Team News
September 19th & 20th Easykart Round 8 Ellough Park Lowestoft
The last round of Easykart was at
September 13th Club Championship Kimbolton
Ronan had not raced in the Comer Engine class for 2 months. We used the first two sessions on Saturday to test the Easykart after all the problems at Rowrah, ready for the last round, and it looked good. Then onto the other chassis to get some testing done. Ronan finished the day 2/10ths of a second off the fastest driver with 3/10ths covering about 10 drivers. On Sunday Ronan made gains in heats 1 and 3, but in heat 2 we got the chassis set up wrong and Ronan lost 5 places from his start position. Starting 10th in the final Ronan had a quiet race not able to catch drivers in front and not being caught from behind, eventually Ronan took 11th place.
August 21st, 22nd & 23rd Easykart Rounds 6 & 7 Rowrah Cumbria
A long trip to another new track, and a double header weekend with testing on Friday and racing on both Saturday and Sunday. The problems started straight away on Friday with the engine not performing at all and carburettors failing in every session. We had only improved 1/10th of a second from the first session to the last. On Saturday we again worked hard on the engine and we started to find some pace, with Ronan setting the 3rd fastest time after qualifying 2. The start of the Pre-final saw Ronan drop to 4th but the front 4 were in close contact. On the 3rd lap going into the chicane there was contact and Ronan locked brakes and spun, rejoining in 6th place. We were suffering from a lack of bottom end power and with Ronan now behind 2 karts which were over a second slower he had no means of making a pass, so 6th was his finishing place. The final was a scrappy start and Ronan got into 4th on the first lap and had a race long battle with Harry Newey, twice swapping places, but eventually finishing 4th.
Sunday was forecast a severe weather warning, and they weren't wrong. From about 10am it started to rain and got heavier and heavier. We were still having problems and found ourselves nearly 2 seconds off the pace. After the second qualifying session the decision was made to abandon the meeting. With the results given as per qualifying, Ronan was awarded a lowly 9th.
Ronan is 3rd in the Championship with 1 round to go. Ronan will be no lower than 3rd and 2nd place is all to play for with only 5 points separating the two places.
July 18th & 19th Easykart Round 5 Rye House Hoddesdon
We had tested at Rye House in April so we knew a little of the track and setup. Saturday went well and we matched identical fastest laps with series leader Dehavillande to the nearest 100th of a second. Ronan was quickest in warm-up on Sunday morning and set the quickest time in Qualifying 1, which started wet and finished dryish. Ronan was 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else on wets! Qualifying 2 and Ronan set the 4th fastest time due to not getting off the dummy grid at the start of the session and getting caught in traffic when the best times are usually set. A good start in the pre-final from 4th on the grid up to 3rd. The leading pair broke away and had about a 2 seconds gap to Ronan in third. Ronan worked hard on his own to reel the front two in and caught them on lap 11. Ronan settled for 3rd giving him an inside grid start for the final. Another good start in the final and up to 2nd place. The leader stretched a small lead but Ronan was in pursuit, with third place Will Stowell close behind. Will passed Ronan then the two of them linked to catch the leader. They were catching Dehavillande quickly, then it all changed as the heavens opened and chaos ensued. Our very dry setup just did not work in the wet on slicks, however Ronan was 1 of only 2 drivers not to spin. Dehavillande stretched his lead and won comfortably, and Ronan drove a sensible race to come home with 4th. Ronan is still 2nd in the championship with 3 rounds left, but it is very close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
July 12th Club Championship Kimbolton
Saturday morning started wet and the first two sessions were on intermediate tyres. We changed to dry set-up for the rest of the day, and we were a few tenths off of the pace, but this may be due to the engine requiring some running in. A good drive in heat 1 saw Ronan start 20th and climb up to finish 9th. Heat 2 and Ronan started on pole, and took that lead into turn 1, where he stayed for 2 laps. Ronan's kart dropped off the pace but he had done enough to take 5th place. Starting 10th in heat 3 and up to 6th half way round the first lap, Ronan was looking good until contact at hanger corner on lap 2 put him to the back of the pack. Ronan fought well to finish 16th. Ronan qualified 9th for the final, and after a scrappy first lap was down in 15th. Ronan finished 13th after a tough race.
June 28th Club Championship Whilton Mill
A very hot weekend at Whilton Mill, with very humid conditions. Saturday testing was very close but the conditions were very difficult to judge with grip being hard to control. A solid three heats from Ronan gave a 3rd place grid for the final. We had noticed a slight dip in performance of the engine during the day and in the final the engine bogged our the start line and Ronan dropped to 10th. But Ronan fought back well to finish in 6th place. A trip to our engine builder found a stuck piston ring was causing the power loss, which has now been rectified, so we look forward to Kimbolton in July.
