The second round of the BMKR Championship was held on the 21st May. Again, with the reduction in grid sizes, this would be more of a 2 day test session for us. Some friends of ours made a last minute decision to join the event, and due to their van being in for repair, shared our awning which was nice.
Saturday
On the Saturday test we saw a nice consistent day in the low 49 second lap times. With one dip in to the 48’s towards the end of the day, a new PB of 48.98 was achieved.
Qualifying
With just one other person to compare with, it’s difficult, however Riley set a qualifying time of 49.51 towards the end of the session. This was just over a second off the other Libre driver.
Heat
On to the first heat. We know where our race is, so our aim is to try and beat the other person in our class. Lining up 21st on the grid, with the other Mini Max in 19th it was played safe at the start. A first lap incident, saw Riley jump up to 13th, managing to get in front of the other Libre driver. This wasn’t to last though and on lap 2 a couple of people got past but with a retirement in front, only one place dropped. Crossing the line 14th, with a best time of 49.46, along with our first drop down penalty.
Pre-Final
In the pre-final, again it’s about keeping clean. With a raft of juniors behind, there is no point blocking them. After they recovered at the start, it was a case of making it to the end. Despite a few incidents further up the grid, after starting 14th, Riley came home 17th overall, 8 seconds behind the other Libre driver and with a best time of 49.15.
Final
After a safe start, on lap 2 an incident in the juniors gifted him 2 places. Further incidents on lap 5 gifted him another 2 places, before the recovering juniors got past on the second to last lap. With a lap time of 49.47.
Conclusion
As mentioned at the start, the lack of competitors in the class means we will be focusing on improving at Bayford in preparation for moving to the junior class. Hopefully you can see improvements happening and we will continue working to do so.
Completing this event does mean that I progress off the black and white novice plates and on to the yellow with black numbers for the old Mini Max class.
Thank you as always to our sponsors helping make this happen.
