Met Police Kart Challenge Sunday 23rd September 07 Sandown Park

A nice warm day and bacon rolls :-) greeted us at Sandown Park Datona Race Circuit after about an hours drive from Kent. The team was Richard (DJ Motorsport partner), Robert (my son) and myself. Dave, from Kent Police had been due to join us but had to cancel at short notice due to family commitments.

We were supposed to be travelling together, but poor old Richard managed to get it all wrong and thought I said meet at 9am at our house. We were supposed to be at the circuit at 9am, so we ended up meeting him there.

There had been a house fire within sight of the circuit and this cause a few difficulties for people actually getting in. There was therefore a late start to the event.

The race was the usual Met format of half an hour practice and qualifying, followed by a three hour race. They do things a little differently at Sandown and call the teams in by kart number order for re-fuelling twice during the race. There was to be no minimum number of stops, so strategy had to be worked around the fuel stops.

We were allocated kart No.4 out of 10 runners, so would be one of the early stops for fuel. No matter how we worked it, we would have to stop three times during the race, as the marshals planned to stop us after about 30 minutes of racing.

Robert went out first in qualifying, and considering this was a new circuit for all of us, he did a great job and had us 4th on the time sheets.

Richard took over and improved our time, but our position dropped to 5th with quicker drivers now in the karts.

I was last out, as at Sandown the last driver to qualify stays in the kart for the first race stint - they don't allow driver changes on the grid. I managed to improve our time, but only maintained our 5th position grid slot. Sandown is quite technical and I used the six minutes or so I had in qualifying to learn the circuit.

At the start of the race it became apparent that our kart was ok in the corners, but slow on the main straight. I made up two places to third on the 1st lap, but dropped to 4th on the 2nd lap by being out-dragged down the straight. We were then promoted to 3rd when the 2nd placed kart spun on lap 5.

I could see the leading kart pulling away slowly over the next 20 or so laps, but was able to just keep him in sight. Meanwhile I was closing on 2nd place and on occasions was able to have a go at him in the tighter infield sections of the track. I was unable to pass though, as I could never get close enough along the straight to have a chance into the best overtaking point.

I was called in on lap 38 for fuel and rejoined in 6th. This was to become 3rd again after other teams fuelled and on lap 49 we moved into 2nd. I then set our team's fastest lap of 50.177s on lap 57, just shy of the fastest race lap of 49.906 by kart 7 (IT Men).

With other teams on different strategies, we took the lead on lap 79, which I held until handing over to Robert on lap 87.

Robert drove extremely well and consistently, resuming in 2nd, but moving up into the lead on lap 98, again due to different strategies. He maintained this lead until lap 125 when he was called in for fuel and the 2nd place team took the lead on his in lap.

Robert had driven for about 35 minutes, but we decided that it would be best to send Richard out and avoid a 4th pit stop.

The stop dropped us to 4th, but by lap 134 we were back in the lead. However, on the same lap, kart No.1 (BMW1) emerged from the pits and appeared to be quicker than Richard. Towards the end of the next lap the driver dived inside in an impossible overtaking move and sent Richard into a spin, demoting us to 2nd. Next time round and BMW1 were given the black flag and had to return to the pits to serve a stop and go penalty.

Richard drove consistently and maintained the lead to the flag, but not without a tense drama unfolding....

IT Men (7) and BMW1 (1) were still on the same lap as us and both teams were about half a second quicker than Richard. We watched from the sidelines as the gaps tumbled. Pit boards were put out telling Richard to 'PUSH' and giving him the ever dwindling gap back to second place. Back markers were proving difficult to pass and losing us valuable seconds, and it seemed where Richard was having trouble, the other teams were breezing past.

Just when it seemed we were going to be pipped for 1st in the dying seconds when the gap had dropped to 4 seconds with only 10 minutes to go, we were handed a lifeline. The IT Men driver, sensing victory, was over-eager trying to get past a back marker and spun. The gap was up to 11 seconds, and Richard had some breathing space.

He duly brought the kart home in the lead to win by 4.5 seconds from IT Men . BMW1 came home in third, just 7 seconds later, with Radical Racers (4) a further 25 seconds behind, but still on the same lap.

Wow, what a tense finish.......

As I said in an earlier blog about the Met race at Buckmore where we had so much bad luck, but were classified 2nd in the end, that 2nd place was vital. With BMW finishing 1st at Buckmore and 3rd at Sandown, whereas we were 2nd at Buckmore and 1st at Sandown, we came away with the series win and the overall trophy - A Gold-Plated F1 BMW Exhaust Manifold !!!

Actually, we didn't come away with it, but we will get our picture taken with it at the dinner in February........