Jacob Ashcroft's first experience of international racing.
Last week saw Jacob compete in his first ever International race the Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy. The venue was Kartodromo Portimao in the South of Portugal, this is also the same track that Jacob is racing in the Rotax World Finals in January so a good excuse for some practice laps. We were heading out with the Multiple Championship winning team Dan Holland Racing and racing for a new kart manufacturer called Kart Republic.
It was a 6 day event starting Tuesday comprising of practice days, qualifying followed by qualifying heats which set the grid for the pre final which then set the grid for the main final on the Sunday, with some great prizes up for grabs we went to win.
We had 3 other micro max racers in our team including the current Lebanese champion Christopher Feghali son of Lebanese rally, drift ace and TV presenter Abdo Feghali From first practice it was apparent that Christopher and Jacob were going to be the ones to beat with both of them topping the times sheets several times.
Qualifying went well with Christopher on pole and Jacob in second place just a tenth behind. Heat 1 I got a bad start being on the outside of the track dropping down to about tenth place but managed to get back up to sixth. Heat 2 was a disaster due to changing conditions in the pre grid preparation area we missed the entry cut off time with 3 other competitors and were forced to miss the race.
Heat 3 we were determined to make up for the previous heat mistake and Jacob fought a great battle with Juliusz Ociepa crossing the line in third and was then promoted to second when Juliusz picked up a nose cone penalty this put us on the grid in eleventh for the pre final.
Pre-Final starting eleventh we had one goal in mind and that was to finish third in order to start the final on the right side of the track behind my team mate, the plan went to perfection and I finished third behind Christopher and Max Sadurski
Final starting third behind my team mate we got a great start and I immediately got through to second and started to push as we had to break away from the pack, after lap one the front four of Christopher, Myself, Max and Mees Houben had pulled away from the pack and settled into our own four way battle for the lead, what then took place was a great race with the lead changing place multiple times including by myself so I got to lead in my first international final.
Unfortunately the age and experience of Christopher who is 11 and has raced Micro Max for 3 years got the better of my 9 years and this being only my second Micro Max race, he was able to hold off to take the win with myself behind in second place holding off a late charge by Max.
Jacob Ashcroft Vice Champion Micro Max International Trophy what a fantastic result and my thanks go to the whole Dan Holland Racing team for helping me achieve this great result, especially Dan Russ and George Lastly huge thanks to my mum and dad who work so hard to make my racing dreams happen A rest now over Xmas then we travel back to Portugal at the end of January for the big one to see who gets crowned world champion.
Watch Jacobs race over on Facebook - his race starts at 1hr 51m https://www.facebook.com/3MKEventsRMCIT/videos/2175771082556663
