James Pope & Will Atreed @ CKC Test Day

The team arrived at the Surrey circuit on Saturday morning with dry weather forecast. The Camberley track is a straightforward drive for learners and with the 2014 tweak at the Northern end reminds the more blasé of us to keep the line sweet or it can cost plenty of time in a short race.

Track walking the lads around the track a great rapport was quickly established and with the emphasis on consistency and line we spent a good 30 mins discussing track marks and brake point.

James’s last outing at Rye concluded with him being buried in the tyres and feeling a little “battered” so this first day was a confidence builder and a chance to start overtaking, as always with drivers on the younger limit passing in the right place at the right time tends to be a nervous affair for all involved especially if you are the unsuspecting victim of the classic “round the outside” move, that said we had a sensible conversation and we set about getting ready for session 1.

Will has joined the team recently and has very little seat time, this was a build-up session to his ARKS exam and it is hoped he will be ready for racing at the F6 Round 2, a confident driver this was his first trip to CKC and was excited by the look of the historic circuit.

The days testing progressed smoothly and as expected we had strong development from both lads, in James’s case it was stopped early by him feeling a little unwell but we were taking time off his laps every session and he had overtaken 5 karts (only one of them in dubious circumstance!) which despite being pale left him feeling great and looking forward to returning soon, his confidence was improving well and Dad (Mark) was getting the whole idea about setups especially the axle! Will was having a great day but was putting himself under too much pressure to achieve, once we convinced him to relax and have fun the line and lap times fell instantly into place, we concluded Will’s session only 1.6 off the day’s fastest known pace, we have had great novices join the team and Will is very much the able driver, he will like Harry and Jamie at Clay be mixing it very quickly high mid order, not bad for a first timer at CKC!

This was a particularly rewarding day in terms of training and while Will did not get himself quite ready for ARKS he will be holding his licence very soon no doubt, James is planning to get out with us in the Easter Break if time permits and both Dads left with a little more karting knowledge.

Des