Author: Brett Gaskin

A 37 year old motorsport addict, blogging my experiences in karting and beyond...

Never think that success is down to your own performance alone

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Date: 31st December 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 23.732s
Best lap time this session: 24.812s

After the previous night’s racing, I decided to have a “warm down” and introduce my friend Mike to the sport that I love and put so much of my spare time into.

After chatting with Mike on the way to the track, it turned out that this was his first time karting in a very long time, but I had a sneaky suspicion that he was going to be pretty good on track, so I was keeping one eye out for him when we were racing.

We arrived very early for our session (I was allowing for traffic that simply wasn’t there!), but this gave Mike the opportunity to take a look at the track and ask for a couple of little pieces of advice from me before we went to our safety briefing.

As always in these open sessions, there was a wide range of abilities; from those who had never stepped foot in a kart before to those who regularly kart. The challenge for me was to weave through the traffic and be as competitive as I could be (without bumping anyone!).

There was a lot of traffic on the track, and unfortunately, there were a few stoppages and yellow flags throughout the first session. I felt like I was doing a good job to get around the other drivers cleanly, even if some of my moves had an air of cockiness about them. One thing that I was very proud of was squeezing through the tiniest gap following a spin by one of the drivers (at ~12:41 in the video below).

I managed a 25.405s lap in this session, about half a second in front of the nearest competitor. Mike finished eight-tenths of a second off my pace, with a 26.212s lap, which is no mean feat considering that it was his first time around the Eastleigh track.

I set Mike a challenge for the second session; to go sub 26s, and he set me a target in return – to put in the fastest lap of the day (at this point in the afternoon it currently stood at 25.003s). Normally a sub 25s lap would be easy for me, but there was a lot of traffic and lines that I would usually take weren’t always there!

If the first session was me having fun (and showboating to an extent), the second was me pushing hard; I wanted that best lap of the day and I was determined to catch up with Mike again (who beneath his laid back exterior, was a force to be reckoned with when he stepped into the kart).

All of the drivers improved massively in the second session; Mike took almost two tenths of a second off his PB in this session, but just missed out on the sub 26s lap. Although the quality of the competition might not have been as strong as the previous night, I was pleased that I managed to get the fastest lap of the day with a 24.812s lap.

After the event, one of the drivers in the session messaged me and began to follow me on my Facebook page – It was great to be able to communicate with a fellow driver and it was a boost to my confidence to be told that he learnt a lot from watching and racing me (he also managed to cut over a second off his PB between the two sessions!).

The countdown to the BRKC continues…

Calm down, don’t give up and fight back!

Brett Gaskin4 Comments

Date: 30th December 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 23.732s
Best lap time this session: 24.043s

After the Christmas excesses (and a small gain of just over a kilogram in weight), it was great to be back at the track for a competitive race with the other members. This was another race in the F1 format; although there was another change to the format – this time the pit stop element was removed. I was disappointed at this because the GRID F1 format is the closest to BRKC race format, and whilst this was a stand-alone race, I was hoping to practice some new tactics regarding the timings of my stops.

My aim for the knockout qualifying sessions, although it was very ambitious, was to get into the final session. I did feel relaxed in the kart at the start of the first qualifying session (despite me not knowing exactly what was going on with the grid start!).

I managed to get into the second knockout stage fairly easily, putting in a 24.619s lap, but for some reason, I felt that I had tensed up a little bit in the next round and things didn’t feel the same with the kart, leading to my big mistake a few laps in. I never quite recovered from this, leaving me with the seventh fastest time (24.986s) and out of qualifying.

Something that I did prefer from this event were the kart changes between qualifying and the first two races and then a further change before the final sprint race; although it may not have worked out perfectly for me, I prefer not sticking with the same karts all the way through the evening as it leads to a more even playing field (nobody gets a good kart all evening, and conversely, nobody is stuck with a slow kart throughout the event).

In the first race, I managed to stay out of a lot of the trouble at the start by staying to the outside of the first corner and did my best to still defend from others trying to get up the inside of me.

