Lucas Ellingham Racing - Honda Cadet  #99

 

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The weather can't make up it's mind but this does not bother Lucas
Lucas was looking forward to this meeting as he is starting to get back to his old form and is beginning to gel with the new kart.
Lucas was hoping to go home with the Novice Trophy, as he did last month and his times in practice were very promising again setting a personal best!

 

 

 

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Heat 1
Lucas drew P19 out of 20th for the 1st heat, so a bit of work to do but he had a good start overtaking two on the first lap. On lap 2 he got tapped by another racer which sent him across the infield and out onto the back straight, luckily he managed to keep the kart under semi-control and did not lose any places but this did unsettle him and he started to overdrive. On Lap 3 he managed to pass another 2 karts and was making good progress overtaking another on lap 4 and gradually catching the ones in front. On lap 9 he overtook another two and tried to hold his position on the final lap but  got passed on lap 10 to finish 14th.

 

 

 

 

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Heat 2

Starting from P16 we were looking for even better gains with possibly a near top 10 finish but the heat was almost over before it had started.
The pack left the pit lane and it was immediately obvious that there was an issue with Lucas' engine. There was no pull whatsoever and he struggled to keep with the pack.
Lucas took the start and tried until lap 2 where he sensibly pulled into Parc-Ferme and we looked in to the issue. It appeared that somehow the choke had been on and although this was checked when the engine was started and he was on the grid, between then and the lights it had come on.
We decided that as Lucas was at least 1.5 laps down nothing could be gained from continuing this heat (as points are awarded for starting (i.e. if you start and retire then you will receive the last place finish equivalent in points)).
This is something that will never happen again as a start process has been implemented that checks the choke at least 4 times by different team members.

 

 

 

 

 

​Heat 3​
Lucas starts from P13 in Heat 3 and has a lot of work to do to make up for the dropped places in Heat 2. Lucas is in the zone now and passes two on Lap 1 then pushes to get to the next kart. On Lap 3 he gets past a particularly tricky competitor who is very hard to pass and then gets his head down.
Pushing harder he passes his next competitor on Lap 6 and now has a gap to the next kart so tries to push to consolidate his top 10 (9th in fact) position but unfortunately he drops a place on teh last lap to finish 10th.​



















Final​

Lucas starts from P15 in the final (due to Heat 2 DNF) and there was a lot of work to do if he want to take the Novice Trophy today.

Lucas was focussed and intent on taking the flag as leading novice so the lights went green and he was off taking two karts on Laps 1 & 2 then pushing to get on the back of his next prey. On Lap 5 he made another pass and on Lap 6 made a brave clean pass into one of the fastest corners on the circuit to take the Novice lead and move in to P11.

He keeps pushing and passes the next racer on track to take P10 and drives a very controlled race to the flag to achieve his goal - finishing as leading Novice and going home with a Trophy.

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Next...........TKC May Meeting on the 2nd weekend of the month.