July 2024

Daytona Milton Keynes Inkart Race Round 7

I started a busy month with a trip to Daytona for round 7 of the Inkart championships. Whilst I’m not competing in the championship, some of my friends are, they promised me this was their last race before moving on to different championships, so it was just a last chance to get together and race.

It was a good turn out with 14 cadet drivers, in morning practice I proved to be fastest on track, but as the draw for heat positions was random this didn’t have much effect on the starting positions.

Heat 1 and 2 saw me starting mid pack and battling hard with the championship leaders, I managed 3rd in both heats. but it was tough racing and really depended on how good your kart was.

For the final I started in P5, whilst Ryaan and Gillen stretched their lead away from the chasing pack, I was in the fight for 3rd place, throughout the 15 minute final it really could have been anyone of us taking the 3rd step on the podium.

In the last lap I got pushed out wide at the last hairpin and dropped 2 places taking 5th, looking at the footage from our onboard we could have protested the result but in the past its just been a waste of time, so I settled for 5th, whilst my good friend Rayaan Malik took the championship victory.

I didn’t compete in all the rounds but still managed to secure a 10th place championship finish.

Shenington Club Championship Round 7 SuperPrix practice

The Shenington SuperPrix is the highlight of the year for the club, featuring the biggest entry of the year, everyone including me was using it as a test event for the British Kart Championship a week later.

Friday was 5 test sessions of 8-minute duration, giving the chance to get the kart setup and working well for the weekend.

Having had a few engine issues in precious rounds I was nervous we would still have issues, reassuringly Jade had stripped the engine and found some issues, an on first testing this seemed to have shown some improvements.

The grid for Cadets in my class was 20 strong, the biggest its ever been.

It was a good test with the kart feeling good, we made some gearing changes but even just testing we were going well and setting times very close to my PB

The kart was also looking great in its fresh livery.

Shenington Club Championship Round 7 Qualifying and Heat 1 & 2

Saturday would see further a further warm up, followed by qualifying and then heats.

In the 5 minute warm up, the kart felt great, really strong, qualifying was just 6 minutes to find the best lap and with 20 karts on track it was hard to get the best spot, however I managed to get in a few good laps which resulted in P12, when you consider that the top 15 were all covered by 1 second, I was happy to just be 0.6 seconds off pole position.

In heat 1 I got spun around by kart 22 Louis Williams- Mabbs pushing me down the order to 18th, with no penalty applied I knew this would have an impact on the final grid position.

Heat 2 I started P12 and moved up to P11 setting a new PB in the process but was still lapping around 0.6s from the fastest drivers.

Shenington Club Championship Round 7 SuperPrix Final

Sunday was extremely hot and I was really looking forward to the final, there was a lot of waiting around, but we eventually go out for our heat.

I was a bit upset however to find that I had only got P15 on the grid, the poor heat 1 had really put paid to any hope of a top 10 finish, you must be in the high speed tow from other karts to make progress at Shenington, being down with the slower drivers was not what I needed to improve.

Whilst I drove hard putting quick laps there was just no way to catch the leading pack, starting P15 and finishing there was extremely disappointing, all due to the poor first heat.

It was a good weekend although disappointing, the engine is good but the whole cadet team at Jade seem to be lacking a little pace, something we are discussing. All the engines in the class should be the same but we are losing just a few tenths which is making the difference.

It was also very kind of Mark Ballantyne to give up his Sunday to spend the day taking photos, all of which are available for advertising or on socials.

British Kart Championship Shenington

With the help of all our partners we managed to make the step into the British Kart Championship Round 5 and 6 taking part at Shenington. The previous week hadn’t given us the best result and we knew that this challenge was going to be even harder given the pace we had seen from the championship regulars at SuperPrix the week before.

My aim for the weekend was to enjoy the experience and aim for a top 10 finish, my teammate Alessandro Sarlas is a regular competitor, in the team, I was joined by Philip Paterau who was also on his first British event.

The event is very tightly controlled, with tyres held in Parc Ferme for the entire event and karts heavily scrutineered both pre and post racing, it was a lot more work for Dad as we just didn’t really know all of the requirements, the Jade team kept us on track though making sure everything was sorted.

Friday was Practice 5 sessions. Saturday and Sunday was a warmup followed by timed qualifying, 2 heats and a final.

We had one set of slick tyres for the weekend and one set of wets, which thankfully we didn’t need.

So Friday started well, and it felt all very strange and quiet, with fewer entries than the previous week at Shenington and everyone really focused on the next few days ahead. Nothing started until 10am and we were not on track until 10.40.

Practice went ok, in the first timed session (practice 3) I managed 11th place but that was a full second of the leading driver, we decided that I was losing a bit of time down the straights so opted for better gearing, this oddly resulted in a slower lap time, practice 5 was the same and we were considering what else we could possibly change. We were unlikely to finds all the time in the kart as we were competing against some very experienced drivers some who had several years on me, their experience really showed.

That said I was ok, pushing hard and making the right moves.

Saturday started with a short 5 minute warm up, I managed to get 5 laps done and

was happy to be 10th quickest, although it's difficult to compare during the warm up.

Next up Qualifying, 6 minutes, where your best 3 laps are combined to give

you an average lap time which denotes the starting grid, I was quicker on

all laps gaining about 2 tenths, but still ended up 11th. In 10th was Phillip,

the whole grid being covered by 0.9 seconds.

British Kart Championship Shenington Round 5

Saturday

Heat 1

Started 11th and raced hard, although I seemed to be falling away from the main field, I still managed to keep the place, it wasn’t much of a result, but it was my first BKC heat.

Heat 2

Started P11 had a good race managing to stay with the second half of the grid and come in P7, it felt so good to be able to make progress, some of the other drivers got penalties which did help but I still made places on track.

Final

So, I had achieved the first goal, make it into the top 10, starting the final in P10, the pace from the start was unbelievably fast with the some karts running at the lap record speed, I just couldn't

hold that pace, again the Jade drivers seemed to be off the pace, with all 3 a long way off the lead. I dropped one place to team mate Alesandro to finish P11. It was such a steep learning curve, the pace was relentless. I had however finished my first round of a BKC event with a respectable 52 points in the championship.

British Kart Championship Shenington Round 6

Sunday

Qualifying

I qualified in 11th again, I couldn’t believe it, for the first heat we decided to change the engine, hoping that we might find some better pace.

Heat 1

Started P11 had a good run and managed to make it up to P8, I didn’t improve my lap time, but I had considerably closed the gap from the pack, Saturday it was nearly 30 seconds, this heat I got it down to 11.1s which was very confidence inspiring..

Heat 2

This heat went better again, making it from P11 to P8 again and another second closer to the front, the two 8 place results meant I would get a P9 start position on the grid, again meeting that goal of getting in the top 10.

Final

The final didn’t go my way, on lap 3 I lost a rear wheel, putting me out of the event. On investigation it looks like the wheel didn’t seat properly when tighten, you can watch the video on Youtube, I was very lucky not to have a big accident.

That said I was classed as a finisher in P9 and scoring 54 points for the championship.

It was a real challenge driving at such a high level for 3 days against the best the UK have to offer and really showed that despite it being a big step up I can make improvements during the weekend.

Time for a little rest in August. We just sneaked this one in though, another new challenge as we look forward to next season, and new venues.

My first club event at PFI over the weekend 31st August – 1st September. We have tested once and I’ve done some some training so looking forward to it!

I really just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who got me to my first BKC round, it was without doubt a very tough weekend, I’m looking forward to all the future challenges.

Also, thank you to Mark Ballantyne for giving up his day to come. With some work I think we can get to the front end of the pack.