Category Archives: Practice

Practice 10: a damp start but a brighter outlook?

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This was the (hopefully) first of back-to-back Saturdays at Clay in a bid to get us on the grid for October. It was also the first time we were going on a race weekend so I knew it would be very busy and that we’d get less track time although, on the plus side, we’d also get to see exactly how far off we were compared to the prospective competition. Unusually we were out the door by 7:40 and, even more astoundingly, didn’t get stuck behind a tractor or a lorry for the entire journey! 🙂

We were at the track over an hour before it opened and it was really nice to be able take some time in getting set up, fixing the satellite position for the MyTach GPS (I wanted to have another go at capturing some GPS data) and chatting to some of our fellow karters  (note to self: you need to get here early more often). I am ashamed to say it was during this time that I [properly] swore at Junior for the first time! 🙁 He wanted to help get the kart ready but, at the moment, I really need to make sure it is all done properly (as properly as I can do it at least) and so whilst I was checking the carb, the throttle, the bolts etc I said he could put the fuel in. The problem is that our Mr Funnel (great device but it automatically wastes the last bit of fuel no matter whether it is polluted or not!) doesn’t sit nicely in between the tank and the steering wheel and he was struggling a little so I told him I would pour if he held the funnel in place. So some time passes and the fuel is flowing nicely until, all of a sudden, it is going everywhere – the kart, the tyres, me and the floor! “What the **** are you doing!?!” was the automated response that came out as I looked up to see him picking at something on his hand!!! Junior went off and shut himself in the car. Not wanting to start the day on the wrong foot I apologised after cleaning up (another note to self: don’t do that again, at least not while he’s still a kid!).

Back to kart-related matters… the groups size for juniors was around 25 karts as Junior TKM, JuniorMax and MiniMax were combined. Junior tends to warm his tyres up over the first three laps and this time was no different although, in a 10-minute session, it only leaves you 9 laps to get your head down. The sun was shining but the track had puddles in places from the overnight rain: Junior didn’t look particularly quick and came back with a best lap of 38.8s. Two things that I find hard to do are assess the speed of the track and interpret what the tyres are telling me after a session. I figured it was early and we’d see how the next couple of sessions went. We did capture a full set of GPS data on the MyTach for the first time but I’ll write about that once I have had a chance to play with the software. The second session was brief – after starting him, I decided to watch Junior from the pit wall rather than my usual spot on-track. Now if you are a karting Dad you’ll know the feeling when you cannot see your lad on track – your eyes scout back looking at the kart/overall/helmet combinations but Junior was nowhere to be seen – somebody had spun in The Esses and Junior’s avoidance route sent him into the plastic barrier. The kart was ok and I pushed it across the grass to get it back on track (not the easiest of things with a direct drive) and sent him on his way but he immediately pulled into the pits complaining of something dragging on the side. I checked everything but found nothing – I can only assume the crash had heightened his sensitivity to things and it was the loose side pod (which we run quite loose) that had concerned him.

Things picked up once one of the other racer’s stopped by for a chat and pointed out that my tyres were seriously over inflated at 16psi (thanks, Sam); I had been starting them off at 10 or 11psi in the warmer weather but it was a cooler start and the track was damp in places so I had started at 16. Taking them down to 11psi instantly shaved a second off of our lap times! We then had a heavy but brief shower which had me scratching my head – the sun was shining approaching our session although no significant dry line had yet appeared. It looked too dry for wets though and I wasn’t keen to put on and then ruin my new set. The cadets immediately before us were on wets but I opted for slicks (as I think did the entire junior grid), opting just to move the rear hubs in fully in case the back got a bit more lively. Junior did really well: there was definitely less of a gap between him and the rest on the damp track and I am hoping that he proves to be pretty good in the wet, where his arrive/drive experience of karts with less grip may prove useful. During the afternoon Junior’s lap times were into the low 37s – he was still just under 2 seconds off the pace but he was enjoying it and showing glimpses of improving his lines. The kart was running fine and the only interruption we suffered was when the exhaust flex split, we lost an exhaust spring and the exhaust found itself more wriggle room (cue loud noise and an early end to the session). That aside the afternoon was largely uneventful; I reacquainted myself with wheel spacers as a means of saving time measuring the rear width (once you note how wide the rear is with the hubs pushed right in you can then just add the width of the spacers). The only other thing of interest to happen was my getting recognised by someone who had read my blog and recognised the kart (I think this was the same person who also got stung on the mouth by a wasp – I hope that healed ok!).

