British Super 4 ICC championship - Round 4 Rowrah - 8th July 2007

Heat 1 – Sunday turned out to be a hot, sunny day and with the weather perfect I had a good feeling that I could start to make inroads in to the championship lead that Sam Moore had built up over me in the first couple of rounds and after a successful previous round where I finished 2nd to Will Hibbert I knew I was due a win. I started from 21st on the grid for the first heat of the day and was quickly able to slice me way through the pack and it wasn’t long before I was up into the top 10. For the majority of the race I had followed Sam Moore through the traffic and on the last lap was close enough to get past him and hold the position until the finish. 8th was a good result from the back of the grid and I was now feeling confident in the kart.

Heat 2 – I was on p10 for the start of the second heat. I decided to attack from the beginning of the race and I darted to the outside of the track going into the first corner underbraking I was able to get up to 3rd as the rest of the drivers go boxed in on the inside. Unfortunately someone slid wide into my path and I had no where to go I had to take to the grass and fell back to 15th position. From there I made my way through the traffic passing Tom Moore and Arron James in the closing laps to take 7th.

Heat 3 – I was on grid 4 for the final heat of the day and I made a good start and took the lead at the end of the first lap. But I was struggling with the kart on the first few laps as I couldn’t seem to find any grip. Eventually the tires heated up but Sam Moore had overtaken me by this point. I managed to make some time up on him at the end of the race but knew that there was no point doing anything stupid as I needed try get a win in the final.

Final – After some decent heats I qualified 3rd on the grid for the final alongside Lee Stamp, with Sam Moore and Tom Duggan ahead. I didn’t make the best of starts and as we went over the hill Stamp was alongside me, I squeezed my kart over to the left-hand side of the track to give him as little room as possible. This left him with the choice to back off and settle in behind me or to run wide on to the grass. Unfortunately he wouldn’t back off and he ran wide. I would just like to point out that what I did was fair as there was no contact and I entered the corner first which meant I could choose which line I would take. As Stamp ran wide I kept my cool and held the inside line into the first corner. I saw Duggan make his move on Moore for the lead and with these 2 battling I was hoping to get them both in the next few corners and try put some air between the 3 of us. Unfortunately I didn’t even make it past the next corner as Lee Stamp drove into the back of me and ruined both our races. Whether it was intentional or somebody had run into the back of him I don’t know but it ruined both our races. I managed to rejoin but ¾ of a lap down. The only conciliation was that I set the fastest lap of the race at a 44.41.

It was a very disappointing result as it had knocked my championship chances severely in the ICC UK Super 4 British championships. The kart was great and it’s a shame to come away from a meeting with nothing when we could have had a good result.