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!
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.
