EKL Round 1 Bayford Meadows

Morning Practice 
The Morning Practice session was a chance for the team consisting of James Fitchew, James Hayden, Dan Underhill and Luke Austin to get their 1st taste of the new Elite karting league karts and for Fitchew, Hayden and Austin it was also their 1st chance to drive the Bayford Meadows track.

Underhill went 1st to make sure the kart was ok, then the rest went out in the order Fitchew, Hayden Austin to get used to the track.

All 4 drivers seemed to get used to the tight and twisty track very quickly and seemed pretty strong compared with other drivers on the track during their time on circuit.

The Heats 
The Heats started with Austin starting 20th crossing the line in 9th at the end of the 8 lap race. This was a moral boosting performance for the team. The rest of the heats went really well with a lot of strong performances and majority of them in the top 10. Underhill was the driver with the best results with a 3 and a 4th along with 7th and 8th place finishes when he started right at the back of the 26 kart field.

Hayden was another one with some very strong results with 1 podium spot and a 7th and 11th when starting towards the back, these performances were particularly strong considering he stopped karting 6 years ago and you can count on one hand the amount of times he has driven a kart since!

Fitchew was the Unluckiest in the team, putting in lap times the same, if not faster, than Austin and Hayden he seemed to be stuck around 15th and 16th place in all of his heats and got knocked off the track on several occasions. He will be hoping for better luck at the next round.

Austin was also unlucky, During a race when he started 10th and got up to 5th the bigfoot Nassau panel fell off the kart leading to a mechanical failure flag. Despite this Austin picked up a 7th 9th and 15th places in the 3 heats he got to complete.

Race of Champions 
Due to his 4 very strong and consistent races we decided Dan Underhill will compete in the race for £625!
During the qualifying session Underhill managed to put the kart 10th on the grid. This was pleasing and clearly within a shout of getting to the front if there was any incident involving the front karts which was likely with all the drivers wanting to win the money!

How ever this never happened and Dan actually got taken off and then spent the rest of the race trying to regain places to get back up to a respectable position how ever due to every team fielding their strongest driver gaining places was difficult.

Congratulations to Hereford Heros on the win!

Endurance 1 
The Choice of Drivers for the 1st endurance was Hayden and Fitchew with Fitchew doing the qualifying and 1st stint in the race. He put the kart P10 on the grid and ran for the majority of the race on his own in P12 putting in very consistent times and no doubt would have continued to have done so past the 30min distance he was limited to. Hayden went out and was of very similar pace to Fitchew so this was obviously a good pairing! However the lack of karting Hayden has done in recent years became quite obvious with his very apparent fade in speed towards the end of the race how ever the pair put in a strong performance and finished a pleasing 15th place.

Endurance 2
The 2nd pairing was Austin and Underhill with Austin taking the start. The grid was decided on the finishing place of Endurance 1.
The 1st stint went well gaining a couple of places and after the change Underhill was in 13th place through his 30 minute stint he took the team from 13th to 10th place with a very close finish across the line.
Overall a decent result, we would liked to have finished both endurances higher but the talent in the field was very strong so with that in mind the team put in a fantastic performance to get the results it got in all of the races!
The Championship heads to Ellough Park on the 10th June. Northampton Knights are currently short of a few drivers but should be in attendance.