Category Archives: Racing

The Rant

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Where to begin? Let’s start with driving standards: running people off the track, driving into the the back of them, causing an accident – all the sorts of things that your local A&D circuit will be showing you the black flag for and giving you a talking to as they call you into the pits for about the time it takes to dock you a lap for being a bad boy. That kind of driving style doesn’t transfer to owner/driver karting – the karts are fast and you can really hurt yourself. Unless of course you happen to think you are invincible. And not paying for your own repairs.

Which brings us nicely onto my second grievance – why isn’t bad driving penalised? It is in A&D karting, as it is in other forms of motorsport. Obviously the technology doesn’t exist to view video footage but A&D karting manage fine with a marshal on the problem corners. Obviously, with A&D karting, the roles aren’t the same – a marshal is not only a flag marshal but a Race Observer but what do the MSA Race Observers do? Aren’t they supposed to bring *all* incidents to the attention of the Clerk of the Course who has the powers to impose position penalties? They watch the novices closer too, right, as they have to check their driving and sign off after each race? So repeated contact would be duly noted and a quiet word had so that over-zealous habits could be curtailed? Um, nope. What *do* Race Observers do? Is this just a problem at my local club or is just the norm in MSA racing. Unless I am prepared to chance £110 for an appeal to the Clerk, of course. Junior was involved in two incidents at Clay today and the Clerk received report of neither. I can guarantee penalties would have been implemented had we imported my  local TeamSport marshals in for the day! Perhaps the self-managed element of IKR is better able to tackle this.

For my third and final grievance, I’ll be merging all of the above. So after being punted off at the fastest corner of the track through no fault of our own, I ran over to recover the kart which was parked dangerously on the exit of the corner. It needed to be removed from this most dangerous of places – the pit entrance was 15 yards away, the pit exit about 30 yards. The former would involve dragging the kart (remember it’s a Direct Drive) back towards to the corner. With hindsight, taking this option wasn’t the best idea although it was one of those ‘spur of the moment’ decisions that you make. As I was dragging the thing, I got buzzed by a bunch of karts at full chat and looked over to the Flag Marshal at the entrance to the corner to see… no flag whatsoever!!! I jumped out of the way and screamed politely at the Flag Marshal (as opposed to Junior, who I am sure shouted something which included the word “f*ck” in it but he’s never said it before and I wasn’t quite sure so it will go unpunished!) who then started waving his flag to some ironic applause from the Senior TKM spectators moments before a Junior Blue came through the corner on the ragged edge of losing his own back end and collected the back of our kart. Let’s just check the Blue Book in case the rules on yellow flags have changed since I last read them:

“Danger, slow down sufficiently to ensure that full control of the vehicle can be retained.”

It appears not! Suddenly no damage becomes a ruined bumper and a potential bent chassis. Thanks a bunch.

And who the Hell thought putting the Junior Blues in front of the Junior TKMs was a good idea in any case? Please explain the rational behind starting a smaller number of slower karts in front of a larger number of faster ones even though they are being caught inside six minutes having been given a three-quarters of a lap lead…

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Race 5: Our first trophy!!!

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Here it is!!!

Our first trophy!!!

Totally unexpected and a fantastic end to a rollercoaster of a weekend…

The practice Saturday started off *really* badly: I spent the first 30 minutes getting people moved from my new pit space and then, when we were finally heading to the grid for the first session, we made it 15 yards down the road to the pit lane when we lost a circlip from the front trolley wheel and quickly had to catch the kart! Junior then came in reporting no brakes and no power out of the corners – just what every mechanic wants to hear :S Arghhhh – not on a race weekend!!! Luckily, there was a one-stop fix to both of these problems: TIGHTEN THE BLEEDING GRUB SCREWS PROPERLY. The axle had moved yet again. No such thing as once bitten twice shy in this household :/ I have now learnt my lesson and accepted that my axles won’t last as long when the screws are digging right in to them but that’s just one of those things.

After that, we looked really good – Junior was first out and had a fair lead over the likely pacesetters. Although they caught him by the end of the session, he wasn’t being totally mullered as has often been the case. The next session was also very encouraging as we were only four tenths or so off the pace but, as the afternoon went on, we lost something and were falling off of the leaders and running just behind the other novice. The turnaround was troubling but, in hindsight, it was something I should have seen as we continued to slip that little bit further back. It was on my mind the whole way home and I had a chat about it with a number of other racers and Dads – I think I was just moving in the wrong direction setup-wise as the track quickly cooled.

