The event didn’t look like a club race. Big teams with their 18 wheelers filled the grounds at Goodwood. Race 3 was used by many as a ‘tune-up’ race before next week’s Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship. PRO even brought out the big tent to house all the inter-club racers .
Andrew Waring (pitted next to his brother Nick) had the No. 12 PRO Intrepid Briggs & Stratton kart back in perfect mechanical condition. Andrew’s technical ability and attention to detail are on a different level to most tuners. On a personal level though, Daniel was glad to have Andrew back in his corner. Waring is so enthusiastic and supportive; he really believes in young Daniel, and provides great motivation.
Morning practice was a chance to work on details. After watching Daniel on track, Andrew made changes to air-pressures and gear to help maximize performance. Daniel’s gap to the leaders dropped from 1.250 sec to 0.674 sec by the third on-track session.
Qualifying wasn’t ideal, with Daniel leaving time on the track by apexing too early in turns 5 and 6. PRO data analyst Gianmarco reviewed Daniel’s on-board footage, and helped guide Daniel to where there was time to be found. The kart was perfect; now Demaras would have to find that perfect racing line.
Daniel ran as high as 9th in the pre-final, setting a best time of 43.089 sec before a costly error (including a last lap pass by Spencer Todd) shuffled Demaras down to 13th.
An incident in Turn 4 halted Daniel’s progress in the final. The accordion effect at the first big braking zone compressed all the karts together, and the left side of Daniel’s nosecone get stuck between the rear wheel and bumper of kart No. 300, dragging Demaras’ front wheels off the ground, and onto his competitor’s kart.
But Daniel’s got heart. Even though he was in last place, on top of another kart, he climbed out of the seat, dragged his kart back onto four wheels, and proceeded to catch the tail end of the field, and made two passes to finish in 17th.
Daniel has great sponsors that support him, like K1 Speed, Scarboro Subaru, KPMG, Nostalgia and Kenya Coffee. These businesses, who see Daniel’s determination, make his racing endeavors possible. Their financial support has provided Daniel with top-shelf equipment, extensive driver training, and the support of men like Andrew, Gianmarco, Curtis and Darryl from PRO.
Daniel will be back at Goodwood Kartways on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the next round of racing.