We came to the final session of the day and, as if by magic, Junior is suddenly hitting apexes and using more of the track!!! It was amazing (relatively speaking): an entry into and out of The Esses that you would expect to see somebody else do, exiting wide out of The Hairpin with wheels on the concrete kerbs followed up with… an appalling line through The Hairpin (the first corner Junior seemed to crack!). I had to laugh but those corners were no fluke – Junior’s lines throughout that session were significantly better 🙂

We packed up and headed home. I was very happy – the last session had turned what would otherwise have been an ok day into what may prove to have been a day where we took a big step forward. It soured a little after that: when your dry kart is uncovered and on top of a trailer the last thing you want to meet when heading home is heavy rain (we’ve tried covering it, the cover gets wrecked). Unfortunately, the whole of Somerset seemed to be cover by the most gloomy of grey clouds and there was no end to the rain for a decent chunk of our route home. Instead of sitting on the sofa with a beer in one hand and my feet on the sofa, I spent Saturday evening taking the kart apart spraying GT85 everywhere. Don’t you just love it?

The key now is how Junior starts next time: if he can start where he left off I am hoping the improved lines will lead to reduced lap times although, knowing Junior, it really is more hope than expectation – he likes to do things his own way!

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee

Total spent so far: £3,199

Back from hols and ready to push on!

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After aborting a planned practice at Dunkeswell at 6am on the day owing to a worsened weather forecast (should have gone), I’ve done nothing karting-related in the past couple of weeks. I enjoyed a week in the sun and the kart had remained untouched until this week when I decided to test my carbs with my ‘new’ popoff tester. I discovered that the carb on the kart was doing a poor job of holding pressure (popping at 11psi and slowly sinking to around 3psi) and that the carb we had run on for most of the year until I ruined the fuel inlet screen was a much healthier looking carb once I had replaced said ruined screen (popping at 10psi and holding at 6psi). I am wondering if this could have been a factor in our poor showing last time out given not a lot else had changed on the kart. Anyway…

I think I needed the time off to be honest and I plan to have a bit of a push to see if we can find some consistent speed with a view to the October round of the Clay Pigeon Kart Club  championship 🙂 We’ll hopefully be attending on consecutive weekends and, if we can get back to a point where we are around a second off the pace, then we’ll go for it next month.

Practice 9: Hmmm…..

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A fair amount had changed on the kart since our problems at Dunkeswell; the back end had had some attention as I had fitted and subsequently returned a used axle, I had also fitted the OTK foot rest in the expectation that it would give Junior something to press his heels into when braking and I had ‘expertly’ created a foam insert for the seat after Junior had complained that he was uncomfortable in the seat in longer sessions. I had some things to test too: I had tightened the nassau in a bid to improve upon the vibration suffered by the ActionPro and I had also been lent a MyTach GPS watch to test (thanks, Colin!).

Again, we left late – only 15 mins but it meant that we didn’t make the first session although only because went on the track before it opened in order to set the GPS position and decided to walk the track since we were out there. Our first lap lasted all of about 30 seconds as Junior complained that his brakes weren’t working. What he actually meant was he didn’t like the heel rests and they restricted his use of the brake! Our second session ended with the kart stopping on track; I had hand-tightened the spark plug having noticed it wasn’t seated as we were pushing the kart to the pit lane and so we had lost compression (Noob Lesson 1 for the day).

We then had some decent track time mixed with some more mistakes on my part: a loose floor tray, lost nassau bracket bolts, another [different] loose nassau bolt. These are things I have to admit I’d never checked mid-session but, as Junior was starting to [sporadically] hit the kerbs through The Esses, the kart was starting to get a little roughed up (Noob Lesson 2 – check bodywork through the day). The seat insert of which I was very proud was a flop – the sides had to be removed in order for Junior to fit in, then he decided he preferred the seating position without it! We never captured any data on the MyTach, either through user error (not hitting the ‘Start’ button) or taking it off whilst we found some reliability and forgetting to put it back on again! The ActionPro still suffered vibration although tightening the nassau did help a little.

