2020 Swiss  Round 4, 7-Laghi 6-8th November

Live-Timing: http://www.livetiming.ficr.it/cronocuneo/

Résultats et Documents: http://kart.ficr.it/index.php?Archives

Zeitplan Horaire 7 Laghi (PDF 441 Ko) 
Dernieres instructions 7 Laghi 2 CSK 2020 (PDF 1 Mo)
Liste der eingeschriebenen Piloten liste des pilotes registres 7 Laghi 2 2020 (PDF 587 Ko) 

14 OK Junior category drivers came to the Circuito Internazionale 7 Laghi - Castelletto di Branduzzo for the last round of the Swiss Championship on the first weekend in November, amongst them Roy Shaw for his first race in that championship of 2020.

Friday 6th November 2020

Practice

The track was damp at the start of the morning, and Roy had a couple of off-track excursions as he adapted back to the relatively brutal OK Junior motor. The first was harmless enough, at the first corner, but the clutchless OK engine leads to an inevitable stall if the kart spins, so mechanic Antonio got a bit of early morning exercise as he ran to do a push-start.

Roy rapidly got onto the pace, and was running up to a second quicker than his competitors on the still slippy track when he had a much more spectacular off. This time it was at full speed on the last but one corner, accompanied by screeching tyres as the kart went sideways and struggled in a vain attempt to find grip. Again there was no damage, and a bit more exercise for Antonio.

As the track dried the other drivers found their comfort zone, and 2 or 3 were on a similar pace to Roy. There were some setup issues affecting the steering geometry on Roy's kart, which were not corrected before final session, so he ended the day around a tenth of a second off the fastest lap.

Overall a good day's practice, let's see what Saturday brings.

Saturday 7th November 2020

Practice

Roy produced competitive lap times, especially early on a cold track when others struggled for grip, and he was a second quicker. Later in the morning the track got quicker, although in the afternoon slightly slower than Friday. Roy was amongst a handful of drivers within a tenth of each other, mid 48s in the morning and higher 48s in the aftenoon.

Race day,

Sunday 8th November 2020

Live-Timing: http://livetiming.ficr.it/cronocuneo

Official Practice 8h12 - 8h22

On very used tyres Roy was well on the pace, and was calssified 5th.

Qualifying 9h13 - 9h19

Roy was quick in the early laps, in 2nd place. As other drivers’ tyre pressures came in, Roy’s became too high because of a mistake in the setting. He ended up in a disappointing 9th.

Race 110h10 - 10h30

Starting on the inside, Roy was held back by the slow starting drivers in front. The driver starting behind Roy put his kart on the inside, and Roy gave him space, tucked in behind and they made some ground into the chicane of turns 2 & 3.

Later in the lap Roy had an opportunity to retake his place, but the other driver was focused on the kart in front. He turned into Roy, who was alongside, and hit him onto the kerb. Roy’s kart bounced into the air, taking off the other kart’s nose and spoiler, and the other kart also hit the one which had been in front.

So out on lap 1.

Race 2 12h40 - 13h00

Roy made one place off the start, but with tyre pressures set to come in later in the race had no pace to make overtakes until lap 3. In the meantime his spoiler got damaged  in a multiple shunt when the driver two places in front brake-tested his teammate, also collecting Roy and the following driver.

Roy then had the pace, and made up places to cross the finish line in 8th, 9th after the spoiler penalty.

Final 14h25 - 14h50

Starting on the outside, Roy lost a place at the start, but was soon on the pace of the leaders and made up places lap by lap to 6th place. Unfortunately, one of the drivers whom he had overtaken launched a kamikaze attack by taking a shortcut over the kerb at the hairpin, damaging Roy's front spoiler. Roy dropped back with the damage affecting his lap times to cross the line in 7th, but was then unfairly given a 5s penalty for the damage done by the other driver. As usual, the incompetence and lack of sporting ability, interest or sense of fairplay from the so-called organisers of the race meant that the penalty was not lifted, despite them being informed of the circumstances. So 9th place, a poor reward for some good driving.

Results :            http://kart.ficr.it/index.php?Archives