I was back at Brentwood Karting today for Round 3 & a special SSR round which Dan has kept top secret for the past few weeks. As ever, he loves to keep us on our toes and tries to make the League as difficult as possible for us. So as soon as I arrived at track, headed straight over to the pit board to see what was in store for us.
What Is The Super Sprint Round?
We qualified for Heat 1 in the usual way, a random lap for the fastest times to lead up on the grid.
Heat 1 was a 6 minute sprint race to the chequered flag from a rolling start. After the chequered flag we had to line up in single file outside the pit lane on track and was then instructed to get out of our karts and do a full reverse grid, so the pole sitter was then placed in last place & the last place driver was placed on pole.
We then had to head to the grid straight away for the 2nd Heat which was another 6 minute sprint race to the chequered flag, this time from a standing start.
We then had a 3rd Heat which was 9 minutes long and carried over our starting positions from Heat 2. A Final then followed as normal.
So how did I get on this week?
Well, I had another really strong weekend at Brentwood! So to start with I qualified 2nd (I seem to be struggling a bit with Quali at the minute and I'm not really starting out on pole much, but then the race is the main thing to concentrate on, but not really sure why this is at the moment).
Heat 1 started off with a rolling start and I just didn't get a good enough get away really, the kart didn't get off the line at all well and I quickly dropped down a few places, very similar to last week. I kept pushing as hard as possible and managed to climb my way back up the pack, had a good battle with Ethan where I eventually managed to pass him and cross the line in Pole.
We headed round towards the pit lane to line up and reverse the grid so as I finished 1st I started at the back of the pack for the 2nd Heat. Again, we headed straight to the Grid to line up for a standing start. I got a really good start and went down the inside of everyone and by the 2nd corner was sitting in 5th. As this was only a 6 minute heat, we had to make as much progress as quickly as possible. In the end the best that I could get to was P4.
Heat 3 come round, so again headed to the grid and again I was starting in last position due to my earlier heat win. I knew that I was going to have a grid penalty from my podium finish last week so needed a really strong result in order to make sure that I was in the A Final. I got a really good start and was gaining positions with every lap and pleased to say that I managed to win from the back.
Collecting my P3 trophy for last week. Congrats to all other winners.
Next up was the A Final and I was shocked to be starting 3rd. As I had such strong heat results the grid penalty wasn't too bad which was a big relief. I just needed to get the best result possible. The A Final was run as a reverse grid, so we lined up for the rolling start and off we went. I got a good start but as we started the rain started too. I had some good battles with Mikey and changed positions on more than 1 occasion, going between 3rd and 4th. The rain then really started falling and we all had to reduce speeds dramatically which I think in the end was my saviour as Mikey's kart definitely had more pace than mine and I managed to cross the line P3 for the 3rd consecutive week.
What a start to the season and am hoping that this will just continue as we get further into the season. I just need to keep pushing.