It's almost time for Round 2 of Teamsport Bristol's TopGun series, and since the last round I've been invited to take part in the ever-growing EKL kart series, as a member of one of the Bristol teams ran by my old buddy Darren Pierce. I'll be driving for the Bristol Bandits team at the two rounds scheduled to take place at the Clay Pigeon circuit in Dorset. I'm really looking forward to taking part in this competition, alongside familiar faces Dan Healey, Dan & Lee Morris and a few BRKC regulars. Karting outdoors is a world away from indoor rental karting & I'm really interested to see how I stack up against these guys!
For more information about the NKL, check out their website:
http://thekartingleague.co.uk/wordpress/
Since Round 1 of TopGun, I havnt managed to get back to the Avonmouth circuit for any practice, but I did have the opportunity during an overnight stay in Winchester to visit the Thruxton karting centre, where I was able to take part in an open practice session on a beautiful dry day-it would have been rude not too!
It's always abit of an adjustment when you go back to outdoor karting after a break, as everything is amplified-the grip, the speed you arrive at corners, the bumps on the track-it usually takes a few laps to recalibrate the senses a little. It didn't take me long to get a reminder of this as I ran wide coming out of the first corner on cold tyres & clattered over the serrated exit kerbs!
After a few laps if managed to find my groove and enjoyed attacking the fast circuit as the tyres got up to temperature and my braking points & lines improved. All too soon my session was over and I cruised back to the pitlane with numb hands and a huge grin on my face. I had a nice evening of r&r planned with Fi at the the fantastic Marwell Hotel and I left Thruxton confident that when my first round of EKL comes around, I'll be ready for the demands of outdoor racing once more.
In the meantime, I have the next TopGun event to look forward to, and I'll be sure to let you guys know how I get on as soon as possible- if you're racing, I'll see you there!
Ben
Wow, I cant believe its almost April already!! I hope everybody is having a great year & getting plenty of track time. The F1 season has just kicked off but I know for a lot of people their racing year is in full swing!
I thought Id take the time to update you guys on a few of the events Ive taken part in since the BRKC event in January (still working on a full on report from the weekend) and take the opportunity to thank my long-suffering girlfriend Fi and the guys at Teamsport Bristol for all the continued support & opportunities.
February was a busy month for me, kicking off with the final round of Chase the Ace. Oliver Bayani was a dead-cert for the Championship, but 2nd to 4th was all up for grabs. Final points would be a complicated affair with two drop rounds to be taken into consideration, and I was disappointed after a hard-charging race from 5th to 3rd to find out Id just missed out on a top three in the overall standings. My congratulations again go to Oliver, Dan Healey & Round Three winner Lee Cooper on a great Winter series.
Following on from the bitter/sweet experience, I found myself teaming up with hotshot Dan Healey for the Teamsport Bristol Team challenge, an 80 minute endurance race with Le-mans style driver changes. Favourite to win the event was Teamsport staffer Andy Collins and his teammate Luke Atherton, but Dan & myself felt that a top 3 was achievable and after 80 mins of close racing, Dan crossed the line in second place, only 8 seconds behind the winning team. We were also the only team to finish on the lead lap, and standing on the second step of the podium with Dan next to Andy & Luke, it almost felt like a victory after almost an hour & a half of racing.
As February turned to March, and with no Chase the Ace series for another couple of months, I decided Id have a crack at the Teamsport 'TopGun' three-round series. The idea for the series was straightforward; Three 45-minute races, random grids with rolling starts, and a staff member of increasing ability to beat in each round.
Round One would feature and 'intermediate' staff member, but more of a concern to me was Chase the Ace champ Oliver Bayani, who was favourite to win having shown amazing consistency and the ability to race hard over 45 minutes throughout the CTA winter series. Also returning was an old familiar face, Andy Frankham back in the hot seat after almost a year out.
Teamsport Bristol had taken delivery of a fleet of new karts in February, and at this stage each kart was remarkably close in performance. As anyone knows when it comes to rental karting, this can be both a positive and a negative thing. On one hand its good because it allows the really quick guys to showcase their talents on an almost level playing field. On the downside, with the karts being so closely matched, even some of the slower guys are able to put in some respectable times and make life hard for the front runners. On a high speed track with few braking points like the one in Avonmouth, you really have to work for an overtake or wait until the guy in front makes a mistake if you find that your kart is closely matched with the guy in front.
This situation was perfectly illustrated back in January at the BRKC event. FormulaFast Indoor Karting are famous for their incredible kart parity, but it can lead to some processional racing. Its a double-edged sword but one that we all have to live with. But the cream will always rise to the top, as they say!
After a quick 5 minute warm up, I was as surprised as anybody to find myself being ushered to pole position! Andy Frankham was next to me in second, with Lee Cooper & Oliver behind. For the TopGun series, Teamsport were trialling a new rolling start procedure, where a 'pace kart' would lead us around from the grid to the main straight before pulling away, with a rule in place that no one should overtake before a cone which had been placed about a third of the way down the straight. As I was lucky enough to be starting first & essentially on the 'inside' all I had to do was hold my line until I passed the cone, and accelerate away. After a couple of laps, I'd already pulled out a few seconds lead, but could see that Lee & Oliver had already passed Andy- It was game on!
The first ten laps or so were interrupted by a couple of yellow flags as some of the newer members found their feet, but after that things settled down with my only concern being Oliver getting past Lee. However, as we starting moving through some of the back markers, I could see that Lee was keeping the young charger under pressure- Oliver certainly wasn't having things all his own way.
Unlike the Chase the Ace series, there would be no mandatory pitstops in this race, so you really have to concentrate on driving consistently & not making any mistakes, and by the time the '15 minute remaining' board was shown, I for one was starting to feel it. I'd managed to keep a gap back to Bayani for most of the race, but as we encountered a group of three or four lapped drivers (including the Teamsport staff member!) he really ate into my lead as the final laps approached. Any time I got past a back marker with the hope of pulling away a little, he was right there behind me. After an audacious overtake around the outside going under the flyover, I knew I'd compromised my line through the next few corners, so I held the inside, going slower but knowing that for Oliver to get past would require him going the long way round. As we approached the final right hand corner, I moved to the inside, quite late but fair, and practically stopped on the apex before accelerating along the home straight, in a drag race with Oliver as we crossed the line less than 4/10ths of a second apart! I pumped my fist in the air, and pointed back at Oliver to say 'You almost had me!'
Lee Cooper rounded off the top 3, coming across the line roughly 10 seconds back. I'd repeated my feat from late last year of achieving a third, second & first place finish three events in a row, so to say I was pleased would be an understatement!
The next TopGun round, featuring a Teamsport staff member of advanced ability, takes place on Tuesday 25th March- I'll post a full race report soon after
Until next time..
For full results, news and information visit the website
http://www.brkc.net/
Still hoping to get a full write-up done in the near future
Very busy at the moment!
Hope you all enjoyed the Australian Grand Prix & I'll see you at the track :)
