What a first non novice race weekend for Ben Tuck!

On Saturday Ben showed us how focussed he was and how determined to get his times correct in his second Mini-Max race after 5 novice cadet races. The times produced seemed to be very acceptable and from our stopwatch he seemed to well in the top 10 and probably the top 5 on times with just Goodwin way out front and the rest being very close.

Sunday first heat and starting 5^th on the grid you could see the nerves but a great start and good first corner saw him come out of turn 1 in 4^th! Then after a couple of laps of pressure from behind you could see the confidence growing and the speed increasing to start to gain on 3^rd and after 2 attempts a nice clean pass put Ben in a 3^rd with 2^nd well in sight but without enough time to catch. A stunning first race off the black plates.

The second heat starting 11^th saw a very similar and accomplished performance with a lot of battles in the first few laps ending with Ben driving clear of 6^th place to finish a very satisfying 5^th and again with the front guys still well within his sights and getting closer. The kart was running perfectly and Ben was using it to great effect setting top 3 and 4 times in every race.

The final heat was a 16^th place start on the outside and we had visions of the first corner being a disaster but with his recent experience of starting from the back as a novice he again dealt with it with ease and following a plan around turn one he came out in the top 10 and then got his head down and passed another 3 to finish 7^th, for me this was his best race of the day and apart from a few errors toward the end he would have been 6^th or maybe even 5^th.

Qualification in 4^th in your first non novice plate race is a fantastic achievement for the team and for Ben, Jon’s prep on both the carb and engine as well as Bens ability and calmness showed us all how good we can be when we hook it all up. The final we will skip over quickly as we didn’t make it more than 20 yards out of the pits with the engine stalling and then the marshal’s insisting he get out of the kart rather than let him start it again, but next time we will have that experience and be there. A top 3 finish was on the cards for the final and that has set the standard for future races!

WELL DONE BEN!