The biggest disappointment was the times we were producing – 37.x throughout the day, a second off of our best at our last visit in June. Conditions were pretty similar; the weather was warm and although the kart setup was not identical (the rear axle was at it’s middle height whereas it was low last time, we may have had a different carb and the tyres had obviously seen a little action at Dunks in July) but I didn’t feel that explained such a loss of pace. You could see that it was taking longer for the regulars to catch Junior on our last visit but that wasn’t the case this time. Junior was working on his lines but there is still a lot of room for improvement, most significantly in his lines and his braking points. Don’t get me wrong I very rarely criticise him; it would be a bit hypocritical as I am still making noob mistakes! He wants to race and we’ll do that when he is ready. I came hoping to confirm our readiness and left knowing that we still weren’t there yet. When we bought the kart I said we’d look to get a few races in at the end of the year. I thought we were a little ahead of plan but maybe that isn’t the case.

On the positive side, Junior ran for 170 laps despite the mishaps, did improve his line through The Esses a little and nothing unexplainable happened to the kart. Remember there is no such thing as bad seat time… 🙂

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart (still plenty left from last time), £35 practice fee

6 nassau bracket bolts: £3!!!

Total spent so far: £3,143

 

Practice 8: a step backwards :(

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Just when it looked like our issues were behind us too! I blame Junior – he was the one who commented on how we had run trouble-free last time as we were enroute to Dunkeswell. We left at 7:20am; 20 minutes later than I was hoping and got to the track just before practice started at 9:00am. It took a while to get our ‘new’ awning up, on which I had gone ‘halves‘ with another Dad and which we were using for the first time. Once the awning was up, tyre pressures set (annoyingly, I had forgotten to do over-inflate the tyres the night before), fuel added, carb primed and the kart started on the trolley I had missed not only the first session but there wasn’t enough of the second session left to make it worthwhile going out.

As it happened, I wish we had: we lasted only one lap of the third session as Junior came in reporting that the engine wouldn’t rev over 8,000rpm. What do I do about that? I’ve learnt a lot in five months of ownership but troubleshooting is an area where I really need to improve. I started the kart again on the trolley and it seemed ok but I wasn’t keen on trying to rev it excessively to see whether it would get into the upper range. Changing the carb seemed like a reasonable option and that appeared to do the trick as we ran for the whole of the next session – our only real track time (a whopping 10 minutes) in the first three hours! Things then took another turn for the worse as Junior crashed in the next session, running wide as he accelerated out of a corner, hitting the plastic barriers and putting a nice bend into a track rod. My spares package saved me once again 🙂 I had what I needed to fix the kart although during the repair a helping Dad noticed we had a fuel leak. I had semi-noted this earlier but put it down to fuel being spilt when it was being poured into the tank without checking it out properly. Note to self: investigate everything unusual – you’ve done this before!!! The fuel was leaking from a hairline crack in the tank which appeared to have been caused by my previously refitting the tank without a spacer between chassis and tank and then over tightening the tank fixing bolt. Without a replacement, I ran the fuel below the fixing bolt to minimise any spillage – I did have a spare fuel tank at home but hadn’t envisaged any scenarios where I would need it trackside!

It was 2:00pm by the time we were back on track. With only 23 laps in the bag we then managed to string back-to-back sessions together although our day ended at around 3:30 when Junior lost power and pulled off the track (at the far end of the track too!). The carb wasn’t holding fuel – you could see it was just running back into the tank. My good buddy/advisor and fellow Karting Dad tested the carb with a pop-off tester – it didn’t look great. My other carb (replaced in the morning) had a loose spring although that might have been a result of my botched attempt at checking it out earlier in the day. With some tweaking, we got one decent carb together but the engine still would not start on the trolley and we concluded that we were losing pressure because of the crack in the tank. And with that, our day was done 🙁

There were a few positives: I took the camera and got some decent pictures of Junior and some of the other lads who ran with us (I was one of four Dad/lad JTKM combos who had headed down for the day), we ran the Action Pro for a few sessions (although suffered from some pretty bad vibration on the nassau) and I also started to make session notes so that I could gauge the effect of any setup changes (I was experimenting with different exhaust flex lengths). They were mostly outweighed by the negatives though: only 55 laps done, 0.8s slower than our only other visit to the track, a fuel issue to take home to troubleshoot and the realisation that we definitely aren’t ready to race at Clay next month. I was also bothered by my reliance on others to help me get to the bottom of the problems which, I felt on at least one session, meant their lads were sitting out as they tried to help (if you read this – sorry, mate!).

