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  • Lucas Ellingham

TVKC 2017 Championship Round 1


Round 1 of the main TVKC 2017 Championship and it was set to be a full Super One driver grid, the weekend before the opening round nearly everyone was there for a shakedown before the big event next weekend.

Testing was good and the weather held so some good consistent sessions.

Heat 1 was on Saturday afternoon and I'd been drawn P5 on the grid. The lights went and we were away. I got a great start and after 4 corners slotted into P2 going into hairpin 1. On entry the leader overcooked his braking and went off giving me an easy lead from which I was soon joined by my teammate.

We got together and pushed away to gain a 3.72 second lead at the flag.... Heat 1 Win.

Heat 2 was Sunday morning and now I'd pay for the front end start with a P19 place on the grid.

Lights went out and we were off. I wasn't waiting for anyone so got on with the job and after one lap I'd made my way up to P9. Although these were short races, 8 minutes plus 1 lap I got my head down and with two laps to go caught the leader, we swapped positions a couple of times then I hit the front and managed to hold the position for the Win bu 0.07 seconds.

A nice cherry was hte fastest lap of the race also.

Heat 3 was a P22 starting position so I was hoping to work to the same plan as the previous heat. Go and I did the same again and funnily, yep P9 ish after one lap. I kept hunting down the karts in front and again wiht two laps to go I only had the leader to catch. Over the start line and up the hill and the kart felt as though it was struggling for pace, something was not A1. I kept pushing forward but was lacking pace on the straights and I was having to go in very hard in teh braking zones to try to make up time on the kart ahead.

Alas I ran out of time taking 2nd by 13 hundreths of a second and when I got into Parc-Ferme I saw why the kart felt strange...the rear hub holding the wheel had moved causing the tyre to rub on the chainguard and hindering axle rotation.

The grid for hte final was published and I had taken pole (ideal score for Pole would be 0 Zero and I'd scored 2.... the nearest driver to me had 14 points so I was well clear).

We lined up for the start andn the lights went out. I nailed it and got a monster start and clear air behind into the loop....this enabled me to take a full racing line through the initial lap whilst the drivers behind in the pack had to adopt a more defensive line for the initial lap....this was great as I went over the line after the first lap 2 seconds in the lead!

Now, whilst this was good I didn't expect it to last and with a 15 minute final I was waiting for the pack behind to start to work together and catch me.....2.6s lead then a couple more laps and it had dropped to 2.3 the next lap and it was up to 3 seconds. I couldn't believe it, they were not catching me as quickly as I thought, in fact, were they even catching me?

The answer would turn out no, they were doing 1/2 a lap getting impatient then swapping places whilst I got my head down and pounded in consistent fast laps. I had 8 laps in a row all within 1/10th of a second, 4 of which were within3 1/00th.

This is how things stayed to the flag, me watching the scoreboard to check laptimes and gaps and I maintained the lead to take the victory a full 2.23 seconds in front of the 2nd place driver!

My lead up to the Super One meeting next weekend could not have been better. The kart and engines feel great, I'm driving well and showing impressive pace so this weekend it's all happy days.

I'd like to thank Rob Hanscomb and Mike Spencer of Global Karting, RPM Race Engines, Zip Karts, ARC Audio Visual & Chris Walker for the great photos.


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