In a successful attempt to tidy up the qualifying events: the BUKC qualifiers were spread over three days, and no longer counts as a championship event.
Overnight rain meant a wet start. Times were slow in the morning, only quickening at the end of the second qualifying session. The new chicane gripped up very quickly in session three, while it wasn't until session six that the apex of turn 2 finally dried out. Races one and two were fully dry, then during a full course yellow in race three the heavens opened again, leading to a dramatic restart! Intermittent drizzle punctuated the next two races, thankfully we had no drivers out when the heavens truly opened in race six.
Despite mistakes and penalties, all three teams had enough pace in hand to qualify for prems, clubman and inters respectively, exactly what we wanted!
Results
Cambridge A #43
P7, Premier Championship
Driver | Heat | Quali | Race | Skill issue |
Alex Wilkinson | 1 | 6 | 8 | Forgot the inside of turn 2 would still be wet on lap 2 |
Oliver Sier | 2 | 8 | 12* | Took out a backmarker trying to follow the leaders through. *+6 for ABC take out |
Alex Brown | 3 | 1 | 5* | Enjoyed racing karts with bumpers too much. *+2 for multiple contact |
Adam Ormondroyd | 5 | 12* | 6 | Took out a backmarker under yellows in quali, then had the audacity to speak to Jacob about it. *+2 speeding under yellows +6 ABC take out |
Cambridge B #91
P17, Clubman Championship
Driver | Heat | Quali | Race | Skill issue |
Jack Hepworth | 1 | 6 | 3 | Answered team selection drama with the best result of the day. No notes. |
James Fraser | 2 | 23* | 13 | Forgot that quali isn't a race, redeemed himself in the actual race. *+4 forcing driver wide |
Toby Sporn | 3 | 8 | DSQ | Didn't read the rules, excluded for pinching fuel pipe |
Alex Benoit | 5 | 23* | 16 | Lost it under yellows, took his frustration out on the cones. *+4 spinning under yellow +1 cone abuse |
Cambridge C #126
P36, Intermediate Championship
Driver | Heat | Quali | Race | Skill issue |
Yaseen Al-Khazali | 1 | 21 | 22 | Nearly took out Jack while being lapped |
Matt Parker | 2 | 19 | 25* | The kart is wider at the back than at the front. *+1+1+1 cone abuse |
Zac Heggie | 3 | 23 | 22 | Was supposed to be coaching a rowing outing, but thankfully sorted out his priorities. |
Fran Gómez-Medina | 4 | 19* | 16 | In quali, forgot to avoid the cones. Worked all the way up to P6, then ended up on the slippery runoff at T2 pushing too hard to catch P5. *+1+1 cone abuse |
More detail can be found on alphatiming.
From the drivers
Alex Wilkinson, A team race 1
"Very pleased with my P5 qualification. However, I sadly locked in a bit too hard starting lap 2 and took T2 as if it was dry (it was in the fact the only wet part of the track left), almost sending me straight to the shadow realm!
"The rest of the race I kept getting dragged into the pack by endless carnage, including being sandwiched twice and getting airtime! P8 is a solid result, and whilst it could’ve been much better if I’d kept it cleaner, I got to do a lot more racing this way, which gives me great confidence for the rest of the season."
Yaseen, C team race 1
"Club100 Karts are great fun as always. I felt really slow in qualifying and was certain to have qualified the car dead last, so I was positively surprised to have bagged P20 on the grid. Had a spin in the race which cost me 20 seconds - turns out you don’t take Wilkins* flat out. The realisation is starting to dawn upon me that sliding in these karts costs you loads of time, but throwing a Club100 kart around Whilton will always be a blast. Glad I kept it clean for P22 after the spin in the race. Huge congrats to the whole team for getting all three entries into the full season."
*the one after Ashby, some maps call it Parker
Adam, A team race 5
"The track was evolving a lot during my quali, so I decided to build my pace steadily over the 20 minutes and let the pace come to me. Things came undone when I caught up with a backmarker under yellows into Osiers: I didn't expect them to brake so hard with the incident well around the corner, but no excuse for taking people out under yellows! The track was still getting faster, so I put the inevitable penalty out of my mind as I knew my final lap would need to be the one that counted.
"Starting P12 I was raring to move forward, but as I lost count of the raindrops gathering on my visor during the formation laps I realised the race would be very different to what I'd envisaged. I slipped through the skittles of T1/2 and settled down for a rollercoaster of drizzle, drying, drizzle, drying almost to dry lines then proper rain - loved every moment of it."
Once BUKC upload the photos from the weekend, I'll dig through for good ones of CUAC and link them here.
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