Round 4 — Rowrah | Club100 Junior Northern Championship

Rowrah might be the most beautiful circuit we've been to all season (although GYG might push it very close!) — tucked up in the hills, nestled inside an old quarry, and with the weather amazing all weekend, it was a stunning place to race. It's also one of the toughest tracks on the calendar, and this weekend showed exactly why.

We arrived on Friday for testing, keen to get as much track time as possible on a circuit neither of us knew at all.

Friday testing: finding time, not positions

Session 1 was a proper learning experience — 33rd of 34, which on a new track like this wasn't a great concern in itself. What mattered more was session 2, where I only moved up one place but found 1.3 seconds compared to my first run. Great movement in the wrong direction, if that makes sense — it showed just how competitive and tightly packed the field is at Rowrah, where finding well over a second barely shifts you up the order.

Practice: a step backwards

Despite the gains from Friday, race day practice didn't go the way I wanted. I was almost two seconds off my best from the day before, leaving me 23rd of 24 in my group. Frustrating, given the progress we'd made.

Qualifying: still searching

Qualifying was a bit better — I got closer to my best time — but I was still 22nd of 24 in my group, which meant lining up 24th of 27 for the Pre-B Final. Not the starting position I was hoping for on such a tricky track.

Pre-B Final: a solid recovery

This was a solid enough drive. I made a handful of passes of my own and picked up a few more positions when things happened further up the field — though I also lost some back the same way, as drivers found their way past me.

I got as high as 21st at one point, but had slipped back to 25th by the start of the final lap. I made a pass to get back to 24th, which looked like where I'd finish. Then an incident further ahead promoted me three places to 21st, and a penalty for another driver moved me up again to 20th. A fair result from a tough starting position, even if it wasn't a standout drive.

B Final: an early end

The B Final is where the weekend turned — or at least, where it looked like it might. I started 18th and gained two places on the first lap, and coming through the hairpins I made a move to get up to 15th. For the first time all weekend, I genuinely felt like I'd found some real pace, and had a race worth building on.

Then a kart coming from behind lost control, bounced over the kerbs, and landed on top of mine. I was completely unhurt, but the same couldn't be said for the kart. The damage left fuel on the track and the kart wouldn't restart, so it had to be pushed back to the pits and retired on the spot. A penalty for another driver was the only reason I didn't register as last.

Genuinely frustrating, because for that first lap and a bit it finally felt like the turnaround was happening, only for the race to end early through no fault of my own.

Taking the positives

It wasn't the weekend we'd hoped for, but there were things to take from it. The Pre-B Final was a fair recovery from a tough qualifying, and that opening lap and a bit of the B Final showed genuine pace when I had clear track to use it. The way the race ended is what it is; these things happen in racing, and there was nothing more I could have done about it.

Round 5 is back at Glan y Gors in August. Looking forward to putting this one behind us.