I need to work on my understanding of the carb and engine workings. I know you only really learn when you encounter a problem but I really want reduce my dependency on others generosity in helping. Mechanically inept? That is pretty much still the case – I’ve a still long way to go!

Cost of day: £18 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart (still plenty left from last time), £40 practice fee

Bits and pieces bought since last update: hose clips for exhaust end can: £2.50, 4mm self tapping screws for end can: £5, file for getting rid of deposits on axle (especially around my sprocket carrier!): £6, half-share of 6m x 3m awning: £30

Total spent so far (ouch – we’ve just passed £3k): £3,086

Practice 7: Engine run-in and new fastest lap (not at the same time, of course…)

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Today was our eagerly awaited practice day at Clay: having weighted the kart at Junior’s race weight and added the black restrictor (which is actually silver but, hey – it was a 99p eBay purchase and I took a punt, then subsequently discovered it wasn’t MSA legal having lost it’s anodised colouring!), I was really keen to see how Junior managed having picked up some good pace when unweighted last time. I awoke early as I seem to on every kart day – 4:55am this time, brain fully switched on running over the things I needed to remember to take and then all of the things to remember when we got to the track. Up at 6:10, out the door by 7:45 (just in case we hit Glastonbury traffic) and at the track at 9:15 – in plenty of time to get things sorted 🙂

Before we could really get going, our first business was to run-in the engine. This was our first session as a licensed driver 🙂 but Junior was driving up to 8,000rpm (or dangerously slow as it seemed) and there were a couple of close calls in our ten minutes on track. Afterwards one of the stewards suggested we continue running-in the engine with the cadets, which I was more than happy to do. This worked in the second session,when he moved up to 11,000rpm (and I bravely ignored a broken toe to resume bump starting duties ;)), but not in the third session where we were getting up to 15,000rpm and he got told off for racing cadets (and breaking my 40s lap rule!). Our job was done at that point though and, although he was still on a ‘not above 15k’ brief when back out with the adults, we could focus on the more intriguing part of the day.

It didn’t start too well – for the first time in our ownership the kart didn’t start and I was shattered, having ran myself into the ground well past The Kink! I am not sure Junior fully knows what he needs to when we are starting although, if I am honest, I probably didn’t fully understand either. It had just worked nicely previously. With some tips from friendly Dads (don’t pump the pedal, wait for the engine to spark then slowly and gradually accelerate), we got out again for three laps before the end of the session but, most importantly, it started fine.

After that things went just about as well as we could have hoped – the kart ran, we had no mechanical problems *at all* 🙂 (although Junior did spin into the tyres exiting the Top Bend), he was happy with the kart and preferred the handling with the extra weight on board (the back end seemed much less inclined to hop out as he accelerated out of the corner) and he knocked 0.7s off his previous best and recorded a 36.21. He was a little disappointed not to break the 36.0s mark although my biggest concern was the kart’s weight – Junior stood no chance of lifting the kart off the floor and I was reliant upon friendly faces to help me get the kart back onto the trolley. I don’t really want to keep putting on others so I might need to look at the self-loading trolley options. Chances are though, he’ll start growing by the time I finally get something sorted! All-in-all, it was a really good day; I think Junior is quick enough to race now (without being lapped!) although we have a lot on next month and I have promised him we’ll go to Dunkeswell for a practice day. August’s race meeting at Clay is the target 🙂

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £10 petrol for 7l super unleaded for the kart (session was free as we had a credit note after our accident).

Purchases since my last post: used set of slicks from the forums: £30

Total spent so far: £2,977

Practice 6: ARKS test

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Thursday night was a bit of a rush, it being the first dry evening since the kart got soaked on Monday – I had dried the kart as best I could (given the constraints of working on a kart sat on a camping trailer inside a single garage) but there was still a fair amount of moisture around the engine mount so I chose to remove it and make sure everything was clean and dry. Not the best time for a first solo removal of the engine and exhaust perhaps but it needed doing. I also had to reset the front width after widening it at Llandow and I got as much ready for the day as possible: changed the sprocket, mixed some new fuel and slightly overinflated the tyres so that I could tweak them in the morning.

