Minimax karting Champion Lochlan Bearman contested Round 2 of the Whilton Mill Championship in Daventry on Sunday 22nd February on a day that saw extreme changes in conditions.
The day started cold bright and sunny and the 13 year old from Essex was 3rd fastest in practise. In Heat 1 Bearman was 9th on the grid. On the first lap run up to Christmas Corner he got stuck on the outside of the corner and was overtaken by 4 karts meaning he completed the first lap in 13th place. Unusually the team had got the set-up wrong and with his tyres not producing enough heat he struggled to keep the kart on track and lost another place. As the tyres warmed up he got faster and made up a place eventually completing Heat 1 in 12th position and setting 3rd fastest lap time of the 27 drivers.
In Heat 2 the Phoenix98FM racer lined up 10th on the Grid. At the start he made a great move into the first corner, and another at Christmas corner leaving him in 4th position. However, the officials then decided to re-start the race due to a mix up by the starter. On the re-start Bearman again made a good start but had to take avoiding action and take to the grass as the 2 karts in front of him collided and spun. This dropped him to 14th place. He then started to put in some good clean laps, moving up the field to eventually finish in 7th place.
Then the weather dramatically changed and icy rain with hail arrived at the circuit. With conditions now sodden and very cold he lined up for Heat 3 in 21st position. The conditions were now very bad and the spray was blinding. With Bearman and his team concerned that their wet tyres were not going to be good enough as they were used, Bearman made his trademark good start and sliced through those that hesitated in front of him to complete Lap 1 in 9th place. He then made up another position in Lap 2 only to find himself again being involved in someone else’s incident on Lap 3 dropping him to 9th. Clearly struggling for grip he quickly determined where his kart was good and bad an adapted his driving accordingly. He reached 5th position by Lap 6 and made inroads into the leaders but he could not catch them before the chequered flag came out to end the race.
The weather continued to worsen and the officials had no choice but to cancel the rest of the meeting as there was flooding and failing light. The results were declared and based on the Grid position for the final. This meant Bearman was classified 7th.
“A very up and down type of day”, commented Bearman. “We’ve been on the pace and looked good for a podium finish but circumstances in Heats 1 and 2 meant that 7th on the grid for the final was the best we could achieve, although from 7th I still had high hopes to challenge for a win, but sadly it was not to be.”
Bearman’s next race is Round 3 of the Kimbolton Championship on March and that is the start of a hectic month as he then goes to Genk in Belgium to compete against the top European drivers in the Junior category, before returning to Whilton Mill for Round 3 there.
