The re-scheduled Victorian Open Championships gave me all the highs and lows that motorsport can give you.

Things went really well throughout practice, we made some slight changes from the previous weekends testing and we also tried a few different things just to see how the kart would react. Pace was good and there was not much in it between 5 or 6 karts.

I thought i had the pace to qualify top 3 however i over drove on the new tires and made a few mistakes but i still managed to set the 5th fastest lap. I knew i could go faster in the 2nd session and i shadowed Rick Pringle throughout the whole session. Coming onto the straight to get the chequered flag Rick got a tow from a kart in front and i got a tow from Rick. That gave me the fastest lap for the second qualifying session and the second fastest time in overall qualifying. We were rapt to be on the front row at my first state championship in Rotax.

From the high to the low...

The first heat got underway on Friday afternoon. After a shocking start to the race i was P4 after turn 1 and P6 by mid race - i was very unsettled as well. Just as i had calmed myself down and got into the swing of things the throttle stuck heading into the bus stop (where the outgrid is) and i went spearing off the track and into the tire barriers. As i hit the brakes for the bus stop it just felt like the kart took off even faster and with the speed i was carrying the gravel trap was not going to do much as I basically launched over it at 100% throttle.

Some people have asked me the following questions:
Q: Did you brake?
A: No... i would have never thought of that.

Q: Why didn't you just turn the motor off?
A: I reckon there was about 3 seconds between hitting the brakes and the impact with the tire wall, when things like that happen you barely have time to realise what is going on let alone do something about it.

However funny and weird things always happen in these situations and as i saw those shiny white tires getting bigger very quickly i had time to think "awww this is going to be big" but i didn't have time to do anything about it.

So the result of it all was that the chassis is a bit bent and we were not able to straighten it - we have been down that road before and we know that it has to get done properly for the kart to feel right and fast again. The rear axle was also bent as well as the steering column. It was bent in 3 different places - when i hit the tire wall my leg has hit the bottom of the steering wheel that hard that the steering wheel was more in an upright position (like in a truck, but not quite that extreme)... my leg hurt.

And that was the end of the weekend unfortunately. An expensive exercise but we know we can be quick, just gotta get the result.