 to the second vlog of the karting journey for 2023. In this video we're gonna be talking about February where there was quite a lot of action and as you can see this is me in the very first race I've just picked up a lot of dust on my tires and have lost all grip. This was a terrible race in in my view just in the sense that I was just overly overly cautious I mean if you looked at the start I also kind of like tapped off at the last minute should have kept it a little bit down should have closed the door for the guy in the blue in front of me managed to to sneak past and if anything I'm actually quite impressed that I managed to stay with him as as long as possible so how it works is the guy in blue who's got the white number he is in the same class as me he won the championship last year and he is the target to beat this year so that is number 1882 for some reason I'm still so close to last season when I wasn't even driving in the Masters I was driving with the red numbers I was absolutely nowhere so it's really really cool to see myself yeah so close to him but how it works is there's two classes that are happening simultaneously in this race there's the white numbers which I'm part of and in order to race with the white numbers you need to be old so I'm old over the age of 30 I'm turning 30 32 this year and that is the requirement so anyone born in 1991 or above or below I should say guest to qualify for the white numbers and score the DD2 Masters those who saw in the beginning with the red numbers those are the the normal DD2's or the juniors and they they definitely are in in a league of their own so what essentially happened in the qualifying for for this day is that we managed to qualify first which was a big surprise no one was expecting me to be first of the DD2's and what essentially that means is that I had the red numbers starting in front of me and what we're gonna actually be seeing in this video now is another red number is gonna go past me so there's a couple of red numbers behind us that we managed to qualify and the one that was behind me there he's going past their number 186 technically his numbers shouldn't start with a 1 it should just be 86 but he's quite a let's just say we beat him for this race because he got a nose cone penalty so that means he bumped someone just me I think or someone else he does like to make contact and we ended up beating him for this race because he got a five second penalty because you're not it's not supposed to be a contact sport but the idea was to just let him past I could feel him pushing on behind me he wasn't in my race to go with and like I say this is probably not my best racing because what essentially happened was right in the beginning my teammate who we're gonna see the two of us drive into each other and then in the second race I think it was him he goes off and he throws a lot of sand onto the track and I'm one of those drivers where if the track is perfect and conditions are perfect then I'm gonna put it on pole position which is what I did in the qualifier you know I'll start first but as soon as the track has anything wrong with it there's some dust or anything like that I think my inexperience kicks in and I get very very cautious and how I manage my caution or my fear is to drive slower and that is not essentially what what you want to be doing in karting so like I say these conditions were not ideal for me and we can see Connor who's driving in car number 188 the champion contender has now gone way into the distance what I was happy with this race was that my other rival my brother who's a little bit older than me I think he's three years old in me he's driving also in my my team he's got the the chaus la claque cart I've got the barrel essentially the same thing his one is well this was your its first race out so it's a little bit more of a fresh chassis where my chassis gosh I sound like such a such a typical racing driver blaming you know blaming the tools and stuff my chassis is is a little bit on the old side and for race two essentially after the smack it got snapped again so race two we we had a snap chassis and of course you don't have enough time before race three to go in and you know welded back together and have something that can resemble some sort of you know proper car so instead what we did was we bolted on seat stays and the problem with that is I think if we just don't know one seat stay it would have been fine but we put on both on either side and it made the car incredibly stiff and what that means is that when I came into the corner I just I just didn't have any any we call it bites so the car didn't want to turn when I turn the steering wheel another term for it is that I was experiencing understeer and that is not a nice experience to have when you're going very very quickly because essentially you turn the car and it wants to keep going straight and you're like I need to make this corner otherwise there's gonna be a bit of a bit of an accident but coming back to to this race again like number 186 in the red numbers was quicker than us during the the practice not only for today but also the practice last week and it was really surprising that I did get that qualifying result like I said no one I don't think anyone was was expecting it which is always fun me coming in technically my rookie year in DD2 Masters first year out and we're getting that that pole position