The format for the event varied slightly from the usual 'team' - type events in that all the drivers were weighed beforehand, and anybody coming in under the 'average' weight would be subject to a time penalty in the form of a pit stop. As it turned out, the average weight was 81kg, with me weighing in at 82. My team-mates, Mike 'Dutch' Westhoff & Rob Allison, were closer to 90kg so therefore we would have no penalties to serve. The team of Oliver Bayani, Krystian Matuszkiewicz & Zac Venn however, would each be serving around a minute & a half's worth of penalties during the race. The whole idea was to try & prove or disprove the theory about weight equalling laptime. Therefore for every kilogram you were under the average weight, one second would be added to the penalty. It was a good indicator for me that I was more or less the same weight as I was back in January- something to bear in mind with the upcoming BRKC event in a few weeks!
Each driver was to take place in a five-minute session with the fastest time from each added together to represent the teams time. I was surprised as anybody to see that we'd qualified in 2nd position, behind only Olly, Zac & Krystian, but ahead of 11 other teams! Rob had done a fantastic job in the first session, whilst Dutch drove sensibly in order to get some decent times in. My qualifying was interrupted by 3 seperate yellow flag incidents, which meant I only probably had one or two proper flying laps during the allocated 5 minutes. I was pretty fired up afterward, but I soon cooled off & I was happy to have contributed to the team's grid position.
After a short race briefing, Dutch, Rob & I discussed our strategy for the race, emphasising the importance of staying out of trouble and not fighting with the quicker guys too much at the risk of losing time. 100 minutes is a long race and there were bound to be plenty of incidents, I reasoned, and we wouldn't know for sure where we really stood until the final half-hour or so. It seemed the obvious thing to do to just split the race into thirds, but other teams seemed to be running shorter stints, or giving their faster drivers more track time. The three of us were happy to run longer knowing full well we were capable of keeping the pace up thanks to our experience in the Chase the Ace series. Before we took the track, we adopted the team name of 'The Jolly Pirates' for reasons Im still struggling to work out- but it created a sense of camaraderie & it was abit of fun at the end of the day.
I reasoned that Rob would be best starting the race as he is usually very solid & does well under pressure, which is what we needed for the first stint. Dutch would then take the middle stint as again hes usually pretty consistent with his laptimes and it would give us a clear picture of where we stood before the final third. I would then take the wheel until the end of the race- hoping we'd still be in the thick of it as the clock ran down. Qualifying had lifted my expectations of a podium somewhat, after initally thinking Id have been happy with a Top 5 finish. It was obvious the youngsters were going to disappear on pace alone, but with their time penalties on top of their driver changes, I thought we were in with a chance of a third or even second-placed finish.
As Id hoped, Rob got a fantastic start to the race and fell in behind Zac, maintaining a gap of a couple of seconds as everyone found their rhythm. A driver from a team called 'I Just Cant Beat Tonnor' was making his way through the field and was soon behind Rob. It had been noted how aggressive some of his passing had been and as he attempted to pass, he made contact several times and was shown a warning (in this event, three warnings equalled a penalty of 30 seconds- which would be devastating to any chance of getting a top result) Rob ran wide coming out of the essess onto the back straight and allowed the other driver through, who then left the door open for Rob to re-pass him going under the flyover bridge-fantastic!!
Unfortunately, as Rob made his way through some of the backmarkers toward the end of his stint, he too picked up a couple of warning for 'bumping', meaning one more for Dutch or myself would result in a penalty. The driver from the other team committed the inevitable third foul & was handed a 30 second penalty, which effectively took them out of the game. Dutch took over the kart just after Krystian had from Zac, & set about making is way through the traffic. Rob had done an incredible job at the front, leading after Zac took his time penalty, & we were well in the fight after the first third of the race. Dutch maintained a gap of around 4 seconds to Krystian as they made their way through the traffic, before suddenly it was 3 seconds, then 2- was he going to pass him?
It was evident Krystian was struggling to make his way through the traffic somewhat, & as the drivers went through the essess, Dutch was right behind him as he was wrong footed by the guy in front. Krystian came across the front of Dutch, who was being pushed from behind by another kart- and the resulting contact led to a half-spin for the young charger and an instant black flag for Dutch. Disaster had struck but it was an unfortunate incident with no malice involved- however Krystian had been leading the race at that point, & it put their team on the back foot. Dutch served his penalty immediately, and re-emerged around 20 seconds down on the race leader- this was the crunch point! If he could maintain that gap before the final driver changes (Zac, Krystian & Olly were mirroring our strategy somewhat) then I knew Id likely be fighting with Oliver for the win once his weight penalty was taken into consideration. As Dutch's stint drew to a close, I was slowly getting prepared to take over when all hell broke loose for the leaders! Krystian had been indicating that he wanted to pit for some reason or another, & he came in before Olly was ready to take over. They had a crazy pit stop & lost a chunk of time, which played right into our hands. Unbeknown to both of us however, another team ('Dream Team') had been making their way up the front too, staying out of trouble & running their own race- it was going to be a close finish..
The driver change with Dutch went smoothly, & as I emerged into the circuit I could see Olly in the lead a couple of seconds down the road, with another driver between us. I knew Olly would have to pit one more time for his weight penalty, meaning that I'd be fighting for the win with only about half an hour remaining!
Lap after lap, I followed the guys ahead through the backmarkers we were lapping, & I could see that Olly was being kept on his toes. Finally, he made his stop, leaving just me chasing the 'Dream Team' driver as the clock ran down. As soon as I got close enough to him to start lining up a pass, we'd come upon more backmarkers and he'd eke out a small gap- & that's how things stayed until the chequered flag dropped. After 100 minutes of racing, the Jolly Pirates had come within 4 seconds of winning the event, with Zac, Krystian & Oliver rounding off the podium.
I was pleased to find a jubilant Dutch & Rob back in the pits, & I can honestly say I felt proud to be on the podium next to my teammates & the other drivers- what a fantastic event!!
I want to wish all my fellow karters & friends a Happy New Year, & I look forward to racing with and or against you in 2015!!
Until then,
Ben