We got to Clay Pigeon Raceway about 20 mins before the track opened, signed in and were told to have a few runs and the ARKS examiner would come and get us when the time was right. I had been a bit worried on the drive down about the possibility of a repeat of the starting difficulty we had last time so I was relieved when it started first time. I ran my normal wheel, hub and chassis bolt checks and, unusually, we were out for the first session 🙂 We had a stuttering start though – Junior came in eight laps reporting the back end felt loose. I wondered if this was a tyre pressure issue so I dropped them down a notch. Second time out he complained it felt even worse! With his hesitancy from Llandow in mind, I assured him that nothing was loose so there was no safety issue and sent him back out to give the tyres a good warm up and see if the handling improved. I widened the back end by 5mm on each side when he came back and, from then on, he was happy with the handling and was soon pushing it. It was only during the fourth session that I realised the ARKS instructor was marshalling so that he could watch Junior, who by this time had beaten his previously best lap time from our February session. The instructor was more than happy with his speed and it was at that point I stupidly commented on it being nice to have the kart running without issue. No more than two minutes later, the kart is parked up on the exit of Billies and Junior is inspecting the back end. I made for the trolley park.

This was an interesting one: not only had the chain had come off but the sprocket was hanging on by a single bolt and one part of the sprocket protector was sitting on the axle, next to the chain. I had lost two of the three bolts from the sprocket carrier although one was bent and wedged in the back of composite chainguard. There were no nuts, including those that separated the sprocket from the sprocket protector (on which the fixing holes were now very worn to the point of being largely useless). I had lost parts on track yet again… 🙁 This was and still is something that I am desperate to see the end of – this particular problem was a new occurence and I can only assume that the nuts on the outside of the plastic sprocket protector had come loose. Just like the exhaust screws, it seems that once one goes it’s only a matter of time and the sprocket nuts were not nylocs, nor was I checking them between sessions. I removed all the relevant parts – there was composite chainguard ‘dust’ all over the engine, chain and chassis. The chainguard itself was cut up and the sprocket had worn on side of the teeth. I disposed of the sprocket, patched up the back of the chainguard with tank tape, bought six new sprocket carrier bolts (we – and every other kart I have ever looked at – had only three bolts in place before now) and cleaned everything up. We missed two sessions but at least it gave us some time to have some lunch.

As we were ready to head out again, Junior was called for his ARKS driving results and theory test – the only comment was that he needed to use the kerbs in the Esses and he got all his questions right in the test, meaning he passed his test 🙂

We made the most of the remaining four sessions, running until we were kicked off at 5pm. Junior had some fun racing with a couple of his friends he knew from Teamsport Bristol – one a Senior Max, the other in a Mini Max which made for a surprisingly entertaining spectacle and he was chuffed to post a new fastest lap of 36.92s, especially as his tyres were probably making a farewell appearance (they were used when we got the kart and he’s since done over 400 laps on them!). All in all, a good day – ARKS test passed, 157 laps ‘bum-in-seat’ time and a new fastest lap, only tainted by the sprocket bolt problem although I am now running six bolts (three of the holes on the sprocket and sprocket protectors are now badly worn) and checking them after each session (they do need tightening up every time, even with nylocs – I wonder if it is the plastic sprocket protector that doesn’t really allow for a firm tightening of the nuts).

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £7 petrol for 5l super unleaded for the kart, £85 ARKS test fee (including track practice), £1.50 for 6 sprocket carrier bolts

Total spent so far: £2,680

Practice 5: a mixed day at Llandow

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Having already had one practice day this month (although whether you can describe 12 laps as a practice day is questionable!) and an ARKS test booked for Friday I hadn’t really budgeted on another day out this month but there were quite a few reasons for us to make sure all was well with the kart ahead of the test: we hadn’t fired up the engine since the accident which had damaged the spark plug and cable, we had adjusted the front tracking, replaced the steering wheel and bled/adjusted the brakes. I needed to know that a) the kart worked and b) Junior was happy. Finding somewhere to test was a little difficult – Clay had Elite Karting on, Dunkeswell had their race weekend and Llandow had very patchy availability all over the weekend because of their arrive/drive commitments. It was a pleasant surprise when I called them on Saturday to find they were completely free on Bank Holiday Monday. Game on.

