Sunday 16th October 2022 saw the final round of the Rye House 2022 IKR Championship take place. This has been the main championship we have focused on this year. It would prove to be a great event and a very nice way to sign off the championship. With championship battles up and down the grid there was a lot to play for on track. Riley was in his own battle for 8th in the Championship with just 7 points covering 8th through 10th.
Test Day
For the first time this year, we did the Saturday test day. Dad has always been resistent to do it because if something happens on the Saturday we don’t have time to fix things for Sunday. However, it would prove to be a very good day overall.
Throughout the day, Riley was working with his nearest championship contender. They are very equal on pace, however both of them really understand how kart racing works. If they spend the whole race squabbling over position, they will both be slow, so instead they work together as a train, pushing on through the packs and then fight it out on the last lap to decide who crosses the line first. This really worked and it was great to see such racecraft from the pair of them, working their way through the packs as they caught up.
With the good ‘teamwork’ (they are not in a team) and some decent lap times in the bag, and a fair idea of where to start on tyre pressures we ended the day in a good place.
Qualifying
On to the Sunday and after feeling good in the warm up, the teamwork continued. In qualifying, it was Riley on top with a time of 41.469 and his contender just 5 hundredths of a second behind. This was good enough for 12th on the grid.
Heat 1
On to heat 1, a tough start saw Riley drop 5 places and his contender drop 3 after being hit leaving him in 17th at the end of lap 1. Not to be disheartened though, they worked together and managed to regain a couple of places each with Riley crossing the line in 15th with the contender in 14th. 1 all and tied for points in the round heading in to heat 2. With a fastest lap time of 41.443 and just 12 seconds behind the leader going over the line.
Heat 2
With 4 people tied on 71 points, it came down to tie breakers to decide the starting order. Riley lined up 13th with his contender 14th. A fast starter behind managed to get ahead by the end of lap 1. Unfortunately the contender had tried a setup change that didn’t quite work and Riley wasn’t quite able to take any positions back. So a fairly uneventful heat 2, but a decent fastest time of 41.192.
Finals
On to the final and Riley lined up 13th on the grid. A decent start, and keeping out of trouble whilst others were coming together saw me make up a few places. Unfortunately his partner in crime wasn’t quite so lucky and got held up. This meant there wasn’t the same train that had been working well to push further forward. A retirement on the 9th lap saw Riley gain another place, and try as he might he just couldn’t quite overtake the person in 8th. Riley crossed the line in 9th with a best time of 41.214, and just 7 seconds behind the leader.
After the race, a disqualification for scrutineering in front saw Riley promoted to 8th. This was enough to secure 8th place in the championship overall. Not a bad result for our first championship in our own kart.
Full results and lap times can be found at Alpha Timing – Results.
Unfortunately, we have no photo’s to add to the post, if this changes, we will update.
