NSK 1 - Le Mans Karting International

The NSK 2015 season opened with 62 drivers in Alvis' category, and just over 235 drivers in this event at the international karting circuit of Le Mans which is relatively new, opened in late 2013 - early 2014.

The forecast a week ago was for the race weekend to be raining but it gradually changed to good weather as the date drew nearer. Indeed, the weather was good over the race weekend.

The environment was more stressful than the regional races for Alvis, still lacking race experience.

His practice started on Thursday afternoon to learn the track, though official practice was on Friday.

They were the first category for practice, and the track was really sandy. Everyone was 2 to 3 seconds off the pace.
Alvis just had to adapt to the track conditions, like everyone else. At this point, setup was pointless since the track conditions for the race wouldn't be like this. Alvis just concentrated on his driving, as the lap timing decreased till sunset.

As for Friday, everyone of his category showed up, and they had to split the practice into odd numbers and even numbers. The track started to get heavily rubbered by the 235 drivers throughout the day. For the 3 recorded practice sessions that they had, Alvis was 4th for the 1st and 2nd sessions and 7th in the last one, being 1, 2, and then 3 tenths respectively off the pace of the pole of his group.

 Alvis pushing hard through the last corner onto the main straight

For the race weekend, they had a total of 1 time trial on Friday, 3 heats on Saturday and the prefinal and final on Sunday.

At national level, Alvis knew having a 3 tenths of improvement is a lot. He had to push for the time trial to make up his lack of race experience.

Alvis went out, with fresh new tyres, and gave it his all. He was improving each lap, but caught up with a backmarker on his final lap, dropping him from about 3rd to 9th on the final lap. Alvis didn't realise everyone was slipstreaming for the extra 2 tenths advantage, and would do so for the next race.

Alvis going through the chicane, kissing the kerb

 Top 37 of the time trial

Alvis qualified 16th, so group D. meaning he would start 8th for all his heats. The first heat was between group C and D. He lost 2 places at the start, due to the reverse effect of the first corner, Alvis jumped into the interior for turn 1, and was on the losing end on the exterior for turn 2. He managed to squeeze back into the interior to defend his position into turn 3. Everyone was glued until lap 4, where there was a 3 kart collision. Alvis managed to dodge it, promoting him to 7th. But he soon lost them and by lap 7, he was 9th. At turn 1 of the 8th lap, Alvis was involved in a crash dropping him all the way down to 14th, losing 5 places. Alvis managed to overtake 2 of them back on the last lap, and drag raced one to the finish line, finishing in 11th.

 C-D Heat Results

Next was B-D. Beside his teammate on the grid, they went out for the formation lap and lined up. This time, Alvis stayed in the middle of the track to not get tricked on the start, and gained a place by turn 2, just in front of his teammate. Though having a great start, due to Alvis' lack of race experience, starting from lap 2, he just kept dropping down the order though having the front runners' pace.

Next was A-D. Alvis' tyres were starting to wear out as well, as Alvis' driving style didn't suit the heavily rubbered track. Alvis repeated the same procedure for the start, gaining a place. However, Alvis got hit out on turn 9, causing him to spin out, losing 5 places. Everything got worst as he came back on track, losing more and more places. This experience would help Alvis on his next big race, handling all this pressure, tyre management. 

Alvis qualified 29th for the prefinal

Alvis knew this wasn't his pace, and overtook 2 of them right off the bat into 27th on the first lap, but got stuck behind the 26th. On lap 4, Alvis was unlucky, getting hit from behind on corner 13, spun out and couldn't start the kart. End of prefinal for him. Alvis had to start at the back for the final.

Starting 34th, the start was very tight, Alvis managed to squeeze through to overtake the 33rd and 32nd, defended his position through the whole lap, and then overtook another 12 karts till lap 9 to 22nd. He outbroke the 21st on the last lap, and due to penalties in front, he was promoted to 20th.

Alvis crossing the start/finish line in 20th

Final results

Alvis' expectations were higher, but it was a good experience for him. He will learn from this race.

We thank 3MK Events for organising NSK, the marshals, the race commission, Le Mans Karting International staff, Malevaut Sport and Aurélien.

Stay tuned! Another post coming up soon!

