The Kart Championship BKC / CKC / JKC Round 1 & Whilton Mill | Leon Barlow
No testing on Friday meant that Leon Barlow sponsored by Part-Box.com had two sessions to adjust to his new kart before qualifying and in issue in session one meant he had to come in after only a couple of laps. So Leon had one session in the wet to learn the kart before qualifying which was looking to be dry.
Here are Leon Barlow’s results at The Kart Championship:
Qualifying – P29
Heat 1 – P29 ⬆️ P12 (on track) ⬇️ P15 (after penalties)
Heat 2 – P29 ⬆️ P13
Superheat 1 – P14 ⬇️ P17
Superheat 2 – P14 ⬆️ P13
Final – P16 ⬆️ P8 (on track) ⬇️ P12 (after penalties)
In qualifying Leon got a flat tyre in the opening lap and on the third lap he got shown a mechanical flag as his chain guard fell off meaning he had to come in early. He quailed down in 29th so he had a lot of work to do in the heats.
Heat 1 was wet as starting down in 29th meant Leon had to keep out of trouble on the opening few laps. He did this and by the end of lap one he was up in 15th. He then gained a few places over the next could laps, getting to 12th before being fired and dropping back down to 19th. Leon Barlow then fought his way through and got back up to 15th place.
Heat 2 was once again wet. Leon Barlow was again starting down the order in 29th and knew with decent pace he be able to work his way up the order. In the opening lap not one driver spun, so Leon only gained 4 places while trying to keep out of trouble. From there he slowly carved his way through the field, making multiple overtakes each lap, even overtaking 5 drivers on lap 2 and another four on lap 3. With good pace from there on, he worked his way up to 13th at the flag. On Sunday the track was dry meaning he had to learn his new kart all over again, it handled more differently to his old kart (in a good way) so it really took some getting used to.
With two decent comeback heat drives Leon was starting the two super hears in 14th.
In the first superheat Leon Barlow struggled for pace. Even after making his way up to 11th by the end of lap one, he slowly dropped back over the race. He did find a bit of pace right at the end (as in the final lap), matching the quickest lap, it was too little too late. He also picked up a drop down on the opening lap which meant after crossing the line in the same position he started, Leon was then classified in P17.
In the second superheat the kart was on another level, he made a setup change between races which drastically changed how it handles that really suited my driving. On the opening corner I got fired over the grass, dropping me down to P25. However, with the kart doing exactly as he wanted, he was able to fight my way back up into P14 on the road. Along the way, even while finding my way through traffic, he was able to repeatedly set the fastest lap of the race. Due to a late battenburg flag that only restarted with one lap to go, he then wasn’t able to gain any more places on my 14th. Leon Barlow was classified in 13th after penalties.
