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Nutts Corner Driver Reaction News: other

Posted On 13th Nov 2024
Posted By Racing/Motorsport
Author Mairead (Public Relations Officer)

Following the 1st round of the Student Sport Ireland Karting Championship back in October, Aaron Thompson wrote a short reflection on his experience of the event. 

Student Sport Ireland Karting Intervarsity’s – Round 1

UL is no stranger to competing at the highest level, across sports, clubs and societies. The SSI Karting Intervarsity’s is an event that had not been on the ULRM calendar in a few years, but with a strong team of drivers developing within the club in recent times, students came together to try form a team for the 2024/25 championship.

I joined the club originally in my first year but have been attending full time for the past year or so and have really gotten into karting, gaining experience at international events over the past few months and competing at most club run sessions, so I jumped at the opportunity to compete with some of the best karters in the country across the championship. The team and I have competed club Grand Prix before, but the format of the SSI Championship was a very refreshing change. The races are short, at approximately 5 minutes each, with the top 16 drivers from the heats moving on to the semi-finals, and from there score points for themselves and their college in both the Drivers and Team Championships.

Nutts Corner was the first event on the calendar, a track none of our team had ever driven. We went in with low expectations, with an unfamiliar competition, competitors and track. However, were were pleasantly surprised. We quickly learned the track during our practice session and were somewhat confident going into our heats. The top 16 overall drivers across 17 heats would progress to the semi-finals.

We each had 4 heats to gather as many points as possible. There was some brilliant overtakes across the team, with multiple top 5 finishes, but the new format and changing conditions threw up a few incidents that unfortunately found their way to our team. Great results overall but not quite enough to make the semi final on this occasion.

However, there are still 3 more championship rounds to prepare for and there’s still plenty of points up for grabs across the drivers and the club championships. We have a very strong team representing UL, so no reason why we can’t put the ULRM name right in the mix for the rest of the season.

- Aaron Thompson

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