3rd Round - Centre-Poitou Regional Race

The 3rd Round of the Centre-Poitou regional championship was held at the international circuit of St Amand. We arrived at noon, and the sun was scorching hot. 20-25°C. At 3PM, Alvis geared up, jumped into the kart and drove off. The practice of Friday was focused mainly on the driving, and for Alvis to learn the track.

At the end of Friday, Alvis was about 1 second off the pace with old tyres, and Alvis knew he still had about 4 tenths of improvement left to be acheived on the track.

On Saturday morning, there was light rain causing the track to be slippery. Alvis decided not to go out, since the weather forecast was showing sunshine for the rest of the weekend. He watched the others drive. 

In the afternoon, Alvis head out once again, and he improved mostly on the exit of turns 2 and 3, the 2 tightest corners of the circuit. 

  Alvis going through turn 2

On Sunday morning, Alvis wanted to clock a perfect lap to be in the top 3. Everyone is allowed of 3 front tyres and 3 rear tyres in the championship. Some put the half set on the 2nd round, some of them today. 

Before entering pregrid, he told me: "I think I can be top 3." I just gave him a thumbs up, and he sat in his kart, waiting for the green flag. They went out, and on the live timing, each lap he was improving. 

Alvis ending his final flying lap

Yes! He completed the time trials in 3rd! 2 thousandths away from the 2nd, and 1 and a half tenths away from the pole sitter, Coursimault.

 Happy of the qualifying result

Time trial results

Alvis' teammate, Sacha Hebrard, was 5 hundredths behind him, sitting in 4th position. 

 Entering pregrid for the heat

Alvis knew he had the advantage on the 2nd, since Alvis was on the interior. 

 Formation lap

For the start, Alvis followed the leader into the 1st corner, promoting him into 2nd, and blocked in the double hairpins. The top 4 were all fighting furiously, and on lap 4, Alvis got overtaken by Yann Bouvier, dropping him back to 3rd. Alvis followed the train to the end, as there was no point in overtaking the 2nd since on the start the chances of dropping to 3rd were high. On turn 5, a flat out corner, Sacha decided to dive in to snatch 3rd place from Alvis. Losing the rhythm, Alvis had a bad run-up to the up sloped turn 7. As the 5th and 6th caught up with him, they manage to squeeze by him, making him drop down to 6th place. Alvis was a little disappointed, but he knew he could at least climb back up to the top 4 once again, since he was in that group the whole heat. 

Heat results

Alvis' strategy for the prefinal was to overtake them slowly one by one, since there were 17 laps. 

On the depart of the prefinal, Alvis got promoted up to 5th doing a risky move on the exterior, and glued his front bumper to the rear of Alexis Michaut. At the 10th lap, under pressure, Alexis does a mistake into turn 1, running wide and into the pebbles, as there isn't much room for error here at St Amand. 

His teammate was about 2 seconds ahead of him. 

 Alvis pushing hard to catch Sacha

7 laps left. Every lap, he was gaining about 2 tenths on his teammate, and on the 16th lap, Alvis was right on his bumper. He decides to outbrake his teammate on the 1st hairpin, And gets back up to his original position. By the time, the 2 front runners were miles away. Alvis crosses the chequered line in 3rd place.

Prefinal results

Alvis had a potential podium, since he had the pace the entire weekend. 

For the final start of this round, Alvis had to guard his position from the 4th, and had to stay 3rd through turn 1. Unfortunately for him, Alvis made a mistake, not closing the door enough from the 4th for the 1st hairpin. The 4th and 5th then drove past him. For the 2nd hairpin, Alvis gets pushed out onto the apex and drops once again. Down to 11th. What a disastrous start for Alvis! Alvis had to work his way back up, just like in the prefinal. 

 Alvis trying to climb back up

Alvis got stuck behind the 8th for a few laps, as he was being defensive. When he finally overtook him, he caught up to the 7th; too late! The chequered flag was presented and Alvis had to settle with a disappointing 8th place, despite the terrific qualifying. Alvis learnt his lesson and will be better off for his next race: National Series Karting - Round 1 - Le Mans

 Finishing in 8th place

Final Results

Every racer of every category in the Centre-Poitou regional championship for 2015