Well the first race of the season has come and gone. As the first round was at Shenington this year we didn't need to stay in a hotel. We arrived at the track early Saturday morning as we needed to pick up the engine from Andy's since it had been in for a full rebuild. We were set up and ready very early considering the first session was at 11 am. The first session + 5 laps I was taking it easy to run the engine in.
It felt like a pretty good day testing, seemed to be pretty much on the pace. I had some fun in the last session just racing with some of the others, not really concentrating on lines as much. It has to be one of my best test days to date. Hoping for good things on Sunday.
Our Setup
Sunday arrived and we, junior, were first out all day. Warm up went as expected, pushing it a bit to try and get some heat into the tyres, but not going full out so they didn't get ruined for qualifying.
In qualifying I only did 8 laps as my times didn't appear to be improving. This turned out to be a great decision as my fastest time from those 8 laps granted me my second front row start! I qualified 2nd.
The heat went ok, my start kept me in second and I managed to hold my position for just over 7 laps, at which point I unfortunately got overtaken. I finished the heat in 4th place so it wasn't too bad.
Front Row for the heat
The pre-final went pretty much without a hitch. I started 4th and finished 4th however there was a fair amount of position changing during the race. I was up to 3rd a couple of times but unable to hold onto the position whilst keeping with the guy infront.
The final was the big one, the one being filmed, the one for the trophies. Unfortunately I finished 4th.... again. Although this matches my best result to date I could have had 3rd. I was up to 3rd on the final lap but left the door open going into Bruno Chicane. This proved to be a huge mistake as Jonathan shot up the inside, held the position and defended the rest of the lap. If it wasn't for that stupid mistake I would have gained my first podium and my best result.
It was a good but irritating weekend and lessons were definitely learnt.
The Easykart Paddock
Looking forward to round 2 at Three Sisters in Wigan. Round 2 is ALSO being filmed so fun times.
February 14th, what better way to spend a Saturday than driving around Whilton Mill.
The annual Easykart pre-season Shakedown was held at Whilton Mill this year. The day started off damp, not wet but greasy, so wets were an obvious choice. Having been given a new helmet for Christmas, my old one was now able to be fitted with the helmet mount. This should give us a better view of my lines and steering etc. as I go around.
The first two sessions I was... not struggling but I definitely not going as fast as I would have liked. The third session however the track started to dry, meaning you could take an almost dry line with wet tyres. Lunch came and went, without any more rain so the slicks went on.
The 4th and 5th session were much more fun as I could drive my standard line. Got some decent overtakes in, and got the measure of the new Juniors. Fastest lap for me was a 49.0, not quick but I don't think it was a "quick" day.
All in all a great day testing and it was good to get back into the seat after a few months. Looking forward to Shenington in march.
On the 30th and the 31st of August the 7th round of the Easykart UK championship was held. This year it was held at Whilton Mill and luckily the weather looked clear. I had been looking forward to the race at Whilton mainly because it is my local track, so not too much travelling, and some of my family were coming to watch.
Me with my Grandads and the kart
We dropped the trailer off and set up the awning on Friday night so that when Matt and Jacob arrived on Saturday (they were sharing our awning for Saturday) they could set up even if they were there before us.
Saturday - Practice day. We arrived before Matt and Jacob so we were pretty much sorted for the first session before they arrived. Matt and Jacob had recently bought an Easykart Junior, #70, with the intention of racing in Juniors next year. My brake pads were close to gone after Llandow and both myself and dad agreed that if I were to go out in the first session without new brake pads - I probably wouldn't survive the session. My first session gave me a low 48 second lap as my fastest, not very quick but as I wasn't going full on with the brakes I felt pretty pleased.
Bit of a gap between me and 3rd place
The second session was quicker but I was still quite a way off the pace. It wasn't until lunch that I got some tips from a couple of seniors who were set up behind us that I realised I was taking most of the corners too slow. In the next session I took the lines they suggested and took half a second off my lap time - getting it down to a 47.01 second lap - fastest.
Sunday - Race day. My mum arrived at the track before I went out for the warm up, Juniors were the last class to go out. I went out for warm up and did a 48 second lap - which was about as fast as I wanted to go on the new tyres.
Qualifying. Now this has to be one of the best qualifying sessions I have ever had. Not least because I qualified second, but because I felt quick. I got a 46.450 second lap - 0.110 seconds behind Esmee but 0.140 seconds ahead of Mitchell. I should have come in a couple of laps earlier rather than staying out as I pulled a couple of other drivers along a bit - might have had an effect, but it might not. I came in and all dad did was symbol "2nd" to me and I couldn't stop laughing inside - more out of nerves than anything. I had never qualified on the front row before...
In the background after being spun in the Final.
