Half Term Testing & Shenny Rd 2
A busy week for the team with 1-2-1 sessions taking place at Thruxton during the week as well as the Shenington test on the Friday.
Will H and James turned out for the Thruxton 1-2-1 sessions on separate days and both lads made a significant step in the ‘journey’, it would be fair to say that at the time we had little idea of the improvement that our jolly #JP77 was going to make despite having a full wet test and only having a half day due to the cold, Will did two days back to back and improved his times again but having the dry track was able to enjoy the session a lot more than James.
Jack Clements and Jamie Burt turned out at Bayford on the Thursday along with……..Will Hickman (a very busy kart and surpassing Jack this week for time out) All the lads performed well and Jack is beginning to turn heads now as he moves along the grid gaining in experience constantly.
Friday at Shenington saw Jaydan, Sam and a determined Jack arrive to a cold but joyfully dry day for test, a steady day of learning saw new PB’s by all the boys and proof that the new Dartford motor with the DEP exhaust is as expected…….on the money and not going any slower.
The weekend saw Sam, Will F and Jaydan continue testing in earnest ready for the big race day at ‘Shenny’, Jack, James, Will H and Harry L arrived at CKC for some great wet testing where Jack displayed a really strong pace and managed to be ‘top three’ all day and at times quickest, Harry and Will H in the unlicensed sessions made it their own and were lapping 2 secs of the main session lads.
James chose CKC this weekend to display his best driving ever, head down and determined to lap anything that moved I saw the spark in our ‘vertically challenged’ star produce some of his best driving of late, James who didn’t take his test as planned recently is demonstrating a great ability to ‘mix’ it up and despite the weather kept it on the black stuff all day – well done James!
Harry Langford on his second session drove with an astonishing tenacity and did all that was asked, Harry will be ready very quickly to go racing and made that fact very clear. Will Hickman on his second visit to CKC drove with great focus and whilst not as quick as Harry probably learned more in dealing with traffic than anyone else on track.
The team carried out various wet setup tests on Jack during the day, his constant effort to push hard to prove the work being done for the benefit of all the team will change the way that we run on three of our regular tracks – well done Jack a great job and of course you and James now become junior mentors for the team!
Sunday arrived and with a strong breeze but no rain we were looking forward to some great racing and with Will Attreed arriving more or less from France in time for breakfast the track walk was underway.
We had also taken delivery of our new Generator, Compressor and air tools kindly supplied by Walker Bros Electrical Engineers, the boys were getting to grips with the new gadgets ….while the drivers carried on the trackwalk.
The race day was a dry affair and concluded with Will Attreed having a storming drive in the final to get himself 15th in the final against some great opposition, he had deserved a little higher but his drive reflected his tireless efforts to perform against some pretty poor luck recently on track.
Also pushing hard this weekend at Shenny was Will Forber, feeling a little more confident Will enjoyed masterminding his own setups on Saturday producing another PB. Having a steady race day Will proved he is gaining ground on those with far more experience now
Jaydan and Sam finished in the final 5 but both had a great weekend of work behind them, Sam produced a new PB as did Jaydan and the lines and braking points are beginning to sweeten up, it takes time as always but both lads will be battling hard by late spring. Sam’s race day was ‘stuffed’ following a problem with his brakes, constant efforts to bleed the system and replace the seals etc left him entering just the final after losing hydraulics in H1 during the run up, disappointed but happy with the overall weekend he moves to CKC where he hopes to make up for the lack of racing he had.
The team look forward to CKC and the final Winter round where Luke and Toby will settle the battle, with Jack and Sam in attendance it is going to be a great day out, this sadly will be the first time that I have ever turned out to a meeting determined to lay my cash down as well – I just hope for the benefit of all the drivers competing that we can leave the two lads to finish the championship in the spirit it began.
Good luck to all those taking part and keep it flat!
