Cameron reaches new heights.

Cameron had competed the previous week in a club meeting at this track as he had never raced here before. this is one of the tracks that require some knowledge and during that club meeting he had shown some speed but spent the weekend learning the track and the set-up ready for the 4^th round of Super 1.

Friday test day showed some promise, spending the day testing engines and finding a set-up. Cameron’s times were within a few tenths of the fastest times being set by very experienced drivers who have been racing at this track for many years. A hard day for the mechanic but a very positive day and some optimism that this weekend might be a lot better than anticipated.

Saturday morning was timed qualifying and this is normally Cameron’s weakest discipline with a previous highest qualification of 37^th , but right from the first lap he was on the pace and with a last lap of 39.94 he achieved an amazing 18^th place qualification that would put him in the top 10 on the starting grid for both the heats to come. This was an amazingly close session with 5^th to 48^th covered by 0.3 of a second and amazingly 5 of these drivers on exactly the same time.

Heat 1 was not going to be easy, starting 10^th on the outside with a first corner from hell. If you are on the outside it nearly always ends in the outside line crashing or being heavily penalised on the dirt, the first start was abandoned which was a relief as Cameron had not made the corner and was parked in the tyres with 4 other karts. On the re-start caution was the name of the game and after successfully avoiding all the carnage he managed to hit turn 2 in 20^th place, a loss of 10 places but at least a chance, then Cameron came alive and started to show us what we believed from our test times and made his way past drivers that were more than a little surprised to be passed by number 66. An eventual 14^th place finish after some great battles and very brave moves was Cameron’s best result in the national championships to date and a very positive sign for the weekend.

Heat 2 with an inside grid of 9^th was Cameron’s best chance yet of qualification into the finals on Sunday and a top 10 would see him directly into them rather than via the B final. A fantastic start saw him exit turn 1 in 5^th place and after 3 laps of battling to hold this place he decided to allow the other 2 driver to fight amongst themselves and watch from a very comfortable 7^th knowing he had achieved not only an amazing result but a straight qualification into the pre-final and Grand final on Sunday afternoon. The 7^th place finish with a clenched fist knowing the job done was just reward for all the effort in 2010 so far, the objective was far exceeded. This track is so complicated and experience is normally the key, we didn’t imagine being this fast at this track this year.

The pre-final was another daunting task with yet another outside grid of 18^th place, this proved to be disastrous as after a cautious start he was running down in 24^th with others that had started badly and were desperate to make their moves, eventually on lap 3 one of these decided to wipe Cameron out on the way into hairpin 1 and managed to bend the rear axle, steering column, track rods and his chances of a top 20 finish. Retirement from that race and then a 1 hour rebuild in 30 degrees to be ready for the grand final. The Grand final starts in the order the pre-final finishes so a last place 30^th position start was not going to be easy.

The Grand Final, a great start gaining 4 places and then a push to keep moving forward saw an eventual finish in 21^st overall, 10 places better than his previous best at the last round. This is an incredible result for a driver with so little experience and if this current curve of improvement continues then the end of the year could see a huge haul of points and climbing the table.

Round 1               -              overall 46^th           - 46^th in championship

Round 2               -              overall 38th        - 44^th in championship

Round 3               -              overall 31^st           - 40^th in championship

Round 4               -              overall 21^st           - 36^th in championship

3 more rounds to go, the next round is in Larkhall, Glasgow in July, a totally new track to him.

Next week sees rounds 5 and 6 of Formula Kart Stars in Glan-Y-Gors, Wales, another track that we have not yet visited at all.