MSA Motorsport UK Rowrah Rounds 7 & 8
Tom’s biggest Karting success to date was winning the Rowrah LGM final last year so was excited about competing at the track again this weekend.
Having competed at the Rissington club meeting the previous week with his Fusion team, Tom was starting this weekend at a disadvantage to his rivals who had opted to race at the Rowrah – Cumbria Kart Club meeting last weekend. It was going to be a demanding weekend with little time to fine tune his kart and find good times.
Saturday Races Round 7
As always qualifying was important and Tom was 7th in his group and 18th overall giving him a real challenge.
First heat he started 12th, finishing a respectable 8th with the 3rd fastest lap.
In heat two he would start 12th and finished 8th. However a 10 second penalty for an unfair overtake demoted Tom to 23rd.
This granted a starting position of 21st for the final and he drove brilliantly – on a difficult circuit to overtake – to finish 7th
Sunday Races Round 8
Sunday’s qualifying was going well but Tom was blocked on the last two most important laps and ended 8th in group – 10th overall.
In the first heat he started 7th and was able to make up a position to finish 8th.
In the next heat Tom started 7th, making up two places to finish 9th after a couple of off-track excursions.
This lined him up in 12th for the final – a difficult race. He was going well at the start of the fifteen minute race making his way up to 7th, only to be knocked off circuit two corners later – sending him well down the field. He managed to fight his way back up to 9th only to be sent off the track again and into retirement by another competitor, who was later excluded for their action.
A weekend to put down to experience!
Tom now sits 11th in the MSA Karting Championship.
Next time out is back to Rowrah for the 4th round of the LGM series where he is currently lying second in the championship.
Images – Kartpix