but very very happy that I was able to to hold with this guy I think what's happening now is the dust is kind of left I'm getting a little bit you know back into to my groove but I'm also well aware that I'm not racing number 186 so I'm not racing number 186 and he does tend to make a bit of contact so I actually don't want to overtake it and it's it sounds so weird here you are you're doing this race and there's a cart in front of you and you don't want to overtake it but I'm well aware and well I don't know if I was that aware during the race but I have seen my brothers go pro footage and there were times when he was uncomfortably close to me in fact I think my back wheel might have touched his front wheel with him maybe getting that that close to me which like I say he's probably the big the big family rivalry of the the two brothers the accountant versus the actually you know we like to put our two professions out there on the line on on this track but you are it's it's been interesting February because here we we did the race but the weekend before we we had a practice session and I always say you know on the track you can have your your greatest moments and your your lowest moments and sometimes they can happen on the same lap but last weekend or prior to to this race definitely was a horrific experience emotionally I yeah I was actually quite surprised how how upset I got and I think it's just just shows how invested I am in this this hobby because I was screaming and I was shouting and a little bit out of out of character for me but essentially what had happened was my chassis had snapped you know just before that so like I said my chassis is on its on its lost legs so we in order to you know weld the chassis you've got to take the entire engine off and you know go putting all this heat and you've got to get to these little spots where where the chassis has has snapped we put it back on and I go out for this for this very first practice session and we'd raise something called DD twos and that stands for direct drive and the twos for the two gears but the gears weren't connected properly so I didn't even manage to make a lap I was able to it was weird I was able to go out and the car had some drive but as soon as I went into second gear something slipped and I actually parked where we coming up right here so yeah this part of the track I had epochs that was that was the first session that was the first session and then I remember the second session I'm getting ready just about to go out of the practice my dad comes running he's like no no we have to change the tire pressure we have to change the tire pressure and I'm like well which means we've got to change the tire pressure I'm like no no that you know it's a little bit too late we we're just gonna go out for for how it is and then it was just it was just a comedy of of errors there was another time we're coming for the next session and dad had forgotten a specific bolt on the one wheel which is you don't want to you know just before you're going out changing something or adding another bolt it it can be a little bit of putting then dad and I were arguing about the setup I wanted to just keep the same setup that I had get at some more confidence under my belt you know the race was in one week's time I was happy with the car I was you know let's just keep it how it is and and do our best and dad's like no it's practice we got to just change things let's just keep you know rolling the dice on setup until we try and find some speed so there was some disagreement with that and what essentially happened was because dad was changing the setup and then changing it back changing setup and changing it back there is the the kingpin that wasn't correctly tightened and the yeah I had another session where we went out and the whole kingpin collapse and the steering just was horrible and yeah actually at this corner pit bend we ended this not not very good in practice but let me walk you through this is the start of the second race so here we the car is fine at this moment it's fine I'm on the outside which is really really unfortunate and you can see I come through here and who slips past me but number one 16 which is my other teammate and that was not ideal essentially you can see my brother he's the guy right behind Connor in the blue those are the guys I'm supposed to be racing and and now my teammate Neville has has overtaken me which is not not ideal and essentially what it happened was in the previous race because I was driving so cautiously I wasn't putting in very quick lap times and my brother though he finished behind me and though we also beat number 186 because of the nose comb penalty they ended up starting in front of me for this race because they had put in quicker lap times and that's how the qualifying work so instead of me qualifying third and being on the nice inside I was on the who this is this is the part where we managed to get overtaken and oh that's that that break broke the chassis and there's there's another driver coming in and I'm like no I don't want to let you pass because you're that that impact from the the teammate that took him out of the race but now my car is is very sore so it's gonna be interesting to see how we how we try and drive in and hold this thing together because the chassis has has now snapped so once your chassis snaps it's very very loose at the back so now