2024 Club100
Senior Lightweight Sprint Championship
Round 1
Buckmore Park
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Supporting the 100 Black Men of London. The award-winning community organisation creating opportunities for youth through mentoring and positive role models. @100bmol |
After a successful novice tour with Club100 in 2023, I graduate to senior Class 2 for the 2024 sprint season. New, upgraded Rotax Max 125cc 2-stroke karts await their first sprint, in cold and wet conditions no less. As we kick off Round 1 at Buckmore Park, the club's most frequented racetrack.
Format
3x 7-minute heats. The grids for the heats are random and released midweek. Novices, while also gridded up randomly, bring up the rear for acclimatisation. I'm a C2 and start the heats for Round 1 in P15, P2 and P8.
The overall results from the heats determine the grid positions for the 12-minute finals. So, whether you're an N-C3, intermediate C2 or experienced C1 racer, it's your average finishing position that determines whether you make the C final, B final, or fastest A final.
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| Photography by John Patterson @johnnyp5000 |
Heat 1 (Heat 3) P15 > P8 | P4 Class 2
A densely Class 2 field means I'm starting way back in P15. No worry, I know how to climb a field. Except some opening lap cautiousness has me plum last. P18. I regain two positions by Lap 2.
Next position is for P15, where I started. Currently held by C2 Joe Craddock, promoted from juniors, racing with confidence - and no regard for track limits! Craddock runs wide exiting The Esses and veers towards pit entry. I'm ahead ... until they use the momentum from off the racetrack to switch back ahead through Pullman's!
They make the same mistake next lap. This time, I ensure the door is firmly closed and keep the guy behind. Back in P15, but my advances delayed. I'm 3rd fastest on track with a 1:04.434. We're half race distance.
A kart facing the wrong way and a few fun overtakes later, I'm into P12 and challenging a red-plate (Class 1) for good measure. I measure up good, then benefit from another spinner to enter the Top 10 with a lap to go. I'm rewarded a further two more positions by virtue of penalties for the karts ahead. So, having started P15 and dropped to P18 on opening lap, that's P8. A very strong start!
Heat 2 (Heat 6) P2 < P4 | P1 Class 2
This race marks my first front-row start in the heats. On pole, C2 Christian Laner has the inside line for Turn 1, but the slippery track surface means I have the desirable outside "wet racing" line.
However, the second-row is a Class 1 lockout. As such, C1s Bryn Alban and Sam Lovelace both disregard my in-class advance to take P1 and P2 respectively into the opening corners. Alas, I emerge on their tails, the lead C2, heading onto Lap 2.
While Alban and Lovelace squabble for the lead, I'm at best trying to keep within two seconds. And ensure the gap behind to the C2s in 4th and 5th remains that way, too. I'm managing the pace fine until Lap 5. I sense someone closing in. C1 Dante Dillon is now in 4th. And I'm overdriving now. I want this P3.
I remind myself, bigger picture. Average heat position counts most for the finals. So, if Dante catches up, don't resist. Sure enough, Mr Dhillon is right on my derriere onto the last lap. I consider refuting his advances, but I'm not trying to back us up to the rest of the field. Having said that ...
I defend into Hairpin 2. I'm not going to make it easy, am I? I want P3. Either way, Dante commits to the send, parks mid-corner, bogs down my switchback on exit. And wins the traction race into the following Esses, completing an all C1 Top 3 finish for Heat 6.
Albeit one short from my true desires this race, I'm content to bring home my highest heat result to date. P4, as lead C2. Onwards and upwards!
Heat 3 (Heat 9) P8 < P10 | P9 Class 2
The dreaded midfield start. In the wet. Just keep it clean. Except, no-one's giving each other space. So I escape via the grass, exit of Hairpin 1, rejoin the track and maintain ground. Then clip a kart into Hairpin 2. While I was backing out anyway (so allow me), their narrowing line, then questionable kart control exaggerates the whole affair into a mid-corner, mid-pack spin. I'm down from P8 to P14 onto the second tour.
A few redeeming overtakes, including a double overtake into Garda, empowers what is now a recovery race. Although I'm almost caught out by someone spinning into Pullman's - the downhill, sweeping right-hander, karts descending through the slippery sequence at speed. The worst place on the circuit to be facing backwards! And I collect them. Bumper to bumper. Fortunately, I pre-empt enough steering lock to barge past the impact without conceding a position.
Finishing the race P10, that's two places down from where I started, but four places up from where I was end of Lap 1. So P8, P4 and P10 in the heats. Word in the paddocks suggests a first ever A Final ...
B Final P5 > P2 // P2 Class 2
Overall average points finish from the heats determine where you qualify for the finals. I'm starting P5 in the B Final, my highest ever sprint start. Finishing Top 4 in the B Final earns promotion into the coveted A Final. So the task is simple. Finish in the Top 4.
A good start into Turn 1. But it's still wet, so the inside line understeers us wide. On exit, I'm met by 2023 Novice Experience rival Sam White, to whom I fell short of contention. Not again. An assertive line round the outside at Hairpin 1 ensures the inside for Hairpin 2, where I cover the right parts of the circuit to get clear into P3.
A lap later, I'm closing onto P2 at alarming pace. A position I would claim into Garda on Lap 3. From this point, I manage my own pace, with no real threat from behind. C2 Hussain Rashid extends the gap ahead for the race win, while the gap behind fluctuates between a necessarily unexciting 1 and 2 seconds. Allowing me to convert my highest qualifying position of P5 in the B Final to P2 at the flag.
Objective complete. A Final!
From P5 to P2. The early moves to secure first A Final.
A Final P24 > P19 | P7 Class 2 overall
I guess the B Final was sparing the excitement for the A Final. Because this race was bonkers! Not much gained in the opening lap, but then the race becomes wild. Three wide into Café Curve. Four karts on my tail into Turn 1. Five positions, ultimately gained. From P24 to P19, I finish P7 in class on the road.
The only disappointment is that I did not clear the guys ahead, because that would have leapfrogged me to P5 in class. No worries, I have the pace. Strong momentum to build from a very promising start to the season.
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| Race highlights coming soon, including that electrifying first ever A Final! |
Summary
P5 in the B Final, the highest sprint qualifying performance to date. Quickly converted to P2 in the opening laps to secure promotion into the coveted A Final. From 24th, I gain a further 5 positions to finish 19th overall.
Unlocking achievements which I try not to understate by the increments I come away feeling were still left on the table. This was a strong start to the season. I'm a racer, though, seeking optimal results going forward. So I will be chipping away at performance gains as we embark on this graduated venture in club racing.