CKN Driver Blog: Dale Curran Recaps His Eventful Weekend at Goodwood

Just over a week ago was the first race of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship for the 2016 race season. On Thursday I began practicing with my mechanic Mathieu Demers, we were quite quick as the day progressed on.

Friday was my second day of practice with minimal changes resulting with similar results to Thursday. That night I went home and got ready for the upcoming races.

The Crash

Saturday started out terribly, as I got into an incident in the warm-up with my teammate in corner one which resulted in me hitting the wall, hard! I had to go to the hospital because I needed to get my leg x-rayed but thankfully it wasn’t broken and I was alright. We got back to the track just after qualifying.

I would like to thank the entire paddock for all the support and best wishes I got when I returned to the track, I can’t thank everyone enough. I also would like to thank my mechanic, Mathieu for fixing my kart between the warm up and the pre-final so I was ready to race.

A lesson from my Coach

When I returned to the track from the hospital, my coach Ben Cooper spoke to me and said that I needed to go out for the pre-final because even if I only did one lap and came in I would still get points. He needed to encourage me to get back into the kart that day as originally I wasn’t going to race until Sunday.

In the pre-final, I started last and drove my way up to fourth position which I was very happy with. Then, I received a five-position penalty for contact with another driver.

Overall, I am happy that I got back in the kart that day and that Ben talked me into it. Afterward, I knew no matter what I could drive and I just had to continue.

After a scary crash on Saturday morning that required a trip to the hospital for a quick check-up, Dale returned to the track and his go-kart to finish out the days racing. (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

The Final

In the final, I started in ninth position and was running in fifth position when unexpectedly my rear wheel flew off into the grass and I went spinning into the grass as well. ECKC Round 1 was definitely not my day!!!

After a very stressful day, I went home to rest up for Round 2.

Sunday was a new day

Sunday started out fairly well as I was fourth in warm up. I also qualified in fourth position and I finished the pre-final in fourth position as well.

For the final I had high hopes, starting in fourth position. Off of the start, I took third place. I continued in third place until the fifth lap where I was turned in corner one again. I restarted the race in tenth position and everyone was gapped out, so I ended up finishing in eighth position. I was off in speed by two to three tenths throughout the weekend. It was very frustrating and I can only hope ICAR will be better.

Looking forward to ICAR

Goodwood ECKC for me was not what I was hoping for my first Mini Max ECKC championship race. Congratulations to all my competitors for a great race and thank you to all the people involved will organizing this event.

I am very excited to go to ICAR with my team and hopefully it will end in a better outcome after putting Goodwood ECKC behind me.

See you this weekend,
Dale Curran Jr.
#131, Rotax Mini-Max