Sunday: Phoenix FM-sponsored driver Lochlan Bearman competed in Round 7 of the Whilton Mill Championship in Daventry.
Going into this round with a 60 point lead in the Championship karting champion Bearman was looking to extend his lead and consolidate his standing in the Championship.
During practise Bearman was once again struggling with a power problem that has not been resolved for the past 3 months, but he was still on the pace and despite being unhappy that his kart was not ‘racy’ enough meaning it was hard to overtake karts of a similar speed he was still confident of a good result on race day.
In Heat 1 he started 3rd and held that position for the first 2 laps, then he started to drift backwards and was passed by other karts and was clearly struggling with a problem. After completing the race in 10th place he advised the team that he was suffering from intermittent brake failure. This turned out to be a broken safety cable which was randomly jamming the braking mechanism. “It’s difficult to race with no brakes and alarming when you don’t know if they will work or not” stated the 13 year old.
For Heat 2 the rain had arrived and the team had fixed the brakes, and set up for a wet race. Bearman would start from 15th on the Grid. This time he made a great start and was up to 5th by the time they exited the second corner at the end of the straight. The Essex driver was closing in on 4th when he suddenly pulled over and stopped. The chain had snapped and with no drive his race was over leaving him last. To add insult to injury the broken chain had holed the radiator giving the team more to do before Heat 3.
Starting Heat 3 in 13th place he made another strong start and there was lots of contact at Christmas Corner, as they came down the hill and into the hairpin Bearman was in the middle of the pack and as 1 kart span out right in front of him he had nowhere to go and collided head on. Resuming the race it was clear that something was wrong as he could not make the kart turn right. He managed to keep going and hold onto 15th place. When he returned to the pits the team found that the steering column was bent and one of the steering rods was bent and jammed against the chassis. The team could not turn the steering wheel so it was amazing that managed to get it round at all.
As the rain continued to fall the team once again repaired the kart and got him out in time to start 15th for the Final. With nothing to lose he chose a risky set up in the hope that it could provide a significant advantage. Sadly it did not and the kart was difficult to drive in the wet conditions. Although he made up 4 places in the first couple of laps he could do no more and had a fairly lonely race until having to defend at the end to come home 11th.
“It’s been an absolutely terrible weekend” said the youngster. “I feel sorry for dad and the CooperMotorsport Team who have done so much work but it just hasn’t worked out for us. It’ just been one of those days. But we need to go away and sort the power problem out and maybe do some wet weather testing to ensure we get a good setup.
Bearman senior said – I really feel for him. We just could not give him the set up and everything went wrong. He’s lost about 40 points of his Championship lead, but that’s racing. He’s taken on the chin and he knows if we get it right he will be winning. I can’t ask for anything more from Lochlan and hopefully we will resolve the problem that has dogged us for 3 months now before our next race in a month’s time.
