The fourth round of the German Karting Championship in KZ2 took place at Kartbahn Liedolsheim near Karlsruhe on July 25th-27th. During the whole weekend the weather was very nice with temperatures exceeding +30?C most of the time, only interrupted by a thunderstorm with hail during the price giving ceremony on the Sunday.
As usual the weekend started with the free practice sessions on the Friday. Four 20 minutes sessions were held during the day.
When I was at Liedolsheim for practice a month ago, there was virtually no grip at all on the track and I already had cut more than two seconds from the previous lap times on the first Friday sessions.
The Saturday opened with a practice session followed by the time qualification. After that there were two qualification heats. The B-final, that normally is run on the Saturday afternoon, was cancelled since the number of participants this time was exactly 34 (which is the maximum number of karts allowed on the track), i.e. all drivers would go direct to the A-final this time. About 10 to 15 drivers had by this time withdrawn from the Championship since the first round at Kerpen where there were almost 50 registered drivers.
The time qualification was a bit disappointing with a 32nd place for me.
The time qualification was extremely important at Liedolsheim since the track is so narrow with almost no overtaking possibilities later in the races. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a perfect lap during the qualification session but still I managed to get my best lap time of the weekend in the time qualification session.
In the first heat I advanced to 18th position over the finish line of the 22 starters.
It was very frustrating that I could not get any good overtaking opportunities since I was much faster than the driver in front of me.
In the second heat I got a bad start, thus losing several places down the start straight. It was more or less impossible to catch up the guys in front so I had to be content with 20th position this time.
On the Sunday it was time for the final races, the Sprint and the A-final.
In the morning warm-up session, I scored the 26th best lap time of all the drivers.
In the Sprint, once again I had a bad start and had to push hard to gain on the guys in front. I managed to gain some places and was 30th driver over the finish line this time.
Later on it was time for the A-final. I got a very good start but my luck did not last for very long, since the clutch started slipping in the first right hand corner after the start/finish straight. The clutch discs were gone. I aborted the race and had to retire into the pits. At this very moment the race was stopped due to a bad crash on the first lap. All the drivers were called back into the pits and were informed that the race was going to be re-started in 20 minutes time. Now the real race against the clock started.
Despite the stressed situation we managed to replace the clutch discs with new ones and we were passing the gate to the Parc Ferm? area with just 5 seconds margin before it was closed.
I would like to thank some very helpful persons for their assistance in the moment when I was almost certain that my race was over for this time. My competitor Joey Hanssen from Holland, assisted me with five new clutch discs with short notice and the Audi engine development engineer J?rgen from Neckarsulm, who just happened to stand nearby in the paddock, assisted with his helping hands when repairing the clutch. Apart from all this, I need to thank my mechanic and supporting crew for a great job during the whole weekend.
The re-start of the A-final went very well and I managed to gain some more places and ended up on a 25th position over the finish line after 24 very ?hot? laps together with all 34 participants.
Despite everything that happened prior to the A-final, I?m pretty pleased with my overall result. The 24 laps in +30?C temperature and at a very high pace was really a tough moment for me.
The finals in the German Karting Championship take place on August 15-17 at Hahn/Hunsr?ck Karting Circuit adjacent to Frankfurt/Hahns Airport.
For more information and pictures from the race please go to: www.charlotteracing.se or contact: charlotte@charlotteracing.se
Tomorrow I?m off to Germany and the fourth race in the German KZ2 Championship. This race will take place in the small village of Liedolsheim. This track is really tricky and I have only once before driven there. I?ll do my very best and I will push as much as I can.
10th-13th of July the European Championship north region qualifications for KF2 and KF3, were held at the karting track in my home town Gothenburg.
This is my first blog entry on driverdb.com and I thought I?ll start up by telling you about my recent race in Germany at Ampfing Kartbahn, which was held on June 13th-15th. This was the third of five races in the Championship.