There were three Dad/lad combos heading over and we arrived to find some nice sunshine. The kart was soon set up and ready to start on the trolley when something unusual happened: it did not start! Fuel was being sucked into the carb ok but replacing the spark plug made not difference and it didn’t look like replacing the carb was going to  either but it did eventually fire up. Not sure why this was but, once going, everything seemed well – we had missed the first session but were set or the second session. It turned out we were sharing the entire day with arrive/drive karts which was a little bit annoying when we were hoping for an open track day.

The first couple of sessions were frustrating – Junior came in after five laps of the opening session reporting the brake pedal felt too stiff and that the back end felt loose and then after two laps of the next session reporting there was a hissing from the carb/engine area and the engine feeling ‘spluttery’. I don’t mind this having him come in if he has any concerns as we’d previously found that when Junior was reporting something, he turned out to be correct. The brake had been stiffened so this was to be expected. There was signs of oil escaping around the exhaust flex which was the only thing that might have explained the hissing. Everything else looked and another Dad gave the kart a thorough checking over. At this point I semi-joked to his son that he might like to take the kart out and see if there was anything amiss. Five laps later we were back in business: our test driver jumped out, Junior jumped in and instantly seemed much happier. Never underestimate the importance of a driver having trust and confidence in his kart!!!

At this point we were doing well – Junior was seeing out entire sessions and going quite nicely, hitting 47.61s in consecutive sessions (bear in mind his kart is not weighted currently). And then it rained. We stayed on the slicks at first: Junior was briefed to go out, be careful and just enjoy driving his kart. He looked quite at home in the damp, his pace was good and he span just the once at Raymonds as he pushed it a little too hard. We then switched to wets as the rain continued. He still looked pretty good but then we started losing kart parts on track again just when I thought we had seen the back of those (with the resolution of the engine mount problems) – this time it was the exhaust end can and silencer. I had noticed that we were down to two end cap screws at the weekend but had no spare screws and had forgotten all about it. A bunch of us set about locating the missing pieces. I was glad it was very quiet by this point as wandering around a track looking for your kart parts isn’t the best of feelings. As the shop had no screws, we tried using a rivet gun to fix the cap to the exhaust – that lasted another 5 laps before one of the boys noticed the end cap was missing again although the silencer was still present. I sent Junior to the pits and went hunting for the end cap again. At this point it was getting late and still raining so we decided on one more session. This time the end cap was fixed with some screws (that had been fitted inside one of the Dad’s vans!), covered with a metal tie, the some exhaust flex held in place with some plastic ties. It did the job and we ran for a good while before Junior came in with numb hands (he had been getting pretty ragged by this point too – not sure what had happened to the control he had shown earlier).

There were some notable positives though: Junior went quite nicely on the dry track – you could see him start to attack some of the corners and he was posting some reasonable times. He was also pretty good when the track got wet – initially when out on slicks as the track started to get wet and again when we went to full wets. His performance was tempered a little by his final session, where he didn’t seem to be able to adjust his pace and was clearly going too fast into the corner, ruining both his lines and his momentum (as he fought to keep the back end in place). I couldn’t really complain – having not had any wet practice since we bought the kart (when Junior was very, very slow), it was valuable experience ahead of his ARKS test.

Having approached the day hoping for an entire day’s smooth running and a little bit of wet time (be careful what you wish for), things didn’t exactly pan out as hoped but they say “There’s no such thing as bad track time”. Llandow was quite a different track from Clay and Dunks – it seemed more technical in terms of mastering the entry speeds to get the right lines and exit speeds and showed that Junior still has much to learn. The toilet facilities were pretty poor (soap and hand drier, anyone?) and, since I am moaning, I could have done without the torrential rain on the way home and the subsequent clean-up job once we got back (I just wanted a hot bath) but there we go. Oh… and the rain got inside all three layers of the visor protector and they had to be removed 🙁 I think this will be our dry visor from now on.

