The third round of the BMKR Championship was held on the 18th June. Again, with the reduction in grid sizes, this would be more of a 2 day test session for us. A key change for this event though was the Junior Rookie/Junior Libre grid was split in to 3 groups to try and reduce some of the accidents.
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 49.31 towards the end of the session. This was just over half a second off the other Libre driver.
Race 1
On to the first race. We know where our race is, so our aim is to try and beat the other person in our class. Lining up 14th on the grid, with the other Mini Max in 13th and a junior behind, it was played safe at the start. A solid start saw Riley keep in front of the junior however a small mistake on lap 5 saw the junior go past. Riley got his head down and re-took the place on lap 8 where he finished 14th overall, with a best time of 49.05. Again, this was just over half a second off the other Libre driver.
Race 2
The second race saw Riley start 14th on the grid with the other Libre driver once again 13th. This time they had 2 juniors behind them. One of the two juniors got a good start and overtook both Libre class. The race itself was relatively uneventful with Riley finishing 15th overall with a best time of 49.24.
Final
With the grids being split, Riley qualified for the ‘B’ final, and lined up 9th on the grid. A combination of someone not starting, and a first lap incident saw Riley up to 5th at the end of lap 1, he was overtaken by the other Libre driver on lap 2 and this is how it finished, with Riley 6th overall, 2nd in class with a best lap time of 49.25.
Conclusion
It’s tough racing at Bayford with the limited number of Mini Max drivers, along with the grid being mixed with Juniors. Whilst the Mini Max drivers are as quick in the corners, they do get left on the straights, this is purely down to the restrictors on the engine. We enjoy the track, and we will continue working on improving there.
Thank you as always to our sponsors helping make this happen.