Race day and once again I was awake at 4am for my 6am start :/ I had set the kart up at the end of the practice day and it was still covered and ready to tow back down to Dorset so we left on schedule for a change. We made it to Clay in record time as the roads were so quiet. It seemed like the A37 has been doing a fairly decent job of culling badgers recently too 🙁 On to the main event…

Unexpectedly, we were the only entrants not to be running on new tyres! The fact that the debutant novice (and our good friends) had fresh rubber provoked Junior into a renewed appeal to be able to run on his new slicks but we have several ‘nearly new’ sets left still which I think are too good to only use on practice days. We did have our CNC barrelled engine on for race day though – Junior had felt it was better in the three sessions we did on it last week and, although his times had been no different, he felt that the track was slower by the time I had managed to switch the engines over. We were about to find out whether Santa had thought Junior had been good or really good when he sourced the engine at Christmas!!! My daughter sometimes reads this, so I have to keep this going 😉 The three lap warm-up seemed ok – we did a spot of sparring with one of the quick boys and weren’t disgraced although we were the slowest of the six runners (the Alpha Timing System really is very good, by the way). Junior was moaning that he wanted to go up a sprocket as we had been a fraction quicker on the practice day with it. I was reluctant as the weather was beautifully sunny and the forecast was very good. In the end I relented. Or at least I did to the extent I removed two sprocket carrier bolts whilst Junior was looking, pretended to be busy for a couple of minutes and then told him it was done 😉

Heat 1: Started really well, Junior quickly got up to 4th and, although the front three had pulled away, had dropped 5th and 6th when he had a heavy crash coming out of the top bend; he lost the back end which caught the tyres which spun him hard back into them right in front of the pit lane audience. He was out of the kart quickly and his kart lifted into the pits. My first reaction was “Holy sh*t” (I can over-react at times), the second “That could be expensive”. I deserted my pusher spot at The Hairpin and legged it over to him (not sure if that’s permitted but…) – he was shaken and had hurt both his arms but he was more upset at having just gifted away the points for a fourth place finish. Luckily we had only bent a track rod. My spares same to the rescue once again and I borrowed some lasers to ensure that we were straight (hopefully I can do this on my own next time – thanks, Sam!). On a positive note, we were relatively competitive for the first time *ever* and Junior really liked the kart with the ‘bigger’ sprocket 😉 One look at his Mychron told me he didn’t need and wasn’t getting the bigger sprocket!

Heat 2: Junior started last of six and was up to fifth when he had to run wide to avoid an accident into The Hairpin, losing the place he had gained but gaining two more as the other karts rejoined. This was one of more disappointing moments of the weekend for me as this was my corner for pushing and I had been so absorbed in what Junior was doing, I neglected my responsibilities as a pusher – it was only when the other Dads ran over that I remembered why I was out on track… Sorry to a certain racer if you are reading this 🙁 We finished third and were only two tenths off of the pace!

Heat 3: We got up to 4th early on but struggled to shake off fifth and sixth. Having finally managed a small gap, we actually caught third. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get past and were caught by the others but held on for fourth.

Final: We started fifth of six because, although we tied for fourth,  the result in the first heat is used to decide grid positions (did anybody else know that?). We started well, moved up to fourth and built a healthy enough gap over fifth. The three pacesetters were starting to hamper their pace quite badly as they duked it out up front and Junior was visibly catching them for a few laps.That was until he got a bit over-excited! Some of his lines became very erratic and any chance of glory (which I am sure he believed was a possibility!) soon evaporated. That was not the end of the drama though: one of the front runners seized an engine promoting us to third but, as the clock ran down (it was a ten minute plus one lap final), we were being caught by fourth. I was flicking my attention between the clock (it read 55s) and Junior when something happened at the back and our exhaust was suddenly dragging along the ground under the bumper. I was absolutely devastated – this was sure to end our race!?! Umm, well he was going round again with 22s remaining, which still meant this was the penultimate lap – the marshals by now were looking very interested – the kart was obviously very noisey but still no black/orange flag. Junior passed my post and looked up at me as if to ask “What do I do?” I just urged him to carry on! We were onto the final lap and the question now was whether we could hold onto third – fourth seemed to have overcome his hesitancy that our exhaust may fall off at any minute and was right behind us. I think a tenth separated the two as they crossed the line with Junior just about holding on 🙂

Although there were only two podium spots for the six runners, Junior won Best Junior Novice which was a fantastic achievement. His lap had clearly come on massively over the weekend – thanks, I am sure, in part to my track walk with him on the race morning 😉 The CNC-barrelled engine was also clearly much more to Junior’s liking than our non-barrelled engine, the two things combined (his improved lines and the engine, not my track walk!) to him making up six or seven tenths since our last race in December. We aren’t on the pace yet but, on this evidence, we are close enough now to be in the mix (wet weather excluded!!!).

So a great start to our championship although we won’t be defending the trophy next month as we are now off of novice plates.

