~Alvis Ang: 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