Starting on grid of 7th of Final 1, she was knocked back to 16th but came back through to 11th and she was only three 100ths off of setting the fastest lap. The start of Final 2 lasted only 1 lap as another driver buried her into the fence with a move that earned him a penalty and bent her kart.
Even with this problem Laura has moved up to 9th in the championship.
Over to Northern Ireland for this one where a hovercraft would have been a more suitable vehicle, we spent the whole meeting wading around in 2 inches of water.
Laura achieved 6th place on the grid and after a dry, wet, dry, wet final on slicks she came away 9th.
Then the heavens opened up and the second final was cancelled.
In the World’s top karting class a spirited drive in race one saw Laura comfortably in 10th until the very last lap when the engine blew up. She was still classified 14th which was a point scoring position and therefore classified here overall as 24th.
In race two her back bumper was rammed into her tyre destroying her chances by wearing out the soft Bridgestone specials and dragging the engine down. She finished 17th.
Laura’s fastest engine seized in practice but she still managed a creditable 6th place from 18th on the grid.
Laura is 11th in the British Championship using her Gillard TM equipment. Continue reading
Laura’s speed was back at Genk and with both the new kart and Parilla engine performing well she qualified 5th in group and ahead of the eventual winner of the meeting. Various incidents put her out of contention as the first corner of every race seemed impossible to negotiate without the driver behind using her as a brake.
Laura makes it to the final of a WSK event for the first time.
A good start saw Laura up to 7th but a strange lack of speed from the equipment meant that it could not be sustained and she slipped back to 13th. Continue reading
A grid position of 6 after qualifying and an eventful pre final which saw Laura knocked back from 8th to 22nd was culminated with a fine performance back through to 11th and an equal fastest lap. The main final was less eventful and Laura passed a few drivers to move up to 6th but was unable to close the gap to the leaders.
Will the luck never change? After qualifying 1st in group in the time trials and getting 5th grid after the 4 heats, Laura was expected to qualify for the finals with ease. Unfortunately a kart flying through the air struck Laura from behind and put her out of the first final. Starting 32nd on the grid this meant she had to finish in the top ten to qualify. A fantastic drive to 7th looked like putting her through when 8 laps from the end the reeds on the engine blew apart.
Motor problems in the heats put pay to any thoughts of making the finals directly although a good performance in the wet coming 12th from the very back of the grid helped her confidence when it was wet for the repecharge. Continue reading