TKM exhausts aren't meant to look like this!

TKM exhausts aren’t meant to look like this!

I can't say how grateful I am that these two exhaust sprungs hung around!

I can’t say how grateful I am that these two exhaust springs stuck around!

Cost of day: £30 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee, £39 race entry fee

Items purchased since last post: replacement bolts – £1!

Total spent this year: £916

Year 1 spend: £4,594

Our first race weekend of the season

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It’s been a long time coming but I am quite excited about our first race weekend of 2014 at Clay tomorrow! Unfortunately, the grid is pretty small as a number of Juniors have made the step up to Senior Extreme this year although there are few Juniors in the pipeline so things should pick up a bit next month. It also looks like the first time Junior will have had some competition, rather than watching the pack disappear so hopefully the kart runs smoothly and Junior gets some real race experience under his belt. The mission will be to get us and the other novice, who makes his race debut and with whom we will be sharing an awning, through the weekend without too many issues. The kart has been ready pretty much all week; just had to drill a hole for the throttle spring in the new engine head as the existing one was too low and necessitated setup changes when switching between engines. Also picked up some bolts and circlips (whoever decided to put those on kart trolley wheels needs… a good talking too!) from South West Fasteners and I couldn’t recommend them highly enough 🙂

I’d really like to have the equipment to camp at the track: both on the Friday and Saturday, just to get all the non-race stuff (packing, driving, awning setup) done and dusted – I wouldn’t sleep well but I don’t usually on karting nights anyway and getting up at 6am is no fun. Given the setup we have though, this is not and likely will never be an option – I have no plans to buy a van!!!

Wish us luck for the weekend 🙂

Race 4: another forward step

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This weekend was our final outing of the year – at the Clay Pigeon Kart Club Turkey Trot. A weekend of 6am starts for one final time this year! You know how I hate it when the kart gets soaked enroute? Let’s just say you wouldn’t know I had cleaned it the week before from the dirt it was covered in by the time I arrived at a sunny Clay.

Saturday was a really good day – we had a mixture of damp and dry tracks so a bit more much needed wet practice but, as the track got grippier in the afternoon, we looked pretty decent (especially after moving up to the gold restrictor – Junior could really feel the difference in bottom-end power). When the track was at it’s quickest, we were just over 0.5s off the pace but it was the first time Junior had been overtaken by one of the quicker drivers and then stuck with them rather than watching him sail away – he even looked like he was going to have a go back!!! 🙂 We’ve had a few false dawns so I didn’t get too excited – race day often reveals the starker truth. The kart got soaked again on the way home which meant I spent the evening drying it 🙁

I really didn’t want to hear the alarm ring but I kicked myself out of bed at the usual time. We had our clearest ever run to Clay – a grand total of 2 cars were in front of us during the entire journey. And it didn’t rain 🙂

The warm-up was good – the track was easily too wet for slicks even though there had been no rain for some time. If it’s going to be slippy, I would much rather there wasn’t a dry line so that the tyre choice is easy. For us, with used wets, we don’t have the risk of writing off a £160 set tyres so the borderline calls can sometimes play in our favour. It was only a warm-up though. Heat 1 was ok too; disappointingly there were only three of us racing – two of this season’s front runners and Junior! We were continually losing ground but only finished 15s and 10s behind over the 12 laps. Heat 2 was probably the one that was a little disappointing although it was probably my fault –  we were losing over a second a lap pretty much the whole way through although Junior’s race wasn’t helped by his fuel tank bolt falling off and then him completing the final laps holding the tank between his knees!!! I normally wrap velcro around the tank to stop if moving but, for some reason, the velcro had spent the weekend in the boot. I think the biggest problem though was me running a much higher pressure than was called for – the tyres had gained 3.5-4PSI during the race and you could see that we weren’t using as much of the tyre as we should have been. Tyre pressures are the hardest thing for me to gauge – especially in the cold/damp conditions. One to put down to experience…

The track was now dry so we switched to a full dry setup and I thought I would move down a couple of teeth just to experiment – we were going to finish last anyway so I wanted to see if Junior felt a difference. Then it rained! Although the track did dry by the time of the final, I didn’t have time to replace the sprocket so we had a lower gearing on a damp track, slicks on a wet setup. My reasoning was it wasn’t dry enough for a full dry setup but slicks were essential so I did what I thought was right. It didn’t turn out too badly though – we lost under a second a lap, so although we were 19s and two thirds of a lap adrift at the end of the 20-lap race, it represented a decent step forward over the weekend, especially compared with our last race. We’d learned a bit more about setups (with a lot of thanks to my rival TKM Dads, who took pity on me on probably shared a lot more information than they would normally!), Junior had been able to improve his lines a little, the Alpha Timing system’s lap stats were very useful and we’d had an enjoyable weekend.

