Marcus Hudson - Round 2 MSA NKF Super 4 250 British Championship

MARCUS HUDSON Round 2 Track Conditions- Sunny spells 14C. Location - Shenington, Oxfordshire. “Saturday was practice and all heats and the final were raced on the Sunday. As I had never been to this circuit before I had to learn the circuit and set the kart up at the same time which is hard to do, as your driving technique of the circuit can obviously affect the handling of the kart. I had a lot of under steer at Wilkins corner and too much grip at the rear of the kart in general. We managed to sort the under steer issue, which then gave us not enough grip at the rear, which again we sorted and then had a good base setting. The rest of Saturday practice we just tweaked the set up slightly and concentrated on driving the circuit correctly.”

Heat 1 (Grid Position: 5th) Marcus made a good start and made up one position but then got swamped going into Stratford corner and lost 3 places, he eventually finished the race in 9th. They made some front steering set up changes in preparation for the next heat.

Heat 2 (Grid Position: 9th) Marcus managed to get up to 6th place in the first lap and kept that position till lap four where her was overtaken by Paul Lawson (#3) who finished the championship in third last season. Marcus managed to keep with him for five laps, and then on lap 9, Ross Allen got passed. The set up change we carried out helped the kart with its handling and he then managed to take the pit bend corner flat out in fourth gear (roughly 80mph) which gave him some confidence in the kart. Marcus finished the race again in 9th, 10 seconds ahead of 10th Max Snell (#6) fellow HRK driver. Marcus was 5 seconds quicker in heat 2 than he was in Heat 1 and his quickest lap was 2 tenths quicker which he was happy about. Marcus was struggling with the drive out of the Bruno chicane, as he didn't have the throttle response he wanted. After the heat the team changed the jetting in the carburetor to see if that helped with the issue.

Heat 3 (Grid Position: 13th) Marcus made a brilliant start and was running 8th on the first lap and managed to overtake three more on the same lap which then brought him up to 5th place but he was still being held up by #43 and was overtaken. He was close enough behind #43 and was sitting on his rear through pit bend (flat out in 4th gear) then pulled out of his slipstream and out braked him on the inside and took the position. The leader then retired (#96). He was still struggling with the exit from Bruno chicane but it was slightly better with carburetor adjustment. Near the end of the race, Marcus lost two places number 0 and fellow HRK driver #42, Paul Gutteridge, which let to him finishing in 6th.

Final (Grid Position: 8th) Lined up 8th on the 17 strong grids. Marcus got a good start and made up two positions off the grid. He was running in 6th then #42 retired with a broken crankshaft, which bumped him up to 5th. Near the end of the race, he was catching #96 and finished 1.8 seconds behind him in 5th place and 7.75 seconds ahead of 6th. Marcus also manage to get his quickest lap time in the final 46.40, which is half a second quicker than his best lap in heat one. He had a very good weekend and to place 5th in the final at his first attempt at the circuit was better than what he thought he could have achieved, what a great result!

After two rounds of the championship Marcus sits in 6th in the standings. The next meeting is May 13th-14th at Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire for Round 3 of the MSA ABkC NKF Super 4 250 British Championship. “Looking forward to this as it’s my favourite circuit. I would like to thank my sponsors FUCHS Silkolene, Bearts of Stowbridge, Maxview, RP Compliance, Hair Styles and Carter Haulage.”