Shut Up. I'm Talking.

9th Aug 2011

3rd in Africa. Boom.

I gave it my all.

I’ll try summarize Sundays racing (SA Champs) as quick as possible.

I started the first heat of the day in 2nd place but got eaten alive during the race. At this track if one person passes you you can lose so many places, I got stuck in this downward spiral and eventually finished 7th… definitely not one of my finest moments.

Heat 2 went even worse as I didn’t even start the race. I had a problem with my throttle which was stuck open due to a faulty cable. I was pretty frustrated because I wanted to prove my pace in that heat.

Heat 3 went much better, I started 7th and moved as high up as second before finishing 4th. I was lacking some pace up the steep hills and felt that our engine settings could have been better.

Onto heat 4, the final one of the day, and I had to start last due to my non-finish in heat 2. I moved up from 17th on the grid to 5th place but got pipped on the penultimate lap, eventually ending in 6th. All in all it was a good days testing and heat 1 was a wake up call in a big way.

The big day. The African Champs.

I woke up on the ‘day of’ like a man possessed, I was very much in my own space barely uttering a word to anyone as all I was thinking about was finding a crucial 2/10ths of a second. In both morning warm up sessions I was quickest but it proved to be deceptive as my main opposition weren’t giving it their all.

Qualifying

The night before we had made some crucial changes to the kart and they were proving to be a big step in the right direction. That didn’t help much in qualifying though. I am probably one of the worst qualifiers ever. When I was younger I would have never said that but these days I’m so used to it that I’m not too fussed.

Despite being probably 3rd quickest – at worst – in practice I managed to qualify a lowly 7th. The format of qualifying (2 flying laps) just doesn’t seem to suit me at all and I struggled to switch on quickly enough.

Heat 1

I wasn’t too worried about starting heat 1 in 7th as I had experienced it the day before in the SA Champs. I knew I was fast so it was just a matter of staying out of trouble in the first few laps and then moving up the field. At the start I moved up to 3rd but dropped to 4th about half way through. The person I was up against, Mitchell Licen, was someone I had encounted a couple of times recently and both times he beat me.

This time around I was to have none of it as I caught him back up with 2 laps to go and immediately made a move for 3rd into the first corner. The move stuck and I defended like crazy in the final lap to maintain my position. It felt awesome to have some kind of pace and finally get one over Mitch in the races.

Disaster Strikes

With a good result in heat 1 I knew that I still had a lot of work to do if I was going to with this once-off championship. For heat 2 I would be starting in 3rd place and my main threat, Chad van Beurden, was in pole position. Since he was definitely faster than me on pure pace I knew that I had to attack early and aggressively in an attempt to slow him down to my pace. It was going to be my dress rehearsal for the all-or-nothing Final Heat.

Heat 2 was critical. Heat 2 was a disaster.

As soon as we set out on the warm up lap I picked up that there was something severely wrong with my kart. I was spluttering and misfiring up the steep hill and couldn’t work out the issue. Eventually I had to park the kart on the side of the track and watch in shock as the rest of the field started the race.

I have been in this position so many times in my racing career and I could not believe I was experiencing it on one of the most important race days of my life. I was absolutely devastated and had trouble containing my emotions. When I went back to the pits I just sat in the corner quietly and contemplated what had happened and how I was going to try and win this thing despite starting in last (17th) place.

While in the pits, Rose (the mother of the person who runs the team I raced for) came to try and cheer me up. Her words helped me immensely and eased the pain I was feeling. It’s difficult to explain the emotions you feel in those moments and when someone tries to make you feel better it often doesn’t work but Rose somehow managed to do it. She made me believe that I could still win it.

The Final

Just before the race I isolated myself from the world and tried to visualise the start. Luckily the day before I had experience something very similar in heat 4 so this wasn’t anything new to me. The problem was the day before I could ‘only’ get from last place to 6th. In this race I would have to get from last place to 1st… not easy.

The start went well as I stayed out of trouble and from there on all I could remember was overtaking people without even thinking twice about it, ducking and diving at every opportunity and making sure that I made every move stick.

By lap six I was in 3rd place and the leaders were not too far away. I couldn’t believe how quickly I had moved up the field and was on a huge mission to pull a gap on the pack behind and hopefully catch the two leaders.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as I didn’t quite have enough speed to get to them. With one lap to go Matthew Swanepoel had caught up to me after he had an altercation at the start, he was massivey faster than me at this point but I was so obsessed with keeping 3rd place that I defended with any means necessary. Going into the last corner I tried to keep the tightest line possible so that he couldn’t get through and it worked a charm.

I crossed the line 3rd, after starting 17th and last. Even though I didn’t win there was a huge sigh of relief because I dreaded not getting onto the podium after heat 2′s disaster.

Reflection time

After the race I was quite numb to the result but on reflection I now feel hugely satisfied. I haven’t raced for over three years but despite that I came back and mixed it with some of our continents finest drivers.

It was a month a massive ups-and-downs, having the belief and then the doubt and then the belief again. Being off the pace and then on the pace. Emotionally and mentally I am finished but I won’t ever forget this experience. I gave it everything I had and I walked away with a top 3 finish.

I want to thank Intrepid South Africa – Henry, Rose & Ralph Odendaal and Innocent – for their total dedication and help during this month of racing. It has been epic and I couldn’t recommend a better chassis & team to be part of. If you ever want to get into karting then let me know so that I can put you in touch with them.

I also want to say well done to Richard Upton, my team mate, who finished 5th in class. Congrats dude.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog and supported me, it’s hugely appreciated!

Till next time… ciao

Thank you for the pics Robs