Nelsons Journey Started
Location: Bayford Meadows, Sittingbourne, Kent.
Track: Bayford Meadows.
Event: Bayford Meadows Club Championship, Round 8.
Weekend Schedule: Quali, Pre-Finals 1 & 2 and Grand Final.
Date: 20.10.24.
Kart: EKS Chassis, Rotax Inter Engine (Tuned by RPM).
Weather: Overcast. 95% Rain. Wind gusting to 40 mph.
Track Conditions: Challenging. Air temp 14-15C.
Karts on the grid: 14
Number of laps: 8 for Quali, 8 Heats. 10 for the Final.
Grand Final starting position: 3rd.
Final position: See RR.
It’s going to be a busy Sunday. Quali is 10.06 hours. Rain is imminent. Team Manager, Savvy, lives up to his name and makes the three teammates sit out the initial Quali bun-fight. Eden, Nelson and Akille now make their move, go out late and push each other to qualify 1st to 3rd. Everyone, including rivals, are impressed with Savvy’s tactics: perhaps il Cavillino Rampante should have Savi on speedial ! Our Three Musketeers aren’t complacent, though.
Heat 1 is next at 11.30 hours. Weather conditions are poor. And it’s gusty out there. This time it’s a rolling start on wets. A fine rain envelops the track. And we get a false start. Finally, they’re away. Nelson squirms into the lead, then drops back and after 9 laps he manages to squeak into second place by a nose. So, it’s Nelson in slot 2 and teammates Eden and Akille in 3 and 4 behind him.
Conditions worsen for Heat 2 at 13.00 hours. By the final lap, the rain is teeming down. Finishing positions swap again. Nelson makes it into slot 3 with Eden dropping down to 5. Akille, however, does the team proud scoring top slot and pole for the last race.
It’s the one we’ve been waiting for: the Grand Final at 14.35 hours. Ever worsening conditions give us one false start, swiftly followed by another. Unsurprisingly, we’ve now got a grid of tetchy, anxious and soggy karters. Akille’s pole is soon rewarded by being punted off. He’s done for the day. But his cruel luck moves Nelson into slot 2. As a thank you, Nelson throws in a fastest lap and closes on the new leader, Ryan White.
After 10 hard-fought laps the results are in: White keeps his lead to cross the winning line, whilst Nelson bags second, Elijah Hazlewood third and Eden fourth. Poor Akille gets nothing for his pole-qualifying performance in Heat 2. That’s racing, of course.
Post-race celebrations are less Dom Perignon and more hot Campbell’s soup, as congratulations and commiserations are exchanged. For Nelson it’s been another rookie baptism: not of fire but of British drizzle, sheet rain and awful track conditions.
But he kept his nerve, knuckled down and drove fast and clean. Second place for ‘Orange 91’ is a great result to leave on and keeps us warm and happy as we splash our way back home.
*Just 354 days – from the start – Nelson continues to surprise us all.
