So here we go, Round 1 of a brand new season & a brand new league for me:
WELCOME TO THE BRENTWOOD KARTING SUPER LEAGUE
The Super League at Brentwood is only 2 Seasons old now and was created by Dan Lee our Race Director. This is a strict invitation only league & works pretty much like a football league table, if you don't perform you get relegated at the end of the Season. Only 28 places are up for grabs in this league and I was given access straight into the league as the previous Cadet Champion, so am being thrown completely in at the deep end, having never raced in the bigger karts against some of these drivers, so was a complete case of sink or swim.
I always like to start the season with a goal in mind, my last season was to retain my title and that was completed with more podiums and fastest laps of the season than the previous, but this season is going to be a real learning curve for me, so if I managed to finish in the Top 15 I will be happy, so that's my goal for the season.
Quali & Heat 1 was up and I couldn't believe that I managed to secure P2 in Quali and it was by the smallest of margins that I missed out on the Pole position and was happy to take that for a first outing! This is where things started to go a little wrong, so in the Super League things work a little differently to the Cadets, where when you are doing a reverse track you need to go through the fuel lane to go to the start/finish line, I didn't know this and ended up losing a point straight away before the race even started for not following the starting procedures - great start!
So Heat 1 was a reverse track, I've done plenty of reverse track laps before but never in a senior kart, so was just hoping to keep it on the track and survive the first few corners. It was all going well until I was coming out of Post 4 when I was spun out and dropped from P2 down to P8, the positive part was that it was on the opening lap so I had time to try and limit the damage done to the race. By the end if the following lap I had made my way back up to P4 and was having some good battles with Trent along the way switching positions backwards and forwards and in the end finished up P5, great start.
I still don't really understand how the 2nd Heat starting positions work in this league but for Heat 2 I started out P2. I didn't get the best of starts as the kart went nowhere off of the line, but once it got going I made a nice move coming out of Range down into Bubba's and took the lead of the race.
Contact from behind on the next lap then lost me the lead and with the Super League you don't just lose 1 place, you lose 3 or 4! The kart that I had was hard work to turn which didn't help and then for the 2nd time I was taken out of the race and dropped down the order and finished up P8 which I was disappointed with.
This then made it that I was starting P4 in the B Final, which I was surprised about as I thought I would have started out lower down than that. With the Super League to top 2 qualify to the A Final so I was hoping for a decent race and one where I wouldn't be taken out!
The start as with any of these races was just chaos and you just had to keep your wits about you and keep the kart straight! I got pretty battered about and lost positions but kept the kart going in the right direction. Once the initial few laps were completed and packs were spreading out it was easier to start making positions up. The kart that I had had good pace and having watched a line that Trent had taken in an earlier heat thought I would give it a go as I had nothing to lose and it paid off and before I knew it I was into P2 and challenging for the lead. I went onto win the Heat and was promoted up to the A Final.
The kart that I had for the A Final was WAY more slidey than the first and was a proper handful to control and unfortunately I made contact with Charlie and was handed an ABC so had to give back the place and in doing so completely pied myself and gave away more positions than I needed to. On the final lap Ethan went off so I gained a position there and ended up finishing P7 on the day in the A Final and I performance that I could be happy with considering I was taken out in 2 Heats, won a B Final and didn't finish last in the A Final! This is going to be a long season, but today there were lessons learnt. Onwards to Round 2.
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