The wet weather made qualifying tricky but I still managed to qualify 4th and the times were very close. Heat 1 looked promising and the kart was quicker than in the qualifying, but ended badly when the engine electrics unit failed; possibly due to the amount of surface water.

By Heat 2 we had replaced the electrics with a spare unit, and set about trying to make good the weekend. The track had started to dry out and the conditions were very similar to last year where I won the event. From the back I worked my way up and finished in 2nd, which was a big confidence boost moving into the Final.

In the Final I started 5th because of my DNF in the first heat but after the first corner I had made my way into second and set about chasing down the lead. I didn’t show the pace in the first part of the race, as the tyres didnt warm up quick enough, however by half way my pace started to show. Behind me however Rhys Jenkins was working through the grid and passed me for second. Both of us then chased down the lead and on the last lap Rhys got into the lead and I made a move into the chicane to take second. Rhys managed to hold the lead until the flag where I took second. It was frustrating to miss out on retaining my title by one place, but given the plate was not awarded anyway it would of been more annoying to have won then not been able to use it!

We were unable to record the race due to PFI officials preventing us filming; I get the impression that the club is not a fan of TKM

The second heat was on Sunday Morning, and just before we were due to go out, very fine rain started falling. It was a split decision whether to change from slicks to wets. We remained on slicks like half the grid, however this turned out to be the wrong choice as the rain fell heavier. We were however the quickest of those who ran slicks, but could only manage 11th.

The day then became very wet and very windy and wet tyres were in order. On the third heat I started 17th, and after the new wets I was running came on, I managed to work my way through to 6th. The fourth heat was equally as good, where after starting from pole, I finished 3rd; not having the pace to match the first two, but still being competitive.

In the Final I started 9th, and after initially dropping a few places at the start, I worked my way through to finish 7th on track. This then became 6th after Tom Truscott’s exclusion. The race results for the weekend can be found here. There are two videos that are avaliable from the final, the first one being the one we filmed, and the seond one being the one Super 1 filmed (the Senior TKM 4 Stroke final starts at 2:35 minutes)

I qualified on third, which gave me the inside for the first corner on the pre-final. After my experiences of the Maxxis red tyres when they ware cold from Round 3, I was expecting there to be a lot less grip than there actually was, and so the first lap was a bit too cautious on reflection. After dropping to 4th on the start, I worked my way up into the lead to take the race win.

For the Final I started on pole, but a bit of pushing on the first corner put me back down to 4th again, and just like the pre-final I managed to work my way back up into the lead, but it wasn’t going to be all my way and after a lot of battling in the closing stages of the race I could only manage third, however another lap and the outcome may have been very different.

The results are avaliable on MyLaps here, however the video really represents the day a lot better than I can describe it;