First Outdoor Race - Hooton Park

Samuel completed his first outdoor race in the IndiKart Championship at Hooton Park over the weekend of 15 and 16 September.  He had a reasonable day on the Saturday, testing and getting more used to his kart plus a lot more traffic on the track!

We were prepared for a lot of rain on the Sunday and although there were a few showers it was largely fine although windy.  Samuel didn't manage to do the two practice sessions due to technical issues with the kart and then trottle was sticking when he did the transponder test, but after that was rectified, the kart was in good shape!

A great grid start on the first heat - starting in 14th place out of 18 drivers - he managed to make up 4 or 5 places before the first corner and was holding his own until lap 5 when he tried to overtake on the outside, got pushed wide and hit the tyre barrier and knocked a marshal over.  Samuel and the marshal were fine but this meant he started at the back of the gird for heat two.

Two photos of heat two grid start:

On the photo above, you can just see Samuel (virtually centre of the photo) - the bloke in the centre with the black jacket is obscuring him!

And he can now be seen - all in black, again more or less photo centre.

He finished 11th in the second heat so then was placed 11th on the gird for the final.  He actually made up places again on the grid start for the final but because he's not yet got the same pace as the other drivers (this was his first outdoor race!) he lost what he'd gained.  But still finished 11th overall, just missing out on the points by a place!

Next round is 21 October.