This week was my first time running at Teeside IKR Sprint. We arrived late on friday night for a full day testing on Saturday, then qualifying, three heats and a final race on Sunday. The test day went well, getting six 10 minute sessions in, improving my time each session. Ended up with a PB of 49.6s which I was certainly happy with. If i could do that on Sunday, I should be well within the top 10.
Qualifying
I went out for qualifying on Sunday (my second day ever driving Teeside) and qualified 17th with a grid of 28. I didn’t get the best lap time, only a 50.042. As the track was much colder than the previous day, and I struggled to get under 50 seconds.
Qualifying (Starts at 0:31:00) > https://youtu.be/FTWh2wMTv7k?t=1867
Qualifying results > https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/teesside/2019/5/s/5615/
Heat 1
So Heat 1 started, I drove to the grid and then the kid that was in 19th told the marshall that he was meant to be ahead of me. I didn’t know what was going on. The marshall moved me back to 19th. The flag dropped and we were off. I gained one position off the start but there was a three kart pile up (everybody was ok) that put me in 16th going into the 3rd corner. At which point there was another crash which gained me 2 more places. I was now in 14th. Unluckily for me, there were no more crashes ahead of me but I still overtook 5 karts by the end of the race. I came back in, with 9th. Not a bad start, especially with the madness in front of me.
Heat 1 (Starts at 0:53:26) > https://youtu.be/fdMIP4gtmNY?t=3188
Heat 1 results > https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/teesside/2019/5/s/5616/
Heat 2
In heat 2 I got in a line with Maximus Shields (number 18) at the, front Lizzy Mentier (number 50) in the middle, and me at the back, we stayed like that the whole race, battling back and forth. I eventually took 11th place because two karts past us at the start. And as we were too beating each other, we never really caught those ahead. We really need to learn to work together at times like these.
Heat 2 (Starts at 1:52:39 ) > https://youtu.be/fdMIP4gtmNY?t=6759
Heat 2 results > https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/teesside/2019/5/s/5617/
Heat 3
It was a clean start for everyone but on the second hairpin I got on the back of another kart which put me in 14th but I came back to 11th with some good overtakes. Unfortunatley the liver stream missed them all.
Heat 3 (Starts at 4:02:28) > https://youtu.be/fdMIP4gtmNY?t=14548
Heat 3 results > https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/teesside/2019/5/s/5618/
Final
The big one had come this is where it all matters. I had an average of 10th so I started in 10th. Lap 1 came and it was very slippery because the track had cooled down and I couldn’t get any heat into my tyres. I was defending for my life. The driver behind me passed me but I immediately got him back. But on the last lap, he took me back. It was a great battle he was so happy and I was, for some reason, happy for him.
Overall I should be happy with my performance this weekend, at a brand new track, against drivers who knew it very well. Plus it was the biggest grid I had ever raced in. I wanted top mid-table before we started, then I wanted top 10, so I guess i should be happy to settle for 11th.
I am not even going to talk about my bent chassis…. in this blog anyway.
Final (Starts at 5:08:18) > https://youtu.be/fdMIP4gtmNY?t=18498
Final results > https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/teesside/2019/5/s/5619/