10/05/2010
The British Schools Karting Championship (BSKC) is an arrive and drive national schools karting championship for students aged 13-18. There is no need to own a kart to compete, all karts, suits and helmets are provided. You simply turn up and race for your school.
The championship is a team based knockout competition for teams of 3 drivers.
C.A.I competed in the championship this year for the first time in the school’s history. Our team consisted of Dean Gray, Andrew Lynch and Dean Catherwood. The team manager was Mr Gault who organised the entry and took us on practice sessions to RaceView and Nutts Corner circuits, so that we could get a feel for the karts and tracks. From his motorsport experience he gave us very good advice and encouragement. “THANK YOU SIR!”
There were also 3 teams from Belfast High School at the practice session in Raceview. They were the teams we would be racing against in the Regional Semi-Final. The practice session went well and we were confident that we could get through to the Regional final.
Our BSKC experience began the next week on Wednesday 3rd February at Race View Karting circuit in Broughshane. We raced against 2 other teams as one team did not turn up. C.A.I led in every race, to finish in first position. This meant we qualified for the Regional Final to be held at Nutts Corner Circuit on Friday 26th February. We were ‘over the moon’ and couldn’t wait for the day of the final to arrive.
A total of nine teams qualified for the Regional Final and only the top two teams from Northern Ireland could qualify for the UK National Final on Saturday 27th March at Daytona, Milton Keynes.
On the day of the final Mr Gault took us to the Nutts Corner circuit. We were nervous and excited but determined to do our best. The weather was terrible. It was raining heavily all day and there was even sleet and snow at times! This affected the performance of the karts and Mr Gault had to change the carburettor on Dean Catherwoods kart because it had filled with water.
However, in EXTREMELY WET conditions we finished in second place, just 2 points behind the winning team from Regent House, qualifying us for the UK National Final.
Finals in Milton Keyes
On Friday 26th March 2010 we flew from Belfast City airport to Luton. After quite a while travelling by plane, bus and car we arrived at our hotel in Milton Keynes. We then set of to the track. If you’ve ever been to Milton Keynes you’ll know its very confusing to drive around and on our way there we got lost and spent about half an hour to get to the track. Luckily however we had plenty of time to burn anyway. The track was very challenging, it was very tight but had fast parts too. In the dry it was extremely grippy but in the wet it was like driving on ice. We had a half hour practise session in the rain. We did okay and it boosted our confidence for the next days racing.
It was an early start, we were at the track at seven o’clock. The practice sessions were at 9 o’clock but before then we had to be briefed and got ready. During our practice it was dry and we were extremely fast. All three of us passed most of the other drivers. This again was a great confidence boost before the race. Our first race was dry and we had a good result considering our grid position. After that however it began to rain and the track never really dried out. Most of are race results were very good especially considering the level of the drivers competing.
By the end of the days racing we had finished 12th overall and were 12th Schools’ Karting team in Britain. We were presented our medals and went home proud of ourselves and what we had achieved.