We managed to get to practice on Saturday as there was no football, which helped Sam get his eye back in on this track. We love Kim, great open flowing track, great club and the chance to race with some SuperOne drivers too. With the set-up decided we headed home early.
The cold dark start on Sunday began with registration and scrutineering. The new rule for this season for MSA racing is the use of drop-down bumpers for Cadets. The idea with these is to improve driving standards, reducing the pushing and shoving often seen in cadet racing. More on our experience of that later. Another difference was the combined Iame and Honda grid leading to Sam first experience of rolling starts.
Heat one saw Sam rise from 24th to 16th which was amazing to watch with a couple of places gained early and the rest picked up in the final few laps. Sam was on pole for Heat 2 and very nervous about setting the pace for the Honda pack for the rolling start. When the lights went out he hit the go peddle perfectly, the P2 kart though broke formation too early and took a 10 sec penalty. On lap 3 the battenberg flag was out following a crash on Kimbolton Corner. On the restart all the karts were bunched up but Sam held position. As late as lap 8 Sam was still 3rd Honda but in the end he finished 5th, his best finish to date at Kim.
Sam was 7th on the Grid in the Final, but unfortunately he caught a first corner spinner with his front bumper. He made it out of the mess in 10th and ultimately that’s where he finished on track. But coming back into parc ferme his bumper was pushed in one side and so he incurred a 10 sec penalty pushing down to 14th. It seems so unfair when he was not at fault for the first corner mess but those are the rules. All in all though this was another good weekend and further evidence of Sam’s increased confidence, feel of the kart and his developing race craft.
So here we are, Sam at the end of his first full season of racing in Honda Cadets. Here’s the results….
Club2000 at RLK (non-MSA): 21st of 54 drivers completing 10 of 12 rounds
HKRC at Kimbolton (MSA): 17th of 29 drivers completing 5 of 9 rounds
I would say that’s a solid, steady progress with LOTS of lessons learned for driver AND mechanic. Target for 2018 is to build on that and aim maybe for a top 10 in one or even both championships.
The November and December meetings to close 2017 were a real mix. Club2000 in November was not the best day at the office for Sam. It was pouring rain most of the day making it a real test. Sam was punted off from 3rd in Heat 1, then pulling off with damp in the electrics and eventually rejoining to finish 19th. More than the usual front runners found themselves in the B final, which meant Sam would’t finish in the top 4 for an A Final start.
Mixing it with the SuperOne guys!
At HKRC the following weekend Sam started his last MSA meeting on Novice Plates. Heat 1 he gained one place, Heat 2 he gained 2 places. The final though saw Sam get tangled up with a kart which had gone off earlier that was then fighting back up through the pack. The resulting spin for Sam cost him time and two places.
The final race of 2017 for us would be Club2000 at RLK. Damp and very cold, I think Sam span on every heat for one reason or another. The track was so cold we added a tooth in gearing after the first heat in the hope of improving speed through the corners. It seemed to work, in both Heat 4 and the A Final Sam logged the 4th fastest lap times. As it turns out, this would be a great way to finish the year. Sam I think is beginning to realise he can match the boys in the top 5, a confidence booster for sure.
The weekend of the 7/8 October was to be a tiring one with racing at Red Lodge on Saturday and Kimbolton Sunday. Optimism was high when Sam posted the fastest time in the Odd Number 3 lap practice on Saturday, in fact the 5th fastest overall. The track was damp and greasy but drying and by the time Sam went in his first heat, fastest laps were into the 48s. Sadly Sam’s 4th place on the grid didn’t last and a collision, bending a stub axle and steering rod on lap 4 put him out. The next heat was better but heat 4 had Sam muscled down from 6th to 19th! So into the B Final we went, the now usual battle with friend Oli had Sam come out on top with a first place and Oli second. The A Final was a bit of a procession for Sam, no real drama but no big gains either.
Sunday bought Round 8 of the HKRC Championship at Kimbolton and another damp start. Again Sam posted a good time, 10th fastest of 22 drivers. In the first heat Sam completed just 3 laps, before retiring with damage from a collision. A bent stub, steering rod and steering column meant a lot of work before the next race. Heat 2 was less eventful and as Sam gained one place to finish to 16th. In heat 3 Sam gained 2 on lap 1 going up to 16th before another coming together a few laps in put him down to a 21st place and second to last. Starting in 22nd and last in the final meant just one way to go, Sam gained 2 off the start benefiting from a first corner incident further up the pack. He lost one of those later but then ended up chasing pit bay buddy Freya, eventually over taking her to finish 20th. So off home for a well earned rest!
A busy weekend, football on Saturday morning meant just two practice sessions at Kim in the afternoon. All the previous sessions had been dry but a downpour meant our sessions would be wet. At least there was some seat time and we got signed on and scrutineering completed.
Race day on the Sunday started at little damp but dried out. In heat 1 Sam was 15th on the grid (still on novice plates) but he got past his mate Oliver quickly and battled with him and others until the end finishing 12th but behind Oli. Heat 2 was not good for Sam, a lap 3 incident put him to the back and that’s where he stayed. Sam was 17th and last on the Heat 3 grid but a good start in the first half of the race Sam made steady gains to rise to 14th and chasing Oli again. On lap 8 Sam took Oli but over the next couple of laps Oli took it back and another place was lost to finish 15th.
