SMS members at the South East Fers Karting Challenge

Guest 17/3/2008, 11:06 am

Maxine and I headed down to Camberley (Surrey) today to take part in the South East Fers Karting Challenge.... A full review and pics will be along from Tim Morris shortly, but, here's a quick review of how we got on.

Unfortunately quite a few people cancelled at the last minute, and it ended up only being 4 F Register members taking part! And a lot of younger/fitter/slimmer/lighter competitors! In total there were 12 of us racing, and so instead of doing the usual GP format, we did an 'Iron Man' challenge, which is 5 mins practice, then a grid start for a 25 mins race, into the pits for a 5 min break, then racing straight out the pits in the order we came in for another 25 mins.

So, how did we do..... Well I started in 5th, by the end of the 1st lap I was in 2nd, and then by then end of the 2nd lap I was in first! This is how it stayed throughout the first session, with me getting round and lapping most of the other competitors. After our break, I was first out the pits, and very quickly off round and catching up with the back of the pack. The second stint suffered many red flags, as people were feeling tired and the driving was getting scrappy, but I kept plodding on until I came round to lap Maxine! We raced around the fastest part of the circuit alongside each other, and then suddenly found a big pile up of karts in front of us! I braked and swerved and avoided it, but Maxine unfortunately had nowhere to go, and found herself flying at full speed into the back of a stationary kart! NOT GOOD!!!! suddenly she was underneath the other kart!!! So, after both karts were replaced the race re-started, but the 2nd place runner had now been able to catch up with me. I kept him at bay, for a few laps, and then on the second from last lap, we came round the hairpin to find another group of karts that had wiped out! This time, I was stuck, and he was able to get through! I swerved out and set off in chase of him, and very quickly caught him, but I had 1 lap left to try and get past... And then..... RED FLAG, race was stopped again! I now had half a lap to overtake him from a standing start, and he was one of the junior competitors!!! I hit the accelerator, but with the extra 6+ stone in my kart, i just couldn't get enough to get past him, and the chequered flag went with me 1.75secs behind him! Gutted, after a flawless performance throughout the whole race, with the second fastest laptime for all the competitors, everybody lapped except for the podium finishers and the exact same lap time to the same 1/100th of a second done 3 times in the race (extremely consistent lap times) I was robbed at the last minute, but that's racing for you, and he did really well to get through.

So, I came 2nd.... Maxine was the only lady competitor and she put a few of the guys to shame, in fact she started in 8th, and Tim Morris started in 6th, and by the end of the second lap she'd got past him! But sadly the accident took it's toll and she found herself at the back of the field.

So, a great day out, and following the news from Tim that this was to be the last time the South East Fers run this event, I'm working on getting something organised for us to keep this going somewhere in our region!

**M77XNE** 18/3/2008, 4:42 am

It was a fantastic day, a really good race once we got started!

I'm a bit gutted that I did come last, but hey ho - I was the only lady there, and I did have a horrid accident, pics to follow later of the lovely bruises i encountered! Sad