The Championship, which takes a break in August for the 24 hour race, returns to the longest track configuration this weekend using the International Circuit and after a poor result in Round 4, I'm looking to improve.
Currently standings are available on the Alpha Timing website.
Round 5, Boom & Bust
What a weekend, England win, amazing British Grand Prix and a great race in round 5 of the SG Petch Sprint Championship at Teesside Autodrome. It's fair to say it was probably one of the most eventful days I've witnessed since I started in the Championship just 2 seasons ago and it really was a boom and bust kind of day.
Annoyingly, we're not allowed to wear action sports cameras while we're racing, which means I haven't got a single photo to show you of anything that happened. So rather than just attempt to describe it, I'm also going to attempt to sketch out the key points... Here goes!
Qualifying
As per usual, the festivities got underway with drivers picking kart numbers at random and lucky old me pulled #13 out of the bag, "no worries, it's only a number" I thought as the marshall gave me a look that said "rather you than me".
We were running late so it was straight in the karts and out on track, I was still putting my gloves on as we left the pits but headed out on track with a new found focus and drive to deliver a good qualy time. Heading round sector 1 everything was good, the kart seemed to be picking up well and not dropping revs through the corners, good tyres too then as I exited the esses lucky 13 struck! There was a (presumably new) driver braking really early for the next hairpin on the racing line and with me travelling at full speed, there was little option but to jump on the brakes and swerve to the outside so that I didn't take both of us out.
You can probably guess what happened next, hard on the brakes and swerving meant the back end stepped out and before I could catch it, the kart had gone 180 and I was reversing along a grass verge! No damage done, I was back up and running in no time.
The next lap wasn't much better, following Siobhan Simpson down the opening straight into the first big breaking point she was about 6 feet ahead before dropping the kart on turn in, again leaving me arriving at the scene at full pace. Turning in early wasn't possible due the the pace, I'd have crashed straight into her, again my only choice was to try and go round the outside, but on a dusty track the back end of the kart let go, this time pitching me backwards into the gravel trap.
Axel deep in gravel, it took the marshall and I a good couple of minutes to pull the kart out, lucky 13 strikes again! I was sent back to the pits to change karts, my fear being that I'd end up with something far from ideal after kart 13 beign quite good, apart from trying to kill me of course! Pulling back out onto the circuit I dropped in behind Karl Parkin and appeared to be keeping a similar pace, this had to meant one of two things, I was driving well, or Karl was really struggling.
Race 1
As per usual, we pulled up before the grid to be told where our start position was, I figured I may have done okay, but was waiting to be disappointed. The marshalls began pointing out drivers to head to the grid, Adam Delmont, Paul Clarke, Karl Parkin, me... ME! P4! ME! DO Racing Fanboy Liam Silkstone will be pleased!
With the rest of the field on the grid the flag dropped for the start, the first row got away well so I tucked in behind P1 to be sure I didn't take someone else out or ruin my own race. Out of the first chicane I was still P4 and managed to take P3 into the first big braking point, this was going well so far.
By the end of lap 1, Karl & Adam were out front by a small margin and I was leading a train of 3 drivers, myself, Owen Burton and Robbie Lowe. Over the next few laps the race began to settle into a rythm with the leading pair pulling out a lead lap by lap as the three of use began to fight for third place. For about the first half of the race I was holding Robbie & Owen behind me as they battled with each other, as we entered the second half of the race we began to swap places though.
I'd love to describe every overtake in detail, but the truth is that we were passing each other that much, I can't remember who did what, when. The one exception to this was when Karl had a problem with his kart and started dropping back through the field, coming out of the Bus Stop I was behind Owen and in front of Robbie. Slightly ahead I could see a slower kart in the middle of the track, by this point I already had a run on Owen but had pulled out the the centre of the track. Owen gestured to me, I wasn't sure why at the time and with the gap to the slow kart closing I had little choice but to overtake on the left of Owen and the slow kart.
I'd have loved to se it from the spectators point of view and am gutted that there wasn't a camera there, I bet it'd have looked awesome.
The battle raged for the whole race, Robbie getting past again on the penultimate lap. Seeing the "last lap" board you immediately think it's now or never, but you also don't want to throw away a place or worse, take someone else off! Coming into the first corner Robbie had me covered on the inside line and again into the Bus Stop, coming through the Esses I was already out of sector 1 and running out of lap to make a move.
Coming into the last sector I was still in P3, but then we got into the last hairpins, driving out of the first I accelerated hard and went for the inside line on the second. It's a risky move as you can easily run deep and lose out, but I managed to get the kart through the corner keeping Robbie & Owen behind to cross the line in second! A great result after a great race.
Race 2
P2 in race 1 meant a P14 start in race 2 and frankly the less said about this race, the better! I found myself in a kart with chronic understeer, brakes like milk bottle tops and a deep throttle making it really hard to keep the revs up on the engines. In short, the start was carnage as drivers bumped and pushed each other around, I was driven into more than once through the race (including a driver turning left into me on a straight) and the kart was near impossible to drive.
All of this into account I had a shocker of a race, finishing 4th last, possibly my worst result ever and a feat which I hope never to repeat again. That really is all I have to say about race 2...
