2023 Club100 Senior Championships
Lightweight Sprints
Round 4
Rye House
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| Photography by John Patterson @johnnyp5000 |
A bright and very warm return to Rye House. This is where I made my sprint racing debut almost a year ago, and stuck it on the front row! As a Londoner, this is the most accessible venue on the Club100 calendar. So I'm excited to be back here, and return to sprint racing, as I missed Round 3 at Whilton Mill back in April. Some good points would be a great way to catch up with proceedings.
Format
Random grids are released midweek for the heats, novices towards the back. 3x 7-minute heats qualify the grids for 12-minute finals. Whether you're a Novice Class 3, intermediate Class 2 or experienced C1 racer, it's the overall results from the heats that determine whether you make the C final, B final, or fastest A final.
The Heats
Heat 1 (Heat 4) | P15 > P9 | P2, N-C3
After a mundane 40-lap practice session, the first heat starts with me gaining a massive 6 places on the opening lap! I hold station for a lap or so, before getting overtaken by a C1. Now I'm the rear of 7 karts, led by P5. A gap builds to the karts behind as I keep up with the pack, including this C1 right in front.
Frustratingly, into Hairpin 2, everything bottlenecks ahead and I'm in the wrong position for it. I bump the C1 straight into P5 while everyone else jostles for the position. I gain a place from it all, before conceding P9 to another C1! I have the audacity to challenge them for position and actually get alongside, but like a retailer with a stingy refund policy, I have to humble myself and fall back into P10.
They clear two C2s ahead, who start a duel into the last few laps. A gap opens for me to cut back on them both on exit of Pylon. However, 3-wide into the last corners doesn't work. One kart backs out, the other on the racing line completes their move into P8. I slot in between to finally retake P9, to the flag.
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| Keeping up with a C1? Early days. |
Heat 2 (Heat 7) | P18 > P16 | P4, N-C3
Another good start. I hold a notoriously difficult outside line around Stadium Bend to complete a double overtake into the infield section. The field bunches up on exit. Then tightens too much. One kart faces sideways on the racing line, a barrage of other karts hurtling towards and around it. I'm already braking cautiously, taking as outermost section of track as possible, but multiple karts collect each other. And I'm the last of the domino effect: a one-way ticket to the barriers. False start.
Reduced race distance: 5 minutes. And it's not a strong restart. An incomplete move dips the revs too low out of Hairpin 1, letting two karts swoop around and simultaneously clip my kart from either side, bringing my front tyres momentarily off the ground. We keep going, but I'm last by the end of the lap. This is quickly rectified by Sector 1; another position soon gained from an unforced error into P17. I close in on the next kart onto the final lap, get a good exit out of the last corner and out-drag them over the line in P16.
Heat 3 (Heat 12) | P13 > P11 | P2, N-C3
A trio of strong starts completes my opening lap performance in the heats this round. I'm up two positions at the end of Lap 1. Half race distance and I'm into P8, leader in class with a good 3-place buffer to my nearest rival. Plus a half-a-second pace advantage to the kart ahead. 0.5 seconds is also the lap time difference we trade into Lap 6, the same deficit through which I cut down right onto their bumper into Lap 7.
I'm in the middle of a battle for P6. I make a move to clear both C2s ahead, gain fresh air, perhaps challenge the Top 5 for the first time in a heat. However, I make a classic error into Hairpin 1, slamming on the brakes to back out of a move I'd already made. I make an initial move on the kart directly ahead, but they make a late move on the kart ahead of them, meaning my initial move could no longer stick without colliding into them. I send myself into a spin and fall back to P11 - P2 in class.
That was the moment a B Final qualification slipped away. On the plus side, check this: I've gained from my starting position in every heat. So, a decent performance in the heats overall, I think.
C Final P3 > P3
P1 on the right, P2 on the left, P3 (me - hello) on the right. And so on. Using the inside line to my advantage, I bump draft the pole sitter into Stadium Bend to assert P2. We're clear on exit. And I immediately exact pace over them. No sooner than Lap 2 am I into the lead. However, the move for the lead out allows another fast-charging kart to follow me through. That same fast-charger would overtake me the following lap. Back to P2.
Finishing the C Final in the Top 4 gains promotion into the B Final. So just settle into position. The leader has a clear pace advantage and pulls away by about a second. The gap behind is slightly bigger, but I can slowly but surely feel it diminishing. Lap by lap. Until a new P3, Mortaza Hassan, is right behind me into Lap 10.
I have no response to their pace. All I can do is defend. A challenge I would go on to withstand for 5 laps persistent. But on the penultimate lap, I clip the high apex kerb at Hairpin 2 and invite Mortaza into P2. I'm catching on the straights, but realise a pace deficit in the low-speed corners. Nevertheless, I cross the line in P3, the only Top 3 starter to finish in the Top 3. And crucially, enough to recover into the B Final.
B Final P26 > DNF
I'm up to P24 by the end of Lap 1, as 7 of us all hurtle towards Stadium Bend. Everyone sorts into position cleanly, although Mortaza gets sideways on exit. I think of a move, but the door shuts. Mortaza makes a similar consideration on a C2 towards the end of the lap, but has to back out. I take P23 in the process, but man comes back at me at Stadium! I wait for main straight to reclaim P23, completing the move out of Stadium, before launching one up on the inside of the C2 into P22 the following corner.
Now there's a 1.5 second gap to the next kart. The gap is reduced within two laps. We're now the back of a train, led by a C2 in P16. Hairpin 1 becomes an unusual ally, whereby I complete moves here into P21 on Lap 9, then P20 end of Lap 10. P5 in class, my closest rivals are within reach in P19 and P17. So it's game on for P3 in class.
Our rhythm is disrupted as karts fighting ahead back me up into the kart behind. I drop to P21, 6th in class. But pace is strong. I know what to do. 4 minutes to go. I need to get a move on. I get a good run through Stadium towards infield. Approaching Hairpin 1, the kart ahead goes defensive, but not too deep I can't take the racing line, then dummy further left of them to take the inside line into the hairpin.
Yo! Out of nowhere, I get a huge tank slapper from the kart behind. Did not even know they were there to have a nose in. Somehow, I manage to correct the kart into a straight line. But the engine seems to have cut out on impact. I coast onto the grass and try to get going again. No power. Race over.
Despite everything that was thrown at us, performance was quite strong. I cannot be too self-critical. And while denying myself from qualifying directly into the B Final, we promoted ourselves back into the running. But from multiple wipeouts to my first ever DNF in competition, this round was simply not to be.
We'll be back at Rye House next month for The Club100 Experience Championship, or XP Champs as I like to call them. I'd like to think I've acquired enough XP from this event to enjoy a better result next time out!