The first CRFKC race was one to remember. A big crash, massive field and the Demaras Auto Racing Team meeting the folks at VRS for the first time. Hopefully this day would be different.
After many wet races, it looked like a dry race was on tap. Daniel went out on track, and unlike racing in the rain, felt the kart had too much grip. The team got to work on the #12 Intrepid kart, reducing grip in the hope of increasing speed before qualifying.
Demaras struggled with excessive grip again in qualifying, and only managed to qualify 35th. When VRS team manager James Treadwell looked into why Daniel had such a poor result, he discovered that the change that had been made to the kart was the opposite of what they were trying to do. The mechanics had added more grip!
For the pre-final the kart was balanced, and Daniel managed a great start, making up a couple places, then gained more places when other racers collided in the tight turn three. Demaras settled in place.
Daniel was locked into a battle with VRS teammate Zain fellow Goodwood CRKC champion Nathan Wilkie, who got a push from Zain on the back straight. The bump-draft allowed the tandem of drivers to speed ahead of Daniel. In the end Daniel finished twenty-ninth.
For the final, Daniel started twenty-eighth after Zain was penalized. Chris Demaras continued to wrench on kart #12, changing gears, lowering the chassis, and narrowing the front track width. Daniel reported the kart was the best it had been all day.
At the start, Daniel made up some places, but Zain got past him. Daniel made a move up his teammate’s inside, but Zain turned in on Daniel. The move sent kart #12 onto kart #21’s rear bumper, locking the team karts together on track! Once the karts were separated, Daniel found he had moved backwards. Fortieth place.
Demaras hunted down more drivers, and gained some places due to attrition, finishing twenty-eighth. Back where he started, in the midfield.
“I really wish I could have a boring CRFKC race. Obviously the contact with Zain was not ideal, but I recovered well and made some legitimate passes. Seeing as I was pointed backwards on lap one, I’ll take finishing where I started as the maximum result I could achieve on the day.”
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