鈥淥ffline Racing competed in the iracing Bathurst 12 Hour race. Phil Lvov started the race on a damp, greasy circuit and got up to 5^th in his first stint.

鈥淢arcus Hudson then took over for his first stint and moved from 26^th to 11^th in torrential rain, but the rain stop half-way through his stint and the circuit was getting drier and drier.

鈥淎ndrew Caskey took over and had a moment coming out of The Chase and went off. Luckily, he had no damage and came into the pits and changed to slicks as the circuit was drying 鈥� he was one of the first to do this.”

鈥淗e made great progress up to 4^th in his triple stint (3 hours non-stop). Unfortunately, the rain fell again and we pitted one lap later than we should and lot just over 40 seconds due to being on slicks on a wet circuit.

鈥淧hil started another stint (over half the race gone and he hadn’t seen a dry circuit). It did dry out for the end of his stint and Marcus did the final stint and the team finished in 11^th place out of 49 teams.鈥�

Stay tuned to hear how Marcus gets on in his real-world racing as the season starts again soon鈥�

Heat 1 (Grid: 9^th)

鈥淎s I headed into lap 2 going into Stow, I sent it up the inside of number 34. Later in the same lap as we entered Dan Weldon Corner, I slid up the inside of 53, I was gaining on 27 and a few laps later passed him out of Kestrel and finished in 7th.鈥�

Heat 2聽(Grid: 2^nd)

鈥淭here was a crash between two karts in the first corner on the first lap and the circuit had a virtual safety car for the incident that happened in the Willows. This took 2 laps to clear up, I used the time to try and keep some heat in the tyres. On the restart, I had no traction out of the last corner and was a sitting duck going into the first corner. During the race I was struggling with traction out of the slow corners and slipped back to 6th.聽We changed the setup for the next heat to help with the traction issue.鈥�

Heat 3聽(Grid: 14^th)

鈥淢ade a good start, but was 5-wide and couldn’t get any room for a manoeuvre, I had no space anywhere to capitalise on the good start but I made up a position going into the first corner. 59 in the Willows slid under me, I knew he was carrying too much speed and he slid wide and I managed to cut back underneath. On lap 8, number 2 had a water hose issue which put water onto the circuit as we entered Dan Weldon Corner, which we approach at 98mph, 7 of us were following very close and had no time to do anything and all 7 span off. As I was spinning, I managed to control it so I kept the kart on the circuit, however I was facing the wrong way! I thought if I can spin it back around quicker than the other guys that have gone off that’s 7 places I can make up, I did a 180 spin and off I went and gained 6 places moving me up to 8th.聽 The alterations we made to the setup didn’t help improve the traction issue.鈥�

Final

鈥淲e lined up 7th on the grid for the final and, with the issues we had over the weekend, this wasn’t bad. Unfortunately, as we set off the grid, I knew I still had the traction issue. I fought as best I could with what I had underneath me but dropped to 10th halfway through the race. I was pushing 9th and trying everything to pass him but on entry to some slow corners I was all over him but lost the advantage on the exit. It was frustrating that the main passing place going into Stow I couldn’t utilise as coming out of the last corner I couldn’t get the power down and lost ground on him meaning I was too far back to send it in Stow. It was frustrating that we couldn’t sort the traction issue out and this meant we couldn’t move forward. This was the last round of the British Championship and with the final standings announced we finished the season in 7th place just missing out on 6th by just a single point.

鈥淟ooking forward to the presentation Awards Evening in January in Coventry.聽

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my sponsors for your support through this season and previous seasons as it is much appreciated and helps a lot.鈥�

The first race of the season took Max to a chilly Hunts Kart Racing Club in Cambridgeshire, where he was instantly rubbing shoulders with some of the front runners of the league.

You can read how he got on in his own words below.

鈥淭his weekend took us back to Hunts Kart Racing Club in Kimbolton for Round 3 of their own Club Championship.

鈥淪aturday was a full day of testing on worn tyres, with conditions surprisingly good given the snowfall on the previous day.

鈥淛ensen drove very well, trying new lines through turn two and the entry into the Bus Stop which both proved fruitful on the stopwatch.

鈥淎nd so, to race day on Sunday, firstly having to scrub-in new slick tyres on a very treacherous damp track, doing very well just to keep it on the black stuff.

鈥淯nfortunately, the same could not be said in Heat 1 when, after gaining several places at the start, Jens was later T-boned by a kart returning to the track after their own spill, which would later cost him his place in the A-Final.”

鈥淭his was our first visit to Kimbolton in Junior Max, which was compromised by the cancellation of the official test day, meaning Harry only had two eight-minute sessions to familiarise himself with the Cambridgeshire circuit against 50 other Junior Max drivers.

鈥淨ualification: After a season of problems in qualifying, finally, it all came together with Harry putting it in pole position!

鈥淗eat 1:聽Leading off of pole, it was a tough first heat and the inexperience showed as Harry fought hard to finish 9^th.

鈥淗eat 2: We had a better race in Heat 2. Rain affected the last few laps, resulting in a contact between multiple drivers as they battled to keep the slick tyre-shod karts on the wet track. Harry crossed the line in 5^th,聽only to receive a harsh penalty, placing him down into 21^st.

鈥淧re-Final:聽Decent Pre-Final, with Harry gaining 10 places (from 27^th up to 17^th), no penalties and finishing in 17^th.

鈥淔inal: It was an exciting final, battling for the top 10 positions and ending up in 13^th聽at the chequered flag.

鈥淎 weekend ruined by a harsh penalty in Heat 1, but we still sit 15^th in the British Championship and more importantly, are still leading the Rookie Championship.鈥