Friday 15 March 2019

2019 Season is Go!

Following on from a bit of a karting hangover, post- BRKC, I found myself back behind the wheel for the first time since January 20th at one of TeamSport Bristol’s ‘Speed Unleashed’ sessions. As something of a warm up to the first round of this year’s Castle Combe Adult Championship, it was a good way of re-familiarising myself with the Biz brand karts that both TeamSport & Castle Combe use. After four 15 minute sessions on track I felt like I was more or less back up to speed, confident of a reasonably competitive result at the Wiltshire circuit. My best lap at Speed Unleashed? - 38.226

Round one of CCKC soon came around and the entry list was made up of all the usual suspects plus a few ‘newbies’ who tend to come along to these opening rounds to see what’s what. After a brief practice sessions, the drivers took to the track in a series of heat races, starting from randomised grid positions, with four drivers in each hear. Based on the points scored in those heats, each driver would then have a semi-final race with the winners of each of those (plus the two fastest 2nd place drivers) going through to the final.

For my first heat I started from 5th (ie. last) and had got up to 3rd before I got torpedoed by one of the ‘new’ drivers at the third-to-last corner, meaning I ended up crossing the line in a frustrated 4th place. Heat 2 saw me start from 2nd on the grid and I soon found myself in the lead. Mike Seabourne (who had started at the back) was quickly up to 2nd but was unable to get anywhere near me as it transpired one of his front tyres had a puncture! It’s a wonder he was able to get up to 2nd at all, so fair play to him.

In my third heat I was able to take advantage of being in a group of newer drivers and cruised to another win, this time from pole. My final heat saw me starting from 4th where I was only able to make up one position in the race, which was enough to put me 2nd on the grid for my semi-final. Unfortunately for me Mike was the man on pole, this time with four fully inflated tyres, so I spent the race in a kind of no man’s land, unable to get close to Seabourne, but comfortably ahead of the chasing pack. My only hope of making the final would to be one of the quickest of the 2nd placed semi-finalists, a mission not made easier by ‘my’ semi being only the second of six to be run (meaning in theory the track was going to just get quicker)

As it transpired, my fastest lap was only good enough to be third of the 2nd place semi-finalists, meaning that I missed a spot in the final by one place- which was frustrating to say the least. Despite that, the overall result ranks as my highest ever finish at a CCKC round, and I know full well that better results in my first & final heats would have put my in a different semi final and (potentially) a spot in the final.

The next Castle Combe round is scheduled to take place on 13th April, and whilst I haven’t committed to competing in it just yet I have a feeling that the desire to (finally) make it into that final race may be an itch too difficult not to scratch. Watch this space!

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