We managed to get to practice on Saturday as there was no football, which helped Sam get his eye back in on this track. We love Kim, great open flowing track, great club and the chance to race with some SuperOne drivers too. With the set-up decided we headed home early.

The cold dark start on Sunday began with registration and scrutineering. The new rule for this season for MSA racing is the use of drop-down bumpers for Cadets. The idea with these is to improve driving standards, reducing the pushing and shoving often seen in cadet racing. More on our experience of that later. Another difference was the combined Iame and Honda grid leading to Sam first experience of rolling starts.

Heat one saw Sam rise from 24th to 16th which was amazing to watch with a couple of places gained early and the rest picked up in the final few laps. Sam was on pole for Heat 2 and very nervous about setting the pace for the Honda pack for the rolling start. When the lights went out he hit the go peddle perfectly, the P2 kart though broke formation too early and took a 10 sec penalty. On lap 3 the battenberg flag was out following a crash on Kimbolton Corner. On the restart all the karts were bunched up but Sam held position. As late as lap 8  Sam was still 3rd Honda but in the end he finished 5th, his best finish to date at Kim.

Sam was 7th on the Grid in the Final, but unfortunately he caught a first corner spinner with his front bumper. He made it out of the mess in 10th and ultimately that’s where he finished on track. But coming back into parc ferme his bumper was pushed in one side and so he incurred a 10 sec penalty pushing down to 14th. It seems so unfair when he was not at fault for the first corner mess but those are the rules. All in all though this was another good weekend and further evidence of Sam’s increased confidence, feel of the kart  and his developing race craft.