We were back at Brentwood Karting this morning and racing in what could only be described as "changeable" weather conditions. Setting off from home in thick fog where you could barely see a few hundred yards in front of us, to bright sunshine and blue skies 10 minutes from home, to overcast and chilly at Brentwood. It had potential to turn into some light rain, just what I've been hoping for for weeks, some wet racing! What would the track have in store for us today? Well the disappointing news was the rain never came, but it was still a very good day!
So onto Practice and Quali. I was a bit more aware of my kart placement in this session than in previous weeks as I have been caught out in traffic and it was a big group, so I needed to make sure I was warming the kart up enough but equally giving myself some room incase of errors. The kart felt reasonable and 29 which I was following for a bit had great straight line speed which looked quicker than me, so it was going to be a tough Quali but I managed to bag the pole, closely followed by George.
We was lined up on the grid and I just needed to get a strong launch off the line, the good thing is George who was in P2 is heavier than me and I was hoping that he would slot straight in behind and block any attack from P3. I got a decent launch, not the best, but George went straight on the defence and blocked any upcoming threats which helped while we all got up to speed.
Both myself and George's kart was very even on pace and on some of the laps where he was quicker, it just wasn't enough that he could make a successful pass without making contact. I think although the karts were even they had very different strengths, he was making time up in the corners, but I was just pulling away on the straights which made it much more difficult for George to pass. In end I won the Heat by the slimmest of margins but was a good battle throughout.
Next up was Heat 2 and a rolling start which can only be explained as a disaster. P2 was just going way too fast and I think a few times even crossed the line ahead of Ellis who had pole, so we had 3 attempts at this and finally got underway, but was going to be a tough race due to the clock ticking down for the restarts.
Once we was finally underway, I only made up 1 place on the start as I was blocked, so held back and went very easily into Swimming Pool due to the amount of karts that went ploughing in. I kept my line really tight to the inside of the track and made up more positions coming out of Bubba's and into Post 4. So far this wasn't shaping up too bad.
This was the point that the kart come ALIVE! The straight-line speed this thing had was unreal and I was taking people around the outside and was already up into 5th going into Swimming Pool on lap 2, could a win be possible from here maybe?
A mistake from P4 in front of me, made the move very easy as they went far too wide and I moved up again. Going up the Start/Finish straight I positioned my kart again to go round the outside and the move would have been pulled off had Bobby not moved across to block me, so I dropped back into P4 again and waited a bit longer, with the power this kart had I didn't need to try anything risky.
By Bubba's Mikey had positioned himself to make the move and I just followed him through and we was now in P3. With no one in front of Mikey he had no form of defence against the straight line speed of this kart and just watched as he sat there shaking his head at me (sorry Mikey!). We was now in P2, Ellis has a small lead but I was confident that the speed of this thing was no match for anyone today and I was right. Within a few laps I was on him and at this point the fog had started to come down on the track again so visibility (well more damp visor) was starting to make it a bit tricky. I was late on the brakes going down into Swimming Pool and managed to take the lead, in the end securing the 2nd win by 3.6 seconds from the back of the grid. What a result!
Next up was the A Final and again was facing a 5 place grid penalty due my previous week win so was lined up P6 on the grid. It was a reverse track and I was starting on the outside, never the best going into the first few corners. We had a rolling start and coming through Paddock was hairy to say the least, I got whacked wide which actually really helped me as I was up against the barrier while all sorts of chaos was happening on the inside and I slipped straight into P2. Going into Bubba's I see Ben waving the flags for an aborted start, lifted off the accelerator and then got slammed into the back of and spun. So we all made our way back to the start to re-grid up.
With the 2nd restart everyone was much more cautious and I didn't make up any positions. A few mistakes were made from people in front of me, where they went wide so I took maximum advantage of this and slipped on the inside of them and kept them on the outside gaining the positions. Soon I was up into 3rd and going passed Post 4 and into Bubba's P3 & P2 went wide, so again I slipped through and held the position and was sitting in P2. I was right on the back of Ellis but the acceleration that it had was unreal, so I just kept putting on the pressure and in the end he made an error and went wide, this was the chance that I needed to take the lead and finished the Final with the 3rd Win of the Day and making that 3 wins out of 3 rounds. The cherry on the cake was also claiming Fastest Lap of Day gaining an extra point towards my Championship.
It's been a great start to the Championship for sure and am looking forward to seeing what happens next week for Round 4.
Brentwood Karting's Social Media Post
Collecting My Round 2 Trophy
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