Karstars Round 5, Goodwood. The Night Race. And, the finale of the Karstars championship. We came in to this weekend with a commanding lead in the points. We were ready to secure the championship, and, with it, our ticket to the Rok Cup Superfinal in Italy. After a season filled with away races at unique tracks, all with their own challenges, it was great to be finally coming back to our home track, Goodwood Kartways. On top of that, it was the annual Night Race, so even though the stakes were high, the day was going to be fun.
Going into the weekend, we were pretty confident with the VLR. We won every race in the season so far bar Nationals, and I was comfortable in the kart. Now, there were a couple scary names coming for that race, but to close out the championship we only needed a mid field finish anyway, so we weren’t worried. The real challenge of the weekend, at least, so we thought going into it, was the other kart. See, in Italy, should we make it, they only run Rok GP engines, not the VLR. They also prefer competitors to use OTK chassis karts, and it costs extra to run anything else. So, as it looked like we would almost certainly win the championship and get a ticket, we needed some practice with the new engine and the new chassis. So, on top of the VLR, we were planning to run in Rok Senior for this race.
I got out for the first real session in the new kart on a practice day ahead of the weekend, to give myself some extra time to get used to it. And boy, did I need it. The new engine changed so much of the driving. All of a sudden, I had enough power to break the rear lose at almost any point on the track, and I had to relearn my throttle application almost entirely powering out of corners. It also meant I was carrying a ton more speed into pretty much every corner, and so I had to get used to braking a lot earlier and a lot harder than I would in the VLR. The chassis also felt and handled completely differently than the Intrepid. The steering was far lighter to turn, and the sensitivity of the front and rear were completely different. It also felt inconsistent between corners, with the rear sliding out on fast corners but overly hopping on slow corners. I could tell right away that the OTK felt more refined, more polished, but it was completely different to what I was used to. I had to relearn how to drive the kart.
First up came the practices. In the VLR, I had the fastest time, but not by much. Again, we weren’t too bothered with it. We knew I got caught in a bit of traffic, and the track was also going to get much better throughout the day, so there was certainly time left to gain. For now, that was good enough. In Rok Senior, things weren’t as pretty. I posted the second slowest time, nearly 1.4 seconds off the leader. There were a couple things to note about that, though, certainly the biggest of which being that I was on incredibly old tires at that point. Couple that with the fact that I was still around 18 pounds overweight for the class, which was at least worth a a tenth or two (or more, depending on who you ask), and we weren’t that unhappy with the time I did, especially considering that the top four in the field were much faster that session then the rest, and so I was a lot closer than 1.4 seconds to the majority of the field.
The real issue, though, came off the track. While we were preparing to go out for practice, we were having a real hard time starting the kart. We thought at first it was a dead battery, as from the sound we could tell that the starter wasn’t catching the flywheel properly. After we tried a couple different batteries, though, all of which should’ve been fully charged, we realized that something must’ve been wrong with the starter. We managed to make it out for practice thanks to Austin Boyle’s dad, who managed to move the starter by hand to get it to catch. After practice, we got to work taking apart to the kart to change the starter (The Bendix specifically), but while trying to put it back together, the threads on the crankshaft got accidentally damaged. All of a sudden, the repair job got a lot bigger. Needless to say we didn’t make qualifying.
In the VLR, things went much smoother, at least initially. I missed out on pole by 0.026s, but considering it was Liam Rhodes, I was perfectly comfortable with that result. I won the first heat after Liam made a mistake and slide wide at turn 6, allowing me to pass through to the lead without much trouble. The second heat did not go nearly as well, though. On the start, Paul Rhodes tried to make a move into turn 4, and we battled through that and the next turn. The fight slowed us down enough, though, that Mark Pavan could cut under both of us in the exit of 5, making it three wide, with me in the middle. Mark, however, couldn’t see Paul, as he was a bit father back then us two. Mark tried to move over and leave me a kart’s width on the exit, but Paul was still there, and so us three came together. Me, being in the middle, came out worst by the end, spinning off the track and losing my chain. At least, I thought I lost my chain. After a lap passed, I looked down and realized that though the chain popped off, it wasn’t actually snapped. I managed to muscle it back on the gear and get back on track, if only in the hope that I would pick up a position or two if anyone didn’t finish the race. Alas, no one else seemed to have any big issues, and so I still finished in last.
