Round 2 of the Grid Series was at TeamSport Southampton. It ended up being a bit of a mixed night, which happens a lot in rental karting.

In qualifying the kart I was given felt really underpowered, and halfway through the session it actually died. There weren’t any spare karts to swap into, so I lost the rest of my qualifying time. My best lap before the kart stopped put me P5 on the grid.

Starting 5th, I knew it would be tough to get past the drivers in front because overtaking here isn’t easy. After a few laps I managed to move up to 4th, and not long after that I got into 3rd.

Then I suddenly got shown the black flag, which I was really confused about. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had one. After the race they said the marshal upstairs thought I had put someone into the wall, but that definitely didn’t happen, so I’m not sure if they flagged the wrong kart. Either way, I had to do a pit lane drive-through which dropped me back to 6th. I managed to fight back to 4th by the end, which wasn’t ideal, but with the qualifying problem and the penalty it was probably the best I could do.

The second race was a reverse grid. I started 6th and this one went much better. I worked my way through the field and finished P1.

That should give me P2 overall for the night, which still keeps me top of the series. Now it’s on to Round 3 to see what happens next