"Ruddy hell that's fast" at cadwell as Kings learns from devastating Dan. (Derby Phoenix 25/7/09)

Kingsley Ruddy, the 15yr old sensation from Barnsley has been in tremendous form in the Derby Phoenix MCC F400 championship aboard his RMKD Racing ZXR 400. A run of convincing victories against quality opposition such as Paul Ellerker, Alan Percival and Richie Welsh have put him over 100 points clear and well on the way to wrapping up the title.
However, this meeting was always going to be a big test for Kings as Dan Frear (outright cadwell park 400 lap record holder and BSB Superstock 600 front runner) and Dan Hegarty (BSB Superstock 1000 front runner) were set to take to the grid.
Derby Phoenix use a championship position starting system meaning Kings went from pole in race one while Dan Frear was going to have to draw upon all of his talent and experience to catch the young whippersnapper from the back of the grid. Kings showed great maturity to take the win with Dan only 1 sec behind, but ominously over a second a lap faster, Dan Hegarty took an incredible 3rd place on Mark Jordan's KR1S 250, a machine which many would dismiss as being uncompetitive against the well documented straight line speed of the RMKD tuned Kawasakis.
The following three races saw Dan Frear starting from the front row and steaming off into the distance taking wins by 8 secs, 13.5 secs and 12.5 secs taking the fastest lap in each race- all of which were in the 1m37s, the fastest being 1m37.53. Yet another devastating performance from Dan.
Kings came away from Cadwell with his head held high following a string of intelligent second places, extending his championship lead and now clear about the level he needs to (and no doubt will) attain when he moves to national competition in the near future.
Dan Hegarty continued to amaze with his pace on the little KR1S until he finally broke it in the last race but not before he'd issued another stunning 1m39s laptime dicing with Kings.
16yr old Will Leaning continued to make excellent progress aboard his RMKD ZXR 400, taking some strong top ten finishes and extending his lead in the F400 novice championship to 95 points.