Back to Hunts Kart Racing Club for the 3rd round of their 2018 championship.
Following the snow and poor weather of the preceeding two weeks which resulted in the cancellation of most race meetings last weekend this is my 2nd outing and I'm looking forward to it as last time out I came away with the win.
This weekend would be much harder as the full compliment of national level drivers had signed on in pre-national championship testing was in full flow.
Saturday
Was a frustrating day with the weather constantly changing from rain and full wet to drying and back to wet again making exact chassis setups very hard to achieve but getting out for most of the sessions I looked OK. The weather forecast for Sunday was different with a supposed dry day forecast.
Sunday arrived and indeed the weather had cleared slightly and it was not raining and the track had dried first run out and it looked like i was quick as I was on old tyres and many on the grid had gone new.
Timed Qualifying
So a short TQ session and I got out at the front and got on with the job and on lap 2 went quickest which I held through much of the session but eventually ended up in P2 by 400ths of a second to one of the top drivers in the UK........ happy with this moving into the heats.
Heat 1
The track was dry and from P2 I felt confident. We came round to take the start and I was stuck on the outside into T1 which resulted in me dropping a few places to 4th but during that lap I made my way to 3rd. Over the next few laps I pushed forward and on lap 4 I made my move into 2nd and set about trying to beak the drivers behind. The leader had a big gap due to teh squabbling but the pack was right behind me aand I had a 0.2s gap so I concentrated on making a faultless drive to maintin a the gap which I did to come across the line in 2nd.
Checkign the results sheet showed I was 2nd quickest only 3 hundreths of a second slower than the quickest which showed I had good pace.
Heat 2
Out for the 2nd and final heat and I wanted to try and go 1 place better and win this to secure pole for the final but again at the start I got shuffled back as I was on the outside into turn 1 back to P3 but with a 0.7s gap to the driver in front.
Time to get my head down and get to work.......I got into my groove and strung some good laps together and by lap 6 I'd closed the gap to 0.1s and went straight in as soon as I had the chance to make the move stick and into P2.
I was flying now but the leader was a full 0.8s in front of me and time was getting short. Head down and start to turn it up to 11 to try and catch him. Over the next 5 laps I closed the gap to 0.1s and about 2 kart lengths but time ran out and another P2 at the flag.
When I checked the results sheet I got a real shock...... I had set a time that was only one tenth of a second off the outright lap record and bearing in mind the less than ideal conditions this was outstanding and nearly 3 tenths of a second quicker than any other driver on track.
Final
My heat finishes again put me in P2 for the final and I was adamant that I was not going to be shuffled back again as I didn't want to play catch up throughout the final and wanted to race for the win from the outset.
We started and I tried to get into the train to no avail so at T1 I Went wide but the P3 driver got under me so on the exit of the turn I went up the inside of the driver into P2 and then immediately sent it into the otherside of the leader into T2 to take the lead.
I then tried to push to get a break but on lap 3 the following pack caught me and relegated me to P3 and it was clear that the pace I'd shown in the 2nd heat had taken it's toll on the life of my tyres as I was struggling for pace.
Over the rest of the race I kept touch with the front pack and bounced between P3 and P4 eventually crossing the line in a disappointing P4 but confident that in my first test against the best in class in the UK I was strong and with much less experience than them I had it in my favour as I will only get stronger with time.
A big thanks to my sponsors and everyone who makes it possible for me to race especially ARC Auddio Visual & IT Solutions, Jack Dex Racing (JDR) and Jade Engines.