So it was yet another early start to get the car packed and ready for the long-ish drive to Teeside, I say long-ish as I know there are some really committed drivers who travel from much further to race. With the condensation on the car and the fresh morning air, I thought we'd be looking at a dry track, but perhaps with a bit of a cold temperature.
For some strange reason the normal pre-race nerves weren't there this week, perhaps that was because I knew I had secured at least 3rd in the Rookie Cup and there was not pressure, or perhaps it was the extra boost of confidence from passing my ARDS test earlier in the week. Anyway, arriving at Teeside, we were all in for surprise when it turned out to be really, and I mean really warm!
With this being the last race of the season, there were a few fresh faces and some who had dropped out earlier in the season and decided to come back for one last hoorah, this was something I was nervous about as we'd already seen newcomers in the heavies cause problems for one Championship contender. Then there were the more experienced drivers who have a firm overtaking style shall we say.
Getting nearer to race time, I weighed in like normal, except on this occasion I had lost 3kgs since the last round through eating healthily and upping my training. While I could add ballast to the kart, I had to use every single scrap of lead I had taken with me, not ideal!
Qualifying
Having had the drivers briefing, we picked kart numbers (I got kart 6) and got ready to head out on track, I'm unsure what happened behind me but I had loads of space to drop back and find a gap. Taking advice from my instructor on Monday I gave one hot lap before backing off between fast laps, something which seemed to work well and landed me in P6 on the grid.
Turning round on the grid I could see Owen, fellow Leeds driver and title contender in P7, but no sight of Matt Brayne who was also tied on points with us. Race 1 would be interesting!
Race 1
With the drop of the green flag race 1 got underway and I got a clean start, pulling away from Owen and finding a gap through the front "D" to retain my 6th place start, super and I sat in 6th until lap 3. With Carl Seamark and Giles Potter battling in front I took the opportunity to sneak up the inside, taking both drives into the sweeping right-hander of Southbank.
Up to 4th, awesome and I was holding the pace too, however with Giles dropping out of the race, Carl was able to focus on catching me and despite defending hard, I wasn't able to hold him off. Still, I managed to hold on to a solid P6 at the end of race 1 and had one hand on the 1st place trophy with Owen having a bad race.
Race 2
As per usual, race 2 was a reverse grid and a reverse of fortunes for myself and Owen as we swapped karts. With the top 15 swapping, my P6 became P10 and thus I ended up with Owen's kart and he had mine. During a brief discussion on the grid, we exchanged knowledge and while it was slow on the straights, it was a great kart through the corners.
Ultimately though the lack of straight line speed cost me dearly as defending against faster karts was impossible on the straight sections of track. At the end of race 2 I was 12th with Owen finishing further up the field.
F
inal Standings
So all in, how did it all pan out? Well Owen snatched the title by 10 points with dropped rounds coming into play, Matt had a tough day which cost him any chance of taking 2nd from me and it's fair to say all 3 of us are looking forwards to resuming battle soon!
Qualifying & race results: http://results.alphatiming.co.uk/sgp/2016/7
Also a huge thanks to all of the team involved in running the Championship, it's been a great season and hopefully next season will be just as much fun!
