With the warm temperatures of this last week behind us, it was looking likely to be a wet race for round 4 of the SG Petch Sprint Championship at Teesside Karting. Racing at the Middlesbrough circuit had been heavily impacted by rain throughout Saturday and leaving Wakefield on Sunday morning in rain was signalling more of the same to come.
Things improved heading up the A19, bursts of bright sunshine breaking through the clouds as the roads dried up, before overcast conditions came back, but without rain. Arriving at Teesside Karting I was exceptionally surprised to see a bone dry circuit, no puddles, but still wet on the grass.
There was a different atmosphere at today’s race, the cadets, prokarts and other classes were about as usual and perhaps it’s because it’s the British 24h race next weekend or even because it’s potentially Paul Clarke’s last race. Whatever it was everyone seemed jovial and ready for a clean race.
Speaking to Ross O'M, I was also surprised that Rotax ran at Teesside, I have to admit I've never really looked at the more serious classes of karts but having tested a Rotax at Wombwell a year or two ago racing them is certainly something which interests me and would certainly be a step up from arrive and drive karting.
Despite not being a sell out before the event, the driver numbers were once again looking strong with 35 drivers registered to qualify and what a session quali would be!
Qualifying
Heading out on track everything felt good, may kart was picking up well and the handling seemed okay, nothing to worry about until lap 2 which was going to be my first full fast lap. Pulling on to the back straight I lost power, I swung my arms back to check the engines were still running and both were fine, the chain hadn't snapped but I just had no power. Trying my best to make it back to the pits without getting in the way of anyone else the power returned out of the last corner but I decided to pit anyway.
Pulling in I explained the issue and the mechanic had a good look round the kart, no issues. I had a choice, do I change karts and risk a new one or do I stick with this one and risk the same thing happening in the race; I decided to chance my luck and changed karts. What a duff choice that was, I'd decided to give the new kart at least a full lap as Teesside always suggest you should but at the end of the next lap I was back in with a puncture and I'd only done 5 laps, at this rate I was going to be starting at the back!
Another new kart and sod all grip on the back end but I had not choice but to stick with it and get a lap time in. Ultimately I got 2 chances to set a time and only 1 when the tyres were warm, at this point I was 28th on the grid but with a final push I managed to pip 21st by just 0.029.
Looking at the average speeds of drivers across the session it's clear to see that I wasn't the only driver to have problems, I pitted twice and had an average MPH of 30.82. Looking through the quali results it's clear that a number of other drivers also struggled, Ben Yeadon, Christian Dickens and Chris Fairless also clocked low average speeds suggesting they too had to make at least one stop.
Race 1
Having already suffered two appalling rounds in the Championship this year (round 1 and last time out in round 3) I knew I had to make this round count and being 21st was not a good start. I knew finishing in the top 3 was out of the question from this far back, so my aim was simply making the top 15 to secure a good position for the reverse grid race and avoid any race-ending accidents. Anything higher than 15th would be a bonus in terms of points, but if I didn't make the top 15 in race 1, the second race would be a write off, as would my Championship.
I was on the inside of the grid and with us racing the national circuit I held that line off the start in order to stay on the inside for the first long right hander, there was the usual bumping and as we entered the esses all hell broke loose as the pack tried to squeeze through what is a very narrow piece of track. I didn't quite catch what happened in front, safe to say karts were slamming on brakes and there were a couple of spinners. Trying to make up places, I took to the grass on the right to avoid the carnage and managed to come out relatively unscathed.
Having completed the first lap without too much incident, I was surprised to find I had dropped a position, looks like that incident cost me as much as it helped me. From here on in my focus remained the same, make the top 15 and secure a reverse grid place. As the race went on I managed to pick off 20th, then 19th, 18th and things were going well, however the further up the field I got the bigger the gaps between each driver became.
Having reached 16th, I had a 6 second gap to the kart in front and by this point I had all but settled for another bad day at the track. But as I've learned before, you should never give up until the chequered flag and in this case it'd pay off, with just 4 laps to the flag trouble appeared to strike Chris Fairless again as he tumbled from 14th ending up 32nd in one lap, presumably from a trip to the pits. I was now 15th and in the pound seat for a pole position start in race 2 before trouble also hit Greg Elder dropping 5 places from 13th, this meant that I'd managed to finish 14th and start on the front row of the grid for race 2, sweet.
Race 2
With the drama of race 1 behind us, it was on to race 2 and a good shot at bringing home a podium, if not a race win. Having stolen a few words with Ben Thornton who was swapping karts with me, I learned enough about the new kart to ensure that there were no surprises off the line and when the flag dropped I slotted in nicely behind Ben Charlton through the front D and retained 2nd into the first big corner. Managing to get a good run out of this corner I could see I had an opportunity to take the lead and into the first hairpin the gap opened up so I placed the kart on the inside, braked late and managed to take the lead in the first few corners.
Great P1, one we go and I got my head down and focused on trying to build a gap, it would only be a matter of time before the some of the other experienced drivers on the grid showed up to try and steal my spot. Fortunately for me, the three drivers behind (Ben Oates, Callum Jenkins and Ben Charlton) were busy battling away with each other giving me the chance to pull away and by half distance I had built a small gap, but a fast charging Paul Clarke had worked his way up from 9th and was now challenging me for the lead.
Over the next 7 laps, Paul and I fought hard for the lead with positions changing hands a number of times, it was a great race and very close across the top 5 positions by this point too. The close racing took it's toll on lap 19 however as I'd slipped to 4th but all was not lost, 2 laps from home Ben Oates who was now leading ran wide following a small tap dropping him back to 4th and promoting me to 3rd at the end of the race. Great, 3rd isn't a bad result and would get me a good lump of points for the Championship but the drama was not over, the SG Petch Abarth Sprint Championship at Teesside is a weight controlled series and at the end of each round every driver is weighed to ensure they meet the strict 70kg minimum weight. Adam Delmont who had finished 2nd on the road came in underweight and was duly disqualified from the results which promoted me to 2nd, result!
It was a great days racing to build confidence ahead of the British 24 hour kart race and you can read more about that in my next post!
