Round 2 of The Kart Championship sees the first visit to a new venue. Held at Shenington Kart Racing in Oxford, it’s a track we have seen featured on various YouTube streams.
As part of the Easter Holidays, Shenington ran a test day on a Thursday before the long weekend. As this is a track we have never visited, we did take part in the test day just to get a look at the venue. We borrowed an engine from our Ambition team mate who was also there. Thank you very much for this! This was a good day, with some good weather, and just generally learning the lines. It was also a chance to try out the new DJI Osmo Action Camera. This proved to be very useful and would see Riley working on his driving at the following race weekend. His PB on the test day was 43.94 so we will aim to beat this over the weekend.
One thing we found during the test day was that the brakes were massively overheating to the point they stuck on once the session finished. Needless to say prior to this round we did a rebuild of the caliper along with new brake pads.
One thing you will notice on the kart is a sticker supporting The Sadie Reed Foundation. This foundation was set up in honour of Sadie who sadly took her own life at the age of 14. You can find out more and donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-sadie-reed-foundation
Friday
With Shenington being one of the closer tracks on the calendar, along with the lighter nights, Friday morning was relatively calm due to getting the kart built up and brakes bled when we arrived. After a short wait, Force Motorsport arrived with our newly rebuilt engine and fully rebuilt carb. Friday was the day to get some running time on the engine so it’s ready for racing.
With the engine bolted on and camera fitted, it was time to head out. We knew that the engine would be a little down on performance to start with but would gain with run time. For session 1 Riley set a time of 44.39, and after the session, we inspected the spark plug and found we were running lean. A larger jet was installed and Riley went out setting 44.05, 44.00, 43.79, 43.91. By the end of Friday we were on PB times again and the feedback was that the engine was performing really well. Riley also managed to find overtaking spots out on track which he was looking forward to.
Saturday
Due to the popularity of the championship, we only had one practice session on Saturday morning. Riley set another PB with a time of 43.75. This was good enough for 24th overall and a good start to the day.
Qualifying
Now the engine had enough time on it to be quick, it was time for the first go on brand new slicks. Being qualifying and a lovely day, there wasn’t much in the way of action, however Riley set a time of 43.41 on lap 8 of 9 which shows the set up was right. HIs times came down nicely through the session and he qualified 24th on a grid of 34.
Heat 1
Heat 1 was somewhat chaotic, throughout the race, places were lost, but places were gained. Riley crossed the line in 27th setting his best time of 43.9 on lap 7. It would prove to be a race of penalties though with 11 drivers, including Riley picking up a front fairing penalty. Once all the penalties had been applied Riley was 29th overall.
Heat 2
Heat 2 saw a first lap incident really shake up the pack. After starting in 24th again Riley got up to 20th at the end of lap 1. On laps 3 through 6 he lost a position but also gained a position and crossed the line in 21st overall. Setting his best time of 43.47 on the final lap and finishing just 8 hundredths behind the kart in front. It was another heat of nosecone penalties which included Riley and after penalties he was 22nd overall.
Sunday
For the Super Heats, the grids were redone using the results from the heats. After the change we found ourselves lining up 27th on the grid for both Super Heats. The weather on Sunday was glorious sunshine all day.
Super Heat 1
The first Super Heat was a nice steady wake up. Riley kept his nose clean, although he lost a position at the start, he regained this and 1 more on lap 3 before dropping back in to 27th on lap 4. Here he remained until lap 9 when he managed to gain a position and crossed the line 26th. Setting his best lap time of 43.62 on lap 11, when he came in to the pits his bumper was not dropped. After penalties he was bumped up to 24th.
Super Heat 2
Super Heat 2 was very similar to Super Heat 1, losing a place at the start, but keeping out of trouble and avoiding an incident on lap 4 saw him up to 24th. Despite losing a couple of places to some of those recovering from the lap 4 incident, on the last couple of laps Riley made a couple of overtakes and crossed the line 26th overall. Setting his best time of 43.92 on lap 11, post race penalties saw Riley gain another position to 25th.
Final
At the end of the heats, Riley was 25th overall, directly behind his Ambition team mate. With how the event had gone so far, we were hopeful of finishing somewhere in the 20-25th position range. If he kept his nose clean like he had all morning, a decent result was possible.
A decent start saw Riley maintain his 25th position. What was gearing up to be a nice steady clean drive came to an end on lap 4. In the final section of lap 4, Riley was on the inside of someone when someone else came up the inside of him. This kart pincered him in to the other kart and caused damage to the steering, leaving Riley sat at the side of the track near the start/finish line.
The damage was fairly substantial, a bent track rod, bent steering column and the bolt holding the steering wheel boss to the column snapped causing the boss to swell. Not really the result Riley deserved for the final, with an official finishing position of 34th overall.
Conclusion
The second round of The Kart Championship saw a huge improvement in Riley’s driving. The new DJI Osmo Action camera made coaching him easier. The rebuilt engine was awesome once it had some run time on it. Thank you to Force Motorsport for getting it all sorted. This round saw Riley matching and even beating his Ambition team mate which was good to see.
Huge thanks must go to Joe and Paul Weaver, who were part of the Ambition Motorsport team again this weekend along with Paul Janes. Joe spent time coaching Riley, and Paul W really helped Dad out with getting the kart set up, running well, and ensuring the kart was right all weekend and Paul J helping with parts, coaching and all round support. Everyone in the Ambition Motorsport team is incredibly supportive, and all the parents help out where they can.
It’s a short turnaround until Round 3 at Glan-y-Gors on the 17/18th May. We’ve got the replacement parts for the steering sorted, Riley has had his wrist checked out after the incident and nothing is broken so we should be there on the grid.
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