Here we are again at Brentwood Karting, ready and raring for Round 7 of the Championship and I know I say this every week now, but this season really is flying past with only 5 remaining races left for me to complete in my Cadet Career (there are 6 left of the season but I am going on holiday for a week soon so will miss a round).
So what happened this week? Well this round was FULL of what could only be described as chaos! We had restarts, spinning, take outs the lot this week but it all added to the drama that is karting, one minute you are flying out the front and the next heat you are spinning and are down the back, let me fill you in on what happened in-between.
So off we went for Quali and although the sun was out (so much so that you was being blinded coming out of Swimming Pool) it was certainly a chilly start to the day, not ideal for being the first group out on the grid. The kart I had didn't feel too bad but there was lots of other people spinning on track, so I had to always be aware of where others were.
As the Quali lap approached, I had to drop back slightly from Bobby who was in front of me as I didn't have enough of a gap to give myself room in case of other people spinning or if I happened to have a "moment". I got the lap done without incident but I did clip the barrier going into Paddock, so I wasn't convinced that I had done a good enough job for pole, but much to my surprise I took it by 0.706, a huge margin.
We was lined up on the grid and as always I just needed that good launch to get myself away and with a margin that big I was confident that I would be quicker off of the line. The race was very uneventful for me, the kart was feeling better and better the more it was warming up and I secured the win with an 8.4 second lead.
Heat 2 was up next and this really was where all hell broke loose. The rolling start got underway on the first attempt but going out of Range and down towards Swimming Pool, I have no clue what happened but there was a few spinners on my left, which I managed to avoid, then going down into Swimming Pool there was another pile up on my left which again I avoided and then going into Bubba's again more spinners, it was literally like a bag of marbles had been let loose with karts spinning in all directions. I avoided all of the chaos and found myself sitting in P4 when the race was restarted.
Everyone lined up again on the grid and another rolling start was attempted, this time it took more than 1 attempt to get going, I think it was another 3 attempts before we was underway. Again, there was another spinner going down towards Swimming Pool but I avoided this and was steadily making progress. The kart that I had just lacked so much pace on the straight in comparison to everyone else, that I thought that I was going to be in for a really tough race with no progression being made. I just kept plugging away and found myself sitting in 3rd, 2nd went wide, I moved to the inside where he decided it was an ideal time to turn in on me and take me out of the race by spinning me, not ideal when half of the race had already been wasted on restarts and false starts.
I think by the time I was able to rejoin the track safely I was down in P11 or something in the closing stages of the race, this was now all about damage limitation. I knew that I had already secured a win so I would receive maximum points towards the championship, but I was also facing a grid penalty for last weeks P2, so I needed to get a higher finish position than 11th or I would be looking at a B Final start. I got my head down and pushed with everything that I had in a kart that wasn't the best and finished up P7.
I just scraped into the A Final, starting P8, not the greatest of starting positions but at least I was in the A Final, it could have been a lot worse. It was also a reverse track, so all was not lost. The start of the race could only be described as awful, I got the worst start after getting blocked and not being able to filter into the pack and went all the way to the back of the pack. Any positions that I made up were given back just as quickly as soon as I hit the straights as the kart had zero straight line speed, was starting to think that today was not meant to be my day!
We carried on for a few more laps, gaining a position, then losing it again until a few laps later there was a 3 way battle going into Range and no one was covering the inside line and they all went a bit wide, so I slipped through and started to pull a bit of a gap. This then gave me a bit of breathing room to work out what I was going to do with this kart to get the maximum out of it, the straight line speed was non-existent but in the corners it was pretty decent so I just had to keep Ellis behind me which was proving tricky as he was flying past on the straight but just couldn't finish the move off.
The final 5 minutes of the Final was unreal, you just couldn't take your eyes off of what was happening everywhere. Mikey was battling with Roman ahead which ended up with Mikey spinning out, so I gained a position there, the next thing I knew Ellis had flown past me on the straight (the cheeky boy!) and had taken the position. Rory who I think was leading the race was the next to spin of of the track (no idea what happened there as I was too far back to see), so I gained another place and was sitting in 4th. The next minute Ellis had taken George and was 2nd, it was all just unfolding in front of me. I knew that if I could keep with them I maybe could have crept onto the podium, so pushed as hard as possible. Ellis went a bit wide coming out of Paddock, so George slipped through and I followed, so I was now sitting in 3rd. Going round into Bubba's I made the move into 2nd and was now chasing George but with 2 laps to go and a kart that wasn't the best 2nd was all I could manage. But what a result and what a final it was.
It was only when we come off the track that George said to me that I would take the win as I had a better heat result than him this week, so although he finished 1st on the track, overall I will have claimed more points than him so will take the Round Win.
Onwards to Round 8 next week and after all of that excitement I need a lie down!
Round 6 Podium
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