CKN Driver Blog: Dale Curran Back on the ECKC Podium

Last weekend, we competed at the second round of ECKC at ICAR.

Reminiscing on the the drive home from Goodwood

When I was driving home from the first round at Goodwood ECKC, my dad and I had a conversation about how when I was in Micro-Max, I developed a calmness to my driving that helped me to be competitive that year. When I moved to Mini Max, the calmness went away and on the way home from Goodwood ECKC, we talked about how it happened in Micro Max and that I needed to change. So when I went to ICAR, I thought about calming down and it helped me massively with my driving. I concentrated intensely on remaining calm and using my head. That seemed to work well.

New Chassis: Tony Kart

Another thing that we changed going into ICAR was that we changed our kart to a Tony Kart. As I was now using my head and remaining calm, the Tony Kart also helped as it was smoother and the chassis worked more. For me, this was change in the right direction.

Before I went out for the first time in the new kart, my mechanic Mathieu told me, when you come in you are going to say “the brakes are terrible!”

When I came in, I said “the brakes are terrible!” and we laughed.

Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

Rainy start to the weekend

On Thursday in practice I was pretty confident in the wet conditions as I was running the same times as Thomas (Nepveu). We went out six times and I felt the day was a success. As it was expected to rain on Sunday, I was glad that we had the opportunity to practice in the rain.

Qualifying and the Heats on a Sunny Saturday

In qualifying I was third which was pretty good because I had the inside for the first corner on all the starts. In heat 1, it was pretty good race. At the start, I came out second behind Thomas and I didn’t really have the pace to keep up with him. On the last lap, I made a mistake on the last corner and my teammate got by me, so I finished third. In heat 2, I again came out second on the start behind Thomas and once again did not have the pace to keep up to him but ended in second place. In heat 3, I came off the start in second place and held my position even on the last lap as my teammate tried to pass me and I crossed the line in second place. This meant I started the Finals from the outside of the front row.

Finals day and the rain returned

The first final that day, I started second and the green flag got waved off because I jumped the start. On the restart, it was clean and I lead into the first corner. I lead for the first lap before Thomas got by me on the back straight. It started to rain so it made it difficult to carry the speed in the corners on the slippery track. Near the end of the race, I started to carry more speed and was starting to catch Thomas. I ended the race in second place and I was quite happy with the result.

During the day after lunch, it really starting to rain excessively and the race directors waited until later in the afternoon to start to run the second finals. When we finally got on track, we started the race but on the second lap, the official’s red flagged the race as we could hardly see. We waited in the tech tent for a significant amount of time but the rain did not stop so they ended up cancelling the rest of the races for the day.

Just to clarify how rainy it was, there is a picture on CKN (see below) with my eyes closed in the rain. I was blinking by the way! My eyes weren’t closed, just for the record! Ha ha.

Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

The weekend at ICAR was a BIG IMPROVEMENT from Goodwood and I am very happy with the outcome.

Next up is Mont-Tremblant where I am hoping for continued success. Mont-Tremblant is one of my favourite tracks and I am looking forward to the next round. See you all there.

Dale Curran Jr.
#131 Mini Max