PODIUM RUN CONTINUES AT PFi

This weekend saw Albie venture to Lincolnshire for the Trent Valley Kart Club’s 1st round of their Winter Cup. As with all TVKC club rounds at PFi, the best of the best were there at this round …48 competitors in total! The weekend would be an excellent indicator as to how Albie may get on in the British Champs in 2022, which starts in May.

As ever, Saturday was full of practice sessions and then led into qualifying in preparation for Sunday’s racing. Practice saw Albie in the top 10 every time and with a few adjustments to setup he was off for qualifying! In typical PFi fashion, there was chaos at qualifying time and to manage to squeeze one good lap out of the session is considered great. Albie managed to consistently stay out of the ‘quali carnage’ and finished FIFTH fastest overall!

Sunday was far less windy than Saturday and we were to go straight into the heats! Heat 1 was a P6 start. Albie made a strong start, immediately jumping to 4th. With the first few laps being a little scruffy the top two had pushed away from the pack, Albie tried hard to catch, but without anyone to push with, it was always going to be difficult as the ‘tow’ around this circuit can be up to a second in pace! A decent drive kept Albie securely in P4 and gained some vital points toward the starting position in the final. A very mature drive by the 9 year old driver!

Heat two and Friend started in P5. The lights expired for the start of Heat 2 and Friend flew off his starting line. By the end of lap one he was third, by lap two, he was 2nd! Lap after lap the top three would jostle positions. Over the course of the race the lead changed multiple times but Albie grabbed the lead back again. The penultimate lap came and Albie still had a narrow lead. With a touch of over defending Friends old adversary managed to pip him to the line and Albie after an exhilarating race settled to 2nd. After a late penalty, Albie was promoted to winner. Not the way he wanted it as the on track battle was mega to watch, but, that is racing sometimes.

The Final – With strong finishes in the heats, Albie secured the front row and P2 start! Alas, a poor start saw him drop to P4, but as ever Friend was magnificent in putting on a show. A daring overtake around the outside of the bridge section saw him regain a position, then managing to late break at the first hairpin saw him up to third. A tangle later on the race dropped him back to fifth! With half the race gone, Albie secured fourth place and headed after the pack in front. With the clock ticking down Friend ‘got his head down’ but couldn’t quite catch the top three and settled for 4th. After a penalty decision, Albie was promoted to third place and secured another podium position for the season!

Albie has shown again, that his never give up attitude and his will to win are two traits that are seeing him develop into one of the favourites for the 2022 MSUK British Championship.

In the meantime… roll on next weekend where he will be racing at TVKC for Round 2 in a back to back meeting.