So our season is over. The engine is in for a rebuild. The kart will be completely stripped as soon as I get a chance and we’ll take 6 weeks off. Unless I get the chance of a drive with a few of the other TKM Dads early in the New Year… 🙂

Cost of weekend: £24 petrol, £13 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee, £49 race fee

Total spent so far: £4,376

Race 3: um… a trifle disappointing if I’m honest!

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Remind me to write these posts up a bit sooner!  We had our third race last weekend; as we had had to test the Saturday before to ensure our motor was ok, we missed the practice day and just attended the race day. I was very keen to see how we fared in the dry conditions – we hadn’t really had a chance to gauge our dry pace on a race day and Junior had looked pretty good in difficult conditions the week before. Although we are all at sea in the wet, I was optimistic that we may be in sight of land on a dry track.

As usual, we set off later than I had hoped but still got to Clay quicker than we ever had before :O so were track-side at 8:15am and scrutineered by 8:30. Interestingly, we got our first scrutineer comment: he thought our brakes were a little iffy! That was a surprise as we’ve never had any issues and Junior has been really happy with them of late (I’ve checked them since and they feel ok!). Race mornings are always a little misleading – you think you have plenty of time before the warm-up until you realise that the sign-on and briefing take a good chunk of time. We were looking good until I found I couldn’t prime the carb – this was a new one! It was good last week but it just wasn’t allowing any fuel through. Annoyingly, I had taken our bad carb in for rebuild during the week and had completely forgotten to pick it up!!! I put on our second carb (which had been our best one until our problems at Dunkeswell), primed it with no issues and it started fine.

I sent Junior our for his warm-up and took my marshalling position (I can’t stand watching from the pit lane so sign up as a pusher and stand on the designated marshal post). It immediately obvious that something wasn’t right: we were properly slow, as in two thirds of a lap after three laps slow. Junior came in and said he just had no pick-up from 10,000rpm. I didn’t need to hear this – a return of the revs issue and around 45 minutes to solve the problem wasn’t good. I got the non-priming carb out, replaced the gaskets, sprayed the gauze filters and put it on the kart. To my huge relief, it primed perfectly 🙂 To the races…

The kart started perfectly and Junior’s start was good; there was a coming together going into Billies that Junior had to dodge and he was in touch exiting the Hairpin but, between The Horshoe and the Top Bend, we seemed to have lost a fair amount of time. This set the scene for the day – I watched Junior gradually losing ground and finish 18s behind over 9 laps. I was a bit deflated at this – I was really hoping we’d be 1.2-1.5s off. Although my experience with getting this tyre pressures right in sub-optimal conditions is limited, I was pretty certain we were in the right ball park. We just seemed to lose so much ground in certain parts of the track, I couldn’t help but feel we just weren’t getting the lines and braking right. Junior complained of oversteer so I brought the rear width in by 20mm.

Heat 2 saw Junior get a ‘great’ start (he didn’t look last as he crossed the line!) and us narrow the gap between our fastest laps and those of the leaders (from 1.95s to 1.65s) and we finished 16s off the lead. That was encouraging – Junior felt the rear width change had made a good difference although, disappointingly, everybody else finished 😉

I decided to do a little testing – I took a tooth off the rear sprocket even though the Mychron suggested it wasn’t necessary to see if Junior felt a difference in either his exit or top speeds. He didn’t and posted an almost identical fastest lap. He did however get to have a race with one of his friends who had left the track in questionable circumstances and rejoined as Junior was passing. He was pleased to defend his 7th place 🙂

The final was notable only for the people leaving the track when trying to heat their tyres up!!!. Unfortunately Junior got collected and ended up down the bank on the exit of Billies. Not sure what the marshalling regulations say but I sprinted across the track to get him back but, with three karts off track, I figured we had to do whatever necessary to get the karts back on track. Unfortunately for me he was down a slope and, rather than turn the kart around and drag it back up, I was initially trying to push him up the hill with the back end lifted (also know as ploughing!!!). Another Dad helped carry his kart onto the track and he got going in time to join the second formation lap but his tyres were caked in mud :S At this point the karts had slowed ahead of the start and it meant Junior driving around with little chance of cleaning his tyres. He lost a lot of ground on lap one – almost certainly because of the mud – and was 22s adrift after the 11 laps. He set his best time of the day (37.52s) but was still 1.6s off the pace.

