Crail Summer Endurance - Round 4

Today was round 4 of the Crail Endurance Championship, and the weather forecast predicted a dry day……


I got the news last Wednesday that I could finally stop taking the medication that my heart operation had mandated. So I took my last Warfarin on Wednesday night and my last Beta Blocker on Friday morning. I couldn’t be sure, but despite having to work on Saturday, I wasn’t at all tired on Saturday night which contrasted sharply with the previous 4 months. I guess I had just got used to the side affects, so I hoped to be able to push hard on Sunday.

Leaving Glasgow on Sunday morning, it looked like the forecasters had got it right, as the sky was mostly clear and it looked like it would be a good day.

Practice, on the long circuit, went really well with my best of 44.20 being 3/10ths quicker than anyone else. Normally we get on better on the shorter circuit and at the start of qualifying, I put in a 37.49 which, when I handed over to Ros, was still the fastest time. However with 5 mins to go, Grant of MBM put in a 37.45 and we finished 2nd.

We had a full days testing on Friday 20th and we found lots of little things in the setup, which we put to good use – despite qualifying in second, we were quite happy.

I didn’t get a great start in race 1 but just managed to hold off Michael in the Panther Racing entry and from that point onwards, I sat just behind Grant of MBM – I got past once, but he was able to re-pass (I found out later he had changed his kart’s gearing after practice/qualy) down the front straight. Ros took over, and he managed to pass Mur, who had taken over from Grant, and pull away for a well deserved win.

Race 2 was on the long circuit, and panned out much the same, but by this time, Alan Kirkcaldy (brother of FIA GT racer Andrew) had turned up and he started in the MBM kart, along side me on the back row (reversed grid). I managed to get past Scott of Apollo to take the lead after 10 or so laps, but Alan was right behind me and again, the higher gearing that they were running allowed him to pass me on the entry to the roundabout. But again, I just sat right behind him and despite being given a hard time by one backmarker in particular, I handed over to Ros in a comfortable second. Ros chased Grant really hard and by the flag, was only 1.5 seconds behind after an hour of racing.

We decided that changing our gearing for race 3 was too risky as we were starting from pole. I made a good start and Alan sat behind me until I made a slight error and then past he went – We then traded places for the next few laps with over half a lap of side to side racing with no contact – It was brilliant! I finally made a small break and handed over to Ros in the lead (just). It looked like Ros and Grant were going to have a similar battle with the lead changing hands a few times, but then with around 20 minutes to go, it started raining and Grant just drove away to a comfortable win.

So second on the day, but for me it was great to be back racing and not feeling knackered – And the dice I had with Alan was really good – Normally I’m a bad loser, but today didn’t feel like we lost – It’s doing to be a really competitive season.
We still lead the championship, but only by 4 points from MBM.