Ashton Ardley took to his home circuit of racing at the Victorian Golden Power Series over the weekend. Ardley, racing at the Eastern Lions Kart Club in the ultra-competitive KA4 Junior Light class, had a big weekend ahead of him. The Formula K driver had learnt and developed a lot as the series went on and was looking to continue that over the weekend.
Saturday morning showed that Ashton had strong pace, running in the top ten of the large thirty-five kart field. Ardley was hopeful of a good resulting going into Saturday afternoon qualifying. The Formula K driver set strong pace in the early stages of the session, pushing the top five drivers. Ashton set a time for as strong as fourth spot but got stuck in traffic on his final two-time laps. Due to the traffic Ardley dropped to position nine by the end of qualifying still satisfied with the top ten result.
Heat one was the starting point for Ardley’s racing and he was able to get a clean get away, staying in position nine on the opening lap. Ashton showed good pace throughout the heat and was able to stay inside the top ten all race. The Formula K picked up two spots late in the race which put him in a strong position seven to finish heat one.
Sunday morning was a tough decision with a drying track whether to put slicks or wets on the kart. The team elected to go with the dry tyres as they suspected the track to dry mid race. Unfortunately, the track dried very little and Ardley had his work cut out from the get go struggling for grip and position. The Formula K driver was able to keep the kart on the track but came home in a low position twenty-four in a disappointing result.
advertisement
Due to the poor second heat, Ardley was now starting out of position twelve where his bad luck continued. Ashton while forming up dropped a chain resulting in a DNS and no racing in the third heat. This had the Formula K driver out of position seventeen for his final.
Ardley’s final unfortunately had been cut short from twelve laps to seven laps due to some earlier red flag incidents. Ashton got a lightening start jumping of seven spots of the start and now inside the top ten. The Formula K driver was able to stay inside the top ten and was only two tenths off his closest rival coming home in position ten overall in the final.
Ashton spoke of the unlucky events of his weekend post-race. “I had an unlucky event. I went into timed practice and found I was up to the pace. The slick tyre call on Sunday morning in heat two was incorrect and the drop chain had me out of position seventeen for the final. Within the first lap of the final, I had gone from seventeenth to tenth place and I was able to stay there”.
Ardley will take to the circuit again this weekend at the second round of the Victorian Metro Series.
advertisement