Super One Buckmore Park.....47 Drivers on a circuit that favours the local specialists...but it would seem Dude may have been sandbagging......
We were thinking damage limitation for the 3rd round of the British Honda Cadet Championship as only having been to BP twice before this was always going to be a hard round......especially as we have never made it past the 2nd Hairpin on the 1st lap of a final as yet!
Friday
Testing was steady being a little off the pace but not as far off as we thought we may be.
We could see where Lucas could make up time so it was down to him to deliver in TQ on Saturday.
Saturday
Practice
Lucas showed he was focussed from the outset posted 6th quickest time only 13 hundreths off the fastest.....all that was needed wis this to be replicated in TQ and no one found a bunch of time...
TQ
Lucas and his teammate got separated in a pit exit coming together where, it would seem, all the drivers wanted to get through the gate at the same time and this, of course, was not possible...so working with others who seemed nippy Dude got to work...
Worrying at the start with mid-teens to 20 he got his head down and nailed it qualifying P3 which was epic in relation to where we may have forecast...job done good lad.
Heat 1
Clouds had been looming and it had started to lightly spit when we were waiting for the gates to open to go into the holding area.....then the heavens opened.
All hands on deck to change the kart setup as much as we could for the conditions and then into get the brand new wet wheels on... Lucas had never driven a wet lap at Buckmore so it really would be a shot in the dark but hopefully we would have a strong run as he does like the wet..... Lights went out and Dude pulled the pin......Lap one he took the lead and pulled nearly a 1 second gap to his teammate who was now in 2nd. Ben Kasperczak had made a rocket start from 11th to 3rd on the 1st lap and they were closing down on Dude showing their wet weather knowledge of the track. Lucas held the lead until lap 5 when he was relegated to 4th as the pack caught him. Over the next couple of laps Lucas pushed a little too hard and lost a bit of ground but calmed things down and started making forward progress again finally finishing 6th a cracking drive in unknown territory.
Heat 2
The rain had stopped but it was looming and whilst waiting it was drying so we changed the kart to an intermediate setting as it could have gone either way.......yep, on the grid it absolutely hammered again so unfortunately the setup was not ideal but he showed he can do it in the 1st heat so off he went..... P3 start and into P2 with Wesley Mason leading, Oliver Bearman 3rd and Harry Thompson coming...Lap 5 Thompson went in on Lucas and took Bearman with him relegating Lucas to 4th which was where we took the flag.....grinning in the pits though as I was more than happy with the days work as we could so easily have been in the high teens....Dude delivered at a track he didnt know.
The Intermediate Classification for the day put Lucas 8th overall for our start on Sunday in the 1st Final
Sunday Practice
Very steady on posting P15 so a regroup and head together chat and we were set for the 1st Final.
Final 1 (Pre-Final)
P8 start and we looked strong, gone were the line issues we had seen previously and Dude was on song....lap 1 made up 2 places to P6, Lap 5 another, Lap 6 another and into P3 on Lap 7 looking strong.......Lucas had his sights set on the front and was pushing forward but unfortunately the race was plagued with red flags, two, after the 2nd of which the officials called the results......even though we were really happy with the result we did wonder how far we could have gone but we will take P3 for the Grand final (Final 2) start.
Final 2
P3 start but another red flag 3 minutes into the race saw a full regrid and restart...which was a shame as Lucas and 3 others had broken away from the main pack and had a nice lead....
So restart and Lucas slotted into 4th, went into 3rd on Lap 2 and tried to push on. Lap 8 pushed through to 2nd and at the 1st turn of lap 9 took the lead........leading a S1 race, yep that's right...but enough of that as Oliver Bearman was not having any of that and relegated him back to P3 when he and Wesley Mason came past at hairpin 2. Lap 13 Thompson made a move past which allowed Ben Kasperczak, Ivan Lomliev (teammate) and McQueen to get on the back......at the hairpin Ivan went for a move on Ben which resulted in Lucas getting a tap resulting in a loss of momentum so at Hairpin 2 he got swamped and lost 3 places relegating him to 6th......head down time and get on with it.....Lap 16 Lucas overtook Mason who had a mechanical issue and with a major move on the last lap he passed McQueen to take 4th on track just before entering a section where the yellow flags were being waved (meaning no overtaking-caution).....in this section he was overtaken by #25 to relegate him to 5th on track but on appeal the evidence was reviewed by the officials and the result was amended as the move was under yellow flags and therefore disallowed...........
So to recap Not so much damage limitation as fantasic drive with confidence building producing.........
- 1st S1 trophies - 4th Place & 1st Rookie
- 178 Championship Points (3rd Highest scorer of the meeting)
- 6th in the British Championships only 10 points off 2nd place
- Highest placed Rookie Driver
- Highest finishing Zip Driver
