Martin's hour in the kart was almost up, & I was relishing the opportunity of a 25 minute sprint on light fuel before handing back over to my teammate. Our driver changeover went smoothly, & I was back out on track & pushing hard again. I was soon up behind Aaron, who was struggling with a dog of a kart, & his lack of power made it easy to pass him, this time at least! I had one goal in mind for this stint, & that was to catch Andy George, who had taken over the lead of the race after some scintillating driving from Krystian & Zac. Now, catching Andy wasn't so much of an issue, but passing him was quite another. As the laps & minutes ticked away, I did everything I could to try & find an opening, but he positioned his kart expertly on each lap, making it impossible for me to pass cleanly. As we approached the 2nd refuelling window, I knew I had to get ahead of we were to have a chance at the win later on, but the only way I could see myself getting ahead was if we came across some traffic. Thankfully, a few laps before I handed back over to Martin, we came across a group of battling drivers who were all racing hard with each other. Andy got wrong-footed coming off the flyover, taking a defensive line against me but then having to get out of the throttle to avoid the drivers ahead, allowing me to go around the outside before the right-hand turn on to the main straight.
I was back in the lead, & able to pass the other karts as the squabbled with each other, increasing the gap to Andy before he was called to the pits. I then got caught up in a stupid accident with a backmarkers, having a half-spin coming off the flyover & losing about 5 seconds, before getting the signal to come in to swap with Martin. As I came to a stop however, Martin wasn't there ready to jump into our kart, but instead sat in another (no.16) & he took off before I even had chance to get out of the seat. The pit marshall explained to me that Martin was worried about the reliability of our kart, so had opted for a change. We were however given a 5 second penalty to be added on to our fuel stop because of how quickly he left the pits after I came in, as we didn't lose anytime in changing over essentially. I pulled off my now sweat-soaked balaclava, & necked a bottle of water before returning to the pits in anticipation of Martin's fuel stop.
I was back in the lead, & able to pass the other karts as the squabbled with each other, increasing the gap to Andy before he was called to the pits. I then got caught up in a stupid accident with a backmarkers, having a half-spin coming off the flyover & losing about 5 seconds, before getting the signal to come in to swap with Martin. As I came to a stop however, Martin wasn't there ready to jump into our kart, but instead sat in another (no.16) & he took off before I even had chance to get out of the seat. The pit marshall explained to me that Martin was worried about the reliability of our kart, so had opted for a change. We were however given a 5 second penalty to be added on to our fuel stop because of how quickly he left the pits after I came in, as we didn't lose anytime in changing over essentially. I pulled off my now sweat-soaked balaclava, & necked a bottle of water before returning to the pits in anticipation of Martin's fuel stop.
One by one, each kart came into the pits, the drivers getting out, walking around a little, having a drink, stretching, checking the timing screens. The karts were brimmed with fuel & back in their was again after 90 seconds, & Martin was one of the last to come in. At this point we were still leading the race, with Krystian eating into our lead. This next stint would define our race, with Andy having completed two mammoth stints & Zac still to go out-Martin had to rebuild our advantage over the next 40 minutes. I rejoined Andy & Dutch in the spectator area, grabbed an energy gel & enjoyed watching the race unfold as a train if karts formed behind Michael 'Peachy' Peach, with Krystian right at the back of it! Martin was half a lap ahead at this point, & by the time the young Polish driver was in amongst the 'Peachy train', my teammate was already on the back of them! Andy informed me that during his stint he'd been given a black for an incident with another driver, which is how Martin & myself had been able to get almost a lap ahead at this point. Zac was a little frustrated that Martin had gained us an advantage by swapping karts during our driver changeover, but he cooked off a little when I told him we'd served a penalty for it during our refuel.
With just over an hour to go, Krystian made his teams' final driver swap, with Zac taking over for the final stint. Martin had a nice lead at the front, but was understandably beginning to tire after almost 3 hours in the kart. Number 16 at least looked like a very quick kart, & Zac was unable to really close the gap as we approached the final hour. By this point my shoulders, hands, back & knees were beginning to feel a little sore, but it still looked as though I would be able to take it fairly easy given our gap back to 2nd place. As if!
With around 55 minutes of the race to go, I jumped back in for my final stint. I emerged from the pits a few corners in front of Zac, but also crucially 1 lap ahead. For the next 15 laps, we made our way through the traffic, gaining & losing ground with each pass, before Zac was within range to mount an attack on me. Somewhere ahead of us on the track, Dutch was having a short final stint before handing back over to Ollie, & I hoped he would remember our pre-race agreement not to let Zac have too easy a time getting past, without resorting to anything dirty of course. Once Zac was close enough behind me that I knew he would soon be trying to pass, I pulled over to the right side of the main straight, eased off the gas & extending my hand in gesture- after you! With only around half an hour to go, I thought I'd make it a little less painful for Zac by allowing him to I lap himself without any hassle, knowing that if I could stay close to him as he then made his way through traffic, he'd have no time left to take almost a whole lap out of me. Well, that plan worked for about 15 minutes, & then things got crazy!
