MSA karting license arrives

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Junior’s race license arrived last week. The application form had been ready since he passed his ARKS test in May but there seemed to be no rush. We didn’t have a lot of choice given all of the tracks in the area are MSA affiliated but that was fine with me; I think I’d prefer to run under the UK motorsport governing body. Then you start to look at the costs…

  • MSA ‘Go Karting’ Stater Pack: the all-important DVD containing everything you need to know to pass your ARKS test, an application form unobtainable elsewhere, the rule books (which you get another copy of when you receive your license) and a Demon Tweeks catalogue! £50
  • ARKS test: £93
  • Junior license application: free
  • Parent license: £17

I don’t begrudge paying for the service but, on reflection, there is a lot of bloated cost in there. To attract new people into karting the entry costs need to be lower, I think you could charge £20 for this and still make a healthy profit. The ARKS test is what it is and at least at Clay this cost includes a day’s practice. It is nice that the junior license application is free but the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh, as they say… I am fundamentally against the parent license concept; I understand it was introduced so that juniors did not get penalised for their parent’s misdemeanors but what better deterrent than to exclude juniors if their parents cannot control themselves? For Dad/lad combos, excluding the Dad is the same thing anyway – Junior’s Mum isn’t bringing him karting! It would be fair to say that I definitely begrudged paying for a license to take Junior karting.

Consider this more of a grumble than a rant 🙂 Here’s hoping we are making the most of the license very soon!

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

 

Used axles are sold for a reason!

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I recently bought an OTK axle from an auction site having gone through the due diligence of confirming it was straight and checking to see if it was excessively marked by grub screws (there was no close-up photo in the auction listing). When the axle arrived I found the grub screw marks were plentiful and fairly deep, not only that but once fitted it was clear that the axle was slightly bent. The lesson for today is that people sell axles because they have seen their best days so make sure you visually inspect a used axle. This one went back from whence it came!

I am still unsure about whether budget-bound folk like me should look opt for used OTK or a new Alto axle. I’ll mull that one over for a bit…

The kart… it works (I think)

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I had been meaning to investigate the cause of the problem that caused an early end to our day at Dunkeswell the following day. I needed Junior to be home to help me get the kart off the trailer lid and onto the trolley (the wife refuses after hurting her back the only other time she tried – I won’t take that one any further!) and I had the kart all ready for his teatime arrival so that I could replace the fuel tank and try starting the kart. It was pretty dark when he got home at 9:30pm!!! Barely light enough to get everything replaced/checked never mind starting at 2-stroke go-kart in the front garden at such an unsociable hour. It had to be done though although a couple of quick starting attempts proved fruitless and I quickly threw in the towel.

Ten days passed (is it just me or is the kart easy to ignore when you know you have a problem to resolve?) and I mustered just enough enthusiasm to try again. The carb was holding the fuel ok but the kart just wasn’t firing up. I rested the plug on top of the engine and tried starting again to gauge the health (or otherwise) of the spark – there was no spark! I replaced the spark plug with a couple of the spares although one of the few pitfalls in buying a retirement package is that you’ve no idea as to the quality of the spares. Could three spark plugs all be bad? I made a note to myself to buy a new plug just to keep for troubleshooting and wondered what I could next. I’m still not great at engine problems but the only things I could test were the PVL coil and the ignition HT lead – both of which I had 🙂 The HT lead was the quicker win so that got replaced first. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a spark and then subsequently hear the engine fire up. I couldn’t run it for very long but it started a couple of times. The HT lead did suffer some damage when Junior had a Rotax drive over him but it had been fine until now. Ho hum…

Our race plans have been set back though – we need another good practice day now so it’s looking likely that we’ll head to Clay this week and hope for the best.