In terms of positions, not much happened for me during the race; I went from 8th, to 6th and finally slipped back to 7th. I almost grabbed 6th place back right at the end as Ian was caught behind a back marker and, as I saw the finish line, I lunged up the outside and was fractions of a second from regaining that position. I finished with a 24.443s best lap and a better average than Ian (who pipped me to the chequered flag), so I was very pleased with my performance so far in the evening.

We were straight back out for the second race, and with a reverse grid from qualifying, this put me towards the front of the pack. However, that didn’t last long.

The start was an absolute disaster; I found myself sandwiched in all directions and just being taken for a ride around the first corner and then again at the hairpin at foot of the bridge; I fell from fourth to eleventh in the space of two corners and I was not happy.

However, unlike other occasions, I regrouped and set out to regain some of the places I had lost with a sense of determination that I hadn’t really experienced in my racing to date. From 11th position, I managed to move up into 9th within the next lap, then into 7th and by lap 6, I was into 5th place.

Unfortunately, due to a nasty incident at the pit entrance (requiring the barrier to be rebuilt), the race was red flagged and my momentum was halted.

After the stoppage, I realised that breaking into the top four was going to be an enormous task, and not losing my 5th place from a new member, Ricky, was going to be tough too! I could feel the pressure coming from behind – I tried to drive defensively to protect my position but still try to make an impact on the lead that Ian had made over me in fourth. Amy said after the event that the fight between myself and Ricky was intense; he was breathing down my neck lap after lap and I was pulling some great defensive lines to give me a break for a lap or two.

All of the time, we were closing on Ian, giving me a chance to take 4th place right at the end, but Ian’s experience paid off, offering me no chances to put in the overtake which would have capped off my comeback in this race. I finished with a best lap of 24.043s in this race, closing in on a sub 24s lap yet again.

If the second race was all about making my way through the pack, so was the third race – but only this time it was in reverse. We started in the same order that we had finished the second race, so for the first time, I was starting close to Ian and should have had the opportunity to have a full race to overtake him on this track. As it happened, I only needed the first corner to pull the overtake that I had been waiting for all evening; I got a great start and, as I stayed on the inside at the hairpin, I managed to move myself into 4th position.

However, one lap later, I made a slight mistake and the kart slipped away from underneath me; a gentle tap from Ian (I know that this wasn’t intentional) and I had lost two places. After the next corner, I had lost a further two places. Languishing down in 8th place, I did manage to make it back into 7th which I managed to hold on to for four laps whilst challenging for 6th place.

Unfortunately, I had no defence (and no grip) this time with the kart I was given, and became a sitting duck for the drivers behind me. Once I had fallen into ninth place, and Robin started to pull away from me, that was my race over, so I started to experiment and generally have fun. My quickest lap time in this sprint race was 24.217s; whilst racing, I didn’t even believe that I had put in a 25s lap!

At the trophy presentation, it was announced that I had finished in joint seventh place out of twelve after the three races – I thought how different it could have been if I had been competitive in the third race (mathematically, there was a real possibility of me finishing 5th/6th overall).

I was really pleased with how the evening had gone, especially my performance in the second race and it confirmed to me that racing is made up of three things; natural ability, good practice and a decisive mind.

Now, only 16 days remain until the BRKC…

Poll: Where will I finish in BRKC 2016?

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With two weeks to go until the start of the championship weekend and, as a bit of fun, I want to know where you think that I will finish in this year’s BRKC (all answers are anonymous and I won’t take offence!).

2015 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I never raced for fun, although it was fun to race

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Date: 21st December 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 23.732s
Best lap time this session: 24.189s

With a little over 24 days until the start of BRKC 2016 and a few trips to tracks further afield, I fancied a bit of fun at my home track in Eastleigh.

I was feeling quite relaxed after work, but once I had got to the track, I was raring to go. There were 6 people in my session (well in the first session anyway), of which I believe all but one of them were members.

Writing this in retrospect, there were only two parts that stood out for me; a long stoppage, which I believe was due to an injury to one of the drivers and the tremendously long battle with the young driver in front.

I truly enjoyed the battle with the young driver – It made me think about every corner and every possible move that I could make and lines I would need to take into and out of the many twists and turns.

I have to say that, although I didn’t manage to get the better than him on the track (i.e. I didn’t get the opportunity to overtake him), I did succeed in getting the fastest lap of the session and topping the leaderboard.

