Following a busy Friday testing the 2017 tyres and Chassis Lucas went straight into Round 1 of the TVKC Winter Champs.
Race weekend format at TVKC has changed from Saturday testing with TQ, Heats and Final on Sunday to Saturday featuring 4no test sessions and then straight into Timed Qualifying with the Heats and Final taking place on Sunday.
With 48 drivers entered, testing was split into Odd and Even numbered drivers. There was a big discrepancy on times between the two groups with Lucas needing to find some pace even though being a front runner in the Odd group.
Into Timed Qualifying and track position left Lucas on the back foot as unfrotunately his teammate dropped off and left him on his own and as such setting a quick time would be hard. In the end Lucas was 7th and 11th overall. Not what we were looking for but he was confident that he could be in the mix on race day from that position.
Heat 1
So, starting on P8 Row 4 Outside Lucas had to make goood progress from the outset as many of the top drivers were in this heat.
Not the best start and dropped a couple of places into T3 but by the end of the lap he had made back the places and was heading toward the front pack, Lap2 made a place to 7th, Lap 4 another 2 places to P5, Lap 6 to P3 then a questionable move by another driver dropped Lucas back to P5 leaving a lot of work to do as the last lap board was shown.
Focus and great driving taking every opportunity allowed Lucas to move from P5 to P2 on the last lap and only miss the win by 4/100ths of a second whilst gapping the group headed by P3 by 1.87 seconds.
Again Lucas shows a strong drive from a less than ideal start.
Heat 2 (Heat 3 in the programme)
As so many drivers were entered there were 3 heats with each driver competing in 2. As such it was a long wait from our 1st to 2nd heat but Lucas was raring to get on track and go one better.
A great start off the lights to make up 2 positions to come over the line in P5 after the 1st Lap. Another on Lap 2 and into 3rd and try to push away with the front two drivers......this started to work but the P4 driver hung on and by Lap 6 it was a 4 kart train which was 3.5 seconds in front of the following pack.
Lap 7 Lucas follows the P2 driver through on the leader and now runs in P2 and try as he may he cannot find a way past as they go over the line, again only 0.1 seconds behind.
So heats, two P2s put Lucas on the front row outside for the final, a nice place to be when we started the day 11th in a field of strong Super 1 national drivers.
Final
The final came round as the sun was going down so setup could prove to be trickier than usual.....
Lights out and a blistering start as Lucas shot into the lead and pulled out a 7-8 length gap over the pole driver.......................unfortunately being at the front on your own means it is unlikely you will drive away from the calibre of driver on the grid and so it was by Lap 4th chasing pack caught Lucas who dropped to 2nd.
Onto Lap 6 and Lucas decided that he needed to try and up the pace so took the lead and tried to drag the pack away but the drivers behind were jostling for position and as such the group could'nt break away.
So Lap 9 the pole sitter took the lead and going on to the last lap Lucas tried to get the driver behind to work with him to catch the leader but it was all up for grabs now and this was not the shared view and as such Lucas had to work very hard to fend off an attack from the P3 driver.....this was how it finished P2 over the line.
So, stepping back and looking at things, yes frustrating the win didn't happen but a very strong showing, good points and coming in highest in the team in every race......now to start claiming the top step on a regular basis.
Thanks to Zip Karts, RPM Engines and Global Karting.