August 2024

Traditionally August is a much quieter month for karting, most people are on holiday, but it gave me some time to relax and enjoy what little summer we have had. We had a family holiday to Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest which was great fun, I still managed to get in a bit of motorised fun. Having a spin on some quads, along with lots of other activities including climbing, golf, swimming and some time for good food and relaxing. We finished out the week with a trip to PF International for their club round.

PF International Club Round 5

PF International is just outside Grantham in Lincolnshire and renowned for the quality of the circuit, being the only track in the UK to consistently hold international level events, such as Kartmasters the British Kart GP, the Rotax and IAME world cup, the Champions of the Future and next month the FIA World Karting championship finals, it truly is a challenge and takes some skill to get the best from kart and driver.

I did a test at the venue earlier in May but with only two sessions in the dry It wasn’t possible to get a decent kart setup, the plan for the weekend was just to learn the track and see how I went as a build up for 2025.

Part of the 2025 plan is to include more at PFI in order to drive with the best in the country on a more regular basis, im hoping to include Kartmasters and its also 2 rounds of the British Kart Championship, im keen to learn the track. Its most unique feature being a figure of 8 layout that means not just a tunnel but also a bridge and some varied elevation changes, it really is a challenge.

Saturday consisted of 4, 7-minute practice sessions, a 5th short practice session and then timed qualifying.

With so much to learn I was a little off the pace in the first session, to be competitive a time of 1:06 would put you at the front, I was 3 seconds off the pace, posting a 1:09.55 but at least happy to find I wasn’t the slowest! Practice 2 with a little coaching saw a small improvement but I was struggling to get the line right through sector 3, the complex is a high-speed challenge where the perfect line means you take extra speed onto the start and finish straight and is key to a great lap time, along with some very high-speed braking.

With some minor changes to my braking points, I managed to take 1.2s off in the 3rd session, but that was still not fantastic given the front runners were lapping at 1:06.5s.

We changed the gearing and the carburettor for timed qualifying, but it didn’t change much, I qualified 15th from 17 which was not really where I wanted to be, I took a bit of relief from my team-mate Alessandro Sarlas, he won the prestigious Kartmasters two weeks ago and I was just a second off his best time. Philip however was showing great pace and qualified 5th.

PF International Club Round 5 – Race Day

Sunday started with rain, disappointingly the track is well known for being very difficult in the wet, the super smooth surface turns to ice when wet, so first warm up was approached with a little caution, it actually went ok, using my part worn wets meant I got a reasonable few laps done without any spins.

The rest of the day would be very mixed choosing between wets and eventually dry tyres.

Heat 1

Heat one was wet and I did ok, the track was very tricky with some areas of standing water, our choice of gearing really helped with keeping the wheelspin under control and I managed to get 15th in the class, and 20th of the 26 starters.

Heat 2

The surface had started to dry but when we sat on the dummy grid the rain started again, dad got me switched to a intermediate / wet setup and it proved to work well, I managed to get some better laps in, setting my own PB of 1:08.16 which was even better than my dry times the day before.

Finishing up 14th this time from the 28th starters.

I was happy with that.

Final

Unlike the mixed heats the final was just my class, Waterswift Restricted, with 17 starters I would start 15th courtesy of my heat results..

It was finally dry and we ran a full dry setup with a slight change in gearing to try and get some more pace on the straights.

The race started well, I made a place in the first lap, the race was very fast paced and busy, the engine didn’t seem to be pulling well at the end of the long straights, but I carried on and pushed hard making up another place when Reggie had to go into the pits, I ended up in a little bit of empty track. The team where listening from the stadium and after the race, confirmed the issues with the fuelling, seems like I wasn’t getting the full power.

Even though we did go that well, I came 14th from 17 starters, which wasn’t bad for a debut at the track, we found some setup but I need the engine to be perfect.

I’m planning 2 further visits this year to continue my learning, October and the end of November.

Calendar

Shenington 14-15th September: I will be testing as an intermediate racer at Shenington as part of my 2025 preparation, I’m looking forward to the extra speed and grip a new class will provide.