Due to the injury to one of the other drivers, our second session contained only four drivers. However, I was very excited and expectant of another great battle with the young driver, but I was slightly disappointed that a few silly mistakes from the younger driver allowed me to pass him easily at various points on the circuit – the cool, calm driver who had the ability to drive on the racing line at all times in the first session seemed to have been replaced by a driver who got flustered when being followed by others.

I finished top of the heap in terms of lap times in this session (with my 24.189s lap), but I did learn something about myself during this evening’s karting; I enjoy it more and feel more engaged when I am racing someone, whether that be chasing or trying to pull away from them after an overtake. This epiphany, will most likely change my tactics during the pit stop elements of the BRKC (compared with last year) and my next race; the F1 event on this very track.

Determination that just won’t quit, that’s what it takes

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On the 6th December, I took part in the Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge to raise money for KartForce, but of course, this plays a part of my preparations for the BRKC and also trying things that I’ve not done before in motorsport. Racing against ex-F1, touring car and professional drivers head-to-head, I hoped would only enhance my skills on the track.

I was placed in a team of six (the team was named by the organiser as the “Speedy Sailors”). None of us had never met before, so we had no idea of each others experience, style or anything else about each other! In order to get to Capital Karts in London, the venue for the JHKC, I had to set off at 5.30am to travel the 120 miles from my home to the track – so a very early start for me. As I posted on my Facebook page at the time, motorsport isn’t always the glamorous lifestyle that a lot of people imagine it to be; sitting in your car in the rain, staring at a brick wall at the venue, eating two Slimming World cereal bars with no phone battery left because you used it as a GPS on the trip up.

I was one of the first arrivals at the track and, as such, none of my new teammates had signed in at that time. I went into the venue and got changed into my racing attire (including my new gaskinracing.com visor decal!), but from that point onwards, the day passed by very quickly; I found a teammate, and we went on the track walk together (along with some of his friends who were excellent at giving advice). Then it was the driver briefing, followed by official photographs and the demonstration of the crazy kart (I have to say they look fantastic fun but I don’t think my wife would have been happy with me buying one and sticking it in the boot on the way home!).

Now time for the racing! With five members of our team present for qualifying, we each set ourselves about 10 minutes on track, including driver changes, for us to get used to the circuit and to try and set our best time to cement our grid position in the race starting just a few minutes later.

One of our drivers, Jamie Chadwick, was a revelation; she was absolutely fantastic and whilst going out first, managed to set the best time of the session. Taking nothing away from any of the rest of the team (I thought we had a brilliant team given our experience), but Jamie was the stand-out driver against some really tough competition.

It was only whilst I was talking team tactics in the pit lane that I realised how inspiring the KartForce drivers were. I don’t want to dwell on their disabilities, because when it came to the racing, they were anything but. I cannot imagine how I would be able to continue racing if I had experienced some of the injuries that these drivers had suffered. It just highlighted to me how important the KartForce charity is and all of the behind the scenes work that they must do.

I requested to go towards the end of the qualifying session, in order to try and optimise the kart temperature and the spacing out on track. Clear air was at a premium; whilst this is a really long circuit (the longest in the UK) with 24 karts on track, the action was chaotic.

I don’t think I performed too badly, as you can see the footage below, I was frustrated by one of the slower drivers in front of me, but that’s always going to happen this kind of the event.

After qualifying, we finished in tenth, which we all thought was punching above our weight, especially as a couple of all-pro teams qualified lower down the order. We realised that qualifying was only one good lap and we would have to complete 3 hours worth of these lap times to compete with the leaders, but we were positive and hoping for a podium position (maybe that was a little bit optimistic given the competition we were up against).

After a short break, Jamie made her way to the grid where there was the slight delay caused by Johnny Herbert himself being accosted by a fan and signing autographs. The start wasn’t too bad for our team; Jamie managed to make her way up into 7th before dropping down the order after a coming together with Johnny at the end of her stint.

I had asked to go in second after Jamie, just so I could get my first stint out of the way quickly and hopefully build on the work she had done, meaning I could then really help the team with the pit board, the timings and the order in which the drivers were going to race.

