The final round of the British Championship, and on Friday practice we were very quick in the last few sessions and things were looking good for a successful weekend to secure a strong place in the final standings. The first heat went well with no problems, but I was aware that our speed might not be enough to produce a race win, so we ended the day still thinking of ways to find more speed from the kart. We started Sunday with the beleif, as always, that the kart would now be right, but things coudn’t of gone worse, when an accident on the first corner put me into the wall and bent the steering. I was able to restraighten the stub axles enough to take the restart, and we had a decent result considering the damage.
By heat three, it was apparant that we had the speed, it was just not usable i.e. it was on the wrong bits of the track. The kart was particularly struggling through the hairpins compared to others and was ‘bouncing’ on the back due to the amount of grip. We tried everything we could to solve the problem, but nothing was working. The remaining heats gave me enough points to start fifth for the final. I knew that I had to try to beat Rhys Jenkins to maintain my position in the championship, but this was always going to be difficult due to his speed on the day. A red flag half way through the race should have bunched the field up again, but the restart was a mess and the race became very strung out. I finished the final 6th.
When we got the kart back to the van, we found the chassis had cracked, and would need re-welding before next week. We also beleive that it’s twisted, because the front won’t line up correctly. Ok, so I’m being a bit negative, but I wanted to end the year on a high and frustratingly, we tried everything but didn’t get the results I was looking for. However, the final points didnt turn out quite so bad. I scored enough to fnish 6th in the championship, and when I look back over the year, then I’m pleased, as its a respectable number and I hope to improve on it next year! Check out the video;