Another busy month out at Shenington for the last round of the championship and a one-off event at PFI, The Festive cup.

Having now fully committed to the Inter class I have the kart setup with Komet tyres, and the engine has been updated to the latest rules. The only problem I really have is that I’m still a bit underweight for the class and I must carry 9 kilograms of lead ballast on the kart as the new class has a 110kg minimum combined weight.

I’m also busy making plans for 2025 and you'll find our proposed calendar at the bottom of the report.

Shenington Race day Round 10

The last race of the 2024 championship at Shenington wasn’t going to change the outcome of the Water Swift Restricted championship so I chose to run the inter class and compete against some of the 2025 rivals.

Due to the day light hours available, there were only 5 Saturday practice sessions. But I managed to get close to setting personal best times during the day.

The weather was really good, and we managed to stay on slicks for the whole day.

Sunday Practice

Sunday morning started dry and I was quick from the off, setting the 4th fastest time of the grid, and just 0.4s off the leader, the new slick tyres proving a little quicker than the used set I was on for Saturday.

**Heat 1**

I would be starting on pole for the first heat, which in theory should give me a big advantage, however as the track were running split grids with the Rotax in front this wasn’t to be.
On the formation lap I caught the slower Rotax drivers and despite trying to avoid them as we crossed the start the first corner was terrible, I was off line and blocked and dropped to 5th, in a bit to recover I pushed really hard but the IAME grid was slowly getting pulled into the Rotax race and although there were plenty of blue flags to try and clear the slower drivers, I eventually crossed the line in 7th, I was really disappointed as I had worked back into 3rd but the mixture of traffic and incidents had forced me to lose places. It’s a tough class, the whole grid were covered by just one second.
**Heat 2**
Starting P8 in heat 2 was always going to be a struggle, I stayed with the pack, posting some very good times but just couldn’t get the passes made, towards the end of the race the engine started to struggle and felt a little slow, although the lap times looked ok I felt it wasn’t puling as well out of the corners and in the end I finished a frustrating 8th out of the 9 competitors, just where I had started

Final

The final grid saw me in P7, mainly on account of my poor heat 1 result but I was resigned to the fact that it was going to be tough, nothing was found wrong with the kart, investigations from the data suggested I was just pushing hard and overheating the tyres, something I've not experienced before.

On the formation lap I saw the leader Knight Measures chain exit the side of the kart and immediately put him out of the race, so we had an extra formation lap whilst the marshals cleared the track. Once we got running the pace was fast, the track had got slower in the afternoon and was now giving average lap times two seconds slower than the heats.

I had a great battle but remained in the 7th, my teammate Will Heynes running behind in 8th,

Im still learning the kart, the extra speed and handling but my lap times were solid all weekend, it was a good way to finish the last round and looking at my sector times, im sure I’ll be competitive at Shenington in 2025.

PF International The Festive Cup
I am still keen to get as much practice at the PF circuit as possible, everyone says it’s the place to really learn, it’s a difficult track, the more time I’m on track the more I gain in confidence, that said however I was under no illusion that being competitive will take more time.

Jade’s Scott Allan was not going to attend the event but once he new we had our entry in, he decided so come and support me , and we ended up with 3 karts from the team all using the event as an extended test.

The weather was nothing but wet, from Friday it just rained, with he occasional break in the clouds but the track never really dried enough for slicks.

The plan was simply to find more pace, knowing I am up against some experience competitors it was all I could really hope for, the aim is to be ready to attend the Kartmaster British Kart Grand Prix in 2025 and be competitive, that give me 9 months of practice to really find the race times.

Practice

As I already mentioned it was wet, very wet, a quick lap looked to be around 1.21.7s at the end of the first 5 lap practice I was 7 seconds off the pace posting a 1.29.15, importantly though, not the slowest.

The key to PFI is committing to riding the kerbs, hitting them hard and using them to help provide the speed in the corners, its difficult to master. So the plan was simply reduce the 7 second gap.

With Scott's help I did manage to improve but lacked consistency whilst I took differing lines and changed the kart setup. Getting spun and put into the wall by Knight in the last practice didn’t help my confidence, but the kart got repaired and we made it to qualifying. The last session of the day was qualifying, and it was almost dark and very wet, 5 quick laps of the track saw me setting a lap time that would put me last on the grid but given the weather I had actually made some good improvements.

**Sunday Warm Up**

Warm up was a bit dryer, but still on wet tyres and I managed a respectable 8th from the 11 starters, just 5 seconds of the pole sitter.
**Prefinal**
No heats, just a prefinal and a final for the Sunday, the weather conditions hadn’t changed and I was starting last on the grid as expected, I was a bit careful on the roiling start, but I just pushed as hard as I could, again trying to get the line right, use the kerbs, avoid the puddles and not spin. I
I managed to maintain that 5 second gap to the leader coming home in 8th place, which was a real surprise.

Final

I was really pleased to find that I wasn’t last on the grid for the final, my result in the prefinal had pushed me up to 10th position.

I got really good drive onto the start finish straight only to spin a full 360 degrees and drop out of position. Fortunately, it was deemed a false start and I managed to regain my position for the next start.

Once again, I had a good run, it was incredibly slippery and the full wet tyres I had were now getting a little worn, again I was doing well keeping up the lap times and actually made up 2 positions to finish the race in 8th, it was a bit lonely towards the end, the gap to the next kart was just over 20 seconds, but I achieved my aim of improving the gap and in the end, my lap times were just 4.7 seconds off the leader. That was the target, improve the comparison lap time and in the end I had made up around 2.3 seconds which I was happy with.

The only sadness was that this was the last race of 2024, probably the last race in the S16 chassis as I move to a new kart for 2025.

2024 - What a Year!

Daytona Race Of Champions: Milton Keynes – P3

10 Races at Shenington:

Waterswift Restricted – P9 (17 registered)

Waterswift Inter P14 (17 registered)

Shenington SuperPrix: Waterswift Restricted P15

1st Event in the British Kart Championship: Overall P13 (17 Registered)

3 Races at Paul Fletcher International: Waterswift Restricted P17 (25 Registered)

November 2024

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November 2024

January 2025

October 2024

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