May 2025
May was going to be a busy month - the first weekend took me to PF international for round 2 of the Trent Valley Kart Club championship. Having missed round 1, I was keen to get back on track to make sure I hadn’t lost any of the speed I had been gaining from the winter practice races. Of course, I’m chasing the championship from the back as not having been there for round 1 due to breaking my wrist.
Then it was off to Shenington for Round 5 of their championship, I’m really in the hunt for the championship there, so getting maximum points is the ongoing challenge, I will be dropping a round in July due to a family holiday, but I think I’ll have enough points with the dropped scores.
Finally, the last day of May saw me back at PF for round 3 of the TVKC championship, again I added a Friday test day to ensure that I’m getting maximum practice as we get nearer to the British Grand Prix in August.
I’ll not include that in this month’s report, officially it’s their June round.
Trent Valley Kart Club Round 2 - PF International Kart Circuit
Friday Test Day
The Friday test day was very busy with almost a full grid in the IAME class. Finding sufficient space on track was difficult, but with some help from the team we managed to get some good track time. The weather was good, bright and warm and I was very quickly back on the pace of our previous weekends.
Over the day, we tried various changes to the kart with the rear axle and front hub geometry. Nothing seemed to help with the lap times, not really improving all day, but gaining confidence on track, I think my practice engine is getting a little worn now with 21 hours of running so we put it down to that. A satisfactory day but not any real progress.
Saturday Qualifying Day
Saturday consisted of 4 practice sessions, 1 non-qualifying practice and the qualifying session.
Some overnight work on the kart saw me get out and set a good time in the first session, although the Fusion Motorsport team where really quick, by comparison my 1:03.6 was a bit off their lap record driver Austin Newstead setting a 1:01.9, although free practice is just that and you can run in any configuration, so I wasn’t too worried.
Session 2 was a 10th quicker; Marcus my coach gave me some pointers to work on for the last two sessions.
Session 3 the track was slower, mainly down to the harsh head wind, everyone was 0.5 seconds slower than the previous laps.
Session 4, we made some more progress getting a bit closer to the front but still 1.4 seconds away from the very fastest drivers.
Saturday Qualifying Day: Non-Qualifying Practice
This is a simulated qualifying session - it allows me to understand our final kart setup for qualifying and make any last-minute changes should I need to. The only difference was not running new tyres, I would fit these for qualifying. Most of the other teams run new tyres, we can’t afford them for just 5 laps. I managed to finish in 28th, not really the best but as there was a full grid, it was challenging to get in the right place on track to get the best run.
Qualifying is a five-minute session where the best 3 laps are averaged to give you an aggregated time. They use this to set the grid for the heats. Unfortunately, I only managed two good laps and dropped a little time on the 3rd, in the end I qualified P29, certainly not my best position.
Race Day
Heat 1
I drove well, making several places from the start, getting up to P20 in the race and battling hard, I crossed the line in P26, unluckily in the battles I had managed to get a damaged nosecone which means an immediate 5 second penalty, so I dropped to P30.
Heat 2
I had a much better run in the second heat, moving steadily up the field and eventually finishing in P25, even beating my teammate Alessandro Sarlas as he fell down the order.
Final
The penalty I got in heat 1 made a real impact on my start position, starting in P31 it was going to be hard to make up any places, I had a good run but I was too far of the front runners to make an impact, I ended up crossing the line in P29. It felt like a challenging weekend but it was still good to be there and get plenty of experience.
Shenington May Day Speed Fest 2025
Saturday the 17th was test day for the weekend, 6, 7-minute sessions to get the kart dialled in and to make some more progress, the good run I had in April left me with some confidence that I can really get on the top step at Shenington.
I had a really good day, making some progress, we made some changes to the rear axle which helped with rear grip and turn in.
As the track increased in grip I managed to beat the lap record (unofficially as it wasn’t timed), so was looking really good with a great setup for the Sunday race day.
Race Day Sunday 18th
The day started very warm and bright, but the clouds kept rolling through and the rain stayed away.
Much to our surprise, the OMS team arrived Sunday having decided to compete at the very last minute. They are a European championship team and even in the warm up, they showed considerable speed compared to the Jade drivers.
Heat 1
With random grids, I was starting P5, with the OMS team taking the top 3 positions, I stayed in the same place coming in 5th. Seemed we needed to make some changes and see if we could match their pace, I finished 1.09 seconds off first place, and was very close to Knight Measures’ fastest lap.
The main difference seemed to be their superior team work, working together, they were making better pace as a team than the Jade trio.
Race Day Sunday 18th
Heat 2
This was going to be the hardest heat, I had been drawn in P8, I made a good start getting up to P4, but an incident in the first hairpin colliding with teammate Philip and Will Heynes saw me drop back to 8th, a bent steering arm being the main issue.
Heat 3
Starting in P2 I knew I had to push hard to ensure that I got a good start and stay with the top runners, it was important to ensure that I got a decent final starting position.
I managed to race the OMS guys, staying in 3rd but they still pulled a massive 3 second gap on me, I set a new PB of 47.59 in the race and kart felt really good.
Final
The final was going to be a challenge; we hadn’t really managed to improve the pace of the karts and Team OMS were in the front 3 positions for the final. Teammate Alessandro in 4th followed by me in 5th.
I got a great start holding 5th place and keeping close to the front runners, Allesandro and I dropped into formation pushing really hard, the lap times tumbled a new PB at 47.19 getting closer to the 46s mark, I beat the lap record then that was taken by Oscar Kenny by 0.09s and then Callum Graham by just 0.07s with a 46.93s lap. Will Heynes joined us as a group and despite pushing each other forward we just couldn't match the teamwork shown by OMS, the screen grab on the right just shows how close we were all working.
I crossed the line where I started P5 despite giving it all.
That was P2 in the championship, the result gave me a valuable points score pushing me up to P3 in the championship.
Up next
Shenington Summer Speed - 14th/15th June
Trent Valley Kart Club Championship Round 5, P F International Race Circuit - 4th – 6th July