Shennington Winter Champs - Sam, Jaydan, Will, Holly and Zain

Despite being overcast and cool the weather at Shenington was positively ‘tropical’ compared to our CPKC round, with Jez in his shorts we were happy of a full weekend on the new dry tyres and finally getting stuck in to them.

Sam, Jaydan and Will are regulars but Will was only testing for this weekend, Jaydan was a last-minute entry but very eager to get on and Sam was testing another engine before the race day. Holly was there for the weekend but having only been once before was on a steep learning curve and Zain was hoping to improve on his times from the last visit. Jaydan was certainly pushing hard and his times along with Wills in the morning reflected that, Holly and Zain were making ground on each session, both novice drivers showing they have the metal against the others, Sam was as always showing pace but changing a few things here and there along with Jaydan and Will to provide the best data for the tyres, Sam’s testing was a slower curve but was providing the data, Jaydan was enjoying the pace and with a small amount of tidying up was beginning to appear around drivers he had not had dealings with previously.

Race day saw a day that Sam would rather forget and the beginning of a problem that would continue to haunt him for longer than thought! Following an innocent coming together in Bruno consequently Sam’s day was marred by repairs and adjustments from which he never really recovered concluding in 17th overall.

Holly was beginning to get the line through Wilkins and her naturally fluid driving was covering the remainder, she was in the back part of the race but a commendable drive gave her a 17th place in H3 beating a few yellow plates, more importantly she was enjoying the day and it was showing clearly as she became more focused on the job in hand. Jaydan has begun to shine properly now, a clear statement 12 months on from joining us he is consistent and committing fully to the turns, H1 saw an unlucky incident at the back but once back on track he recovered 6 places to finish in 16th, was this the setting for the day? No it was not!

Jaydan set out in 21st place for H2, the race was looking tough but his first two laps saw him arrive in 4th place following some massive moves, line astern with his regular rivals he looked very able and indicated to them he was after the top spot, I have to say he looked comfortable, a new fresh Jaydan from the winter had arrived and he was loving it, I watched Jaydan and ‘Reaper’ cross the line on lap 4 and felt he had it to go to the win, as we went on he stayed in the front group only being caught following a minor error near Wilkins, finishing 6th but a mere 4 secs off the winner he had surpassed himself and the team stepped up to congratulate our young Oxfordshire star.

H3 saw one of the worst starts to a race I have witnessed, as the grid rolled round Jaydan was caught up in an incident at Bruno and as three lads including Jaydan sat stuck on the grass the race was started?? In fact the original pole sitters were also caught out by a misdirection and were driving the long way round as well, had the race have been pulled up and restarted Jaydan’s times had him top 5 again but he was simply ‘robbed’ I have never seen a race started when the track was technically blocked and the level of verbal complaining reflected the thoughts of the grid as well, Jaydan finished half a lap down in 18th, a real shame.

Jaydan’s final was driven from a broken heart in h3, finishing 18th he had hoped for a better grid start but the previous result had wrecked his day, he had still done well of course but through no fault of his own his best finish was taken away and I felt for the lad.

All the guys gave their best, nothing could have stopped the issues that caused them to lose out on a potentially great weekend, Holly kept her head down and was learning well so thankfully stayed out of trouble, we return in March with them and look forward to some great racing.

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