When Jamie came in, I jumped into the seat and raring to go, I left the pits without adjusting the pedal heights. There’s quite a big height difference between myself and Jamie and maybe this was not thought out as well as it could have been. I raced for a few laps with the pedals on their closest position, before doing a change out on track (by slipping my feet underneath the adjustable pedals – don’t try this at home!). Once I found my flow, I was quite happy, but yet again I seemed to attract the slower drivers in front of me on a circuit that seemed to be very difficult to overtake on.

I found this very frustrating; I tried to make some clean manoeuvres but everytime I tried to make the move the door was shut. In making these attempts, I was being overtaken by some of the faster drivers behind (some for position, but most already putting a lap on our team).

When I did eventually manage to get past the other driver, it wasn’t as clean as I had hoped. I was furious after the incident, thinking that the other driver had cut across me and deliberately steered into me, but now looking at the video I’ll admit that it was a bit of a lunge on my part. After a few laps of clear air and much faster lap times, I saw our pit board being held out for a scheduled driver change and one lap later that was my first stint over.

I quickly grabbed some lunch and a drink of water before heading straight back out to the pit lane and saw that we had fallen from our starting position of 10th, to 15th place, but we were still feeling positive that we could finish in the top half of the field.

The next few drivers made no impact on 14th place and eventually we slipped down into 17th place at the halfway stage before it was my turn to jump in again for my second stint.

Our driver change wasn’t slow, but the other team pitting at the same time were quicker. Our pit lane position was directly in front of the exit and so I just stuck my foot down and went, despite the kart to the left of me being slightly in front at that point (I wasn’t going to lose another position at that stop!). I was determined to push to the limit on my final stint, and I was feeling pretty smooth, until I came across some more traffic which held me up. I had also noticed that the drivers around me were getting slightly rougher and that moves that wouldn’t have been attempted in the first half of the race were being forced through in the second – I felt a fair few of these, but there was nothing too violent whilst I was on track (as time went on and the race went into the final hour more of the 50/50 and in some cases 25/75 moves were being attempted).

I finished my stint and the next part was actually what I found the hardest; not being in control of the team’s finishing position and just watching the other team members go out on track, nervously waiting and watching the timings board to see whether we were going to lose any other positions or even gain some!

One lap from the end there was one final twist. Carl was bringing our kart home and was doing an excellent job of holding everyone up! The drivers were forming a train behind him as he went into the first corner of the final lap. Past the hairpin at the pit exit, he still had 6 drivers behind him, but as he ran slightly wide on the exit, he left a gap for one of the drivers to squeeze alongside and attempt to complete the move at the next corner. This manoeuvre opened the door others to go through the same gap, but two corners later at full throttle, Carl was trying to maintain his line, but he got squeezed against, and then up the barriers, and for a moment our hearts were in our mouths when all 4 wheels came off the ground and the kart was launched into the air. Fortunately, nobody was injured and it did create a great talking point at the end of the race.

I’m not quite sure where the Speedy Sailors ended, but in all fairness it doesn’t really matter; it was a fantastic experience and I think everyone really enjoyed the opportunity to race, no matter what their abilities. Despite only meeting at 10 o’clock in the morning, by the end of the race, it was like we had known each other for longer and had a great camaraderie within our team.

Surprisingly, I think the thing that will stick with me most from the event is not racing the professionals, but being motivated by the KartForce drivers and their achievements in the face of adversity.

Below, is the commentary of the whole event (200 minutes long!) if you would like to listen to it, and relive the event!

https://www.spreaker.com/embed/player/standard?episode_id=7308360&autoplay=false

Featured image taken by Helen Hooker and more from the event can be found at: http://www.photoblog.com/girafferacing/2015/12/06/the-johnny-herbert-karting-challenge.html.

There’s no such thing as good luck. It’s good preparation and hard work.

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Date: 29th November 2015
Track: Formula Fast, Milton Keynes
My PB at this track (before this session): GP circuit 35.015s, BRKC2015 alternative layout 35.731s
Best lap time this session: GP circuit 33.527s, BRKC2016 alternative layout 35.916s

Battling through the gale force winds, torrential rain and dreadful traffic, I arrived in Milton Keynes 20 minutes before my scheduled arrival time at the track (after a two and a half hour drive from the south coast) and, after a quick dash inside, I prepared myself for the only time I’m going to get the chance to race at this location before the BRKC2016 weekend.

