So today was the final round at Buckmore Park for the Junior Pro Championship and this was the deciding round as to who was going to be crowned champion.
I actually returned from my family holiday early for this specific round of the Championship and only landed on the morning of the race at 7am, me and mum was so tired that as soon as we got home, we went straight to bed for a few hours before we started out for the final round at Buckmore.
When we got to the track, the sun had already started to set and watching some of the karts that was on track before us, lots were spinning out at the end of the track, there looked to be lots of leaves around and was thinking that this round could be a right handful.
We headed out on for the practice session and the kart that I had felt decent, I received a black flag during this session and was really confused as I couldn't work out what I had done wrong, but it turns out that they just wanted to check my fuel cap for some reason, so was a bit relieved, black flags was not something that I wanted to be seeing today!
As the practice session come to an end we was lined up on the grid and got to check out the timings board and was pleased to see that I was the only person to have got into the 49's. In Heat 1, I was starting P3 so I was hoping for a good start and a possible win but I did have Ben Hamilton in front of me and he is very experienced at Buckmore, so it wouldn't be an easy pass.
I didn't make up any ground on the start but going down into hairpin 1 I made a move and went into P2. A few laps later I was right behind Ben and going down towards Paddock, he went a bit wide and I slipped through on the inside taking the lead. Once I was out in front, I started to build a lead but a few mistakes on my part brought Ben back into play. As the race was coming to an end I could see that Ben had found something and was catching, I was so relieved to finally see that chequered flag. As we was heading back to the grid Ben didn't look too happy and also said that he was making so many mistakes that made it impossible for him to catch me.
Unfortunately, my camera decided to have a wobble in this heat and decided not to record so I didn't have any footage after the Practice session and Heat 1.
Heat 2 was up next and I was in the kart that Ben had in the previous heat and although it had great pace, the kart was a bit of a handful as it was sliding everywhere and could easily see why Ben was struggling in certain areas. I started out in P11 and managed to climb my way up to P2, I was so close to the win but missed out by just 0.087. I think that if I had 1 more lap I could possibly have taken the win but was happy with P2.
Heat 3 was next up and I was starting P12 on the grid. I got the worst start ever, it felt like the kart cut out as I pulled away but it did kick in again, but I lost places in the meantime and went backwards to P14. It was all a bit of chaos for the first few corners until everyone started spacing out and this was when I started making progress through the pack. I finally settled into 5th place and was catching with the group of 3 karts ahead as they was all battling hard but I was just too far back to have been able to join the fight and was pleased to claim the P5.
I wasn't sure what was happening with the points for the Championship really at this point as my mum was chatting to others but I knew that my placings in the heats were stronger than Mikey who was my Championship rival. If I managed to just stick with Mikey in the final I should be able to claim the Championship.
Going into the A Final, I was starting out P3 and Mikey was P5. I was going into kart 1 again and knew that this kart had pace, but was a bit slidey and a handful in places. As we got underway I moved straight up into P2 and started chasing down Ben again. This was actually a really great final and I was gutted that my camera wasn't working but the lead was changing constantly as all the karts behind all of a sudden come alive, one minute I was in P2, the next I was down in P6, fighting my way back up again. In the end Mikey claimed the win on the night and I come home P2 after a great battle with Charlie Ratford.
This was enough for me to secure the Championship win as I outscored Mikey by 4 points in this round and with an overall Championship lead of 8 points in total to be crowned the 2022 Junior Pro Champion. The presentation of the trophies will take place in March 2023.
It's been a great Championship to take part in, but I unfortunately will not be taking part in the Winter series as it clashes with rounds that I will be taking part in at Brentwood in the Super League. I will be keeping a look out for the following Championship to see if these dates work.
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