On the weekend of June 14th and 15th, the 4th round of the Easykart UK championship was held. This year it was at Clay Pigeon, making Clay Pigeon the most visited track so far in Easykart for me - joint with Whilton Mill at 4 race visits.
I was looking forward to the weekend as the weather looked good, and Clay is a very quick track. As mentioned in my race preview (If you haven't read it why not?!) Clay Pigeon was the first track I ever raced at in Easykart.
As this is my GCSE year I have been doing GCSEs (obviously) in the weeks leading up to the race weekend with my last one being Friday 13th (unlucky?) so we were able to leave early and get to the track around 8:00pm and leave the trailer. A 3 hour 40 minute journey that took 5 hours and 40 minutes.
Saturday 14th June. Practice day. We arrived at the track at just after 8:30 and got the awning and the kart out of the trailer. We were sharing the awning with Mitchell and his dad again, almost a team? We were running on very old tyres that had seen about 4 hours of track time before the weekend, so they weren't at their best. Throughout the day I was running in mid to high 35 seconds, so slightly off the pace but we put that down to the tyres.
James White - Trailing behind?
I was able to keep up just about with people like James White and Mitchell, but not consistent enough to stay with them for the whole session, it would only take 1 mistake and they would pull 3 or 4 kart lengths on me.
We ended the day on a 35.9 second lap, but I got a 35.5 just before lunch, so I was quite happy.
Sitting 6th on the grid
Sunday 15th June was race day, and, like Saturday, we got to the track at about 8:30 in time to get the kart out of the trailer and set up ready for warm up. We had new slicks so were hoping my times would be a bit better. I set something like a 35.5 or 35.6 in the warm up, so quicker than the end of the Saturday, but still not quick.
Qualifying I set a 35.28 as my quickest time but that only got me 10th place, later 9th place as one of the drivers ahead of me was under weight.
Starting 9th for the heat wasn't brilliant as I had to brake earlier to get around the corner, but I held my line and managed not to lose any positions. By the hairpin I was up 1 place and in 8th place, as a driver managed to take their chain off. I held my position for the rest of the race, beating my qualifying time of 35.28 by 1 hundredth of a second.
Starting the Pre-final in 8th was better than I had hoped as I was on the outside and managed to avoid the collisions ahead of me before the false start flags were out. In the restart I managed to hold my position again and was tailing Mitchell and Bailey down to the hairpin. Both Bailey and Mitchell moved out onto the standard racing line so I was able to slip down the inside and take 6th place. I drove the rest of the session trying to catch up with the group ahead of me, which I was doing early on but started to slip backwards. I stayed in 6th for the rest of the race.
The grid for the final - I am just behind James White (#5)
The start of the final was without incident and I was able to keep my position. I was also able to keep up with the 5 karts ahead of me for a while, but they started to pull away and I never managed to catch up again. Later in the race, at about half distance, a mad lunge was made by Bailey into the hairpin sending him wide and allowing me to regain the position I lost for all of about 1 second, and allowing Jonathan to go through into 7th. He later got past me which put me down into 8th as Bailey got past as well. I was able to keep up for a bit but a mistake by me allowed Mitchell to get past, dropping me into 9th and further back from the group. I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up and unfortunately failing to get close enough meaning I finished my weekend in 9th.
Not the best weekend but still points for the championship. Next race G-y-G!
Coming up is the fourth round of the Easykart UK championship, held this year at Clay Pigeon. All the way back in 2012, Clay Pigeon was the first race I went to. Although I have never done very well at Clay Pigeon I am sure I should do better this time, new kart, new mentality. It is a great circuit to drive, wet or dry, with lots of fast, but technical sections. It is one of the smaller tracks we go to I think, but that just puts more pressure on the driver - it also means we get more laps, Yipee.
From reading the Club100 circuit guide, as I normally do, I have decided that probably the most important corner is turn 7, or the Top bend (Winston's Flip), as if done well it allows you to get lots of speed along the start finish line and hopefully set you up well for the next corner(s). "This looks like a very straightforward bend but it is very easy to get wrong. It is very important to get the exit correct or you will not have the speed going into Billy’s Blind. It is possible to overtake going into turn 7 if a lesser driver has made a mistake at the Horseshoe or Symonds Grass track but can lead to accidents." Also it could give you enough of an edge to storm past someone before the next corner. With my rather unconventional race last time out at Shenington I hope to keep my position better.
Quotes from the Club100 circuit guide.
I am looking forward to this weekend away racing because, as mentioned before it was the first track I raced an Easykart. Also unless it is the e-plate the weather is normally stunning. Hopefully see you there!