Before I get onto the racing, one of the best things to come out of this weekend is that I’m finally under the 90kg weight limit (when fully kitted up) and, therefore, I need to have weight added to my kart. This is a tremendous achievement for me as last year during the BRKC, I was racing at close to 100kg (if not over) without any ‘added’ weight.

It is always a delight to be a part of the BRKC events; I chatted to some drivers I knew from the last championship and a couple of new drivers entering for the first time this year. All of the drivers have the same passion for karting, and racing in general, and it really does make for a friendly atmosphere track side.

So now on to the evening’s events… I had booked in for two sessions; the first session was on the standard GP circuit, whilst the second was on another alternative layout that will be used in the championship in January. This time, however, we had the opportunity to practice on the alternative layout (and not have the track changes sprung upon us with less than 30 minutes notice as in last year’s championship).

The GP circuit was familiar to all of the drivers in my session, whether it was for the championship last year or other events at the track. For me, it was just a case of getting back into it from last year and obviously trying to better my attempts. It was nice to be racing the clock rather than racing other drivers straight away and the calibre of the field seemed to be right up there with some of my heats last year.

At first, I found it difficult to pick up my lines but slowly I made improvements and tried some new braking points and cornering techniques, eventually hooking up a lap with a time of 33.386s. Whilst this lap time isn’t going to blow the top drivers away, I am really pleased to be 1.7s faster now, within 20 minutes of karting, compared to the three days during the BRKC earlier this year. I would also love to know how much of this improvement is down to my weight loss and how much is an increase in my ability, but I guess I will never know.

Nobody quite knew what to expect during the short break in between sessions as the track was reconfigured. Once the alterations had been made, I was dreading it; the track looked to be very technical – one missed braking point and your lap time would be ruined.

I will be honest here, but I really struggled with this layout, so will have to do some analysis where I was going wrong and how to correct it (I think it’s pretty obvious where my mistakes were, how to correct them could be a different issue though!). Looking on the bright side, I now have a benchmark though – 35.916s to beat on January 15th – 17th!

I do disagree with some of the comments about the new layout, however. Whilst I agree that it is technical, I don’t believe that there will be any more overtaking without major errors in judgement by the other drivers; there is clearly a defensive line that can be taken through the modified section of the track that could be successful.

Two days on from the practice session, I am still feeling the effects of the drive up to Milton Keynes and the karting whilst I was there… I did forget about the physicality of the kart/track combination here. Now that I’ve lost a considerable amount of weight, I have another goal; to try to improve my core muscles to survive the intense BRKC 2016 weekend in January.

I can’t wait!

Obviously, you don’t want to peak too early

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Date: 23rd November 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 23.732s
Best lap time this session: 24.879s

On a bitterly cold Monday evening, I entered my first members unlimited event. The idea was easy; just complete your fastest lap in each of the three 20 minute sessions. The final rankings would be calculated by assigning points to your position (sorted by fastest lap time) in each of the sessions and the driver with the highest total over the three sessions was the winner.

After a fantastic weekend away in the Midlands, eating rich food that I have been purposefully avoiding on my diet, I was feeling tired but really motivated to succeed.

In the first session everything felt brilliant; I was easing past more experienced drivers and swapping places and lap times with possibly the most experienced driver in the field. This leads me on to the best part of this members unlimited session – the drivers. Without doubt, this was the fairest, yet most competitive GRID event that I have ever taken part in. We were all aware of each others positions on track, faster drivers were allowed past the slower drivers (except where we had agreed to race) and the chats in the “locker room” afterwards were friendly and hilarious at times.

Back to the racing, it was a real battle between myself and Ian from the word go right to the end of the race; we traded lap times and positions on track no less than nine times during the session. I’m proud to say that in this race, I finished in second place overall, edging out Ian by two tenths of a second with a 25.022s fastest lap. The winner of the session was immense on track; a graduate from the kart academy, he is surely one to watch in the upcoming events here.

I was surprised to see another experienced driver at the bottom of the pile after the first race; he explained that he didn’t get the luck of the draw (with the kart) in the first race, but he would bounce back in the second.

