Club100 Experience - Rd 4 - Lydd

Round 4: Another track I've never raced at before. This should be interesting...

Practice sped by surprisingly quick. I thought I had some pace, at least keeping up with my championship rivals. I was feeling optimistic going into qualifying as the green flag dropped. Struggling to get many clean uninterrupted laps, I managed to set my best time on the last lap, and definitely felt like I had more in the tank. That being said, it was enough to put my 4th on the grid for race 1.

Started Race 1 strong, managing to hold my position off the line. Had a fair battle with Gareth who had started 3rd. Managed to finally make a move stick before the driver's behind started getting involved.

I was able to break away with the lead drivers (Tom and Ami) and we managed to gap the pack by a small distance. Not much happened, with me sitting about 1.5s behind them until a few laps til the end. some backmarkers who were battling themselves threw a late complication, which, through some bad luck ended up costing Tom the lead. I was able to take advantage of this on the last lap and sneak past to claim 2nd.

Race 2 started even better. I was determined to not let Ami charge off into the distance. I felt like I had more pace at the start of the race, so I decided to go for a move. This put me into the lead of the race, where I would sit for 8/9 laps. I knew eventually that Tom and Ami would break free from the pack and hunt me down, so I was determined to push as hard as I could to not have to drive defensively until later on in the race. They caught up, and seeing as though we hadn't made a massive gap to the karts behind, I didn't fight all that much. Again found myself on the back of the 3 kart train, although we had picked up a tail. Rudy had come to join in. I'd noticed from earlier on that he had received a penalty already(these are in the form of position penalties resolves after the race), so it didn't bother me too much if he did make it past. I managed to hold him off, and we managed to stay on the back of Ami. This presented itself with a golden opportunity on the final lap. Ami went defensive for the last few corners, leading me to get a decent run up the back straight. A space on the inside not much bigger than a kart presented itself. I made it alongside before the crucial point where Ami would be turning in. All I had to do was not overcook it and ruin both of our races. I made it stick and brought it home with another P2.

This ended up being P3 overall for the round, as both Tom and Ami had a P1 and a P3, both finishing on 95 points requiring a tie break for the top step. I finished just 1 point behind...

It feels like the field is getting closer and more competitive as we pass the halfway point of the season. The final 2 rounds at buckmore are going to be exciting.