Senior was hectic. I missed qualifying, so I started in last for both heats, and boy was it fun. While my pace still wasn’t there, my racecraft never left, and so I was able to make up a good handful of positions on the opening lap both times. In the first heat, there was a small accident involving some of the faster guys, so a few of them did end up coming back past me, but I was still mostly happy with how I performed, finishing 10th in both heats. There was another set back, though, in the prefinal. The sun was blinding me coming up the hill towards the main straight, and so by the time I could see I realized I was going almost full speed towards the now fully formed up grid, so I slammed on the brakes and ended up spinning off into the grass.
The same happened to a few other people at the back as they caught up to the pack, with my new friend Eric getting sideways but managing to keep it on the track. No crashes or anything came from it though, only me being a bit late to the start and not being able to get the same jump that I did for the heats, so I ended up finishing the prefinal at the back. On paper, I didn’t finish the final in a much better position, but it actually went much better for me. I don’t know what happened from the prefinal to the final, but I was really starting to get a hang of how the kart handled. I still needed to work on my consistency, but by the end of the race I was able to keep up and even start catching the karts ahead of me. My fastest lap was only five tenths off of the fastest lap of the race, and less than four tenths off of everyone else’s best lap. So, despite still finishing near the back, we were pretty happy with that result.
Now, VLR was less pretty. After finishing the second heat in last, I started the prefinal in fourth. On the start, though, Liam had engine troubles and barely pulled off the line, holding up his whole lane behind him. In the chaos, I managed to follow Paul through around the outside and was up into second. And here’s when the trouble started. Now, for the championship, I didn’t need to win the race. As long as I finished, I was almost guaranteed to win it. But it wasn’t the final yet, so in my mind I could afford a bit of fighting. Plus, I was only behind Paul, who I could tell I was faster than at the time. He drove pretty defensively though, so there wasn’t much room for a move. That was until one lap, where he made a big mistake around turn 7, going wide on the exit and hitting the outside curb. I saw the gap open and I went for it, trying to get through down the inside of 8. Paul recovered much faster than I thought, though, and shot back over to the apex, and we made contact. Long story short, it ended up with me through the barrier and my kart heavily damaged. I didn’t see what happened to Paul, but he was still in the race, so I assume it wasn’t terrible. By the time I got back to the pits after the race, things were… heated, to say the least.
Whatever the case, at the end of it, we still had a kart we had to repair for the final, which included pretty much the entire front end. Thankfully, our friend Adam offered to let us borrow parts from one of his extra karts, and with a lot of work we managed to get the kart in a working condition for the final.
After all of that, I would start the final in last, but honestly? I wasn’t really upset about that. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I only needed to finish something like seventh or higher to win the championship, and that was only if my closest rival got the maximum points for the race, which was already off the table at that point. Point is, I was sure I could win the championship, so at that point I was just looking forward to a fun race, seeing how many karts I could pass by the end of the race. Plus, I was starting at the back with Liam and Mark, two of the other fastest drivers on the field, so it was going to be fun.
The race went beautifully. The start was quite hectic, with three fast drivers at the very back trying to get through the backmarkers as fast as we could. Liam had a better start than Mark and I, ending up a few positions up the track. For the first few laps, I was tucking in patiently Mark, following him through as he made moves, but eventually he came to a kart he had more trouble passing. He went for a bold move but didn’t quite get it right, and they made contact, letting me through. After that, I really started to take off. I was cutting through the karts one after another, making big lunges into turn 5 and turn 9, until eventually by the last few laps of the race there was clear air ahead of me. I could see the top three further down the track, and so I got my head down and tried to catch.
Liam was in third, so I wasn’t optimistic about a podium at first, until I noticed he was catching. It turns out his engine problem was back, and he was quickly losing performance down the straights, so he pointed me through, and I was up to third. I was flying now, and I was catching the leaders by half a second a lap, but unfortunately there weren’t enough laps left in the race. I came home in third to top off a great race.
So, at the end of the day, progress was made in getting used to the new kart for Italy, and despite some unfortunate accidents in the VLR, I had a great performance in the final to cap off the championship. And, as a plus, getting up to third meant I still scored a podium in every single VLR race I finished this year, which I think is pretty cool. Now, with that done, it’s time to keep preparing for the Rok Cup Superfinal in Italy!