Attempting to weave my way back up after spinning out
The Heat. Having never been on the front row before I hadn't got much experience with holding the rolling starts. I always used to go whenever the person in front went. Anyway my start was close to perfect as I held my position and kept behind Esmee, at least for the first corner. We hadn't got the tyre pressures right so my grip was no where near what it was in qualifying. I held onto my position for a couple of laps but then Jenson made a clean pass on me and got through, shortly followed by Sam Faulkner forcing me to jump a kerb to avoid him. Unfortunately I spun and ended up down in 10th position. Having to fight my way back up from about a quarted of a lap behind 9th was not something I looked forward too. I finished in 6th so a few good places gained.
Pre-Final. In the Pre-final I jumped the driver in 5th on the start and kept on the bumper of Bailey Acton (4th) for quite a few laps. I chose my moment well and got past him cleanly and into 4th. I managed to hold my position until the last lap board was shown, at which point I started to brake slightly earlier to make sure I didn't spin out. This worked for most of the lap until the boot section, when Jenson came flying up my inside to take 4th position. I had a better line through the next corner but clipped a kerb, throwing my front end out and costing me speed. This unfortunately meant I wasn't able to reclaim my position into the last corner.
6th place on the rolling up lap
The Final. In the Final I was starting in 5th place so I was hoping that, so long as I could hold onto the group ahead of me, I could get lucky and get a podium. It was not to be. I was taken out on the first lap and dropped down to 11th place. I was not happy as such a promising day seemed to have been washed away. I was angry at myself and whoever knocked me off, but I had to get over it, I couldn't change it. My lap times were quick in comparison to the people infront of me, but I was quite a way behind so it took a couple of laps. Then I got stuck behind 2 guys and although their lines were pretty good, their braking was not the best. Finding a way past was more difficult than I expected. Eventually I got passed them and was up to 7th (2 other drivers had spun). I now had to focus on trying to close down a gap of about a third of the lap to the next two drivers. Although my lap times were quite a lot quicker than theirs the gap was just too large. In the end I finished 7th. Congratulations to Mitchell White on getting his first podium at the weekend - Hopefully I'll be on it next time.
Looking forward to Ellough Park for the next round.
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!
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of May was the weekend of the 3rd round of the Easykart UK Championship, held this year at Shenington Kart Track. Last year this was the highlight of my season as I got my highest finish of 10th and managed to drive well in tricky conditions. This year I was and still am hoping for better, which shouldn't be too difficult with a much smaller Junior grid, only 16 at Shenington.
Mitchell suddenly realised he had been overtaken.
Slipping up the inside of Mitchell into Wilkins
I'm starting 6th!!
Ritually cleaning the kart after each session
As Shenington is a local track for us we aren't staying in a premier inn. The journey took us about 1 hour 15 minutes from home to the track. We were sharing an awning with Jacob Wardle, dubbed by my dad as our "Junior Driver" (we wish), and his dad. We arrived at about 8:30 and were set up by 9:00. We signed on and I went for a track walk simply to set my watch up and check the track conditions. Jacob had arrived by 9:00 and they were set up pretty quickly as well.
For the first time in ages we managed to make it out for the first session on time, and without a breakdown part way through! My lines however, were atrocious and I don't think I hit any of my apexes. The day steadily got better and better, not necessarily my times but my line was getting better. All I had to do was brake later and get the power down earlier. I think my mychron may be slightly out on its timings as on Sunday it was giving me times half a second slower than I was actually going, and this was on two mag strip settings but Shenny has 3 mag strips. My fastest of the day was a 44.2 I think but with my mychron it may have been a 43.7.
Sunday looked daunting as the weather forecast was showing lots of rain, we were just hoping that it would hold off long enough for us to have a dry final. We arrived in the dry and the awning was still up. As Jacob isn't racing in Easykart this year he packed up and went home on the Saturday. Mitchell was without an awning and knowing the weather forecast we let them use half of ours. It is definitely much better having another person in the awning on race weekends.
Grid for the Heat
Warm up was good and with these new tyres dad just said "Drive like it is a normal session" and it worked, it scrubbed the tyres in nicely and as it was only a 5 minute session didn't take them over the top, after 2 easy bedding in laps I was attempting to get my line better.
Qualifying was amazing! There was a 3 way fight between Me, Mitchell White and Dan Walden which, I know, isn't the best for a qualifying session but I kept easing up and allowing them to go past so they could get a clean lap, and for me to then be able to catch up. I am told that I was in 10th or 11th place with only a few more laps remaining, when I suddenly jumped up to 6th position and stayed there. This was, and is, my highest qualifying position to date in Easykart.
The heat went well with me keeping my position throughout the race and finishing in 6th position, nothing amazing happened that I saw and I did no good overtaking. So nothing of merit there except that I held my position.
