March 2025
PF International Test day
I made the decision to compete in the PF Challenge Cup, a one-off event that was taking place over the weekend of 1st and 2nd March. It gave me a final opportunity to learn the track prior to starting the club championship rounds in April.
Friday practice broke with some of the best weather in a while, warm and sunny, and with 5 practice sessions, it was going to be a good day learning. Scott Allan from the Jade team was there to help and Marcus my usual coach would help me on the weekend.
I had a great day, steadily improving my times. We also tried different tyres and a few other changes on the kart, with no dramas at all on the day I managed to shave some time of my previous PB.
This would really help going into the weekend. With a grid of 30 karts made up of not only some of the best UK drivers but also some with worldwide credentials, it was the the biggest IAME Waterswift grid I've seen.
Team mate and more experienced driver at PFI, Philip Patareu would join me on the Saturday to compete, and I was looking forward to getting some help from him.
PFI Challenge Cup - Saturday 1st March
Another lovely day met us as we started, cooler but sunny and I was really excited for practice and qualifying.
We found some better used tyres for the day as I had killed the Friday practice set. We also planned to try different axles today, with a choice of 3 stiffnesses - they change the rear handling characteristics, I had been running on a blue axles (soft) and we were going to try the stiffest red axle for direct comparison.
We started practice 1 with a view to getting some data and taking it easy, I came in 22nd and 1.1 seconds off the fastest time, very happy with the result. We didn't change anything for session 2 apart from tyre pressures, which still left me over a second off the front.
Practice 3 was the same, it was clear I wasn't really improving, despite driving well and to my surprise being quicker than Philip.
Practice 4, we changed the axle but this didn’t seem to make any difference. Next up Qualifying…
PFI Challenge Cup - Qualifying
Qualifying at PFI is done based on a timed period of 5 minutes, in that time you do as many laps as possible and then your top 3 fastest times are averaged to give you a start position.
The key is not to go out as soon as the lights turn green, but to go when the main pack go, this can be 30 seconds or more into the timed session meaning you will only get 3 or 4 laps to show your speed, I tried but didn’t quite get my timing right and didn’t get on track at perfectly the right time, running with some slightly slower karts meant I didn’t quite get the boost I needed. That said however I still got in some good laps.
Eventually after penalties were applied, I found myself 18th and Philip was 19th. I do think if I had got in a better group I would have gone faster. So that would be my starting position in both heats on Sunday.
PFI Challenge Cup Heats
It turned out on the Saturday that we hadn’t put the correct axle in, and in fact there had been no changes at all to the kart, a mix up from the supplier meant I was running all day without any changes.
I ran the new stiffer axle in warm up, I didn’t really like it, the kart didn’t turn in as well as I felt it had on Saturday. Warm up went ok, but I didn’t feel confident with the change, we decided to run heat 1 with it and then change if I couldn’t get on with it for heat 2, it was a calculated risk but worth it for the potential quicker lap times.
Heat 1
I started P18 but immediately fell off the pace on the start, dropping to P25, by lap two I was back to P22 and pushing hard to get back in the mix, lap 4 up to P21, lap 6 P20 and making progress but on the last lap dropping back to P21, there were a lot of penalties, and once all applied, I found myself back in 18th, just where I started.
I got hit quite hard in one corner, snapping the radiator mounting at the axle, so felt quite lucky not to have further damage.
Heat 2
Prior to the heat we opted to change engines. Scott wanted to try a different motor, recognising that we were just not getting competitive pace from ours.
I got a great start to the heat making a few places off the start, until that was, I got in an unavoidable accident as I went over the bridge. Oscar Kenny, having had a bad start, was trying to make places but had spun Philip and left me nowhere to go, crashing and bending my steering.
I dropped to last and was still putting in reasonable lap times, I also picked up a five second penalty as my nosecone had dropped in the accident.
Finished P23 when it was all sorted, many people had penalties, so it could have been much worse!
The kart had to be repaired before the final, the chassis was ok, but the steering was badly bent. With all the work to do, we couldn’t change back to my preferred axle.
PFI Challenge Cup Final
One thing that was clear from heat 2 was that my engine was not as powerful as the newer Jade one. I told dad, we had to have that engine.
The intermediate results (Heat 1&2) put me on the grid P21 for the final.