we're gonna get something called a lot of oversteer and it's gonna be really really tricky to to get it around these corners but coming back to how the whole race weekend works as you have the practice in the morning just to make sure everything's good then you have qualifying which determines your grid position for heat one then you have heat one and your quickest lap in heat one determines your grid position for heat two in your quickest position for heat two determines your grid position for heat three and because we were in and amongst one of the red numbers instead of me starting third on the the inside of the the track what happened was that it was I think yacht was Connor then it was the number 186 then my brother and then myself and it meant that my brother though he should have been starting say second on the outside the dirty part of the track he managed to get onto the inside so 186 innocent helped my brother although chatting to him after the race he did say I think it was even in this race that the guy got another nose comb penalty because this time he crashed into my brother and pushed him up and they had a little bit of you know contact so definitely a joker in the pack for for our race you know when you when you watch formula one it's just formula one imagine having formula one and formula two on the grid at the same time essentially we would be formula to the slightly slower guys and then you got some of the other formula one drivers driving amongst us because they're still awesome red numbers behind us so I think how many people were there in total for today I think for this race I think there was like 12 or 13 if I'm not mistaken so there was the four guys right in the front then us and then like I say there's some red numbers behind us now the interesting thing with number 199 is this is Steve Bowman and I've actually taken his number so he used to drive his number one two three and I came in I said you know number 23 Michael Jordan can I have the number he's like y'all there's no emotional connection to this and he wasn't even going to drive this year so he wasn't going to drive this year and he decided to because he's kids race and his kids are very very fast they like some of the best in in class and what's essentially happening here is I'm driving up against Bowman who like I say hadn't hadn't practiced so I'm very very upset that I am behind him there was one race where he completely dominated me last year because when I was in the red numbers he was in the white numbers we sometimes would would have our races like I say again together and essentially in the rain this man is is dynamite I remember driving in the rain and he comes in and he overtakes me I'm like oh my gosh Bowman's overtaken me I need to start pushing harder and then he like overtakes and just pulls away and I realized he hadn't overtaken me in the rain he had lapped me and was only like lap seven or eight I'm very very bad in the wet but this man in front of me is is an absolutely genius in the rain I think he came second for for that race and essentially what's happening here is I'm trying because this is very important that I overtake him for the grand scheme of the championship so I might have lost this race you know my brother and Connor far off into the distance but I desperately need this championship point so like in the previous video well previously our part where I wasn't racing number 186 I was kind of like just trying to maintain my distance this guy I'm pushing so I'm pushing really really hard and like I said we don't have the best the best caught conditions but we managed to close in on him here and it's so difficult because you want to have like a nice exit out of those back s's onto the main straight and and try have an overtake anyway we're coming here through through cosmic a very quick part of the circuit and he would tell me afterwards that he was tapping off there because well I think it was for the second race he was tapping off there on purpose lead to just you know slow us both down which is an interesting strategy anyway I know I'm quicker than this than this guy but like I say the cart is not in a good condition we just I'm surprised I'm still in the race that's one thing that I am grateful for I'm still in this race my teammate you can see all the marshals are standing over there in the corner attending to my teammate who I think what what happened was we came in and you know for the first 180 and I did make contact with him with he's my front wheel touched his back wheel you know and I did nudge him which which was wrong you know it was a it wasn't intentional or it wasn't something that I I should have done what I was trying to do is get in and you know make a move just as you can see over here I'm trying to make a move oh my gosh we push in oh I remember doing that there was there was scary so I was trying to like overtake over here but with some of the understeer that was happening or there was a lock up or something I I wasn't able to slow down in time and I didn't make contact with him and it did push him out quite wide and then I was like okay you know that wasn't the best thing to do but you know let's continue the race and then from my perspective it felt like he was like you know stuff you Michael you bump me I'm gonna bump you back and it felt a bit like a like a revenge hit so I'm very angry this is me driving with with a lot of