So we’d had a decent day running-wise, Junior had had another great time but the day, for me, was a bit of a disappointment. We were 1.5s off our best lap, although that was obviously in much warmer conditions, the leaders were probably 0.7s off their quicker times. We were again running on used tyres (they had probably done 50 laps) so that might account for a few tenths but I think there is still a lot of time to be found in our lines – it’s hard to gauge when you are viewing from a fixed point on the track; whether Junior had gone from taking too much speed into his corners to killing too much speed, I don’t know. I feel the need to get down to a non-race weekend practice session again so that we can get a decent amount of track time to try to figure things out. I realise that things will improve over time and with experience but, if I can accelerate that process, then I am all for it.

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £6 fuel for the kart, £23 race fee

Total spent so far: £4,181

Race weekend 2: Rescued from the depths of despair!!!

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I’ve walked the valley of despair – it’s a long, thin piece of tarmac; big fence on one side, grass on the other, tyres dotted around to slow speeding karts and a big white coach halfway down with ‘Mansell Raceway‘ written on the side. Just like the pit entrance at Dunkeswell 😉 As I pushed Junior’s kart off the track for the fourth or fifth time of the weekend, I had reached my lowest point as a karting Dad so far. There are plenty of observant folk around the paddock and I wondered what they would be thinking of my inability to keep my lad on track. My embarrassment was complete.

Practice Saturday was a day when, pound for ounce of enjoyment, I lost out even though the day was free because of a Dunkeswell offer for novices!!! It was one of those days when you were continually setting the kart up for one weather condition and then changing it back again and nothing whatsoever went right.

We’d luckily found three spaces for myself and two other Dads who we were travelling down with, avoiding parking at the far end of the top car park where it would have been a 10-minute walk to the pit lane. We missed the first couple of sessions setting up the awning and the kart. It went south from there on – Junior broke down at Hangar Bend (the furthest part of the track from the pits!) on the out lap of his first session. I got to him and got him going again before immediately cutting out again. Back at the pits, I was about to whip the carb off before I got the advice to check the spark first. I would urge you always make this your first troubleshooting step! We had no spark. This first problem was a loose wire on the PVL coil – easily fixed but our day was hampered by Junior constantly complaining of the kart not picking up from low revs and frequent failures of one type or another – we had a chain snap which, on investigation appeared to be caused by the front and rear sprockets being inexplicably out of alignment (they were definitely aligned at the start of the day and there was no sign that the axle or the rear sprocket had moved – none of those tell-tale dirty circles where something has moved on the axle). I couldn’t explain that one. We then lost a front wheel in front of everyone stood at the pit exit (I had negated to check the wheel nuts that Junior had tightened). And our misery was completed by the engine going pop and Junior losing revs once again. Again, I could find no explanation – I took the kart back to the pits to give it a thorough examination but could see nothing wrong and it started on the trolley immediately. It capped off a pretty rotten day and I had a plan of work for the evening which involved replacing the ‘new’ exhaust, the airbox filter and checking carbs and really just hoping things were going to be better in the morning although we did have the offer of an engine loan from one of the other Dads (who would be our friendly rivals on race day) should my overnight efforts come to nothing.

Sunday was a chance to start anew. The English countryside looked pretty spectacular as we made our way through Devon to Dunkeswell. It almost seemed a shame we’d be spending the day driving a noisy kart in it. And that, if the forecast was correct, it was going to be raining heavily in a couple of hours! I’d told Junior to take the positives from yesterday and assume that the kart would work properly given the efforts to rectify the problem. There were only two Junior TKMs in the grid so I was a little uncertain what to expect even ignoring the questions over my ability to keep the kart running. We got there nice and early but still managed to find ourselves rushing to make the warm-up (there is no tannoy system at Dunks). Then the kart failed to start on the trolley with the remote starter! Again, we had no spark although my expert advisor (the other TKM Dad) quickly sussed that the electrical cable running into the ignition stator had an intermittent problem (you know one of those that you wiggle and they go away). We bunged it in place with a bit of rubber and it sparked and started fine. We lined up for the warm-up; there were 6 or 8 MiniMaxs and a Junior Blue in front of the two Direct Drive TKMs. You don’t need a crystal ball to figure out who was the only one not to start 🙁 There was no sign of the engine starting and we stopped as soon as we were off the Bottom Bend, I pulled the kart behind the barrier and crouched out of sight – partly to regain my breath, partly just to hide for a moment. The weekend was very quickly becoming a nightmare.