I was then drawn to have the same kart as he had in the first race… Could I do any better? To cut this section short, the answer was no. I honestly can say that I have never spun a kart through 360 degrees so often as I did in the second race (if you watch the video below, I think I counted 5!). I cannot really blame the kart too much (the eventual winner of the evening, set one of the fastest laps of the entire day with it in the third race!), but it didn’t seem to suit the heavier drivers. Floundering at the bottom of the leaderboard, after my second place in the first race, meant that it was all to race for in the final.

Between the second and final sessions, I tried to work out the permutations; for me to win the event, I would need to finish first with the winner of the first two races finishing last, and myself and driver X would need driver Y to finish between us etcetera etcetera.

All of this complex mathematics was distracting me from the task ahead – ultimately, all I needed to do was go out there and race. I was not in control of anybody else’s lap times, or their finishing positions.

I honestly don’t know what happened in the final race; I couldn’t get into “the zone”. It felt like I was driving on autopilot, which in some cases can be great, but in this case, my mind was elsewhere and I had no urgency in my driving.

Surprisingly, I managed to pull some sub-25s laps out at the end, resulting in a 24.879s best over the entire evening. Unsurprisingly, however, I finished bottom of this heat and only my second place in the first race prevented me from finishing last overall.

Looking back at the evening now, perhaps I was tired from the weekend (driving up to the Midlands and back as well as all of the activities up there), but if this the case, then I will have to look at my next results at Formula Fast with a different viewpoint.

Simplify, then add lightness

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Date: 12th November 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 24.407s
Best lap time this session: 23.732s

My return to the track after a couple of weeks, was also the return of the GRID F1 format with a slight format change. On this occasion, whilst there was still the F1 style qualifying, the two 20-minute races had been changed to three races (two 15-minute races followed by a 10-minute “decider”).

As always in the members races, the karts were drawn out randomly for the evening; I was allotted kart 20 and was raring to go when I got down into the pits. After the disaster last month, my aim for the qualifying session was simple; to get into the second session.

I got into the kart and things just felt right; (as a side note, since the last F1 race, I have lost another 4kg in weight in my attempts to trim down before the BRKC) I didn’t know whether it was psychological, but the kart appeared to accelerate better, I could brake later into corners and carry more speed around the hairpins. I managed to beat my all-time PB in Q1, with a 24.274s lap, finishing 7th (which was just enough to get into Q2). Looking at the times now, fifth, sixth and seventh positions were separated by 0.06s, so it was all to play for in Q2.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to maintain the rhythm in the shorter second qualifying session, managing to put in a 24.292s lap, which was still better than my original PB before this evening, but about a quarter of a second from the top four, leaving me with a grid position of 7th for the first race. I was very pleased with my performance, but I was disappointed with the outbursts and bad sportsmanship of some other members after qualifying (and it continued throughout the evening and beyond) – I may moan about the karts that are clearly off the pace, but I see it as a risk when you take part in rental karting; the peformance of the kart isn’t 100% down to you.

The first race started with the usual melee at the first corner; I tried to cut in in front of the driver to my left, but she wasn’t yielding. Only one person really lost out here as I managed to drive around her spin on the inside and I quickly got into my rhythm. As always, the pit stop is both technical and tactical; you must not lose too much time in the pit stop phase, but you have to calculate where you are going to come out of the pits. I have to say that I think I timed it perfectly in this race; after being lapped by the leader and following him for a few laps (trying to stay as close to him as possible), I pitted aggressively and managed to get out in clear air ahead of the battle for 7th. Not to cut this race review short, but sixth place was where I stayed for the rest of the race, despite me closing slightly on the 5th place driver, Whilst the rest of the race wasn’t necessarily packed with action, I did manage to set a sub-24s lap (23.975s on lap 31 of 37), which I was over the moon with – I’m sure that if I hadn’t lost the amount of weight that I have so far, that would have been unachievable.

