We had a very busy and special week in the build up to the latest 116 Trophy race weekend at Snetterton, starting with the arrival in the UK of one of my heroes and inspiration, Canadian champion Austin Riley from Racing with Autism, and we were lucky enough to give his race family a warm homely welcome and a little blast around the track at Teamkarting Rochdale. Also after all the support over the years since his memorable first visit on their UK tour back in 2017, (shortly after this boost of confidence I got my biggest win in cadet karts, my parents named this 'The Austin Effect'). In fact my mantra "unleash what you CAN do" is actually born of something Austins' dad Jason said during their autism presentation at my school. They are also the inspiration behind my own presentations and autism friendly kart sessions. Rounding off a really big week for RWA internationally was another big announcement by Racing with Autism Australia that they will also be offering autism friendly karting very soon.
Really proud to be a part of this and also happy to have been in a position to give a little back getting Austins' sponsorship logos printed in double quick time ready for the weekends upcoming race in his allocated Radical UK car "Roxanne", funny how things work out sometimes.
His car looked amazing, and to have my Graph X Studio logo on the nose as he raced around Silverstone eased the blow a little of not being able to go and watch Austin as we were both racing on the same weekend miles apart. Our dads did stay in touch throughout the weekend supporting each other though.
Final prep of the car in the week with DT Motorsport (thanks Darren), before we left on Friday evening in convoy with Adam Kluj Transport, getting to the Snetterton circuit fairly late after a five hour plus drive, then prepared for an early start on Saturday morning qualifying for the two sprint races later in the day. Struggled here last year with the Saxo albeit without a practice day, but qualifying went well this time and I felt much more at home in the BMW with rear wheel drive. Qualified P21 for race 1 and P19 for race 2 despite the minimal time I have spent in this car.
The first race ended in disaster on lap one after being hit twice from behind under braking, sending me into the path of another car causing race ending steering damage. Big thanks to the team in orange making sure that I was ok, and recovering my car from the side of the circuit back to the garage. And to my dad and the team for a speedy repair turning the car around and getting the repairs okayed from officials ready for the later race.
Race two went much better and studying the Vbox data from qualy earlier had really helped me, matching my own theoretical best laptime consistently and bringing the car home six places up in P16 from 29cars. Ended the day catching up on the news from my friends racing karts and cars elsewhere, a trackwalk and closer look at the long Snetterton circuit, and more of the now legendary top notch catering by mum.
A very early start again on Sunday, taking the car back for scrutineering for the main event Sundays endurance race, for which I would be taking the wheel for the whole 90 minutes for only my second time. Went out trying a few new techniques and finding another second and a half improvement on Saturdays best laps, while apparently also being kinder to the tyres. This placed me P12 on the starting grid and confident for the mid afternoon race, although a little nervous to be starting in the thick of a 42 car grid.
An outlap leading into a rolling start for the 90 minute race and I got straight into action challenging three cars for places on the first couple of laps. Big thanks to Aston once again on the pit wall, giving me info, encouragement, and support over the radio comms. I was pleased to be told that my laptimes in the opening laps matched my qualy lap even though we were carrying a full tank of fuel. I tried my best to keep the top ten in sight up to the first mandatory pit stop, which was well timed, coming in after a short run in the lead with clear air to exit the pit lane in P10. In the second half of the race it started to rain slightly as we made our second mandatory stop and kept our goal alive of securing a top ten finishing position.
Really enjoyed the last part of the race, which again seemed to come around really quickly, having some good clean battles and climbing up the top ten. Proud to take the chequered flag in my highest ever finishing position, P6 on the road, (officially P5 after penalties), and a nice bonus surprise to receive driver of the day and a bottle of bubbly, which all made lovely present for my parents wedding anniversary, rounding off an amazing week for Racing with Autism with the news that Austin had also had a great end to his weekend. Maybe 'The Austin Effect' has struck again?? I am confident that I can build on this result for the next race weekend which is already close on August 19th/20th back at Silverstone, this time on the International layout.
So grateful for my sponsor partners and the team we have around us without whom none of this would happen, Adam Kluj Transport, Nurburgring Tours, Aston for an amazing job on the pit wall and radio, Ryan for his help and taking charge of the repairs, and Barbara for the long round trip with the racecar.xx Arthur Morgan Kitchens, Status Timepieces, My Motor World, Xkart, and everyone sending messages of support and following the races, and of course the organisers 750mc for another enjoyable race weekend, and the orange army.
August is set to be another busy month, besides the racing really excited for Saturday 26th when we are back at Croft for JPC Motorsports 'Smiles for MIles' event.
Click on the link above and get your tickets to a great day out, passenger rides around the awesome Croft circuit in some amazing cars....and you could also come say hello as I will be there supporting JPC with my car on display.
Hope to see you there,
Sandro#19
"Just because you have autism,
doesn't mean you can't do great things"..
....Austin Riley.
"Unleash what you CAN do"
....Sandro#19
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