So here we go again, all the fun and games of a brand new season and one which will be my final Cadet League at Brentwood Karting before progressing on to the Senior League. What will happen in my final championship? Will I be able to defend my title for a 3rd time and make it 3 Consecutive Championships? Let's hope so.
The league was actually quite quiet this week, I think as we are heading towards the end of the Summer lots of people are making the most of the holidays before returning back to school in September. So this round there was only 2 groups and fairly small ones at that in comparison to what there has been recently. In addition to that there was lots of new faces to the new season and some familiar faces from Cadets that I have been coaching in Development Club, so they really are going full circle now which is nice to see.
I was out first in group A and what a disaster of a Quali session it was. I managed to get my way round the new drivers and was placed behind my old pal Alfie, so I hung back a little and then put my foot down for the Quali lap. I was catching up to Alfie really quickly (which obviously meant I had a quick kart) however, he was really struggling with his kart and going into Paddock I ended up getting pushed wide by him, straight into the barrier. I kept the kart straight however, my lap was just destroyed and qualified P8 - disaster!
So, what could I do in the Heat? The good news was the practice laps I put in was actually pretty good on pace so I just needed a strong start. With me being towards the back of the grid, the good news was I had lots of inexperienced drivers in front of me and their initial reaction was to try to feed into the racing line, so I just kept my foot flat for as long as possible and made up lots of positions by the time I was out of Range by going round the outside, this was the start that I needed. Laurie was out in first and he was starting to pull a gap, not ideal. I kept my head down and watched the race unfold in front of me, 2nd place was right on the tail of Laurie and Laurie decided to pull wide to go defensive and I slipped straight through on the inside to claim lead. With this I just tried to put in as many strong laps as I could and in the end secured the 1st win of the new season. I was much happier at the end of this heat than I was at the beginning!
Next up was Heat 2 and a rolling start, what could I achieve from the back of the grid? I kept with the same strategy as the first heat stick to the outside of the grid and power through for as long as possible. This time it didn't go to plan when I got taken out going into Turn 1, there was no restart and no penalty issued, so it was a case of putting my head down and getting on with the job to try and recover the race. The only good point was it happened in the 1st corner so I had the whole race to pull something out of the bag. The bad news was the kart was terrible and I managed 1 lap in the 35 second laps. the rest were all in the 36 seconds and due to the lack of pace I just had nothing to fight with and could only manage P8.
Next up was the Final and I wasn't confident that I would even make it into the A Final due to the P8 finish, however the first heat win really saved me and I started P5 in the A Final, much to my relief.
We was lined up on the grid and I was on the inside this time. We got off on the first attempt on the rolling start and what a start I got. By the time we was coming out of Range I was in 2nd and chasing down my good pal Mikey!! Just like out battle at Buckmore on Friday night we was trading the lead lap after lap and although we are only in Round 1 of the season, for me I think that is going to be a contender for Battle of The Season. What a race and was pleased to claim the first win of the season.
Next week I am now facing a 5 place grid penalty for the win so will be in for a tricky week. Let's hope that I can pull something out of the bag.
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