Singapore, 14 July 2010 – Following a victory from the first round, multiple British kart racing champion Richard Bradley was determined for a similar performance in the Formula 125 Senior Open category at the second round of Asian Karting Open Championship (AKOC) 2010. Held at Kartodromo De Coloane in Macau, Bradley unfortunately had a most frustrating weekend where he encountered a major accident amidst incidents, but his perseverance to the end was evident as he confidently pursued victory.
With 33 drivers on the grid, there was a lot of traffic during the timed qualifying sessions and setting a pole position time would be a challenge. Eventually, Bradley clocked a competitive timing and decided to return to the pits early so as to conserve his tyres.
Having qualified in second place, Bradley won two out of the three rounds of heats but along with two other drivers, was given a 10-second penalty for being out of position at the start of Heat 2. That moved him down the scoreboard from first place to 11th. Nonetheless, his second place finishing in Heat 3 gave him a combined result of second place on the pre-final starting grid.
The pre-final got off to a great start and Bradley quickly took the lead by Turn 3 in the first lap. As he started to pull away, another driver attempted a desperate lunge at Bradley that took both of them off the track. Bradley restarted his kart and rejoined the race, but as he was coming back through traffic, a backmarker clipped the back of his kart and sent it flipping.
“I felt contact at the rear and then I saw the sky. Immediately I braced myself as the kart flipped. I hit the ground face first along with my elbows and hands, and the kart was on top of me. It kept rolling with my leg trapped within and I got dragged along with it,” said Bradley as he described the incident.
“I didn’t feel any pain then and all I wanted to do was get my kart back on track. Unfortunately, the kart was bent and I was forced to retire from the race. Only when the adrenalin ceased then I began to feel the hurt,” he added.
After some painkillers and bandages for the swellings, Bradley started the final near the back of the grid. He overtook many and caught up to 12th place in less than 10 laps of the 25-lap race. But the kart was too damaged from the earlier accident so he had to retire from the race again.
“It was a frustrating weekend because clearly we had the pace for the same results as in Round 1. My pre-final was ruined when I got hit by another driver whilst I was in the lead. I would have recovered from that but I got hit again. I was happy to be able to start the final even though I was bandaged and in a lot of pain,” Bradley said about the weekend.
“On a brighter note, the main objective of keeping sharp was achieved and our pace was competitive. There was a high chance of winning, but that’s racing. I look forward to my next driving experience!”
Based in Singapore, Bradley moved over to make the transition from karts to formula cars with a debut single-seater racing season at this year’s Formula BMW Pacific Championship series.
Bradley last raced a kart last November at the WSK International Series when he was a driver for the Maddox works team. The former Super KF (Karting Formula 1) driver is reunited with a Maddox kart for AKOC.
During the three-month break in the 2010 Formula BMW Pacific Championship, current Drivers’ Championship and Rookie Cup leader Bradley made a successful comeback in karting when he won Round 1 of AKOC at Carmona Circuit in The Philippines last month. He clinched top spot for both timed qualifying sessions, all three heats as well as the pre-final and the final, to claim the title.
After six of 15 rounds of the 2010 Formula BMW Pacific Championship, Bradley holds a lead of 34 points ahead of the next driver in the Drivers’ Championship and is also leading the Rookies’ Cup. The next round of Formula BMW Pacific will take place at the end of August at South Korea’s all-new Formula 1 international circuit.