It's been a bit of a busy week for me this week, not only has the SG Petch sponsored Abarth Sprint Championships started at Teesside Karting for the 2019 season, but I've also been doing some driver coaching to try and improve my racing ahead of a couple of events including the JDR charity race in April.
SG Petch Abart Sprint Championship
Sunday saw the start of the 2019 SG Petch Abarth Sprint Championship at Teesside Karting, this is a series which I have raced in the the last 3 years and is a great opportunity for drivers to compete in a low cost Championship. As ever the start of the season is always a bit rough and ready, but with a full grid and a bunch of fresh faces, it was always going to be a challenging opener.
Having raced in the warm up round and qualified 2nd on the grid, my expectations were high for another good starting position. Okay, there were a few additional faces who would give me a run for my money, but at worst I was expecting to be 8th on the grid. Boy was I shocked, P14!!! It was a surprise as I thought I was carrying a reasonable pace, I knew I wasn't the quickest, but I didn't expect to be P14. Looking at the timings though, a couple of tenths either way would have made a massive difference with 8th to 14th separated by just over 2 tenths.
Race 1 got off to an okay start, lap 1 didn't see any drama for me, gaining a place to 13th which isn't that lucky as it seems, getting stuck in a midfield battle I lost four places over the next 2 laps with other drivers racing and defending hard. This put me back down to 17th by the end of lap 3 and I knew I'd have to work hard to get back up the field for the reverse grid, the best I could really hope for in this race.
It's hard to stay calm when you know you're up against a big challenge, especially when your expectations were so much higher. My focus was now on trying to get as far up the pack as I could to try and secure a good starting position for the reverse grid in race 2 and this started on lap 4 when Greg Elder dropped to the back from position 14. That was one place gained and I was going to take them where I could get them, espcially as I catch the same pack that I'd been racing earlier, from lap 5 on I was in a constant battle to gain 15th or better.
All the effort paid off by lap 13 as I'd reached 13th in the race (can you see a theme here) and that's where I stayed for the next 5 laps, pulling away from the pack behind until I caught a back marker... Arriving at the first hairpin of the lap, the lapped driver out braked themselves while on the inside of the track tacking a really tight line for no reason. As they spun, their momentum took them to the outside and with me braking hard and late it was impossible to get up the inside of them and make the corner. I was forced wide onto th grass, resulting in a half spin and undoing all the hard work over the last 5 laps, now down in 18th I came home in P17.
Heading into race 2 things should have only got better, but this is arrive and drive karting, things can always get worse... Off the start the pack was tightly bunched with the winners from race 1 mixed in with the mid pack. As I arrived at the first hairpin (why is it always the first hairpin) there were a number of drivers who had spun in front of me, with drivers on either side I was stuck, eventually being spun after being hit by another driver. Facing the wrong way, all I could do was watch the rest of the action unfold as some drivers managed to avoid the incident and others got caught up in it.
The lap chart shows just how crazy lap 1 was.
There's not much more to say about my race from here other than I managed to pull back position 19 by the end of the race. Safe to say that round 1 of the Championship was a round to forget and will probably be a dropped round at the end of the season.
I've learned some valuable lessons too though, while it's easy to check the front tyres, I need to check the rears a little more closely, through all sessions I had low grip under braking and struggled to get traction and carry speed through the corners. I need to take notice of things like this sooner and possibly change my kart.
