DER Test Day with Dave Edwards Racing
A true test of resilience…
With a well-timed inset day on Friday 25th Sept, Tom was able to take part in a testing day in a Junior Rotax to see how he fared! Excitement and nerves were both high as the day began at a sunny PFI Circuit – another new challenge for Tom as he’s not been there before. Initial kart setup complete Tom headed out and began getting used to the feel of the kart, track layout and conditions.
After a steady first session everything seemed to be building up nicely – then disaster! Heading down the straight past the stands at full pace, a mechanical issue caused a total break failure, sending Tom full speed into the tyre barrier without any option to slow.
Fortunately Tom had tried to get the kart turned avoiding a nasty head on collision, but was still buried under the tyre wall. Luckily for Dad he could see a Marshall running as fast as possible to get to him, and Toms hands moving to try and get the tyres off him, a good sign. The marshall (fortunately a trained paramedic) got him uncovered, checked him over both in the kart then trackside once they’d deemed him ok to get out of the kart.
Thanks to his full safety gear, apart from a sore neck, bruised arms, ribs and legs he was declared ok and could get back on the tarmac in the next session, however his confidence was understandably knocked. Despite that he dug deep and headed back out for the remaining sessions, although somewhat tentatively at first and suffering with quite a lot of pain.
After a break for lunch it was time for the final session. Before the incident Tom had been set a target to get to a minute lap time in their test spec kart and up to that point had managed a 1:02 despite everything. Tom dug deep and despite the tyres being well past their best he managed to hit the magic one minute barrier in the final session by pushing through the pain.
Not bad considering and a great result in light of everything that had happened and we’re just pleased he wasn’t seriously hurt but a massive shame because he was capable of more. Hopefully someday he’ll be able to try a full race spec rotax and give it proper go.
RESULTS: Target time set at start of day: 1:00 | Time achieved despite setbacks: 1:00.3