I got a good start maintaining the P21 and pushing teammate for the overtakes, Lap 2, I was up to P19, but dropped 2 places on the next lap, only to get back to P20 on the next. I raced hard for the whole time, 11 laps in total and crossed the line in P20.
In the race I set a new PB and my fastest lap was only 1.2 seconds of the front runners, beating my Jade teammate Philip too.
I had such a good weekend, making progress, my driving and lap times have really improved and to come 20th in such esteemed company was excellent, its given me some real confidence going forward.
Shenington Practice - 15th March
Back to Shenington for round 3 of the club championship and the last round of the Winter Cup. I was feeling super confident and really looking forward to the weekend. The plan was to practice on Saturday with my engine, trying different axles and then dad bought the PF engine which was now going to be our race engine. The day was bright and cold, with 6 practice sessions we had plenty of time to test and get up to speed, or so I thought.
Practice one saw me only set 1 lap as I had an exhaust failure and had to come back into the pits, it was not repairable trackside so I was back to the awning for repairs.
Practice 2 was better, making good time and catching some quicker karts, almost equalling my PB on used tyres. Best time was 48.67, just 0.2 of my PB
Practice 3 and I got the mechanical flag, my chainguard had come loose, a quick pitstop saw me back out and again setting good times a new PB of 48.38
My newfound confidence was really starting to show, I was improving all day and catching karts I previously would never have competed with. Practice 4 and 5, I changed to my race wheels which are lighter but I didn’t really improve, if anything the track had slowed a little from all the rubber laid down. Practice 6, this was it, I could show my full pace, but unfortunately not, although the engine was great and I felt quicker , the lap times didn’t really show it. When Dad was looking at the kart after, he found the clutch had broken and so I wasn’t getting the best from the engine. We repaired that and got the kart ready for race day.
Shenington Race Day Round 3
Warm Up
After all the dramas of the day before, it was good to get out on the new engine, in the 3 lap warm up I showed some real pace, coming in P2. Chester Forkes leading the whole field by 0.5 seconds.
Heat 1
It’s always random grids at Shenington, heat 1, would see me starting P3. I got a terrible start, dropping to P6 and finding myself with a lot of work to do to catch the top 3, I was pushing so hard I made a new PB of 47.95 just missing out on the fastest lap by 0.003s set by my fellow Jade driver Will Heynes. Finally coming in P4, I felt I had more to give.
Heat 2
Thanks to the random grids, I ended up with a P7 starting position.
I got an amazing start, up to P2 before turn 2 and really setting some pace, I couldn’t match the hard charging Will Heynes who had followed me up to grid to P5 and then pushed even harder to get past me for P2, Chester by this time was gone, with no chance of catching, Orion Mehta also pulled himself into he race for P2 it became a race between me and Will for P3, it was a great battle, all of us finding the pass for third over the next 11 laps. In the end Will took 3rd and me coming in 4th.
1st to 4th was covered by just 0.8 seconds, I think if Will and I had worked together, P2 was possible.
Final
Thanks to two good runs, I would start the final in P4.
I was so excited, I was finally battling for the front at Shenington, pushed, taken me a while to get here and I though I had a real chance of a top 3 finish and a good finish in the Winter Cup.
I started well, made it through the tricky turn 1 and 2 which often sees crashes on the opening lap, running down to the first hairpin was busy, all fighting for the track, sadly I was to lose out, as a result of the karts all getting pushed I got pushed into the tyres and spun, coming back out in dead last.
I pushed as hard as I could, but there was no chance of me catching the leaders, I got back from 10th to 8th but the gap was too big to make it any further.
It was my best chance to get a podium so far this year, but i just missed out because of the collision.
On reflection it was a really good weekend, showing that I have some good speed and a competitive package with the new chassis and latest engine, I really showed I can get to the top step.
It was always going to be hard in such a competitive field but the additional racing at PF coupled with some excellent coaching is starting to show how competitive I can be.
Sadly I missed out on a winter cup podium, I really needed P4 or better to get the points I needed. The points I have will roll over into the club championship for the next 7 rounds, so all I can do is push to be in the top 3 this season. I am just 6 points off 3rd place and there is still plenty of time.
Up Next
Shenington Kart Racing Club Round 4
Easter Spectacular
17-20th April 2025
Trent Valley Kart Club Championship Round 1
P F International Race Circuit
4,5,6th April 2025