Ontario Inter-Club Challenge - Round 1

The Ontario Inter-Club Challenge brings together drivers from Goodwood, Mosport and Hamilton. Round 1 was held at Goodwood Kartways.

The competition was more intense than a usual club race. Bigger field, more pressure and more chaos 😅

Saturday was probably the best practice day of the season so far.

Session by session, the pace steadily improved and the lap times kept getting more consistent. Instead of chasing one quick lap, the focus was on putting together longer runs without mistakes.

By the last few sessions, things started to feel really comfortable. And then... it seemed like disaster was about to strike...

Practice day crisis averted

Near the end of the day, something felt off coming out of corners so we tried a gear change to see if it helped. Then the kart lost power in the final session 😭

For a few minutes we wondered if the whole weekend was going to be over before the race even started.

Luckily, it turned out to be just a chunk of dirt stuck in the carburetor 🔧 Definitely scary, but a huge relief once we were ready to get back at it the next day.

Superheat chaos and carnage

By race day, the confidence from practice carried over.

The position on the timing sheet still wasn’t perfect, but the pace was there. The gap to the drivers ahead kept shrinking, and instead of fighting the kart, it felt like actually racing with the pack.

Practice, qualifying, heat 1, heat 2, all moving in the right direction. Then... there was the complete chaos of the Super Heat 😳

There were false starts, a red flag after a huge crash, drivers in the dirt and pieces of karts all over the place. Thankfully the driver involved in the biggest accident was a little shaken, but otherwise okay 👍🏻

At that point the goal was pretty simple: stay calm, stay clean, and stay in the race.

Ontario Inter-Club race results

We managed to survive all of that and move into the main event feeling pretty confident.

The final result was P13 again, but in an even bigger, more competitive field than last weekend. Lap times stayed consistent and the gap to the drivers ahead was way smaller than in races earlier in the season.

There’s still work to be done, but there's a lot of positive feelings after a job well done. Weekends like this one make it feel like all the hard work with the team is really starting to pay off 💪

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A big thank you to Team UltraKart and my sponsors: TDot Wraps, Glasslake Funding, NGD Services, Durham Wealth Planning Group and Clarke Engineering. Your support helps make our race season possible ❤️