Rissington 3rd/4th September

This weekend we travelled to Rissington for the Midland Championship weekend.  Ethan's laptimes were better from the start of the weekend and he got to grips with the track fairly quickly. 

The heats were difficult, Ethan had a bad start in one and spun trying to overtake in another.

In the final he started 27th on a full grid and gained three places to finish 24th.  There was a definate improvement in his driving however at the end of the final Ethan felt he had let himself down and not tried hard enough. 

We stayed for the trophy presentations with a very upset Ethan who has always wanted a trophy so badly.

To Ethans absolute surprise he won a novice trophy,  I dont think we will ever forget his face as he collected it.  He came back to stand by us absolutely thrilled and was so focused on the trophy he didnt even hear when the last award of the day was being presented for best presented kart. 

All his cadet friends were stood around while a picture was held up and number 69 was announced as the winner.  Everyone looked at Ethan but he still didnt click that it was him until his name was announced.  An emotional Ethan was awarded a large trophy and presentation picture by Tom Harvey.

So we came home with two trophies and a very happy nine year old.  Ethan cannot wait to get back in the kart in two weeks at Llandow and this time he will no longer be a novice driver.

Llandow 21st August

Had a great weekend at the track with Delta Karting. Got a personal best lap time of 53.41, this is still quite far off winning pace but it means Ethan is in the mix a bit more.

The weather was fine on the Sunday so there were not too many changes to set up.  The kart seemed to work well all weekend.  Ethan achieved his best finish during the second heat finishing in 3rd place and although we still did not come away with the trophy he wants so badly the general feeling was that there was a great deal of improvement. Overall he finished 5th. 

Since the race we have also had some testing days at Llandow and Llwyncelyn and are hoping to race at Rissington this weekend. 

Glan Y Gors 7th August

This was a real eye opener for us.  Doing a race weekend elsewhere was really different to Llandow and an all round good experience.  We arrived late afternoon on Friday and were shocked to find very little place to park as the car parks were packed - This is never the case at Llandow even if you turn up 5 minutes until the race.

We set up camp and had a look around.

Everyone was so friendly and helpful and Saturday practice was very strict meaning Ethan only got a total of 1 hour track time.  By the end of the day at a very different track Ethan was about 3 seconds off front running pace. 

Race day on Sunday was also fun - we struggled with set up a bit only having had to do it at one track.  Ethan got bumped off track a few times by more confident yellow plates but he didnt let him bother him and got on with the job at hand. 

It was a full grid of 30 with reserves waiting patiently for their turn.  Ethan had not really driven in a full grid but again it didnt bother him. 

By the end of Sunday Ethan was two seconds away from the front runners and given more track time we believe he could have been alot quicker.  He found the devils elbow corner very difficult and struggled to find a good line through it all weekend - he could have made a second up here.  His Mychron was quoting a theoretical front running pace.  At the end of the day he finished 3rd place comer novice and whilst there wasnt a trophy for this we believe he made excellent progress.  Next race Llandow - 20th August.

Race van

We have been working on getting beds in our van - Here are a few pics of what we have done so far.

Llandow 24th July

Despite wanting to practice every weekend unfortunatley Llandow has had events on all weekend since the last race meeting so we havent been able to work on things.

We decided to practice both Friday and Saturday before the race on Sunday.  This meant by Sunday after working on set ups and driving lines we were able to take over a second off Ethans laptimes. 

All in all this was a fun weekend and although Ethan is still not as fast as his other novice friends he does enjoy every single second at the track (whether he is on it or not)  He finished 8th overall with much better laptimes than at previous races.  He is however dissapointed not to have had a novice trophy yet but Llandow does only have one novice trophy for the whole race meeting. 

Having now completed three races at Llandow we decided that it was time to travel further afield so the next job is to complete the van so we can all sleep in there and get travelling.  We have now compiled a calender of events for the rest of the year at lots of different tracks that we hope will help Ethan gain experience.  So our next race is on the 7th August at Glan Y Gors

Llandow 19th June

Ethans first race back after breaking his arm was a difficult one.  Ethan after having three months off found it difficult to get used to things - especially the fact that his other novice friends had progressed so much.

We also suffered set up problems which meant that in heat 1 Ethan spun off and threw the chain and in Heat 3 the kart simply stopped altogther.  It was a stressful weekend for us all and Ethan despite pushing hard was still way off the pace.

In the final Ethan finished 5th out of 8.  His times although still way down were better for him and considering this was only his second race we are pleased with the progress he made.  Next race is Llandow again in July.  

No racing

Last weekend just before his second race, Ethan broke his arm playing football.  After a day in A&E last Saturday Ethan was most dissapointed to discover he wont race for the next six weeks.  As it is his right arm he was planning to get away with some schoolwork too but the teachers have made him write with his left arm!

Ethan will be two races behind most of his other novice friends when he returns to the track in May and they have already improved their laptimes on his.  It is a dissapointing setback to his first year racing but Ethan has always loved a challenge and we have no doubt he will progress quickly when he gets back into his kart.

On a more positive note it has given us the chance to start converting the new van into something that will suit us.  So we have decided to concentrate on that for the coming weeks.