February 2025

Shenington Practice Day - 14th February

Valentine's weekend saw a return to the Shenington circuit, with an extra test day on the Friday. The day was dry but cold, just 4 degrees at the track, with only 65 entrants for the meeting it was guaranteed to give plenty of track time. The plan was to improve the kart in the dry weather and make some adjustments to my driving style. There were only 5 karts in my session and just me in the IAME so only the Rotax for comparison.

My lap times looked competitive, but to improve things further Dad and Scott decided to fit some brake pressure monitoring to the kart. This allows me to see how hard and when I’m braking - it turned out to be really useful information, I can now see where I can improve, brake harder and be more consistent.

The 7 sessions in the day meant that we could make a few changes, giving me some great times, and a good setup for the dry.

My lap times plateaued towards the end of the day, a new set of tyres found me another 4 tenths. Quickest lap time of the day for me was a 48.7, just 0.3s off my PB.

Shenington Practice Day - 15th February

What a difference a day made! Saturday started wet and cold, a complete contrast from the Friday tests. Changing the kart to a full wet setup meant new gearing, new tyres, and an opportunity to set the kart up ready for race day, with both a wet and dry setup.

I ran really well all day, pushing teammates Alessandro and Will hard, we were all within 0.4s but I was the only one to finish the day without a spin. I worked hard again on my braking, even in the wet, improving, braking later and getting the most from the new tyres. The track began to improve as the day went on but I was still only able to set a 53.2s lap in the difficult conditions.

That gave me my wet setup for Sunday’s race depending on how the day turned out, we would have a setup for any conditions.

Shenington Race Day - 16th February Race of Hearts

Sunday started damp but drying. Warm-up saw me on the same full wet setup from Saturday,

Practice

In a repeat of my last trip to Shenington our transponder wasn’t recording well, only showing 1 lap of the 3 we completed and not showing anything too useful for the timekeepers, I recently bought my own after all the issues we had in January, seems the issue is with the circuit as it worked fine elsewhere…

Heat 1

We changed to a dry setup for race one but kept the wet tyres. The choice was still 50/50 when we got to the grid, I think we made the right choice and no one was brave enough for slicks.

I started heat 1 in P3 with Alesandro in P2 so we could work together, after lap one I was still in 3rd but Rex Pooley managed to get me and I dropped to 4th, the difficult conditions saw me battle with Will and Katie Clarke, eventually crossing the line in 5th. Dry tyres might have been the better choice as the wets seemed to lose grip at the end of the race.

Heat 2

The track had dried for the second heat so we switched to a full dry setup, the weather was cold though, just 1 degree.

I started heat 2 in P5 behind some very quick drivers, got a great start moving up to 4th, but was having a big battle with Will Heynes. We pulled ourselves up to the front battle but Alesandro was amazingly quick and then Will span. This left me with a 3-second gap to Ethan Lucas but I just didn’t have enough laps to catch him.

I drove really well and set some amazing times, but still 0.9 seconds off Rex Pooley and 1st place Alessandro - I couldn’t believe the pace they were showing.

I finished in a strong 4th place but was promoted to 3rd place due to Ethan receiving a penalty,

It was a great race and I was really benefiting from my testing in the dry on Friday.

Final

Thanks to the 3rd place in the heat I would start the final in P4, my best ever results at Shenington putting me behind the leaders, all of us running Jade engines, 2 team mates and Rex, it was going to be a challenge.

I got a good out lap, but coming to the line, I got pushed around and ended up coming over the line in 6th, I was surprised the kart that hit me didn’t get a penalty.

I got my head down and pushed hard, I immediately got back past Katie Clarke and set off after Ethan, we were lapping so close on times it was hard to make any gains on him. Lap 2 I was 0.03 secs quicker, lap 3 he was 0.4s quicker, we swapped times for the whole race, and there was no way I could close the 5-second gap I lost over the start.

So that was it, P5 for the race, I couldn’t believe that the incident on the start line wasn’t investigated, it would only have put me in P4 anyway,

It was a great weekend, I feel like I’m quicker again, my braking is better and I've moved forward again.

Shenington Race day Round 2 Final Results

There weren’t many entries due to school half term, however, some key drivers to compete against that are always fast at Shenington. I am really happy with this result, it makes me 5th equal in the club championship on 93 points.

PF International Challenge Cup

I have now decided to enter the PF Challenge cup, which takes place on the 1st March. Although not in my calendar, I think it’s important to get as much practice as I can at PF before I compete in the British GP – Kartmasters in August

I have a Friday test day and then a weekend of racing.