Local driver reclaims obscure track record from Oliver Bearman
A local driver has taken back an obscure lap record from Haas F1 star Oliver Bearman.
A driver who held the record at a local kart track in Sweden has reclaimed the fastest lap from Oliver Bearman.
Haas F1 driver Bearman revealed to media including Crash.net at the Belgian Grand Prix that he had gone to extreme lengths to set the fastest lap during a vacation between recent races.
In the three-week unofficial summer break between the British and Belgian grands prix, Bearman was on holiday with his girlfriend’s family, who encouraged him to beat the lap record at a karting track near the small Swedish town of Varberg.
"I was on vacation in Sweden and there was a kart track very close to where I was staying that week," Bearman explained.
"It was a coincidence. Of course, I was excited to go to Sweden for a while. My girlfriend's family said: 'Look, you have to beat the lap record’. And I was like, yeah, come on, it will be easy. Then on the first day I was three or four tenths off.
“The track was really cool. It was a short lap, only 29 seconds, so you had to be super precise and I was trying every trick in the book to do it because the guy was quick.”
The extreme lengths Bearman went to in ‘serious quest’
The 20-year-old revealed he even went as far as to take fuel out of the car and treated the engine with a leaf blower to overcome overheating problems. Bearman’s girlfriend even got involved to help look after the tyres.
"It was a serious, serious quest. On the final day we put new tyres and did it properly, dropping the pressures after every run," Bearman added.
"I was at it for almost two hours. You had to really put the perfect lap together and move some of the walls a little bit and finally, I managed to beat the lap time by just like half a tenth. I did like 15 laps where I was 0.03 or 0.04 away from it. And when you're that close, you can't quit until you win!
"I have photos of me, the guy with me and my girlfriend taking fuel out of the car to try and make it lighter. I was cooling down the engine between runs with, like, a leaf blower.
"My girlfriend was fixing the tyres. It was just a corporate kart but because it was quite hot out there the engine was running very hot. So, we had to take away some of the bodywork, because the power really drops when the engine gets hot. It was a high tech operation.
"Someone was slipstreaming me on the straights and then moving out of the way at the last minute so I could do the lap. I went with normal clothes, but I made sure to have shorts and a thin t-shirt on to keep the weight down. And even on the straights, I was head down. I wasn't messing around."
Elton Zevenwacht was the local who previously held the lap record. Bearman was unaware of who the lap record holder was at the time of his successful bid, but joked to media that “he should be in F1”.
The 23-year-old Swede wasted little time in taking back his record, which he achieved on Friday night.
According to Motorsport.com, Zevenwacht managed a time of 28.95s, beating Bearman’s effort of 28.97 which had seen him briefly become the first driver to dip below the 29-second mark.
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Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