We got back and, together with the other TKM Dad (although make no mistake, he was in charge), set about putting their engine and carb on – we needed to get this turned around fast if we were to make Heat 1. It was a good job one of us had a kart that more or less maintained itself! We made it with a few minutes to spare. We had very generously been loaned their former race engine – having roped me into going to Dunks in the first place, it appears he felt some compassion towards my plight! So Junior took his place in the first heat: it was a bit odd seeing the Minimax grid charge past and then, 10 seconds behind, a Junior Blue and a pair of Junior TKMs – it would have nicer to see them a little closer and more involved in the wider race but there we go. Junior’s start was ok but, on cold slicks, he was caught out in the second corner and span, stalling the engine. He wouldn’t have lost quite as much time had he given me a chance to get out into the midfield from the pits! I got him going again and off he went, with me hoping he managed to keep it clean for the rest of the race, if only to appease the novice assessor! A few laps later somebody took a huge run-up and kicked me square in the b*****ks. Or they might as well have: the kart lost power gain, Junior looked over at me and held up a questioning hand as he pulled in right under the viewing area. The other Dad could not believe it and, if I had a pound for every time the other Dad uttered the words “I can’t believe it broke down”, I would have recouped my entry fee! 😉 Did we have another issue? I was thinking perhaps we had a fuel problem – maybe the filter or something. As I pushed the kart off track again, I started to think about what other mechanics were thinking of me – they are a pretty observant bunch and I’m sure my weekend troubles weren’t passing unnoticed. Every mechanic will have their lows but this left me pretty close to rock bottom. We got back and, would you believe it? One of the wires had come off of the coil. Different engine, different coil, same problem as the previous day! Then something happened that I had never before experienced: the racing stopped for an hour to observe the local church service. I don’t know what others made of this but I thought it was fantastic! How typically English 🙂

You can put the handkerchiefs away now, things took a *massive* turn for the better in Heat 2; in fact I’d go as far as to say it was my most enjoyable moment in karting so far. Both TKMs were on wets and Junior got a fantastic start – he could only have been centimetres behind the pole man as they cross the start line, denying the leader the opportunity of moving over to avoid the puddles on the inside of the track. Junior managed to undercut and take the lead! THAT’S RIGHT – WE LED A RACE 🙂 (I know there were only two karts but please humour me if you will – there hadn’t been many highs over the weekend). Not only that but we lost it and regained several times over the next couple of laps – it really great to see Junior racing in a manner that I’d not seen since his last arrive/drive karting exploits. It put a massive smile on my face although there were one or two occasions where I feared Junior would commit the cardinal sin and take out the person who had loaned us an engine and spent *a lot* of time trying to help fix our kart (and not only this weekend either!). It didn’t last long though – Junior’s excitement got the better of him, he didn’t quite lose the back end but did lose an awful lot of revs and the lead and that was pretty much that. His pace was decent though and we were only 12 seconds behind and our fastest lap 1.3s slower.

Heat 3 and the Final were both run on slicks; we didn’t get such great starts in those and Junior said he was caught out by some underhand accelerating early tactics (I jest, I am sure this happens all the time although our opponent was definitely mixing it up now!). Junior did pretty well though: we were 8 seconds off in Heat 3 and, although Junior really got put in his place in the final – finishing 21s adrift, his lines were still improving and his lap times were still coming down.

Not the most exciting grid ever to have adorned a kart track!

I have to be honest: I’ve seen more exciting Junior TKM grids!

So that was that. We handed back our loan engine (which turned out to be the one used to set the Junior TKM lap record at Dunkeswell!). Unfortunately, Junior said it felt a lot quicker than ours so I await all sorts of ‘my engine is not quick enough’ comments next time we are out :/ The enjoyment of watching Junior race (I mean really race) and visibly improve his lines on the Sunday afternoon had eradicated the pain of Saturday and Sunday morning. We had a decent amount of wet practice and Junior was never more than 1.5s off the pace so that was encouraging. Although the engine may have played the part, I think it will only have shown Junior’s true pace – I am kind of hoping our engine isn’t significantly slower but I guess time will tell. I have to thank my good buddy and fellow TKM Dad for all of his help, never mind his engine, over the weekend – we’d have been finished without the help of both him and his lad. I owe you many, many beers 😉

Now I have a poorly engine to get sorted… :O

Cost of weekend: £40 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart, £46 race fee, £23 chain, £5 marshal’s bib

Total spent so far: £3,946

Race weekend 2 booked!