Fingers crossed for Friday…

Cost of day: £10 petrol, £7 petrol for 5l super unleaded for the kart, £40 track fee

Total spent so far: £2,575

Practice 4: Holy S#!t (our first accident)

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I had a feeling last night – one of those feelings; that I woke up with again this morning. There was never any chance of me calling the practice day off – if you are going to have those feelings then you need to find another hobby! I just shrugged it off as a stupid thought and got ready. Whereas my first couple of practice day mornings were stressful, outside-of-the-comfort-zone affairs (both from the point of view of towing and running the kart on my own), I am quite excited to be going karting nowadays even if I’m not the one doing all the fun stuff. Giving myself an hour was pushing it though and we arrived later than I had hoped, at around 9:45.  Clay was Clay – cloudy and windy with rain never looking too far away. Things were going ok – bolts checked, tyres pressures set, chain lubed [I realise now that I omitted to check the jet settings!] until, when I thought I’d take up some of the slack on the throttle cable, I noticed that the throttle valve wasn’t closing fully and wasn’t closing very quickly at all. It didn’t look like anything I had done in loosening the cable clamps and I couldn’t figure it out. I had to resort to the going to see Mike at the shop; I don’t really like looking like a noob but I have found the service to be excellent – you might pay a little extra for the convenience of having it there trackside but I’ve nothing but praise for Mike and his team. It turned out my cable had rusted inside the sheath (lesson #1 for the day – after a wet session, the cable needs to be cleaned/dried). I parted with £1.50 and had the part fitted 🙂 It turns out I had spare cables (I tend to learn what spares I got with the package as I find out I need them) and changing the cable wasn’t any great issue  but I didn’t know that at the time!

We missed the first 20-minute session but were set for the next one. I was unable to start the engine on the trolley as it looks like I have killed my remote starter battery but again the engine started perfectly in the pit lane and off went Junior. He seems to have developed a routine where the first lap is very slow – I think experience has taught him to take it easy and see if anything falls off! A couple of the corners were a tiny bit damp but his lap times were tumbling when it happened… one of the adult rotax drivers had been on Junior’s tail for a lap or so when, going into The Hairpin, it looked like Junior left the door open, the other driver seemed to go, then stop, then realised he was being let through. Unfortunately Junior decided he had waited long enough and turned in, they banged sides but instead of bouncing off the track together, the rotax flipped up over Junior’s rear wheel and both kart and driver continued up over Junior’s back/shoulder and helmet and down over the front of the kart. It looked bad and Junior was sat pretty still in his kart and the other driver and I legged it over. Neck ok? Check. Back ok? Check. Head ok? Check. At this point the only injury seemed to be his hand, which he couldn’t feel but he could wiggle his fingers somewhat. We walked him off to the reception to get some ‘treatment’ whilst a couple of drivers retrieved his kart (thanks, Gents!). I knew he was ok as he first asked whether the 37.6s lap he’d just done was his best lap at Clay (sorry, mate – that was 37.5s) and then told me the how the kart was broke. The ‘treatment’ as it turned out was some cold spray!!!

Our kart seemed to come off worse – bent bumper, damaged spark plug cable, broken spark plug cap and badly bent steering wheel. Junior’s suit had marks up the back, his neck support was split and his helmet had some fortuitously light marking – presumably from either the tyre or floor tray of the rotax. At this point it wasn’t clear whether we’d be heading back out so I gave Junior something to ease the pain (his iPhone) whilst I bought a replacement spark plug cap and started repairs. The steering wheel was a challenge – it resembles something like it’s original shape after some bending and a few smacks with a hammer but I think it’s probably beyond full repair. The rear bumper bolt was bent at 30 degrees and stuck fast. An hour or so later and Junior still wasn’t able to clench his hand so it was game over after only 12 laps! The staff at Clay were sympathetic enough to offer us a full credit note which was good of them. So, as the sun looked set for the afternoon, we left for home.

The bumper bolt took me another hour to remove at home! On the plus side, I got to clean more of the back end that had been less accessible with the bumper on. The bumper itself looks in need of a vice (which I don’t have) so I put on the spare. Yet again, I came to appreciate the completeness of my spares set as I had little hope of finding a bumper bolt – there were 3 or 4 in there 🙂

A steering wheel replacement looks costly – I’ll have to look into the options here. Most of the marks came off Junior’s helmet with a damp cloth and there is no sign of damage, which was a relief. We don’t seem to be having much luck at the moment!

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £7.50 petrol for 5l super unleaded for the kart, £5 parts (throttle cable, spark plug cap)

Total spent so far: £2,372