A little later than planned, I’m back with my next blog post rounding off a very busy summer of racing.
I finished up the last post having made the journey up to north Wales in which we claimed yet another second place finish in JAM Racing’s hunt for the Club 100 Intermediate Endurance championship. The next round would see us travel west to Clay Pigeon raceway in Dorset, but before that I found the chance to get some extra Club 100 practice in the form of the Advance Leisure championship.
The July round of the championship was held at my local track Buckmore Park, so what better chance to get some extra Club100 kart running than this just 20 minutes down the road. The home-track knowledge definitely helped as I quickly found myself up front qualifying third on the grid in which I would convert to a very comfortable second place in the first of the two races. Having just lost out on the victory by a handful of seconds from their current championship leader, Geoff Lamb, I was feeling confident ahead of the second thirty-minute encounter.
Starting at the head of the outside line, I would lose a couple positions off the start with the nature of Buckmore’s first few corners, but once the race settles down I would find my way past the top three and stretch out to a comfortable lead. Now at this point I found myself thinking back to when I last won a race in Club 100 machinery (or even won a race full stop). It had been some time – my very first heat race in Club 100 sprints some six years ago, and I hadn’t won since!
So with just seven minutes to go, nothing could go wrong surely? Well, it did. I was squeezed by a back-marker into hairpin one which would see me up in the air following some rear wheel to rear wheel contact. An almost certain victory snatched away. I left Buckmore that day with just the single second place trophy from race one but I could at least be happy with the pace I had shown.
Back to the serious championship business, Liam and I (JAM Racing) made the three hour trip west to Clay Pigeon to hopefully try win us our first race of the year following a couple second place finishes. The quest for this win began badly with a disappointing qualifying putting me down in eighth and with our work cut out for the two hour race.
A clean start and a solid opening stint would make up for this as we found ourself running second once the race settled down – This time chasing team Racecraft who knew the place very well. Clean stops and strong consistent pace from both Liam and I over the two hour enduro would unfortunately not be enough to catch them. Yet another second place finish came our way as we finished some fourteen seconds back from Racecraft (But the only team within a lap and a half of them!). That win will surely be soon! Right?
Before I could set my sights on the next Club 100 endurance round, I was offered the chance to race in my first ever twenty-four hour race! It turned out that the young Geoff Lamb who trumped me at Buckmore in the Advance Leisure ran his own twin-engine pro kart in the EPEC championship in which he was after a final driver to complete his British twenty-four hour team. Of course I grabbed this opportunity with both hands, but little did I know on what I was getting myself in to.
Unable to make it up north to Teesside for the Friday practice before the British twenty-four event, I had to quickly acclimatise myself to the kart and challenging full Teesside layout during the Saturday morning practice session – It become immediately obvious just how physical the race was going to be on the bumpy, super fast Teesside Autodrome.
Qualifying and the opening couple stints left to my fellow teammates, Team Lambo slowly started creeping up the order having started just outside the top ten. The first twelve hours ran faultlessly – smooth pitstops and fast clean stints from each of us five Team Lambo racers. At the end of the first twelve hours, I brought the #66 kart in in the lead of our class (briefly in the top five overall!) for our scheduled tyre change. Even the tyre change was efficient and fast – everything was going so well! Even Downforce radio wanted to interview me during the early night time.
My first impressions of this round the clock endurance were great! But as we sent Ryan out on the new tyres, a hanging throttle on one of the engines (which developed just an hour or so before) bit him as it sent him off in a spin on the cold fresh rubber. As Ryan pitted Geoff managed to fix the throttle return issue but this had cost us time and unfortunately, this was to be just the start of our problems. A whole sequence of problems struck us over the next few stints, all requiring lengthy stops to fix them. This had ended our chance of a class podium and left us just looking to finish the race.
