Lucas Ellingham Racing - Honda Cadet  #99

 

​

​

​

March 2013 Club 2000 Meeting is our 1st outside Tattershall and it's a BIG step up.

Unlike most circuits we have been to there is very few opportunities to practice before race day so the only outings Lucas has had here have been six 15 minute sessions across two Sundays which are run every other week so we really are shooting in the dark here. We know the main runners in this championship have been racing here for many years (up to 5) and are in the final year of this cadet career.....and THEY ARE FAST. 

​

Arriving at 07:25 for gates opening at 07:30 was an early start (as we usually sleep over the night before) but we're here nice and early to get setup, sign on and get scruitineered.

We decide to use the new slick tyres we have to give Lucas every opportunity and give the kart a final check over prior to visiting the scruitineers.

Like most club and race meetings we are required to use a timing transponder to allow the organisers to record participant times and this is very helpful as we found out that we can visit the clubhouse and get print offs of session summaries inclduing fastest laps, top speeds etc.

​

Practise Session

Warm Up / Practise was a fleeting 3 laps so not even enough to scrub in the new tyres so we just hoped that Lucas had a reasonable run in Heat 1 as by what we saw during the practise this may be a very big mountain we had to climb as straight out of the blocks the pack were running at nearly race pace with no warm up or settling in.



Heat 1

So, as newbies we lined up on the pre-grid at the back for Heat 1. Rather than set lap numbers we were racing for 6 minutes then 1 lap which equated to 10 laps with the normal rolling lap start.

The gates open and the pack exit on to the track - at a pace that catches Lucas by surprise as by the time we exit the pre-grid we are about 8 lengths down!

Lucas catches up the back of the grid, of which there are 17 and follows round at a fair pace heading for the start. As the grid is quite big this is Lucas' first experience of pole getting the green light before Lucas is even on the straight so gets caught by the pack accelerating before he's seen the lights so we drop a few lengths. Entry in to Turn 1 is a bit 'messy' and a few karts get caught up which benefits us as Lucas finds a way around and picks up a few places.

Gradually over the race the guys who were involved in the Turn 1 fracas get past Lucas and we are concerned that Lucas is not driving as well as he can.

As soon as Lucas hits Parc Ferme we check his datalogger expecting to see some very conservative lap times but are very surprised at what we see - he has just lapped a full second quicker than he has ever been round the track before!

GREAT NEWS but this does show the bar has been raised as most of the pack are running within 1 second and we are still 3.5 seconds off their pace.

​

Heat 2

Starting from the rear of the grid again we had made some changes to the kart, as Lucas seemed to be struggling for rear grip, we were looking forward to see how we'd do now we had has the inaugural run out.

Lucas was not doing to get caught by the start again so was ready this time and hit the start on the button. Like Heat 1 there was a bit of a pile up at Turns 1 & 2 but Lucas, somehow, found a route through and kept out of trouble picking up a few places in the process. The order of the day became clear in this heat that we were in a 4 way fight between 3 of the Novices and 1 other competitor.

Lucas looked as though he was lapping faster than Heat 1 and did not get caught by any of the front runners and looked much more convincing in this Heat.

Again, at the Parc Ferme data check we were happy, no surprised, to see that he had again dropped another 0.5 seconds off of his lap time and this time finished a 18 out of 19.



 

Heat 3

We were expecting a strong showing in Heat 3 and hoped Lucas could replicate his Heat 2 performance as this would put Lucas a good few places up from the back for the final.

Lucas was ready for the start and was pushing to make a few places up into Turn 1 but, as seemed to be the order of the day, a big shunt ensued and the kart in front of Lucas turned right to try and miss it and left us nowhere to go and Lucas ended up in the tyre wall.

​

Taking what seemed like a couple of minutes to get him out (although it was only maybe 30 seconds) this pretty much put him in P16 with only 1 behind him so he pushed on but we had to write this Heat of and look at it as experience. The Parc Ferme check confirmed again that every session Lucas was completing was of benefit as again he had dropped another 0.5 seconds, so on to the final.

​



Final

So tail gunner position for the final due to the Heat 3 punt off but Lucas was just focussing on his peers and was aiming to be first Novice over the line. Race distance would be longer with the time equating to a 13 Lap Final.

His main competition were 2 & 3 places in front of him so he had to chase from the outset. The pack fed out from the pre-grid and ran round the sighting lap, Lucas was adamant he was not going to get caught napping at the start so tried to make sure he was on the bumper of the kart in front, sometimes a bit too close as the pack was bumping a bit.

So round the last bend and the lights go green....into T1 and Lucas goes around the outside to gain 2 places but straight in front of him is a pile up at Turn 2. He manages to avoid the shunt and drops in behind the two he had just driven round.

Over the next 8 laps the three Novice drivers and one of the others battle it out with the non-novice getting a bit physical and hitting Lucas at least 3 times and finally ending up taking out novice #67 in spectacular fashion that ended up with his kart mounted on top of the novice's!

This left the newbie fight down to Lucas & kart #95 and for the next 3 laps #95 harried Lucas trying to find a way past until Lucas made an uncharacteristic mistake and ran wide at Turn 7 due to a too fast entry, this let #95 through but Lucas chased him down over the next lap and in the infield tried to cut through on the inside of Turn 4. They ended up swapping paint and exiting the turn side-by-side (an incident that would lead to an invitation for the pair to visit the Clerk of the Course). The run down to Turn 5 was side by side and neither driver was willing to give best but on entry Lucas had a rear slide which gave #95 the run down the back straight and a chance to stretch a 3-4 length lead, Lucas pushed harder and caught #95 and coming in to the last corner on to the start-finish straight we all thought Lucas may try to dive up the inside but #95 drove a great blocking line and left us nowhere to go........final place 2nd novice and 16th.

The Parc Ferme check confirmed again the order of the day and this time Lucas had dropped another 0.8 seconds so during the day he'd improved his best time by nearly 3 seconds and fron the start of the day by 7!........a great outing in anyone's book.

We are looking forward to our next meeting in April and hopefully we will get another couple of practice outings so Lucas can get some more experience of the track as at present it's track knowledge that seems to be influencing his results.

Looking at the result sheets if we find another second we should be running in the top ten , which is the 1st target this year. 

​

​

next....Tattershall KC Round 2 next weekend.

​

Finally we get to compete at the Club2000 Meeting 3 .....out with bigger boys & girls) ​​
March 2013​