Initially everything seemed to be going to plan- I was able to stay about 1 sec behind Zac as we circulated in clean air, & just as he started to eek out a bit more of gap, we came up behind Dutch, who did just enough to allow me to close right back up Zac again. Zac eventually muscled his way through, & I followed, giving Dutch the big thumbs up as I went past. He would soon hand over to Ollie, but they were more or less now cemented in 4th place overall.
Zac was soon sprinting ahead again, & I was unable to match his pace as fatigue began to set in. With around 25 minutes still to run, I tried to balance the need to push with the desire to conserve energy, but I still thought I had enough in hand over the youngster to see me through until the end. As we approached a group of karts including Peachy & Aaron Smith, I was hopeful Zac's attack would again come to a temporary halt & I would be able to consolidate my position. However, Zac was past Aaron in no time at all & almost immediately past Michael Peach, without even a hint of defence.
As I mentioned earlier, with Aaron, you never whether he's going to just let you by or fight for the very last inch of space, but it seemed that the red mist had descended at this point & he was going to do his damnedest to stop people getting by, whether he was fighting for actual position or not. Not only could I not get past, but I was losing chunks of time as he took a rather unusual route through the corners. I could see Zac disappearing off in the distance, & I was praying for the track marshals to start using the 'leader behind' board, to signal to other that they were being lapped. This wasn't to be though, & I grew more & more agitated as the laps went by, unable to find a way past Aaron. We were now in amongst a group of karts led again by Peachy, & only after Aaron had an altercation with another driver (I believe that led to a penalty) was I able to squeeze through) Zac had taken an enormous amount of time out of me by the time I came up behind Peachy, & again I found that he was a lot less interested in letting people past than he had been in the earlier stages of the race. Before I knew it, Zac was only a couple of corners behind, with only 1 other kart between us. If I could just get past Michael, I thought to myself, then I should be home & dry. Eventually I got through, & I was sure with only about 15 minutes remaining, I should be able to beat Zac to the line. Just.
As it turned out, the driver that was sat between me & Zac after they had passed Peachy was driving for Kart Monkeys team, newcomers to TeamSport Bristol & performing well in the their first event here. They were at this stage however 1 lap down, but I don't think the driver was aware of that & he was fighting with Zac for what I assumed he thought was 2nd place overall. This initially worked to my advantage, & as the final minutes ticked away, I was able to maintain position about one corner ahead of them. I was drenched in sweat, my mouth was dry & my hands & shoulders were screaming to give up, but I pushed on, doing the math in my head as to how many laps more the race would run with the time shown on a track-side screen.
With 40 seconds remaining as we crossed the line, I knew I would only have to hold out for another 2 laps, as a small crowd gathered in the spectator area to witness the end of this epic race. Going over the short straight going under the flyover, I checked over my shoulder to see how much of a gap I had- it was small, but enough not to need to defend my line. Zac was still behind, & it was looking like it was going to stay that way. We crossed the line with 11 seconds to spare, to start out final lap-this was it!
On the final lap, I took the slower but more defensive line going over the grid markings heading under the flyover, with Zac pushing the kart behind me as hard as he could. I could hear their tyres scrub on the track surface as we went up & around the bridge, & as we came off the ramp I positioned my kart mid-track to try & set myself up for the final 2 corners. Suddenly, the kart behind made a dive to my right, catching me off-guard & pushing me wide into the left-hander before the final corner. All he had achieved with this crazy late-race move was to unlap himself & destroy any chance of a clean finish. I was well off-line as the 3 of us went into the final right hand corner before the finish line, & Zac, ever the opportunist, took the regular racing line as I had to turn tighter & slower. I had track position on the inside but he had momentum exiting the corner. I made one move across the track to re-take the racing line, the one move I was allowed to make on defending my position. Zac was heading straight for the finish line but with no space to move to the right to overtake me. We squeezed each other as we raced toward the chequered flag, contact was made & then it was over! We had won the race, by 0.4 seconds after 6 hours of racing- incredible!!
I cruised back to the pits with an understandably frustrated Zac behind me. I was in total disbelief as to how the race had finished, & almost disappointed for how the final lap had played out. I shook my head as I watched the driver in 3rd place set off for his final lap ahead of us as we returned to the pits, unable to comprehend why he would want to jeapordise the result at the end of such a long race. Maybe he though he was going for the win? He must have know they were a lap down?! As I said, crazy.
Here are the full results from the first ever 6 Hours of TeamSport Bristol Endurance race:
And here's a link to a video of the last 3 laps from Ollie Bayani's perspective, with a view of how close things were at the end!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugd_B2wvJQM&feature=youtu.be
I plan to write a brief summary shortly on the event, including my feelings about the end of the race- but for now I'm going for a lie down!
As always, my biggest thanks to Martin & the team at TeamSport Bristol for putting on such a fantastic event, & to all the other drivers for making it such a fun & challenging race
Safe racing all
Ben
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