FAT Karting League Pre-season test day 2 at Rissington - a day of two halves!
Sunday 12th April saw Tom take to the track at Rissington for the first time, in less than ideal conditions!
Very cold and windy first thing, the first 4 sessions were fortunately in the dry. Tom quickly got to grips with the track and was clearly enjoying the circuit. After a 5th place finish in P1, Tom clearly decided to push and popped into P1 at the end of the second session which he was thrilled with! Third practice saw competition between the top 5 heat up, with a mere 0.79 of a second between them (and Tom finishing 4th). The final morning session saw him take 3rd and a new PB of 47.14 - only 0.19 seconds from the leader - the fastest time of the weekend for a junior light regional driver, which Tom was thrilled with.
Then while on the track walk for the afternoon session the heavens opened! In some ways a good thing as Tom has previously only had one short stint in the rain early last year, but clearly the afternoon would be a challenge.
P1 started and so did the spins/yellows - including some spins from Tom! Struggling with both grip and straight line pace , Tom could only make it to P12 of the 19 drivers. Disappointed he took stock, and tried again - but a similar result in second practice saw him finish P15. By P3 the track began to dry and Tom began to push, managing to get it to within just over a second behind 1st place in both P3 and P4. While there was possibly some tyre wear coming into play, he's keen to take these learnings to the next wet session - and keep trying the advice of the driver coaches to find something that works going forwards - onwards and upwards!
MORNING (the good half ):
Practice 1 - P5 | Practice 2 - P1🥇 | Practice 3 - P4 | Practice 4 - P3 🥉
& Fastest lap Junior Light Regional 🏎🏁
AFTERNOON (the rainy half ):
Practice 1 - P12 | Practice 2 - P15 | Practice 3 - P9 (some improvement at least!) | Practice 4 - P11