June 13th & 14th Easykart Round 4 Teesside Middlesbrough
With no solution to our engine problem, (not through lack of effort) we arrived at another new track, but it was new to everyone so no-one had an advantage from track knowledge. Early testing on Saturday looked ok but as we went into the 3rd session we were clearly off the pace by 6 - 7 tenths a lap. So we tried a new carb and found the missing time straight away. We looked into it further and found that our original carb had a fault on one of the jets. Ronan was joint quickest after the 5th session on Saturday. came and Ronan was quickest in the warm-up session. In Q1 Ronan was joint 3rd quickest with only 1.2 tenths covering the top 4 drivers. In Q2 and Ronan placed himself just in the right place with someone in front to catch and timed the laps to perfection when on laps 7 and 8 setting the pole position time. P1 for the pre-final and into the lead on turn 1, with the top 4 drivers nose to tail for 15 laps. Ronan held the lead until lap 10 when he dropped back to 3rd, but didn't give up with a great battle over the last 5 laps, and just grabbing 2nd on the line. P2 for the final and a brave start holding the outside line into turn 1 and slotting into 2nd place on the exit. Again four drivers were nose to tail for 18 laps with Ronan under pressure from 3rd place, but holding on. Two battles developed, one for the lead and the other for third place. Ronan got the lead on lap 10 but lost it again on lap 12, then all 4 drivers again closed into one 4 kart train. Ronan took a well deserved 2nd place, just 7 hundredths of a second behind the winner. Fantastic racing from all four drivers.
May 30th & 31st Easykart Round 3 Clay Pigeon Dorset
Another new track for us to learn very quickly, but try as might we could not get the kart setup correct. On Saturday night we had the engine rebuilt thinking that was the cause. On Sunday things didn't improve, with Ronan 10th quickest in warm up, then 9th quickest in Q1, and 6th quickest in Q2. We were looking now at damage limitation for this round. Ronan started 7th on the grid for the pre-final, and made a place up to 6th on lap 1. Ronan benefited from another driver spinning in front and held 5th to the end of the race. Starting in 5th place for the final, and Ronan pushed through up to 3rd, and the opening laps looking good as Ronan was challenging for 2nd place. About halfway through the race the kart started to slow but Ronan was clear in 5th place, which he held to the end of the race, so not as bad as we thought it would be.
May 24th Club Championship Whilton Mill
Ronan was 3rd quickest on Saturday during testing, so we knew our setup was good. On Sunday Ronan had grid starts of 13th, 18th, and 2nd for the three heats. Ronan was 10th in the first heat and posted the fastest lap. The second heat and Ronan gained 12 places to finish 6th, and in heat three secured 2nd place with a good battle for the lead. This gave Ronan a 3rd place grid for the final. At the start Ronan was squeezed out on the second corner and slotted back in about 10th, but was quickly back up to 6th and catching 5th place, then a back marker came across the racing line out of turn two leaving Ronan nowhere to go but the grass and ended up back in 11th, but a great final 4 laps saw Ronan battle back to 7th. Another good weekend and showing some great promise.
May 10th Club Championship Kimbolton
We had a good days testing on Saturday and were on the pace. Ronan had grid starts of 10th, 17th, and pole for the three heats. Three solid drives in the heats with finishes of 8th, 7th, and 6th respectively giving Ronan a grid start of 6th for the final. Some strong drivers covering the first five rows of the grid and it looked like we were in for a good battle. Ronan entered turn 1 in 5th place but was taken out of the race by a driver coming over the curb on the inside and riding up over Ronan's rear wheel, and landing on top of the steering wheel and coming off of the other side of the kart, narrowly and luckily missing Ronan. Ronan did get going again, but after 7 laps came into the pits due to difficulty turning the steering wheel. Ronan is certainly gaining in confidence at each outing.
April 25th & 26th Easykart Round 2 Llandow Wales
We had never raced at the Llandow circuit, and our first sight was on the Saturday morning, so Ronan needed to learn the track very quickly. Saturday is a test day to prepare for the race day on Sunday. The weather didn't help as three of the five 10minute sessions went from dry to wet and back to dry again due to short sharp showers. We had a reasonable set-up ready for Sunday.
Ronan made an error in the 10minute warm up session which was again greasy conditions, and ran wide over a curb knocking the chain off and only doing about half the session. First qualifying saw Ronan 4th quickest with only 9/10th's of a second covering the first 7 drivers. Second qualifying and Ronan was 5th quickest, but the times from the first session were quicker so a 4th place start for the pre-final was secured. The rain came for the 15 lap pre-final and Ronan drove well to hold 4th place, so again secured this position for the final.
Back to dry track for the 18 lap final, and a great first lap saw Ronan up to 3rd and going with the 2nd place driver William Stowell and pulling away from the 4th placed James DeHavilande . Ronan continued to close on Stowell over the next few laps, but our lack of knowledge of the track started to show as it became obvious as they moved into the second half of the race that we had too much grip, and the kart was struggling to pull through the slower corners. But Ronan had a healthy lead of 3 seconds over 4th place DeHavilande and was only losing 1-2 tenths per lap. What we hadn't counted on was two back markers being lapped by the leaders and Ronan caught them at the worst possible place on the track, losing a full 1.5 seconds getting past them. This gave DeHavilande a chance to get on Ronan's tail and as the last lap board came out Ronan was in full defensive mode under huge pressure from behind. DeHavilande had track experience and lined Ronan up into the back straight and managed to gain the inside line into the last corner. Ronan attempted the switchback to come back underneath but James had it covered crossing the line 2/10th's second in front of Ronan.