Max ROKs The Winter Cup

Last weekend saw some firsts for Max. It was the first time he has entered the famous Superone BKC Winter Cup at his local circuit, Whilton Mill in Daventry. It was also the first time trying out the mega quick Mini ROK class. The class is raced world wide and at 10bhp it put out quite a punch from its two stroke engine and sounds fantastic. It was his first time in a team awning, courtesy of Dan, Simon & Jonny from Croc Promotion, which is the UK factory team for the Croc chassis we are running. Being our first time in a new class the support of a team made things so much easier and helped avoid the silly mistakes that you tend to make when working the intricacies out.

As it all came together a little late, Max hadn’t had the chance to go testing in the ROK and with the engine brand new it needed running in before the race weekend. With this in mind Max had another first, in that we asked his school for permission to take Thursday off, so we could head to Whilton Mill and put some laps in. Luckily for Max his school is very supportive oof his racing and they granted their permission.

To say it was a little wet is a bit of an understatement, the rain was persistent all day and very heavy. The Bridgestone wet Tyres used for Mini Rok are very hard compared to the wet tyres Max is used to, so we opted to run our DRS Vega wets to give Max a bit of confidence. Although not ideal to be running a different tyre, the other drivers were doing the same, so we could still gauge how we were doing.

By the end of the day Max was doing really well and we were starting to understand the chassis setup a little better each session. The engine was fully run in and apart from a bit of prep work, we were ready for the weekend.

Saturday arrived and it was still raining. Being in a team awning with heating was going to be bliss and certainly made setting up easier. The team had looked after the kart for us since Thursday, so it was in the awning ready when we arrived. We set about getting it all setup and putting in to practices everything that we had learnt on Thursday.

The Bridgestone wets were put on wheels and bolted on to the kart. Max knew that he wouldn’t have as much grip, but set on from the dummy grid for the first session smiling. When he came in, I was expecting him to be complaining, but he just smiled and laughed at how fast the engine was.

The rest of the day was spent trying out the setups and tyre pressures the team were telling us and Max ended up around 1.5 seconds off the drivers who had raced the class all year. Like with DRS, most of the drivers are 3/4 years older than him, so although it was going to be tough, it will help bring him on so much, learning from those more experienced.

We arrived at the circuit on Sunday morning and there was a bit of blue sky showing. The sun was trying to make an appearance, but with the temperature only 4 degrees, before taking the wind into account, it was going to take a long time for the track to dry out.

Max’s aim for the day was to have fun and learn as much as he could about the new kart. The first heat came and he started at the back of the grid. This was the perfect scenario, as it gave him a chance to learn how the tyres came on, without being in the middle of the pack. The second heat was another first in cadets and saw him start on pole. He lead the formation lap well and made the perfect start, but then left the door open three times and the pack swallowed him up and by the flag he had dropped to 9th.

Next up was the pre-final and the track had now dried. This was the first chance Max had got to dry the slicks, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire. He finished in 9th position again and was 1.7 seconds off the quickest lap, which normally would be a huge margin, but for his first time driving the new kart and Bridgestone slicks, we were quite happy.

Next up was the final and max lined up on the grid in 9th position. The start went well and he was running up in 5th position early in the race. As the field settled down, he was soon under pressure by some of the more experienced drivers, and he dropped down to 6th and then 7th. After the lap board started to come down, Max had settled in to a consistent rhythm, lapping quicker than in the previous race, but chasing him down was his friend Joshua Turnbull, who had raced Mini Rok for a while. Joshua was fast and was soon on the back of Max with two laps to go. Max managed to keep enough of a gap on the penultimate lap, but on the last lap was right on his tail. Max had seen him though and defended brilliantly to hold him off until the flag, finishing his first Mini Rok final in 7th.

We had a great weekend of learning and having fun. Max came away smiling, having loved the speed and playing with new and old friends. Massive thanks go to Max’s new sponsor Applied Diamond Products as without their support, Max wouldn’t have been able to get the new chassis. Thanks also to Bradley Beavers for lending Max his helmet, while Santa (JLF Designs) had Max’s new kid for painting.