The rain radar and the view across the fields suggested the A Final could be a wet one. We went to assembly with a bag of inters/wets to put on. Spots of rain in the air but the clock ticking down, decisions had to be made. In the end we were one of only a handful choosing inters. It turned out to be the wrong choice as the race was dry but Sam can make inters work on a dry track. Sadly, Sam couldn’t avoid a first corner mess and having started made a good start gaining a place from 15th he was back in 16th with Oli behind. Both Sam and Oli got around karts 44 and 88 but Oli got Sam so a 14th place finish was all he could manage.
The real achievement of the weekend was Sam shrugging off his dislike of wet racing, he actually wanted it to rain and that’s good stuff. Rain levels the field and can throw up some surprises….can’t it Seb!
Next: October double header Club2000 and Kimbolton in one weekend!
The East Anglian Trophy is Hunts Kart Racing Club’s signature event. A tall order then for Sam to come back from crashing out from his first event at Kimbolton in April. The weekends racing started on the Saturday after more limited practice sessions than usual. Conditions were good, dry and warm enough, nowhere near as hot as it had been in April. The grid was up to 20 karts for this meeting and Sam qualified to start 16th for heat 1. He made a good start and rose to 13th after 3 laps eventually finishing 12th, this was a good start to the weekend. We returned on Sunday morning for another 3 lap practice and then heat 2. Unfortunately a lap 1 incident with kart 33 (not for the first time) and Sam dropped from 12th to 18th. At race end Sam moved up to 17th after a retirement further up the field.
For the final Sam was now down in 17th on the grid. He got round Freya on the start and avoided a tangle of karts in the first corner to emerge in 15th at the end of the first lap. Sam set about chasing Macie again for the next few laps. Jaz and Charlie came through after their earlier problems but then again on lap 11 and incident gave Sam the chance to move up again to 13th. Oli also got through and passed Sam, so now Freya was chasing Sam into the final laps. Kart 34 passed Freya in the final two laps and pipped Sam right on the line by just 0.18 of a second! That’s just one bad corner exit but Sam still finished a solid 14th Overall and 3rd of 7 novices. Quite a race to watch…time for a lie down!
When Sam started his karting adventure, the ambition was always to get to proper MSA racing. With Sam having passed his ARKS test and with 2017 MSA Licence in hand, we were keen to get to our first MSA meet. Kimbolton always had a facination for me because of the history. The Hunts Kart Racing Club venue is one of the originals, established in 1959 on the site of the base of the 379th USAF Bomber Squadron in World War Two. It is also the closest kart track to us but only open one weekend a month for the race meetings, no corporate karting aspect at all.
The HKRC Chairman was very welcoming when I enquired about going for our first taste of MSA racing. We made our entry, booked a pit bay and turned up on the Saturday for practice. Our first error was not getting there early enough for a track walk. The error became apparent when Sam failed to find the pit entry after the first session and spent extra time on track looking for it! Tears followed and I got a roasting by the officials. The later sessions were better and Sam quickly got up to pace. The weather helped as temperatures reached over 20ºC with clear blue skies. Sam’s practice lap times were eventually down to 51s a real achievement for his first time at Kim.
Our next error was not doing more time on the harder MSA LS2 tyres. We only shod the kart with these for the final practice session and they really needed more heat cycles and laps on them before race day. Having said that the qualifying session on Sunday morning saw Sam just 0.3-0.4 secs off Sam’s friends Charlie and Ollie from Red Lodge who are also novices but with previous experience at Kim. Sam started the first heat in P11 in a grid of 15 and immediately dropped a place to Charlie, which was to be expected as he totally missed the start as the start light sequence is different to RLK. Sam held 12th until the penultimate last lap where he span thanks to a tap from behind. Then in 14th Sam passed two stricken karts to finish in 12th. At least we could say Sam was on the pace with other novices, no shame there.
Heat 2 was red flagged first lap after a collision saw Ollie tended to by paramedics on track but fortunatley walking wounded. Unfortunately that turned out to be a bad omen. The re-run heat 2 saw only 12 karts start and Sam played a blinder passing Charlie and Macie to move into 9th. Sadly a coming together with Macie saw Freya and Charlie pass Sam and eventually 11th was the best he could do.
Heat 3 was where our real drama came. Sam made a great start again to pass Freya and with kart 86 off Sam was into 10th. He tried to hold on to Charlie but couldn’t and with Freya, Macie and 86 closing he went into lap 5 looking back and defensive. For some reason Sam span in Kestrel and hit the tyres hard. The first I knew was he didn’t appear as expected down the start/finish straight. Waved yellows and then a red flag heightened my fears. Running down to the far end of the circuit I could see Sam being attended to by the medics. Eventually I was let onto the track and saw Sam taken from his kart, immobilised on a spinal board and then onto a trolley. I joined him in the ambulance for the short trip the medical centre at the circuit. That was to be the end of our racing for the weekend. A later ambuklance ride to Hinchingbrooke A&E confirmed all was infact okay, spinal X-rays all clear. But this was a real scare for a time, unfortunately our cadet drivers often forget about the dangers and show little fear in the heat of the race.
I need to take this opportunity to thank everyone at the HKRC for the care Sam recieved after his crash and the reassurance they gave us. The marshalls, medics and officials have my utmost respect and thanks. We will be back I hope, with a new suit (previous one now a trophy, Sam having been cut out of it!) and a checked kart (no major damage obvious).
Result: 13th of 15 on the day…without the drama in Heat 3 and spin in Heat 1 Sam would have had sniff at 9th and the novice trophy. But congrats to the girls (Freya and Macie), it was their time to shine!
Next Month: Club2000 and the East Anglian Trophy meeting at Kimbolton??
Sam Cooper Cadet Kart Driver and Dad…Blog for Karting adentures and other things motorsports…