The Pre-final went.... ok. I was starting in 6th and got a really good start, keeping with the 5 in front of me and pulling away from whoever was behind me. But it was apparently a false start caused by none other than Mitchell White. This starts my downward spiral as from the start I dropped a couple of places down to 9th and had to fight the whole race to get back up. I managed to finish in 7th and was gaining on 6th, but I just wasn't close enough.
Close battling between us
Me trying to hold off Jenson Murchison in the Heat
The final is a tale of two halves. The start was appalling and I dropped right down the order to 10th because I was stuck on the outside around cafe, and everyone else was so close together that I just couldn't get in. I held my position for a lap until we got to Cafe again where I was spun around by another driver,taking us both out and into last. Completely a racing incident. I was enraged that it had happened but looking back there was nothing I could have done to stop it. Down in 15th place is not a nice place to be when you've been running relatively close to the front all day. Not only was I right at the back but I was now half a lap behind. The next 18 laps were a blur as I did lap after lap consitently in the low 44 second area. I only made 1 mistake and that was taking cafe slightly wide, but it gave me a better line out and I wasn't under attack from anyone. I made my way back up to 10th and was closing in on Matas and Dan Walden as the final lap board came out, had I had 4 more laps at most I am almost certain I would have got past Dan, and maybe even Matas. Also a congratulations is in order for James White - First clean sweep of the Easykart UK Junior Championship 2014.
Not the greatest day for championship points, but a great one for showing my determination and accuracy with the kart. Sorry about the lack of preview for Shenny, I will try and get a post race preview (if that makes sense) up before long. Don't forget to check out my youtube channel for all the videos from test days.
On Wednesday 20th February 2014 I went for a track/test day in my new Kart, #83. This new kart was provided by my chief sponsor who, after lengthy negotiations over the festive period, agreed that a new vehicle was needed to help my chances in the coming season. As this season will be my last season in the Junior class I will only get to use this kart this season, however it should provide the reliability we need.
We arrived at around 8:30 and were set up by 9:30. We signed on and went for a track walk and were glad that the track was dry and grippy. As this was to be the first time the kart had ever been driven I would need to run the engine in and bed in the brakes for the first two sessions, but that didn't bother me. As there were so many drivers there on the Wednesday the sessions were split into four; Cadets, TKM and Minimax, Junior followed by Seniors. We were classed as TKM so we went out in the first junior session.
Getting focused
In the first two sessions I took it easy, not too fast along the straights and not too hard on the brakes. It felt as if the TKM and Minimax drivers were very quick as I couldn't compare myself to them, so I was hoping that when it came to the third session I would be able to keep up.
A quick note about tyres. Last season in Easykart we were using Easykart specific tyres which, although they work, aren't the grippiest and therefore not the fastest. This season Easykart is switching to new Vega SL4s. We first got to use these at the E-plate last November, and they are much grippier but supposedly have a shorter life.
In the third session I went out on the old Easykart tyres and I was just about keeping up with the TKMs and Minimaxs, but not able to pass them very easily or catch up quickly. I also found that I didn't have much rear grip and was sliding through many corners at much slower speeds than I was used to.
In the zone
Come the fourth session we had switched the tyres and I was now on the SL4s that had only been used at the E-Plate. It was a revelation! I was going through corners much quicker than many of the TKMs and Minimaxs, and in straight line speed the Easykarts, there were four of us (Jordan Sanders, Mitchell White, Matthew Rainbow and Myself), were so much faster than the TKMs and Minimaxs. I was able to take at least 1 kart on the straight up to the top of the hill - I think I passed 3 at one point just along that straight. It was electrifying. I have never felt so quick in my whole karting career. I was beginning to think it is how people at the front of the Easykart grid feel during every race/practice session.
The next sessions all went perfectly and I was one of the fastest people out there, generally equaling Jordan's laps. Unfortunately the mychrons weren't working very well and didn't seem to pick up one of the mag strips, but when I set it to 2 rather than 3 mag strips it still didn't pick up the correct times, maybe only one was working? Fortunately I had my MyTach watch which allowed me to see my lap times. My fastest lap of the day was a 47.73 second lap. I don't think this is my fastest time around there but the track was not quick so on a good day who knows what time I'll get.
Cleaning the kart and sorting out the chain
If this practice day was anything to go by this season should be a good one, but I don't want to jinx myself too early on. There would have been some footage of my driving around, but the camera disappeared during the last session and had been playing up all day, so no camera. Hopefully we should have a new camera by mid-season. Any suggestions for on-board cameras are welcome but we are trying to keep costs down, so nothing too expensive.
This is where the camera was
Also follow me on twitter @EGoesKarting for regular updates throughout race weekends.