anger although I think this race is gonna gonna end soon because that was like the big move you know to kind of make get to get past a Steve there so I remember be feeling like very very angry and just being like you know what ah what's what's going on here so driving the car chat and I'm doing very very low times it's not what I want the car it's not how it's handling but fortunately we were able to to overtake a moment and now it's just me trying to you know bring the car back back home so what I'm gonna do is actually pause this because I think you're for the next five minutes it's just just this driving around so let's pause and jump to the jump to the next race okay so jump to the next race and you know once again we're starting on the outside which is not ideal like I say we've got the seat stays both bolted in you can see right in the bottom of the camera although not has turned bottom of the camera you can see there's that that seat stays so I've got again number 186 I know he likes to make contact or he's not afraid to so I'm staying far back I'm just like you know what I'm not getting involved in this battle here so very very cautious start for me I just want to kind of get past you can see there again he's sliding around probably if I had been a bit more aggressive I would have gone past him but to my surprise who is that that manages to overtake me while being super cautious but Bowman's again so Steve Bowman is in front of number 186 my competition for the day Connor and my brother and you can see there's Connor oh diving past my brother it all my brother trying to make a move and Connor going defensive like they're having an intense race in in front of us like that's where I should be I should be racing there but no here I've got the super super stiff cot I remember being so upset and be like what am I doing yet but I'm like I just got to get it over and I've got to get these points anyway I need to overtake Bowman but again 186 is just they're in my way but it's weird they're in my way but they're quicker than me so here I am trying to stay with them and thinking I really want to be up there with Connor and my brother and you know having the race for for the win but what's interesting here is 186 comes in with a move oh Steve Bowman closes the door and I'm just watching this and I'm like guys please don't crash and then spin and take me out so you can see constantly the back of the mind you keep thinking you know what could potentially go wrong not the best driver mindset you want to just be going flat out saying you know what guys I'm just giving it my all so here we come into turn one and wanting to ease quick but you can see it's just there's a lot of instability there and it's like what's happening anyway we're cutting in Bowman's going defensive I'm keeping up with them on the 180s we can got very different lines which is also saying I'm like observing now in this this video and I've said because I'm a little bit too far behind and I would love to have tucked in with number 186 to get past Bowman but what he's done is he's not gone front and I think he's gonna check out but now I've got Bowman 199 and again like I say if we had to finish the race in this position I will get third overall for the day but then I'll finish the day on 89 points where if I can beat Bowman I will still have third overall for the day but then I'll have 90 points going into the championship and I think 90 points I never scored 90 points in DD2 like I never I never got on the podium never even got close to it I'm trying to think if I ever even finished third for one of the heat probably maybe like when there's a bit of a bumper bash or something like that but very very so this it's strange like for me this was one of my worst race weekends from a driving point of view like I absolutely hated the cart in these these two races these last two races and like I say race one was compromised by by the track condition so I was very very upset with with how this weekend went but it would be the first time that I get a trophy since Clubman's so it's my first time I'm getting a trophy in a in a regional in a regional race which is I guess a positive to take away from it so that was really cool and you know first time I'm getting 90 points since my my Clubman days Clubman's was a fascinating time in the sense that the first my first year out in Clubman's I came third overall for for the championship but I never won a day completely so I would go on to come also second in the championship the following that my brother won it then and then we progressed first to something called senior max and then my brother came straight to I think we did senior max for a bit then we moved into to DD2 but I never I never won a full race day I wanted there was one race I remember Clubman's I was by far the fastest I put her on pole position and was back then when we had like a chain and I remember saying to my dad I was like dad I think the chain it doesn't look right it's a little bit you know can we just check it my dad's like no Michael it's all in your head it's all in your head and we come to the race and what happens is the chain comes off on the warm up lap so there I am trying to fit this chain on and the race starts and of course everybody comes in and and laps me and I finished last I managed to un-lap myself so catch up to everyone overtake everyone un-lap myself but still came last