#No decent pictures as photographer (Dad) forgot to take some except ones where I am barely in it#
The 'E' Plate is a one off event run at the beginning of every season, however this time it was right near the end of last season, but it is used during next season. If you come first you get to race with your plates saying 'e' rather than your number. So if I won my number 17 would become 'e'. This year it was held at Clay Pigeon which was the track I did my 1st EasyKart race at.
Saturday 24th November was the practice day. We had decided not to go up Friday so I had to get up really early at about 4:30 am I think which for me on a weekend is 7.5 hours too early, we left our house at around 5:30 and had about a 3.75 hour journey. I think I went to sleep for most of it as I cannot remember over half of the journey. We arrived at Clay Pigeon at about 9:15 and started to set up our new BRIGHT Orange shelter which we got from Instant Shelters, they are a bit like Pit Bitz but not Pit Bitz if that makes sense. It was freezing and I should have definitely got my new Sparco Winter gloves on as soon as we got their because my hands just didn't seem to want to warm up. We eventually got them on, Dad was literally jumping up and down to get them onto my hands! I did about 3 sessions that day, and I felt like I was doing very well, I got to grips with the damp/wet track and was flying round. I didn't over take anybody but no one managed to overtake me. Sam didn't have such a great day, he couldn't get his gloves on so he had to borrow his dad's ski gloves. He didn't have a rain suit, well he did but lots of water came in around his neck so his suit was drenched, and he has no over boots so his kart boots were freezing, he said he could feel the water moving around under his foot every time he moved.
We were staying at a local B&B which was about 7 minutes drive from the track. It was a nice B&B however they then said that breakfast would be at 8:30am and then asked is that OK, we said not really and that we would rather have breakfast at 8:00am Latest, they were stubborn and didn't back down until they finally said they would leave cereals out for us. There goes my cooked breakfast... We had already paid for breakfast which we did not get!
Anyway.
Sunday 25th November, 1 month till Christmas, wait, sorry, race day! It was a beautiful morning (No clouds, YAY) there was water on the ground but not much, it looked like slicks! We signed on, sorted the kart, listened to the drivers briefing and got a transponder all within 1 hour tops. We got onto the dummy grid ready for the warm up, I felt nervous but ready as I hadn't been around here on slicks since May. I wasn't as good in the dry as the wet yesterday compared to everyone else, however I did get to grips with the corner that I seemed to spin at a lost on Saturday I even managed to do some trail braking which is where you brake really hard then ease off, you get all the energy stored up when you lock the brakes in one go when you release the brakes. Qualifying went quite well, I was 17th on the grid, my number! for the heat. This is where things started going, well, wrong. I was going a lot faster than most through some of the corners, I was breaking later and I was quick, I had gotten past 3 or 4 people by the penultimate lap. Unfortunately on my killer corner that I hate with a passion (well not really, I just get annoyed with it) I spun and by the time I got back onto the track I had lost all of the places I had gained. I had just over one lap to gain them all back and to my surprise, I didn't, not even one I finished where I started.
The pre-final didn't go too well, my rolling starts failed me unlike in the heat. I was down to 19th by the first corner. It started to get damp near the end of the session and I seemed to speed up, well everyone else got slower. As at Whilton Mill Juniors all the racing was on slicks I was used to a damp track with slicks. I gained another place by the end and was up to 18.
The Final. It was an extremely wet race, just as we got onto the grid the was a huge downpour that lasted almost all of the race. I was on wet tyres just like everyone else. However in the wet I am not that good, slightly damp I am ok but in the very wet I am not good at all. It was an uneventful race for me, I was the last of the unlapped racers so when I saw the last lap board I didn't really have to try to hard as I knew there was no one who could overtake me and I didn't want to spin out and ruin my race.
With all the people who had to drop out I finished 16th in the end. It was a good weekend and I am really looking forward to next year, might have my helmet painted but who knows.
For professional pictures of the Sunday visit - Tel T Motorsport Photography - I am Junior 17.