We continued on through the morning showing off the pace we displayed early on, eventually making it to the chequered flag – all five of us were bruised and battered but we had done it, and what and experience. I can now say I (very briefly) led our class in the British twenty-four hours on my first try! But of course, it was all thanks to Geoff and the rapid kart he has prepared for us. Surely an event I will be going back to year after year!
The end of August brought us the next round in the Club 100 inter endurance championship and once again we headed far west, this time in to South Wales and to the Llandow kart circuit. As with Clay Pigeon last time out, it was another track I last raced at some seven years ago, but this wasn’t to be a problem in qualifying this time round. We started the race from fourth on the grid meaning we had less to do that at Clay, but all that hard work was wasted. Our first fuel stop just a few laps in to the race was a disaster rejoining most of fifteen seconds back from the leaders – another victory looked to have slipped away!
I put my head down and over the next half hour managed to bridge the gap to the leading pair. A three-way scrap for the lead ensued as we picked through lapped traffic, eventually culminating in me pitting at the forty minute mark from the lead of the race. Liam held this slender lead through the mid-race but the final stop put us back again and in to third place! I had to do all that work again – and so I did. With just ten minutes on the clock we were in a nose-to-tail battle in which with the help with some back-markers, I snatched the race lead. I would not look back. We had done it – We won a race! And not least, this now tied us for the championship lead with four races to go.
With August finishing on a real high, before we had the chance to resume our championship challenge I had the small matter of my second Easykart senior race. Ellough Park was my return to the series in June, but this race was the one I had highlighted from the moment I took on the ownership of the senior #250 – Round seven of the Easykart UK championship visited Buckmore Park and given my circuit knowledge, I felt I could be in for a good result.
Straight away I felt comfortable and consistent on the Saturday practice day trying changes left, right and centre to try and see what equals speed in this highly competitive formula, but with my relative lack of experience in the karts compared to the seasoned field, I could only just get inside the top fifteen on the time sheets (mind you, only half a second off the leaders!) Unfortunately, a few Sunday morning changes and a fresh set of slicks could not help solve the lap time deficit to the others – Qualifying fourteenth, I had it all to do if I wanted another strong finish to an Easykart weekend.
It wasn’t to be, a struggle in the heat race then a crash early on in the pre-final saw me start at the back of the field for the final with a patched up kart. I could only go forwards – right? Kind of. From the very start it was clear my kart wasn’t handling as it did before the crash so I backed it off and just targeted a finish, hoping for some luck. Thanks to a few mechanical failures, crashes and a couple sneaky moves in the closing stages, I salvaged a fifteenth place finish to the weekend – Nothing to brag about but for the day I had had, it wasn’t too bad. With just three weekends until the final Easykart weekend of the year, this gives me time to straighten and repair the kart for a much improved showing to finish off my year.
Swiftly back to Club 100 – With momentum now on JAM Racing’s side, we looked to keep it going at round seven at Red Lodge in Suffolk. Even through we both had never been to Red Lodge before, we managed to claim pole position while our main championship rivals, Reunion were outside the top five. With a safe start and opening stint, I managed to open a small lead which would yo-yo massively as we picked past traffic on the tight twisty Red Lodge track, but a lead we would hold on to through the first hour and a half. Reunion had made up for their qualifying effort and had become our main challengers, always a pitstop ahead while a pitstops worth of time behind so it was key that we managed this gap.
As I made our final fuel stop, I expected to rejoin the race right alongside Reunion’s Kosta but I entered in an empty piece of tarmac – Kosta wasn’t in sight. As we closed on the end of the race, I managed to locate Kosta well up the road. He had jumped us and by a massive margin, and even with my best efforts in the dying moments I could only take a handful of seconds out of his half-minute lead. We had let a race win slip away for sure but as much as we did, we aren’t quite sure how. Of all teams to finish runner up to, it was the worst possible for our championship – With the five point difference becoming the championship gap it’s still very close with this likely to be decided by a single position.
Three races to go at three of my favourites circuits, we are up for the fight and have our sights firmly set on this championship victory. Wish us luck!