and then of course for the next two races I came you know first and first but my brother because he came first second second and I came to last first first I ended up finishing second for for that day so that was that that memory still haunts me it still haunts me and I still haven't won a full race day so hopefully that's gonna change this year but you can see what I'm trying to do here is I'm quicker than Bowman but I've just got too much undisturbed so I turned one I cannot make the overtake and I'm just thinking to myself I'm like you know what I'm running out of time that's where I overtook him last time I can't overtake him there again I need to figure out a different spot on the track now the track I mean overtaking it's turn one and it's the 180s but like I say what you do when you've got a lot of undisturbed you can't really we just don't have the confidence to make the change in the the corners but what was interesting is Bowman was telling me that he was purposely slowing down there because he knew I couldn't overtake in it but what that does is it brings me back into play because I had actually fallen behind trying to make these overtakes I'm you know not in a good position so I come here and look see it's bad mistake there I'm trying to overtake but it's like you know what you're not gonna make the move there and this is where I think what do I try I come in I'm really really tight with him we come no he's going defensive so it's not not this turn but you're gonna see I'm gonna try and out drag him on the straight so I do feel like I've got a good engine this year which is which is great and that does give me confidence to try and make you know passes down this the straight so we're gonna come here I don't know if we can see how many laps are to go but I'm like you know don't try and overtake in the corners so let's see he goes a little bit defensive am I doing the same yeah I'm like I'm not gonna overtake in the corners good see so now I just line him up now he's really really close to me I'm right on his tail okay he gets a little bit away unless I come through here okay no we're not gonna do it this this lap but we're coming inside this is the back straight this is through cosmic corner we're now going through golf club this is where like I say he's he's tapping off intentionally which I even look to maybe see if I can make a sneak over there which isn't the most ideal place now come in like I should I should be able to do it but I'm like I just don't trust the steering of this car and you can see oh I kind of lose it even just by going a little bit off the the race in line there you can see not not very happy now I got to do a lot of work to try catch back up with him again but for some reason I tend to get a lot closer than I thought after making that mistake and we're on the back s's and you can see he's he's got quite a lot of space but a game moment is going to you should just drive just drive hard yet but for some reason he tapped he keeps tapping off through golf club which brings me right back into the situation now we have have put Bend where we are quicker than him you can see we doing the slipstream I'm like no no no no just don't don't why am I going for the turn don't go for the turn there you don't have you don't have the steering capacity you can see very very defensive that he's going in for the 180s which is great allows me to come in I'm going for a slightly wider line is this where I do it I start lining him up he comes in he slides a little bit there nope nope it's gosh how long was that behind this guy you can see we are going to like this you shouldn't be my battle this I'm driving here for the championship I'm knowing that every single point counts so I am quicker generally but you can see like oh if I had I have to tap off I have to tap off I just don't have the confidence in in the car because if I go in too deep I don't have the bike that I want in order to take off you know complete the move and I'm gonna just slide off so I think this is where I'm gonna start realizing I need to I need to consider here the back esses if I can get a better exit than then Bowman down the back esses and I can drag him that's gonna be good because you can see he's he's starting to slide now he's he's not in his best condition here as well so we both it's the it's the last race of the day fitness is definitely playing a role in as well because in order to turn the cart you need a jacket and that pushes quite a bit and I can see this is great for me because Bowman goes defensive he doesn't know that I've got no undisturbed got like undisturbed so he's going super super defensive and I'm like you know what I'm just gonna drive the normal line and get as close as possible to this guy and once I'm as close as possible I think that I'm still too far away still too far away no no wait wait something happens here is I remember I just had to push there we go we managed to slip past oh my gosh that was that's that's an overtake at like a hundred and twenty four kilometers an hour that was absolutely insane and I think yeah we end the video here because that that is it so everyone thanks so much for watching this video's gone way way too long just want to say yeah all in all is a great time and a big shout out to to my sponsors Aussie crypto University and Mafia and I will see you all next month for another cutting video keep all your own cheers