Round 2 of the Daytona Tamworth InKart Championship took place on Sunday. It was cold and damp, and Jess has found these sorts of conditions challenging in the past. Results wise, it was a similar story with a 5th place finish in the B final not where she’d normally want to be running but there were some very positive signs, looking beyond that result.

In the practice session Jess was a long way off the pace, 5 seconds adrift at the bottom of the timings. The qualifying followed shortly after and she managed to improve to get within half a second of two of her competitors, but still nearly 3.5 seconds off the fastest time in her group. Her time would actually have been good enough for second in the other qualifying group, but the way the grids are determined meant she lined up 5th in the B final.

The pre-race plan made it roughly as far as the first corner with Jess taking a bit too much kerb, unsettling the kart and spinning in the slippy conditions. She was quickly back under way, and suddenly seemed to have figured out the conditions – her first timed lap was nearly 2 seconds quicker than all the other cadets! She soon made some progress past a couple of cadets but was pushing a bit too hard and suffered some spins when trying to make some overtakes, getting on the gas a bit too early. That unfortunately set her well back, having to wait for marshals to push her back on a couple of times.

Her last few laps were really impressive, particularly given how much she has struggled in these kinds of conditions. She set the 2nd fastest cadet time and 4th fastest overall, ahead of several junior drivers. The last 7 laps of the race she ran at the same pace as the leader who then went on to also win the A Final, showing she had really started to find her way in these trickier conditions.