After the Trophée Oscar Petit race at Varennes, I was back to St Amand Montrond for the 2nd round of the NSK championship. The forecast for the weekend was very hot, 38°C air temperature and you had to have a very cool head to beat the heat on track.
My free practice timing was more than 5 tenths off the pace. Much was needed to be done to be at least competitive. I managed to bring the timing down to less than 3 tenths from the fastest.
Though being just a fraction off the front runners, it was less than a tenth of a second between 10th to 20th and that put me in a reasonable 15th place out of 50 drivers for the qualifying.
Qualifying Results (page 1 of 2)
I did okay in the first two heats, keeping my position and making sure to avoid as much contact as possible. But in the 3rd heat, on lap 3, I got dive-bombed into the grass and was unable to restart my engine. A DNF (Did not finish) which prevented him from starting in the top 15.
Heats
During the prefinal, I got off to a good start, avoiding a massive 8 kart pile-up at turn 1, promoting me up to 14th. Coming past the start/finish line to complete lap 2, I got once again, dive-bombed into the gravel trap. *sigh*
Starting 24th for the final, I lost two places on the first lap and another two on lap 2. I gained back a few places over the next few laps and lost some again after that. I fought hard throughout the remaining laps to finally cross the line 17th.
Final
Next race: Rotax Final - Laval
