Just as City Liga's 15th season has finished there was a possibility to take part in a small championship, actually a cup with MRT. Now, notoriously I hate this little car for it's snappiness. However, there was one of my teammates on the server training for the first race of the season and I joined the training just for fun. I gave this little car from hell another chance and this time it surprised me rather positively. As we were racing on flat surface of autocross the car has lost it's ability to ever so often snap away from me into a terribly unsavable oversteer as the only bumps you could find were speed-bump type curbs which rather launch the car in the air.
So, there I was with a fun challenge ahead of me and immediately I was on pace, which surprised me quite nicely again, as most of the guys drove this car far more than me as this was their second season. Still, it was prove to be a proper challenge. I qualified 4rd on the grid 0.13 down on Koreny, Ulrich and Heinonen, but was promoted to 3rd on the grid as Koreny got a penalty for cutting the track and soon I was in 2nd when Heinonen spun out. I put on a strong chase to close in on Ulrich, but was never to catch him as my front left tire gave up on me and rather had to defend my 2nd place from Heinonen for second part of the race. Still, the result was pleasing for my first ever karting race.
For the second race, the lesson was clear. Improve the tires management. The qualifying didn't go too well this time, loosing pole position by 0.01 to Ulrich. But, the race start was extraordinary for me and I managed to get grips on the lead shortly in lap 2, still though I was immediately repassed as the cold tires cost me running little wide. This proved to be my only opportunity, as again tires got too hot, this time in last third of the race. And for the next round I was going to make sure they last the distance.
By now the success ballast system worked in my favor. 30kg vs 20kg, Ulrich vs me. But, he got the holds of fastest lap extra points, so this was a very difficult position for me. In round 3, his teammates Tanskanen and Karakus occupied the front row ahead of me. And Ulrich was down in 6th. It was going to be a thrilling race. As Karakus had more pace they swapped places early on and I as well managed to force Tanskanen into a mistake and get in the chase for the lead. This time the tires were spot on for me, which couldn't be said for Karakus and I cought up with him with 15 laps to go. However the track as always was insanely difficult for overtaking and after a number of laps there still was no chances. Join me for a thrilling ride as the race approached final 7 laps.
So it was my first victory of the season, however Ulrich still held the
points lead even with 4th place finish and weirdly enough, he had 5kgs
less ballast for the next race as well.
Nevertheless, I grabbed the pole position for race 4, ahead of Tanskanen, Ulrich and Terzić who joined the race as guest driver. After a good start Ulrich was soon on my tail for a race of attrition. 20 laps of intense racing, nose to tail is what followed. He never got a clear chance for a move and soon enough he got frustrated and careered into the barrens ending his race and virtually his own championship hunt when he retired few laps later.
For final race of the season, 6th gear members didn't show up after their head driver suffered a heavy crash and virtually lost any chance of the title. Still, we carried on with the race, where imol took some training, but wouldn't race. Surprisingly, I matched his pace with 40kgs extra ballast. It looked like an easy race for me after a pole position, but in last part of the race non-balasted season 1 champion and teammate Ahlers made return and used better tire situation in last laps of the race to take the victory.
This was an interesting journey into the unknown for me with a lot of good racing along the way to stay in my memories for a long time and I'm proud to say I'm the champion of a karting cup and I welcome anyone who can take on this extraordinary challenge.
