Club 100 The Big Day - by Dan East

It’s here. The big day is finally here. The weeks of waiting are over and after a slightly delayed start (somebody forgot to set the and was still asleep when I arrived at his house) we are off to Hoddesdon for our first ever Club100 race meeting. We didn’t need to arrive till 11 but we wanted to get there early to watch the Premier class racing in the hope that we might pick up some useful tips. We watched them racing from various different points around the track but after about 20 minutes I think we’d learnt all we were going to from watching. What we really needed was to get out on the track and have a go ourselves, but before you can do that you have to register and then go through the mandatory drivers briefing.

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Registration and Briefing

Registration is a fairly normal affair, form an orderly queue and put your name down on the list. Then it was time for the drivers briefing. Andy and I stood in the corner waiting for it to start when none other than Damon Hill walks in. The same Damon Hill that I had watched race in F1 all those years ago, and who I had admired and respected for so long. And he was wearing a race suit – no way – surely he’s not racing with us. Is he? Nobody else seemed bothered about it but I had to say something. So after the briefing I walked over to him, shook his hand and said “Can I just say that it’s an honour to meet you!” To tell the truth I was awestruck and I couldn’t get much more out anyway. He was the gentleman I had expected. He must hear it all the time and it obviously wasn’t a big deal for him to meet me, but it made my day and it’s something I know I’ll never forget.

And by the way, he was racing against us.

So the briefings done. My brother and I have been assigned a couple of “buddies” for the day and we started making our way to the pits. The “buddy” system is something that Club100 do to help out rookies like us. A more experienced racer – someone who knows and understands the race day format – sticks by our sides throughout the day and guides us through it so that we don’t get it too wrong. It’s a great idea and it really helped me. There’s a lot to take in at your first event and I’m quite sure I would have ended up a jibbering wreck by the end of it without their help, so thanks very much to both of you.

Qualifying

The sprint series is split into 3 weight categories: light, heavy, and super-heavy weight. We were both racing in the heavyweight class. Drivers take part in 3 heats during the day with starting positions assigned randomly from front, middle and back of the pack. This is to stop the same people winning every race. Your performance in these three heats determines whether you qualify in the ‘A’ or ‘B’ final.

I was in the first heavyweight heat starting from 7th and it’s fair to say that the excitement got to me, I messed up on the first lap. Surrounded by karts I out-braked myself and spun at the first hairpin. Half a lap later (push start) I was underway again and holding station (sort of) albeit half a lap behind, until I did it again in the same place for the same reason. I was a whole lap behind now which is pretty bad in a 7 lap race. If I had been on the Playstation I would have thrown the controller, sworn and blamed the game for cheating against me, but the sad truth is that I was struggling and I knew it. My lap times weren’t that impressive even when I was keeping it on the track, and I got out of the kart a very unhappy man.

In my second heat I started second from last. If I wanted to qualify in the A-final I would have to find my way into the the top eight at least. I knew what I had to do and I’d had a bit of time since my first heat to work out how to do it. The flag waved for the race start and I was off, I made it through the first hairpin in one piece (a milestone for me in itself) and managed to fight my way past a couple of other karts. I was up to about 15th approaching the last section and the driver in front had left such a huge gap that he was practically waving me through, so I dived in. Then the prat cut across and forced me head first into the tyres and ended my chances – thanks very much! I got underway again thanks to a pusher kart but it was too late. 7 laps isn’t long enough to recover from a spin and I finished last yet again.
At this point I was wishing I could start the day all over again. I knew I was better than my results were showing but silly mistakes were quickly putting me to the back of the field, I had one heat left to make an impression. The A-final was a dot in the distance now. There was no chance I could get into it even if I won my final heat, but that wouldn’t stop me from trying.

I was starting from 4th this time so it would be my best chance of a good result and I wasn’t about to waste it. The race started and the red mist descended. I quickly got past the 3rd place kart and was holding my own against the front 2, studying them and working out where best to make a pass. Then it happened. Approaching the first hairpin on about the third or fourth lap I out-braked myself – only by about a metre – but it was enough. I went very wide on the exit and onto the grass. I had almost made it back onto the track when I went over a particularly rough bit and I spun. Again! I couldn’t believe it.

I got going again and finished about 15th out of 18 runners, making my end qualifying result an embarrassing 2nd from last in the B-final, which is 2nd from last out of everyone! Not where I wanted to be.

The Final

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Today was all about learning and making stupid mistakes but I couldn’t help thinking that I should have been higher than this. All that was left to do now was give it everything in the B-final and hope that by some divine miracle I could get past 30 other karts and make it to 4th and automatic promotion to the back of the A-final.

It started off well. I got past about 4 karts in two corners and approaching the first hairpin all was looking good. The kart in front swerved to one side to avoid an accident at the hairpin, but by the time I’d seen it it was too late. I couldn’t go either side because I was sandwiched between two other karts. I braked, hard, but I couldn’t slow down enough and with nowhere to go I ended up hitting the kart that had parked on my line which stopped my kart and effectively ended my final. Another race ruined! I was push started very quickly but it still cost me a half a lap and robbed me of any chance of a top 4 finish. I was angry to say the least, but I soldiered on regardless.

It was about 2 laps in that the anger faded away and I suddenly saw the light. I started braking a metre or 2 earlier for the hairpin, and I tried a different line around a couple of the other corners. Before I knew it I’d caught and passed the kart in front. Then the next one, and the next one. I was picking karts off like it was nothing – inside, outside, whatever. I was catching everyone including the leaders but I didn’t have enough laps to make it to the front and I ended up 15th.

In Conclusion

I have to admit, it wasn’t exactly the dream start to my Club100 career that I had hoped for. I wasn’t expecting to jump straight into it and beat all of these people who had been racing these karts for years, but I was expecting a little more from myself than I delivered. Having said that, the whole point of this first meeting, and really this season, is for me to learn the club and the karts. If I’m going to make rookie mistakes now is the time to make them.

I didn’t come away with a good result but after the first lap incident in the final I had a lot of fun working my way through the field, and after inspecting my lap times afterwards I felt slightly encouraged by the fact that my lap times are only about half a second off the front of the A-final. I know half a second is a lot around a race track and it will certainly take me some time to find it, but I know it’s there (and then some) and I’m expecting much better things next time out in July.

Until then I’ll be practicing and training, and counting the days.