British University Karting Championship 2015 Review Part 4/6- Round 2: Buckmore Park
Round 2 out of 4 of the British University Karting Championship was held at my personal favourite track, Buckmore Park.
When we arrived on a cold Thursday morning, the track was damp from the previous night’s rain but it was cloudy and there was a high chance of heavy rain during the day. I was again in the C-team and all I was wanting to come away with was a race finish after my accident at round 1.
QUALIFYING: 13TH (1:05.117)
I was fairly confident of doing well in the session since I know the track fairly well but my lack of experience in damp and greasy conditions cost me another top 10 place on the grid, only missing out by 2 tenths.
I was not the only driver racing for KOKS in session 4, as the B-team driver, who beat me to the seat (and KOKS Cypriot Bandit), was also in the session. This was going to give me the perfect opportunity to show to the team captain that I deserve a place on the B-Team.
Straight away my team-mate got a black flag because he forgot to put on his gloves. Yes, you just read that, he forgot to put on his gloves!!! I was laughing all the way through the first two corners but once I finished laughing at how mentally challenged my team mate was, I got down to business.
With me using my new tinted visor, which is worth half a second, I felt good in the first 10 minutes. The front end was very responsive and I got really comfortable, however once the times got reset and the green flag was shown to indicate the start of qualifying, it started to rain. I was doing ok but I had a problem, which was the visibility. As it was getting darker, it was harder to find some of the braking points and more importantly the flags! I managed to cope however and was impressed with my first performance back after the accident.
I out-qualified my team-mate by 6 tenths of a second, which is a lot in a competitive field. So I was going into the race full of confidence while performing the sun dance.
RACE: 13TH (11TH in class)
The sun dance did not work as it was torrential rain for the race. I was obviously nervous. I had the accident, still suffering from the concussion and I had only driven in these conditions once and that was in a pro kart a couple of months earlier. My start was poor as I found it hard to get confident in the conditions with the brakes. My team-mate on the other hand had a cracking start and filled in the gap which I should of been in and moved as high as 8th, although I didn’t realise this at the time.
I had a good consistent race passing those who got ahead of me at the start and also battling with those who had spun early on in the race. The karts were aquaplaning on the start/finish straight as the rain kept pouring down, with the rooster tails getting bigger and bigger as the race went on. To make things worse, everyone was on slicks since there are no wets available. I kept my head cool and with two laps to go I thought I saw my team-mate coming around my outside around the esses but it turned out to be another driver taking 12th spot away from me. I wanted to fight back but I got lapped by the winner on his very last lap so I was the second person to see the chequered flag.
I was happy that I finished a race without spinning and my consistent pace but my team-mate finished 11th overall and 10th in class so I was disappointed but happy for us both at the same time. I was also very cold and wanted to warm up as I was shivering.
Driving in those conditions was fun for the first 10 minutes but then I started getting condensation on my visor, despite it being half way up. My team-mate (The Cypriot Bandit) also had that problem as well as having a puddle in your eye when you went over the kerbs at turn one and at cafe corner (see the circuit map above).
Overall it was a good result for the team and it was onto the next round in Wales at Llandow!!!
