Racing, my life

Moving up the ranks

As soon as I was around 8 years old I was old enough to move up to the cadet class, these karts were a bit bigger and faster than the bambino class and felt slightly different. As far as I can remember the first time I drove in the cadet class was a race day so no pressure for me to learn quick !
As soon as I sat in the seat I immediately felt a difference due to the fact it was chunkier and bigger, the marshal adjusted the seat and pedals to my desire and one trick I learnt is to make sure I was near centre on the kart making it balanced. Then came an unusual few seconds, the karts had seat belts but I was surprised as the bambinos didn't however I then thought they go faster so they need safety.
We were sitting on the grid waiting for the marshals to top us of with fuel. When they got to me they open my tank but it didn't smell like fuel so I question him and he said " what, this smells grand, good old unleaded fuel I dunno what you have been smellin' " but then I said " it doesn't smell like bambino fuel " he replied " you silly boy this is a 4 stroke engine, 2 stroke have oil in their fuel but 4 strokes don't " it's then I realised what my uncle had been saying about 4 strokes and it all came together.
So eventually they got through the whole grid and they fired up the Honda engine, now my first impressions were it sounded like a tractor and these engines are used to drive cement mixers !
The light went off and we planted our foot on the accelerator and we were racing.
The steering felt a little heavier than bambinos so I had to get used to that. The first corner was a pile up but I squeezed through.....
I stayed in the same position the whole race but I had thoroughly enjoyed my race, this is what I wanted to do, I got serious...
It was around 2011 I knew it was my year I started the season good I had a few people on my radar : Luke Ide, Ben Graham, Andrew Graham and Luke Battersby.
The best moment of my life is when I had my first win, I've had a few 2nd places and 3rds but this is unforgettable. I had put so much effort into winning and fighting but I do this all for one reason, my family. Racing has been passed down from my grandad to my uncle and then to me, my grandads story is amazing. They way he practically re-built his mk1 Mini Cooper S and the way he rallied and raced at manny circuits including our local track Brands Hatch. He has told my manny stories but only two have stuck. One of them is when my grandad was racing his mini and he was entering a fast hard right turn, his exact words were " I could see the tarmac through the passenger door " he rolled his car...
Let's just say the car looked like a crumpled tin can but nothing will stop that man from racing although his work has slowly taken over ( his company tyreart) so now there is a shell of a mk1 Mini sitting in the garage.
The second story is when he was racing in a rotax class and his seat broke, therefore his back leant backwards and onto the disc brake slicing through his skin, not the nicest story.
But it was all of the other stories combined by watching Ayrton Senna on YouTube gave me the passion for racing.
Any way back to the autobiography, I really Knew what a sense of proud and happiness is when I stood ton the podium to collect my first place trophy and I look over and see my family cheering and smiling, this brought a tear to my eye knowing I had put so much effort into getting a result.
Knowing I could get results I set my self a challenge to get consistent results and win the championship !
Now this is testing my memory now as it has been a long time since I was racing in the cadet class but I can remember some great battles.
I remember sitting in my kart on the grid, I was assessing the weather as it had been spitting with rain so the surface of the track was slippery. I have a lot of experience with wet tracks so I was confident. I had a slight advantage due to the face that I was tall and carried more weight than the other guys who was half my height and weight. ( just to let you know I'm not overweight ;) ) so due to gravity I pushed down on the ground therefore displacing more water getting more grip !
The lights were out and I was around 6th-7th place, overtook 2 guys on the first corner
We were all tossing and switching places as we all piled into the second corner, I managed to grab a switch back on the tight hairpin.
Flat out down a short strait and hard breaking into a right hand bend...
After an almighty battle and a tiring race my efforts payed off, I was 1st. I still now look back at the footage and I still get the same adrenaline rush as I did then.
My favourite conditions is the wet, although I do really enjoy the dry I think racing in the wet is great fun and helps to improve driving skills.