2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was back to Buckmore Park for round 3 of the Open Championship. It is one of my favourite circuits and one I usually go well at so I was fairly confident coming into this race.
It was great seeing a few more prem faces on the grid. Jamie Jakins and Matt Brookes joining us for this race meant it was going to be a very competitive day. I qualified fourth and basically maintained position behind Clackett, Brookes, Jakins and Will Tew for the first few laps. Once again I had no support crew in the pits so had to use my Jedi Force abilities to know when to come in for my first stop. Knowing the pit stops were the only way I was going to make any progress, I timed it perfectly and dived in just as the fuel window opened and entered a clear pit lane. Sadly, I over-cooked it a bit coming down the pit lane and skidded into the fuel bowser. The rules state that you have to go back out and do another lap so I lost a lot of time. Fortunately the fuel bay was clear the following lap as well.
I then basically spent the rest of the race pushing as hard as possible to make up the lost time. I finished fourth behind Clackett, Jakins and Brookes. A pretty good result considering my cock-up but I lost an easy second – possibly even the win. More annoying was the fact that I lost more ground to Clackett who is quite frankly walking it so far this year.
The following week was Ellough Park. This is a circuit I have mixed feelings about. Despite having had some good results here in the past, I find it quite difficult to get right. When I’m hooked up I can fly here but if I don’t get in the groove I basically drive like a bell-end. Sadly, today was the latter. I didn’t feel at all comfortable in practice and in qualifying I could only manage a rather pathetic 18th on the grid. The kart wasn’t perfect but I didn’t think it was bad enough to warrant a change.
Fortunately I have two very quick team mates and they helped move us up the order. Despite feeling slow, the lap times actually suggested I was running at a similar pace to my team mates so that is something. Anyway, we finished 6th. Not a bad result at all but it could have been even better if I had qualified a bit higher.
