So what is the Brentwood All Star Cup? It's basically our 1 off "fun round", which I think always adds to the pressure because this week doesn't count towards any of our League Points but everyone is always DESPERATE to get into the Final.
The format runs the same as a normal race weekend, with the Cadets racing in the morning and the Seniors racing straight after. However, the top 5 finishers in the respective A Finals compete in the All Star Cup Final. There is a 5 minute practice, followed by a 5 minute qualifying then a 10 minute sprint race to the Chequered Flag to be crowned the new All Star Cup Champion.
I've only managed to make it into the Final twice and the weather is ALWAYS guaranteed to be fine, until the Cadet A Final, where freak weather normally hits before the end of the race and it ends up with karts sliding off, positions being lost and lots of tears that follow and that's just from Dan our Race Director.
This time out was no different! The conditions we were racing in was awful as we had the tail end of the worst storm to hit the UK in 30 years. The track was wet in places, but not wet enough for a wetsuit but certainly wet enough for you to drop the kart at any minute. The lap times were really slow to start with and at points the really fine rain (that gets you completely soaked) was hammering down horizontally and gales were blowing across the track. Hats off to all the parents that stood there watching us all morning!
So what happened to me during the All Star Cup Weekend? Well it was a pretty mixed bag to be honest. The kart that I had for qualifying didn't actually feel as slow as the time sheet suggested but it lacked power going down the straights, so any overtakes I manage to get was only taken back when we got on the straights. I only managed to qualify P6, which wasn't the best. I got a pretty decent start but could only manage to climb up 1 position to P5, not a complete disaster as the 2nd heat would put me starting 2nd, but knew if I couldn't secure a win then potentially I was heading home early.
Second heat was much more positive, the kart felt better, the track was getting a bit easier to handle and where we had already been out once was a bit more aware of where we could push the kart limits to. Got a great start, put the pressure onto the pole sitter and took the lead. This was then lost but an ABC went in my favour to give me back the position, however P3 had also gone through at this point so I had someone else to contend with now. After a lap or so I regained the lead and put my head down and charged on in the end securing the win by over 8 seconds. This was now sure to put me in a good position for the A Final.
Sure enough I was starting P3 on the grid. The top 5 automatically qualify for the final (which my mum continually reminded me of following last weeks league performance). As none of these points go towards the league I didn't need to fight for the best podium outcome, that would come later, there was no point in risking not making the final.
The Final was being run reverse track, I got a great start in the Final and the kart felt really good, initially taking P2 within the first few laps. I did get into 1st and started pulling a small gap but the light rain returned again so I knew I had to be really cautious. Towards the end of the race I had Leon right on my tail and I didn't want to run the risk of spinning so when we was on the straight I signalled for him to pass me. I was more than happy with securing P2 and claiming my spot for a shot at the All Star Cup.
We waited around to find out who we were going to be facing in the All Star Cup and prepared ourselves for a hard task ahead. You guessed it, as soon as we got in the karts and out on track, it started to rain again! We completed a 5 minute warm up as the Cadet karts weren't running for an hour or so. Following this we had a 5 minute qualifying session. The Cadets didn't really perform as good as the Seniors, so Dan made a few tweaks to the Cadets karts to level them all up. It was then decided that the race would be run going the normal circuit, instead of reverse.
I qualified 6th out of 10 people and was the 2nd fastest cadet on track. We headed to the grid, started our formation lap and went racing! I didn't get off to the best of starts but think this actually helped me as there was 4 wide going into turn 2 in the wet. I managed to avoid a spinning Leon and got through Swimming Pool relatively unharmed. The circuit was continually changing throughout the race which made things tricky.
At one point I managed to get myself into 3rd position which was great, but on the next lap was pushed wide and had to back out or be in a barrier, I chose to avoid the barrier and back out but in doing this put myself at the back of the pack. From this point on I knew I had to make up lots of ground in a short amount of time. When I was going through The Range, I noticed that some drivers were taking the dry line, being at the back I had nothing to lose by trying this too and it paid off dividends! Lap after lap I was steadily making up ground and was back into 3rd place and the highest cadet.
I was quite happy to defend for my life and claim 3rd until I realised just how quickly I was catching the front runners. The chase was on! The senior that was in front of me took the wet line going into The Range so I made up a lot of ground taking the dry line, I'm not sure if he knew I was so close behind but going into Swimming Pool he went wide and I slipped through, taking me to P2. Next up was Jake Riches.
Again my kart had much more pace than he did but he did a fantastic job of defending and with only 2 laps remaining I didn't really have enough time to make a move. I was really pleased to have pulled back to claim P2 but equally a little disappointed not to have the victory..... there's always next season!
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