So here we are, back to Brentwood Karting for my FINAL CADET ALLSTAR CUP FINAL. I was actually asked what I wanted to race in this time round, whether I wanted a Cadet or Senior kart. Generally these events are geared towards the senior drivers which is always evidenced by the clear number or lack should I say of numbers of cadets by the time we get towards the A & B Finals. I decided to finish off my time in the good old cadet karts and take a roll of the dice and see what happened.....
I was put into Group E, so it was over an hour wait before I even got on track. On our way to the track the weather was awful again so there was lots of standing water around the track which could make conditions interesting.
We was sent out for a practice and I was top of the time sheets but the grid had already been decided and I was starting P5 on the grid, but knew that I had a good kart underneath me as I was making overtaking moves and making positions up on the practice session.
Lined up on the grid in P5, I had a plan and that was to stick to the inside and hopefully go through on the inside to the front of the pack. By the time we was coming out of Range I had made my way up to P2, luckily enough the person that was in front of me was Claudia and she doesn't race regularly at Brentwood, therefore used my experience and by the time we was going into Swimming Pool I had taken the lead of the race. Towards the end of the race Max was closing in on me but I had done enough in the early stages to maintain the lead & be the first Cadet to win a heat on the day, a great start.
It was another long wait till my 2nd heat and I was lined up P6 on the grid this time as it was a reverse grid. I got a great start off of the line and quickly found myself in P2 coming out of the 1st corner and then, yep you guessed it, it was flagged as a false start and we had to restart.
The 2nd time round I didn't get the best of starts, everyone knew the move I was going to make and covered off the corner. I was then hit to which I thought should have been an ABC in my favour but nothing was given. I didn't really need them to give the position back as the next lap I had made the positions back anyway and was working my way up the grid. By the time I got myself up into P2, Max was already long gone in the distance and I had nothing left to try with the clock ticking down so had to settle for P2. Not a bad result on the day and for the 4th AllStar in a row was the top placing cadet.
Next up was the A Final and I was starting P3, a brilliant result on the day. I was back into Kart 25 again which was my 2nd kart I had on the day and was happy with the pace the kart had. I was again the only cadet in the A Final which automatically put me on the back foot, in order for the cadets to stand a chance you need more than 1 of you in the final, so it was already going to be a tall order.
To make matters even worse, on the practice session, Bubba's was a real handful in the karts handling. Some water had been dragged onto the track and the kart just had ZERO grip and was not drivable through that section. It was then decided that it would be a rolling start, that was the final nail in the coffin for me! I was literally a sitting duck to be either loaded into the first corner or hit off.
Off the line, I got a fair start but as I guessed would happen I was hit from behind and knocked wide to which a whole train of karts went through and found myself around P8, soon to be P10. I have no idea where the pace went on the kart from Heat 2 to the Final, but the front runners were running at least a second a lap quicker than me, along with the handling in Bubba's, there was nothing that I could do to recover the race and in the end I finished P9.
Not the final race that I was hoping for, but the AllStar will always be a tall order for a Cadet to win, its not impossible but I think out of the 9 seasons I have been there I have only seen 1 Cadet win it. I could still hold my head up high being the top cadet on the day and having finished top cadet in the last 4 that I have taken part in.
That is it for me, no more cadet racing. Onto the next challenge of the Brentwood Karting Super League from next week, let's bring it on!
Cadets, it's been a pleasure & I look forward to seeing who will be next seasons BRENTWOOD CADET CHAMPION. Good Luck!
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