The 2024 BUKC season started proper with the Qualifiers event. This event is split over a weekend, with half of the places in each class up for for taking each day. Each driver takes part in one of 7 heats, each constituting of a practice/qualifying session in the morning (yes, qualifying has its own qualifying!), and a race in the afternoon. Points from the races are used to order the teams, and count as the first round of the season!
The day started wet, and despite only slight rainfall during the day, the November temperate ensured that the track never fully dried out. Turns 1 and 2 andthe braking zones into Christmas and the boot remained particularly slippery throughout the day. The final corner was a challenge as ever, during the morning qualifying sessions drivers couldn't agree on what line to take!
More photos at the end, and once BUKC release the official photos I will link them below. More timing detail can be found on alphatiming under Saturday Qualifiers.
Cambridge A
The A team finished 11th on Saturday, 21st overall, qualifying them for the Premier class of Mains.
Alistair used his extensive experience to qualify very well in third, and finished just over two seconds behind the leader, unfortunately penalties pushed him down to P8. Jack and Adam kept their noses clean to take P7 and P3 respectively. Unfortunately Fran's race was to be cut short, while recovering his kart after an incident on the exit of Zulu he was hit by another driver. Thankfully his injuries are not serious, and we wish him a fast recovery.
Driver (heat) | Quali | Fastest lap/m:s | Race | Gap to leader/m:s | Fastest lap/m:s |
Alistair Senior (2) | 3 | 1:04.145 | 8 | +2.263 | 56.124 |
Jack Hepworth (3) | 12 | 1:05.866 | 7 | +48.274 | 50.889 |
Fran Gomez-Medina (5) | 17 | 1:05.271 | 15 | +17.953 | 53.819 |
Adam Ormondroyd (6) | 11 | 1:04.727 | 3 | +19.465 | 47.858 |
Cambridge B
The B team finished 37th on Saturday, 73rd overall, qualifying them for the Intermediate class.
Alex had a fantastic start to his race, getting up to P4, unfortunately mistakes towards the end cost him what could have been a very strong result. Oliver managed to outqualify Jack in the A team, and managed to hang on to Jack for a while after he slipped past at the start. Dom held 7th place for most of his race, however a late penalty cost him several positions. Luke's race was red flagged and ended at Fran's incident, so he didn't have any time to recover from a lap 1 spin.
Driver (heat) | Quali | Fastest lap/m:s | Race | Gap to leader/m:s | Fastest lap/m:s |
Alex Wilkinson (1) | 14 | 1:05.931 | 19 | +1 lap | 1:02.046 |
Oliver Sier (3) | 10 | 1:05.589 | 15 | +1 lap | 51.186 |
Dom Cousins (4) | 12 | 1:05.178 | 18 | +1 lap | 49.023 |
Luke Shillaber (5) | 19 | 1:05.885 | 36 | +47.358 | 1:01.353 |
Cambridge C
The C team finished 61st on Saturday, placing them 123rd overall. Rohan and Ayan were very new to the circuit, so they gained valuable experience in their sessions.
Driver (heat) | Quali | Fastest lap/m:s | Race | Gap to leader/m:s | Fastest lap/m:s |
Joseph Garvey (1) | 31 | 1:09.247 | 30 | +3 laps | 1:03.799 |
Rohan Sanghera (3) | 26 | 1:08.380 | 35 | +5 laps | 53.820 |
Yaseen Al-Khazali (5) | 29 | 1:07.478 | 29 | +32.939 | 53.542 |
Ayan Shoaib (6) | 35 | 1:11.034 | 29 | +3 laps | 50.857 |
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