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We were planning on heading to Clay in search of some wet weather sometime over the next two weeks but I have been swayed into entering us into the Dunkeswell Kart Club‘s October championship round!!! Dunks have a novices offer on – free practice on Saturday and Sunday’s race fee is discounted to members rates. One might argue we should be focusing on Clay and I did consider this but, in the end, the chance for more race experience with the same chance of encountering wet weather and at Junior’s favourite track swayed the decision. It’s a shame that the Junior TKM grid numbers only two but hopefully we’ll be somewhere around the pace of Mini Max’s so we can make the most of the race experience.Our Junior TKM rival will be my good friend and karting advisor and his lad so it will be interesting! We won’t be near their pace so I am hoping that the old addage about ‘the advice being free until you start competing’ (with the emphasis on competing) doesn’t necessarily apply – I’ll let you know on that one 😉

Now I need to find some time to prep the kart – it is pretty much together but I’ll need to set the kart up based on the Friday forecast. Looking forward to it 🙂

***OUR FIRST RACE WEEKEND***

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Practice Saturday

Having previously been looking forward to this all week, my enthusiasm had been dampened a little by the ever-changing weather forecast for the weekend. Saturday was forecast to be mostly dry with the chance of a 10am shower so, with this in mind, Friday night was spent setting up the kart for dry running. We arrived at the track in good time and parked amidst the Junior TKM mob, several of whom we had become friendly with over the months. Then it rained. Junior and I covered up the kart and then decided to give it 15 mins to see if the rain would stop so, whilst most folk were getting set under their awnings, we were sat in a steamed-up Clio hoping not to get soaked at the start of the day (remember I had failed to get the waterproof clothing the day before!). The rain stopped but we were then rushing to get the kart set – mixing the fuel, priming the carb, getting the wets on etc for the first run of the day. It being a race practice, we were out for only 10 minutes and I really needed to know the kart was ok (especially the electrics as I had not started it up since replacing the HT lead). We got out and managed 3 laps before the session ended but that was fine, the kart was running and that was the main thing.

The remainder of the day is a bit of a blur now – I had intended to write this up on Saturday evening. The day went very smoothly; the track wasn’t all that quick and we were on tyres that had seen 200+ laps so I wasn’t expecting us to set any PBs. We ended up about a second off the pace with a best time of 36.5s but the kart ran reliably all day, giving me the opportunity to walk around the track and view Junior’s lines in some of the corners that I don’t see properly when standing in the middle of the track. This really was an eye-opener: I could see that he wasn’t really getting the power down as quickly exiting the Top Bend and he was able to correct that the following session. The biggest issue was Billies: he was entering too narrowly, not killing enough speed and consequently running wide and having to stay wide (in order to avoid losing the back end) for a large part of the corner. That explained why he had consistently been overtaken on the entry to The Esses. Unfortunately we didn’t make much progress there in the final session of the day but at least we knew there was something to work on.

I was really tired when I got home and, faced with an even earlier start, didn’t really fancy doing any work on the kart despite the updated forecast showing heavy rain throughout the Sunday.

Race Sunday

I got up at 5:45am (it’s funny how the driver gets up a fair bit later than that!) to ensure that we got to Clay as close to 8:00am as possible and had plenty of time to change the kart setup. We arrived in the low cloud gloom that typifies Clay in the autumn/winter months but at least it was not raining. The track was wet but I decided against raising the axle height in case I ran out of time – for some reason I had always removed the axle to change it’s height and it was only later when another Dad commented that you could leave it in place that I realised I had been removing brake discs etc unnecessarily!

After almost failing to sign in before the deadline and then listening to the drivers briefing, I decided to sign up for a marshall jacket – this meant I’d be responsible for restarting any spinners or removing their kart from any danger zones but it meant I could be in the middle of the track to watch Junior as opposed to watching from the pit lane. I really do hate the latter as you cannot see the whole track and I find myself nervously waiting for Junior to come back into view (which always seems to take longer than it should!). It was the kind of weather when you have both sets of tyres next to the kart, ready to fit slicks or wets at the last minute. For our 3 lap warm-up, we all went out on wets. The karts are bunched up at the front of the dummy grid so you don’t have the luxury of affording yourself a long run-up for the push start; fortunately the kart started almost instantly and off he went. You’d think a 3 lap warm-up would be pretty unadventurous but Junior managed to spin it entering Billies for the third time! He braked too hard and said “Hello” to Junior 177s as he went backwards into the run-off and they went past him. At this point I was beginning to wonder what kind of day this was going to be.

The kart was ready for Heat 1 – we were running 20mm spacers on the front and the rears were in as far as possible. I only have the standard front and rear hubs so no changes there. The front height was at medium and the rear end still low. The big question was tyres – there was dampness in the air but there had been no more rain and the track was drying. Everyone was on wets for the first four races but the Senior TKM heat really spiced things up – the only driver on wets took a half lap lead and held onto it, despite what appeared to be a dry line and losing a little of his lead towards the end. This posed some questions for the Junior TKM Dads but the unanimous opinion was in favour of slicks. Off came our slicks and on went the wets!!! For some reason, I really had the urge to mix things up and so I put it to Junior who was also in favour. What did we have to lose? We were starting last and would finish last on any track, especially a wet one. Ok, so there was a downside – if we were wrong, not only could we finish an embarrassingly long way behind but we might also ruin the £50 used tyres we had yet to run on. Our actions generated some interest from the other Dads – I don’t know whether they thought I was being naive or whether this made their tyre choice that bit more critical; if it paid off, we could be in with a chance! Although everybody knew we wouldn’t be standing on the podium at the end of the day, you really shouldn’t let the noob win his first race should you? :O

