arrival we found the circuit bathed in the early morning sunlight.

The track was still wet, and with a newly rebuilt Gyrotune motor installed we decided to wait until the track dried before venturing out.

The practice sessions revealed just how little grip was available (witnessed by Robert's spin into Tasman), but the kart was reasonably well balanced and so we left the settings unchanged and waited for the first heat.

The first heat races commenced at 2:00pm and the over 40's were the first race on the programme. By the time of the first race the temperature had reached 17 degrees. The track was dry and clean and Robert was drawn his first pole position in the combined class race one. The pressure was on but Robert made a clean start and took the lead into turn one. Behind the field soon sorted itself out and Chris Price emerged in second place. Robert settled into a comfortable pace and monitored the gap back to Chris. He kept the gap at around a second and maintained this to the end of the race for Team Green Racing's first scratch race win. Chris finished second in the lights with David Cramp taking third.

Sunday was another fine day, but at 11 degrees, cold. With our race two being the first of the day and with Robert starting from the back of the grid it was decided that we would take a huge gamble and for the first time run a worn set of wets in the dry.

The grip advantage from the wet tyres was enormous, and over the course of the eight laps Robert passed eleven karts to finish fourth. The only unforseen problem was that the tyres lowered the gearing excessively and as a result the kart had very poor straight line speed. This meant having to pass Chris and Terry Chadwick four times before Robert could get enough of a break to avoid being overtaken by them again on the back straight.

Robert's good results in the first two heats meant that the Team Green Racing kart started the prefinal from pole position. By this time the temperature had risen to 18 degrees. Back on slicks, Robert found that the grip and balance of the kart left quite a bit to be desired. With Robert battling a very nervous kart, it only took David until lap two to make the pass for the lead.

Robert made a couple of more mistakes over the remainder of the race and an excursion onto the grass with two laps to go gave Lyn Cengia the opportunity to snatch second place, with the Team Green Racing kart crossing the line in third.

The combined results from the first three races put David Cramp on pole for the final, with Robert taking the other spot on the front row. We had made some small changes to the kart to try to cure the handling problems, but our relative inexperience showed through and in the low grip conditions we did not do enough to get a good balance. David consequently drove away from the start and wasn't sighted again, and reigning open state title holder Steve Crocker, after having a DNF in race one drove superbly to take second place. With no real pace, Robert held on as best he could, but with five laps to go Lyn drafted  past on the straight.

Once past, Lyn was unable to pull away and Robert was confident he had a chance to repass her on the run to the finish. With just over a lap to go, Robert lined up for a practice of the manoeuvre, but Lyn at that very moment made a mistake and Robert could not avoid nudging her from behind. This simply had the effect of giving Lyn a push whilst at the same time killing Robert's momentum, and instantly he had lost three kart lengths, which he was unable to make up on the last lap.

So, the trophies went to David Cramp, Steve Crocker and Lyn Cengia, and congratulations go to them. Team Green Racing had some consolation from finishing second on points for the weekend, but again it was a slightly disappointing way to finish a meeting that had started off with great promise.

David Cramp was peerless all series, and is a deserved winner of the 2007 closed Tasmanian titles. Chris Price made his fly-in visits home from the Northern Territory worthwhile with second overall and Lyn Cengia wasn't far behind in third.

Team Green Racing's next race meeting will be at Orielton on 8 July 2007. We are going to miss the Smithton meeting on 16 June and instead concentrate on testing to resolve our low grip setups, which seem to be our main weakness at present.

Last but not least, sincere thanks go the Rod for all his help at the race meetings and to Geoff for his valuable advice and assistance.