So into the final round of the TVKC 2016 Honda Cadet Championship which has seen 113 drivers in 2016 enter the Championship.
Going in to the meeting Lucas was in 2nd place with the winner 65 points ahead and with 60 points available it was now time to consolidate and secure the Vice-Champion title.
Saturday Testing
Lucas was driving well on Saturday and rather than show our pace from the outset we ran the first few sessions on older tyres to bed in engines and dial in the chassis.
The team was split between the two test sessions (grid size of 53 drivers dictated the need for 2 test sessions with drivers split odd/even numbers). The other group drivers were consistently quicker being by far the quickest in their test sessions but working to the plan we would see how we fared toward the end of the day.
Last couple of sessions and we fitted some better tyres which showed a marked increase in pace so on to the last session and fitted the race tyres for Sunday and instantly matched the quickest times of the test day (made by two team drivers working together). More impressivly was the fact that Lucas matched these times on his own at the front......things were looking good.
Sunday Race Day
Race day came with a change of weather forcast to rain, not what we really wanted considering our pace but on to Timed Qualifying.
TQ
The draw for TQ groups put Lucas, Josh Mclean (his new teammate) and Luke Watts in the same group which could work very well if the drivers can hook up some quick laps working together.
Lights went green and we waited for a few drivers to leave to give us some targets to reel in and then Lucas and Josh went, with Luke leaving a bit later due to pitlane traffic.
Lucas, as always, nailed the 1st lap or two and then let off slightly to enable Josh to get his tyres on and then they could start TQing together.
A couple of laps with Lucas in front and it was decided to swap positions to let Lucas push as he is quite good at this. The idea is the front kart makes the hole in the air and the rear stays close enough to push the front off the corner and up the straights......like drafting in other motorsports but with a physical push. The tricky bit is keeping within a few inches of the kart in front going round the corners on the limit as contact at the wrong time can easily send the leader sideways or even off...best case it will slow the lap down....and this is at racing speeds up to 50+ MPH.
They get going and the lap times come as they start to stretch away from the other drivers finally ending up P1 & P2 with Lucas narrowly missing pole by 1/100th of a second. The positives were the nearest driver was near enough 3/10ths slower....looking good for the racing.
Heat 1
Lucas and Josh McLean took the front row lockout in the first heat and the lights went out. Away they went with the plan to try and push away from the pack but they were split at T3, the loop, with Lucas taking the lead and Josh in 3rd.
It didn't take long for the duo to get together as Josh went by the P2 runner on lap 2 to join Lucas 1/3rd of the way in Lap 3 and to start to try and break the competition which by lap 4 they were doing at a rate, stretching their gap to 0.7s. They hammered in the laps with Lucas taking the win, Josh 2nd 2.7 seconds in front of 3rd place Oliver Bearman, the UK No. 2.
Heat 2 (Heat 3 for Hondas)
By now the rain had come and it was very wet and cold so setup changes required and off to the grid to start from Pole.
Lights went out and away, only to be forced off the track at the end of the straight by the P2 driver of whom there were major legality questionables over his pace shown in the previous heat. Lucas slotted into 2nd and went about trying to keep with the leader.
Now, some may know Lucas is extremely competent in the wet but not even he could stay with this leader who was pulling out 2 second gaps every lap!......Lucas knew not to try and keep with him as it would not be possible so set about securing 2nd.
Lap 3 saw disaster when the chainguard assembly flew off the kart on the exit from the chicane and the inevitable mechanical warning flag was shown with #5 on it, so into the pits Lucas came.
There was nothing we could do as not only was the protector missing but so was the bracketry from the engine, so a retirement ensued. (it was later found that a mechanical failure of the metal plate securing the guard to the engine was the root cause of the problem and could not have ben foreseen).
Due to the DNF in the heat we now did not know if we had made the A Final or whether we would have to run in the B Final to try an make the A. To compound the situation more the nearest rival in the Championship had just put themselves on P2, front row, for the start of the A Final.
To take the Vice-Champion title Lucas needed to stay within 8 points so although things were firmly stacking up against us we had to make the best and salvage this.
Waiting outside the holding area for the B Final grid Lucas came out and confirmed we had made the A Final and did not have to run in the B but we were starting on Row 12 in P24.
Final
So, P24......12 Rows back from the front, 23 karts back from the driver in P3 of the championship, 34 points for 24th playing 57 for 2nd.....leaving us starting 15 points behind in the championship and a reduced race length from 10 minutes to 8.......time to dig deep and have a championship winning drive.
The light had faded and the weather was wet and temperature dropping.......4 degrees on the grid with the floodlights on illumating a wet and slippery track. Looking forward from our starting position it was a fair mountain to climb but Lucas has done this and more earlier in the year.
Rolling out on to the track for the formation lap and the setup looked very good with Lucas 110% focussed and on it, trying his best to get some heat into the tyres moving past the slower drivers in front to try and ensure he was set for the start. Coming round the last few corners he let the other drivers back through and took his starting poistion in on the grid.
Lights out and off....it was now very dark and the new LED lighting was not as efficient as the old traditional lights so it was hard to see track action but coming down the back straight it was immediately clear Lucas was on a mission having moved from 24th up to 18th already. Progress continued on this lap to come over the line in 14th! 10 places in lap 1 then another hurdle....the Battenburg flag was displayed forcing all drivers to form a single line and proceed at a reduced place with no overtaking due to an incident on track. This was frustrating to say the least as the race stayed under caution until the end of lap 3 when the green was showed but by now there was only about 3 minutes of race time left.
Anyway, green....go and currently sitting in 14th....another blistering lap took Lucas to 9th with 5 drivers despatched but nearly a 1 second gap to the next driver...Lucas was delivering the drive of the day but the 2 1/2 laps under caution were looking like they would spoil the plans....which unfortunately they did. Over the next 2 laps Lucas closed the gap to the driver ahead to only 0.3 seconds to take the flag in 8th.
A gain of 16 places in 4 racing laps claiming fastest lap of the race by a margin!...now time to quickly calculate the Championship sittings........P8 at the flag gave us 50 points totalling 312 in the Championship. We needed to be within 8 of teh 3rd palced driver going into the meeting....P3 driver finishes P3 in the final with 55 points totalling 309.
An epic drive delivered against all the odds when he needed it securing 2016 TVKC Honda Cadet Vice-Champion title.
Big thanks go out to Mike and Rob of Global Karting, Roger, Sam and Wilko at RPM and Grant & Dan at Zip Karts for all their support in 2016.
