After nearly a month of inactivity, Goodwood Kartways was alive and filled with the sound of karts once again. Practice for the annual ‘Two-Stage Enduro’ began on Friday, with drivers running the reverse short-track layout.
PRO Team Principal Darrel Timmers drove around the track with PRO’s young drivers, teaching them the line around the new layout. Daniel was quick to utilize his arrive and drive knowledge, setting competitive lap times.
Saturday was much chillier than the practice day had been, and rain clouds loomed ominously over the track ahead of morning warm-up. Daniel managed 8th place in forward configuration, and 6th quickest in reverse configuration practice.
In the break between Practice Session 2 and Race 1, it started to rain…hard. Sprinkles fell all morning, but not enough to warrant rain tires. However, changing conditions meant that Christopher and Chris took the slick tires off the kart, took the dry gear off, and put the front width at neutral, ready to change the setup depending on what happened to the conditions.
The starting order was assigned randomly, and Daniel was given 6th on the grid for the reverse race, and 10th for the forward race. Team PRO’s Anthony Garofalo rolled off on the front row, leading the field into what is normally turn eight.
As drivers struggled for grip, multiple karts collided in the opening esses. Daniel was caught out by the crash, losing multiple places. He tumbled more positions later that lap, finishing the first time around the track in eleventh.
Daniel got to work at making his way through the field, making quick work of several drivers until he reached a brick wall in the battle for 6th. Not able to find a way past the driver ahead, Daniel hunted driver #39 for ten laps, before finally passing into reverse turn one. He defended for the rest of the lap before finishing a club racing best finish of 6th.
Master mechanic Christopher felt that Daniel had blown a shot at a podium, because Daniel had the third quickest time of the race. That quick time, however, was set on the last lap…the only one where Daniel took a proper rain line.
The field rolled off on slick tires for Race #2. Daniel was sandwiched by karts three times on the opening lap. Down the order and with damage to the front bumper, Daniel was determined to get back to the top-ten. Taking advantage of crashed karts and making overtakes, Daniel finished the race in 8th.
Daniel ended the event in 8th place overall, his best ever finish. Ahead of a big month of July at Mosport, Daniel has lots of momentum carrying him through.
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