Following a period away from the SG Petch Sprint Championship, Dave will return to the Championship this weekend as drivers take to the circuit over one of the warmest weekends so far this year. While the Championship challenge is not possible for 2017 due to dropped rounds, the push to compete at the front in the race is certainly on.

Favourite Circuit

It's probably fair to say that the circuit which is being used for round 5, the International circuit, is the favourite among all the SG Petch drivers. At just over a kilometer long, it offers speed, hard cornering and good overtaking options for a competative race.

It will be good to be back on such a great track to drive.

Race Report

Well what a race day that turned out to be! I have to admit I could and should have had a better result from my races, but on the balance of things I performed better than I expected.

Qualifying

At the SG Petch Championship, karts are drawn at random to ensure drivers who know the karts can't simply jump in the best ones and win all the time. I drew kart 30 in the drivers briefing and on heading out to the karts I noticed a rather large flatspot on the rear right tire. My immediate thought was that I might want to change the kart, but this could have been caused by someone moving the kart by skidding it, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Heading out on track I made a real effort on tire prep, having not raced at Teesside Karting since March in full wet conditions I wanted to have the best chance of putting in a good lap. Things started well, I had a gap on track and didn't have any slower drivers in front to put me off or get in the way. While this is great, it also makes it harder to judge just how fast you're going and if your lap times are actually any good.

My kart did feel a little slippy but i pushed on and set a 1m 25 on my first lap improving to a 1m 24 on lap 2 before braking deep into the first big corner on lap 3 and messing up the lap. Backing off and going again I continued to improve over the next 3 laps, eventually putting in a 1 m 22 over a second off the pace and 18th on the grid, maybe those tires weren't so good after all!

Race 1

I was surprised to see just how far back on the grid I was for race one, perhaps there was a lack of confidence into some of the corners having been away for a while, but grip breeds confidence; when you have great grip you feel happier to push harder. Despite some micky taking from the side lines (mentioning no names... Liam Silkstone) and having to keep revving one of my engines which was likely to cut out again I took my place on the outside of the grid.

We line up 3 wide and with the front 'D' in place it was always going to be a tight squeeze as we go off the line. The flag dropped and as we all piled into the chicane I could see Robbie Lowe and his bright blue shoulder patches just in front, tucking in behind I had someone on my left into the right-left-right combination I held my ground to take a place off the line.

The usual first lap jostling ensued and I made sure to leave enough of a gap to the kart in front so that I could avoid causing an accident or get out of the way if someone else dropped it. Up one place by the end of lap one, I was battling Christian Dickens for 17th until he had his own off on lap 3 falling back to 26th; this released my to get on with my race, chasing down Nathan Phillips. I caught and passed Nathan by the end of lap 5 getting on the power early in the second part of the dogleg after Southbank and throwing it up the inside, I love that move as you can still get good drive over the line.

Robbie was next on my hunt for places, at nearly half race distance I had only made 2 places though and would still be outside of a reverse grid slot. He took a couple of laps to catch, but a bold move into the first fast right gave great drive into the bus stop to protect the place, 15th! I was now catching a train of 4 karts in front, all battling for 11th. While not spectacular driving from my perspective, you always need to be ready to capitalise and when Carl Seamark and Dan Watson came together we all took the opportunity, landing me in 13th before Callum Jenkins had an off, gifting me 12th with 3 laps to go.

Race 2

While 12th wasn't a great finishing spot for race 1, it meant 2 things:

  • A better grid slot for race 2
  • A change of kart

While the first point is always a bonus, the second can be hit and miss, what if the kart you're getting into is as bad as the first or worse? As it turned out the biggest issue was the driver getting out of the kart had his weigths stuck on the kart and couldn't get them off the weights post!

Thanks to a marshall with some grips that eventually got sorted, but only after I was the last driver standing on the grid waiting to get into his kart. Anyway, settled in the kart and with both engines running race 2 got underway. The start was fairly straight forward as the top 4 drivers all filed thorugh the front D in single file and I don't know how it happened, but Callum Jenkins shot up the field to be leading by the end of the 1st lap and I'd taken advantage of Carl Seamark dropping off the pace to take 3rd.

By the end of lap 2 I was 4th again and 3rd by the end of lap 3, confused? This was the tone for the whole race, with the first 6 drivers all bunched together battling for 1st place on the track. At this point it's worth saying that things did get a little heated with one driver making the whole thing feel more like a game of Rugby than a non-contact sport. Either way the battle raged for the whole race with places changing every corner, up to second, down to sixth, back to third, the lap chart doesn't really do justice to the close nature of the race at each corner.

I've raced at the front before, but never in such a hard fought race where anything could happen and almost did. I can't explain hat happened every lap as there was just too much going on, however going into the last lap I was holding P2 before being barged out of the way by Hamed Mohd, who it appears got black flagged as they don't appear in the race results. This put me at a disadvantage and I finished the race in 5th, promoted to 4th after the black flag ruling.

A great result which put me in 5th for the day overall, but is was almost so much better! I must say at this point racing in such a close battle was an amazing and intense experience and it's a shame I couldn't have achieved a better result in race 1 to boost my tally for the day. It's definately spurred me on to achieve my ambitions for next season of racing in the BRSCC Fiesta Championship.

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