We got to the dummy grid and appeared to be the only kart on wets until the Super 1 racer came along and stole our thunder! Now we definitely wouldn’t win but it really was exciting, especially when it started to spit with rain. Race time and sadly, no more rain! Off they went and the person in front of Junior spun on the warm-up lap. I was concerned that Junior may not know what he was supposed to do at this point and start out of position – he certainly didn’t seem to show any signs of giving up the newly acquire space! Fortunately the spinner caught up and hustled his way in just as they approached the formation area on the second warm-up lap. It was a massive thrill to see Junior in the field as they bunched up for the start (is it just me or is this the anxious bit for Dads?) – I just crossed everything that he didn’t pile into them like skittles going into Billies! Billies must have been pretty wet as Junior made up places coming out of there and again going into The Hairpin. Cue huge smile on my face – ok, so we wouldn’t normally be anywhere near as quick as these guys but find ourselves in the mix was fantastic. Junior made another pass at The Hairpin again and was now 5th. He pulled a bit of a gap but the front four had dropped him, with the other driver on wets leading but only by a second or so – the tyre option must have been a really close call. Junior then almost lost it into The Hairpin (my marshalling point is where it all seemed to be happening), just caught the back end but lost a place to a friend against whom he would have been racing at Castle Combe this time last year. They had a really good tussle – Junior clearly had the grip through the corners but lost ground on the straights, after he few laps he dived into a gap left on the inside of The Hairpin but slid into the other kart, causing them to spin. I cringed a little, wondering how tough the clerks are on things like that and hoping Junior could keep his nose clean for the rest of the day. The 4th place kart broke down on the final lap so Junior moved up another place. To say we were satisfied would be a massive understatement 🙂

That was the high point of the day and it went downhill a little from there so you can expect this part to be a little shorter 😉 Heat 2 saw the track drying and sky brightening – slicks were a no-brainer. Until the previous race finished and it rained heavily! We (I mean Team KartingDad, not the entire field) were all at sea, quite literally – Junior looked like Bambi on ice out there and, although he finished 5th following three DNFs, it was very distant 5th (closer to the Junior 177s than the Junior TKMs!). Heat 3 really showed where we were at, close enough for the first couple of laps but dropped pretty quickly after that and finishing 8th, 21 seconds adrift. I realised then that whilst the others were racing, we were getting wet practice the hard way. Those practice days cancelled because of weather were hurting us. A lot! Junior was still enjoying but, by this time, I was soaked! Thankfully one of the other Dads took pity on me and invited me to share his awning (thanks, Wilf – I owe you a beer!). At this point there was a lunch break so I raised the rear axle height to try to make things easier for Junior. The rain continued through the afternoon and the final saw Junior start 6th courtesy of our decent finshes in the first two heats. He appeared to lose one place BEFORE THEY CROSSED THE START LINE!!! (does nobody watch this???) and was back to 8th by the end of lap one. Having run smoothly all weekend, our final ended after 3 laps with a DNF (Dad Not Focused) – whilst changing the axle height I had negated to properly tighten the engine mount (yes, that old bugbear). Blame the weather, the rushing, the not wanting to get in the way of my generous awning host. Or just blame me :/

Anyway, the chain came off and that was that – at least my new and expensive Panther chain hadn’t snapped. I did find that it allowed me to enjoy the rest of the final – a decent contest with some very tidy moves deciding the outcome. We stuck around long enough to congratulate the winner, say goodbye to friends (some new, some even newer!) and set off for home as quickly as possible. It is no fun driving home in wet pants, nor getting home and spending the next three hours dyring/cleaning the kart! The day itself was a great experience though – the TKM community at Clay are a *very* friendly bunch and our 4th place is something I will always remember. We desperately need some more wet practice – not only for driver but for the mechanic to learn how to properly set a kart up for the wet. The 15psi guidance that I had taken from the Tal-Ko tips on Getting The Best From Your Tyres was definitely not enough and probably a big factor in Junior’s struggles. When they say “So with the Maxxis tyres we use generally the slicks should be pressured at around the 12 – 15 psi area and they will work fine. And similar for the new wets.“, you can ignore that and just go with the summary on their tyre overview page which more usefully advises “between 8lbs to 25lbs pressure all round. The wetter it is the higher the pressure“. You live and learn…

Cost of weekend: £24 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee, £35 novice race fee

Total spent so far: £3,731