UOG Karting debutant Josh Champman has revealed that the University of Gloucestershire’s return to the British Universities Karting Championship was a ‘daunting’ but enjoyable experience.
Speaking exclusively to Park Life Sport, the first-year Interior Design student provided deep insight into the University of Gloucestershire’s first BUKC test day in over three years.
The British Universities Karting Championship is the UK’s most competitive student motorsport. Races take place in high-performance arrive-and-drive, two-stroke Club 100 karts. The series pits university teams against each other across demanding national circuits.
BUKC’s fast-paced calendar and unpredictable racing have become a proving ground for aspiring drivers. The championship continues to grow year on year, drawing fresh talent from all over the country, including drivers from UOG.
How would you sum up the day as a whole?
JC: I really, really, really enjoyed it. It was quite a fresh new experience for me because obviously I’d never done karting outdoors on slicks in two-stroke karts ever, let alone with that amount of people or in a sort of competitive environment.
So it was really, I guess it was kind of daunting as a whole, but it was a really fun and exciting experience for me
Can you walk us through your own performance?
JC: I wasn’t very happy with my initial outing because I set myself high standards, so I wanted to be pretty good, but it was obviously about gauging the track, learning the conditions, learning the karts, obviously just trying to test essentially the whole point of being there. I think I don’t know how fast I was. I couldn’t tell you my timings exactly, but I wasn’t the slowest, but I wasn’t where I wanted to be. So then came the second session, obviously, the wet didn’t help on the first; it dried up a bit.
I was able to find a few nicer lines, a bit better grip. I think I went 7.9 seconds faster on my second timeout compared to the first. That was big for me, I was very happy with that, especially not being towards the bottom end of the leaderboard, just like bang in the middle.
So big improvements there, that was pretty motivating for me, really enjoyed that.
Would you like to return to BUKC action in the future, and why?
JC: I mean, of course! I’d want to do it every day if I could, but obviously I can’t because of the money, but yeah, I think that’s just an obvious straight yeah.
It’s just like, it’s always going to be a passion of mine, even though obviously I haven’t been able to do it very much, but it’s karting, it’s cars, anything that drives and moves, that is me.
What did you make of Buckmore Park itself?
JC: I mean, there are zero things wrong with it. It’s probably one of, if not the best, karting tracks in the country. So in terms of enjoyment, I mean, you can’t really do better than that. It was definitely a challenge, definitely hard, a bit tiring at times, but it was a new experience, and it was 10 out of 10.
How did it go with your three teammates?
JC: So, so, so fun. And it was nice doing it with the team. Keep that team spirit up, get the team synergy, the chemistry.
I’ll tell you what, though; another motivator for that performance was the fact that I was only 0.4 seconds off my teammate, Hubert Oleniacz, who has experience in previous karting seasons.
Read more about Gloucestershire’s return to BUKC action here.
