The weekend was a success overall, with huge improvements in my performance. In particular my starts, which have been difficult for me since a crash in 2020. In fact, it was that very incident that led me to give up petrol karting.
Qualifying
I struggled to get a handle on the kart, just couldn’t get comfortable. All in all managed a couple of reasonable laps, earning myself P23 for the first heat.
Heat 1
Finally dialled into the kart, making up several positions and maintaining my starting position throughout. By the end of the heat, I had climbed seven spots and was sitting at P16.
Heat 2
Mum spent some time analysing the data on my Alfano and discussed it with Dad before making some BOLD adjustments to the kart. Feeling confident with the kart and liking how it felt, I managed to gain another six positions, bringing me up to P10. Once again, I didn’t lose any positions off the start.
Heat 3
The rain came some more and this heat was wet. As this is our first year in a Junior Rotax, we’re using as the learning year. We decided to try something different raising the ride height at the front to lift me off the standing water. Didn’t work. What did happen is I couldn’t turn the kart so I lost a few positions on track despite driving so hard. I then also got a nose cone penalty – as did a few others, so finished P12.
Final
With just minutes to racing, the meeting was declared open, meaning we could change our tyres to slicks, which we did, however, the conditions were still damp, and we didn’t have the time and person power to adjust the gearing which we really needed to do which resulted in a loss of top-end power. Holding my position into the first few corners (that’s what I’ve been working on) I drove what I had as hard as I could and ended the weekend with a P14. Can’t help but think what could have been if we’d be able to make the changes we needed to.
Take away from the weekend –> Mum is going to learn the spanners so that we can make the changes last minute!