After more kart complaints (and kart swapping by some drivers), we started the second race with a reverse grid from qualifying. There was a little bit of a rolling start and moving from grid positions from some drivers before the start, but once we started, I couldn’t prevent losing a place after the jostling at the first corner. I was then handed the place back after a premature pit stop from the driver in front and then I made a move on track into fourth position on lap two. After some further pit stops in front, I found myself in the lead for nine laps, but having not pitted, I was aware that I needed to put lap after lap of qualifying pace to try to push my advantage to a point where I could pit and come out in clear air. My pit stop wasn’t the cleanest; I came in to the pit lane too hot, bashed into the barrier and then lost momentum before my stop. I did, however, come back out onto track in fourth place and even managed to grab third a couple of laps later. However, the slide down through the positions inevitably happened; third to fifth in the space of one lap and one more position lost about six laps after that. This initiated quite a battle between myself and an old hand at the track (that I raced a few times at Gosport). It was such a tight competition; I knew if I made even the slightest mistake, Ian would take the position off me. Both myself and Ian have a mutual respect for each other and the others on track (which some drivers don’t!)- if we can’t get past cleanly, then we will back off and try to launch another attack later. We both really enjoyed the contest, this time I came out on top and managed to defend my sixth place resolutely and in doing so, set my all-time PB of 23.732s. One other statistic that I am really proud of, is that I finished less than 15 seconds behind the leader – the closest I have ever finished in a members event.

We headed out for the deciding race (I don’t actually know how the grid positions were decided for this race), but despite the race being significantly shorter, the mandatory pit stop was still a requirement. We did have a long stoppage during this race; one of the karts suffered a mechanical failure and therefore needed to be changed. I tried to pit as soon as I could after this stoppage, hoping that this might give me a little edge on the other drivers. Both myself and Ian battled again during this race, but unfortunately for me, Ian managed to just squeeze past me this time, pushing me down to 7th position. I did set a fastest lap of 23.885s in this race, so whilst it was slightly slower than the last race, it was a sub 24-second lap all the same.

After the points were added together from the three rounds, my finishing position was given as 7th overall, just two points behind 6th place. I was immensely proud of my performance and with a little over two months before the BRKC, I feel that I am bang on track with my preparations this year.

Racing for a great cause, but the charity stops when the visor goes down!

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

After a brief break, I am now looking to combine two of my great passions; karting and fundraising.

There are a couple of races that have caught my eye in the next six months, both raising money for injured personnel from the armed forces. I will go into a bit more detail of the races and the charities below.

The first race is a three hour endurance race on December 6th, at Capital Karts in London (the longest indoor track in the UK).

This race has been organised by the former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, who will also be taking part with some legends of motorsport. Every year the Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge raises money for charities chosen by Johnny himself; this years charity is Kart Force (http://www.kartforce.org/about-kartforce/) of which he is a patron alongside former F1 world champion, Damon Hill.

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Kart Force is a charity which supports injured members of the armed forces and enables them to take part in kart races and championships around the world. This support includes modifying karts to be used by innovative hand controls along with financial support to assist with their racing careers.

The second race on my list was mentioned in my blog last year after my sister-in-law shared a link with me on Facebook. The race is yet again another three hour team endurance, planned for May 7th 2016, but this time karting outdoors at Buckmore Park. The Karting for Heroes race (http://www.kartingforheroes.com/about-the-event/), unsurprisingly, fundraises for the Help for Heroes charity, which is very well-known for providing practical support directly to ex-service personnel and their families.

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Just to give an idea of the scale of the valuable work that Help the Heroes do, in the past year, the charity has supported over 4000 veterans and their families in a variety of different ways,

Now, where my blog readers (you!) come in to help. These races “cost” a lot to enter (between £120 and £150 per driver) and, whilst I will be making a significant contribution to the entrance fees (which does go to the charity minus the operating costs), I cannot afford to pay for these fees in their entirety (I have no sponsors unlike some other karters and fund all of my karting and racing through my “day-job”).

If you would like to donate to these charities, whilst allowing me to compete against motorsport legends at the same time, please come to see me around the track or at work and donate. Any money that is raised over the “donation” to take part in these races will be split equally between the two charities.

Also, if you would like to take part alongside me in the Karting for Heroes race in May 2016, please let me know in the comments below, or on my Facebook page and I will try to make this a reality for a couple of you!

EDIT: If you would like to contact me privately, please send me a message through my Facebook page.