Driver Journal Billy Watts #51

Driver Name
Billy Watts
Driver Number
#51
Team Name
DG Racing / KRM
Facebook
@Billy Watts
Instagram
@billy.wattss
Photography By
Paul Babington
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Been meaning to do one of these for a while, finally gave into @Adam β€˜s persuading πŸ˜‚

Introduction - My first year back in karting for 7 years, racing in the 177 rotax class at BMKR and some on off rounds in the LIKC.

Now that we are 4 rounds into the championship at bayford and currently leading the championship by 57 points; nows a good time to update on my progress throughout the year.

With taking the win at the first round was more then successful for my first race weekend back. But the next 3 rounds would find us fighting setups and mechanical issues with the kart, guess that’s the issue with second hand parts πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ. It’s a hard learning curve with it feeling a lot like a full time job at times with all the hours of researching, and looking for parts for a 2013 CRG KT1 then onto the race weekends. But that’s kart racing. It’s the part that a lot of successful drivers forget to mention but the experience comes with time.

Hopefully we going to jump ontop of the issues and come back strong for the 5th round in 4 weeks time.

Not the best journal but it’s a start I guess πŸ˜‚
Few photos from the past 4 months.
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Daytona Property Prokart challenge 2021 (PPK)
View attachment 1592
Introduction
The 24th annual PPK event took place over the 9th and 10th September. A 6hour race which took place on the Friday starting at 11:30 and ending at 17:30. Very well ran event by Daytona Milton Keynes with mixed weather throughout the day posted a challenge for all drivers.
Racing with Team CPG, I was invited by a friend of a friend to come and compete for the team with 4 other drivers.
View attachment 1593Practice/Qualifying
Not having driven the track in 4 months and never in the wet. Due to not being able to make the practice day on Thursday, we jumped straight into qualifying on Friday morning. 20 minute session saw a close battle for the top 6, split by 8tenths we put it 5th on the grid.
View attachment 1594
RACE
After a messy start we jumped up to 2nd by the end of the first lap. A few laps went by and me and 1st place had managed to work together to build a gap to the rest of grid. 45 mins into the race and my first stint, the track started to dry so made the move for 1st place and started building a gap. But with 11 mandatory pit stops we had to start getting stops in. After the pit stop my team mate Hak emerged out the pit lane 4th and went on his way. With little experience between the other 4 drivers we managed to hold a strong position in the now dry track. Team manager/owner decided for me to do a long middle stint at an hour and a half, good pace throughout the stint and despite traffic managing to be within 0.3 tenths of my best lap. (Also fastest lap of the race). Unfortunately due to a lack of luck, 50 minutes into the stint and into the 4th hour of the race the karts engine flooded from a torrential down pour. With having to wait for the kart to be recovered and then waiting for the kart to be fixed we had dropped from 2nd to 14th and 15 laps down to a podium position.
Team mates did their stints and what they could but we was still only 12th.
45 minutes left of the race I jumped in for the final stint. The mix between heavy rain, slick tyres and my experience in the conditions from my early years of karting in junior club at Buckmore park, I felt comfortable and managed to find my rhythm straight away, climbing all the way back to 6th place and 8 laps behind 1st place.
View attachment 1595 Summary
With all things considered I’m very happy with my driving and the effort put in by the whole team was remarkable, a massive well done to a group of drivers with such little experience. I would like to say a massive thank you to Chris Perkins and Chris Johnson at Clarence Property Group for inviting me to the event, Daytona motorsport for hosting the event once again and last but not least my dad for brilliant work on the pit wall. I very much look forward to the event next year for the 25th event and look to better our position from this year.
View attachment 1596
You forgot to mention that I did qualify 3rd in the wet πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
 
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