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

And then there are the times when you just want to scream

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Having prepared the kart earlier in the week, I wasn’t really planning to spend much more time on it before we take it to the track on Saturday. I needed to drill a small hole in the nassau that could be used to secure the ActionPro but the rest of it was done but with the hot weather almost guaranteeing grip I decided to lower the chassis. This is a bit of a pain as my sprocket carrier *really* likes my axle – you could say they are pretty much inseparable based on the only time I have removed the axle. I wasn’t looking forward to this and rightly so as it turned out – it took over an hour of hammer ‘tapping’, rotating and lubricating to get the sprocket carrier off (it wasn’t helping that the sprocket guard was cushioning my efforts). It was getting dark when I was putting the back end back together and it was only when the wheels were back on and I went to fit the chainguard that I realised that I had not fitted the chainguard mount brackets…

So tonight, when I should just have been nipping out to get some super unleaded, part-loading the car, relaxing before having an early night I’ll be irritating the neighbours with an hour of constant banging whilst cursing silently and continuously.

This highs and lows, eh?

An ActionPro CM-7200: Happy Early Birthday to me!

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Junior knew the score when we bought the kart – as far as birthdays go, that was pretty much it for some years to come. His birthday was 7 or 8 weeks after we bought the kart and, from us, he got very little although we said the family could get together to buy a few karting luxuries that we wouldn’t have otherwise bought. The most useful advice you will be given when karting on a budget is to buy only what you need – it’s excellent advice and, looking at my expenses, I don’t think I’ve done too badly in this respect; especially given my impulsive nature. There is one are where I really do harbour burning desires to spend unwisely and that’s on technology – in this case, data analysis. Technology is my day job – I love it. I love gadgets. I would like to do as much as possible in this respect and the expansion options for the Mychron really do excite me! Of course,these really are luxuries that I cannot afford – we have the Mychron data key and I spend a fair bit of time post-session looking at Junior’s laps in Race Studio 2 but it’s hard to see myself ever splashing out £200 on a GPS module, second-hand or not.

My karting addiction meant I was looking around for toys that I could buy under the ‘Dad’s birthday present’ excuse, despite not really being able to benefit from them personally! I had looked into action cameras a few months back just to check things out (as you do). Obviously the GoPro HD Hero is the clear market leader but, at £200+, was not a justifiable karting purchase. It was at that time that I came across the ActionPro (or the Astak CM-7200 as it’s known in the US) – it was a cheaper rival to the Go-Pro HD Hero 2 and YouTube video comparisons looked very good, if the colours were a tad rich for my tastes. I didn’t really think more about it until I read of a new ActionPro model and, with my birthday coming up, I wondered…

The original ActionPro is no longer available in the UK although a quick search on eBay.com showed they are being sold off in the US and for as little as $100. A £70 punt on what was a very reasonable camera (720p @60fps or 1080p @30 fps, with remote, waterproof camera, several mounts and memory card) became very tempting. The company did seem to get some criticism for their reliability but I considered the pros and cons and took the punt.

It arrived a couple of weeks back and I took it for a test on The Swarm at Thorpe Park last weekend – I was quite impressed with the image quality although the sound is indistinguishable when the camera is inside the waterproof case (I’d have posted the video if I didn’t sound quite so drone-like in the footage!). The case is, however, the only drawback that I have come across in my initial tests: it cannot be powered on inside the case!!! The camera has three buttons on top – record, power on/off, take photograph. The case has only the record and photograph buttons! What bright spark designed that? Never mind, I will need to switch it on before mounting it at the start of a session and use the remote to start recording.

I fixed the mount onto the nassau yesterday evening and ran a few tests to see what angle/view I wanted. I’d really like to have gotten a view which showed Junior’s pedal activity but couldn’t do it without filling the picture with kart and obscuring the number plate on the nassau. This is the view I have settled on:

actioncam

Not sure the micro-SD card is large enough but it will be fine for testing. Looking forward to Dunkeswell on Saturday 🙂

 

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

Farewell first set of nearly-new slicks!

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They have been on the kart since we bought it and subsequently done 408 laps (or 241 miles!) but the time has come to bid farewell to our first set of nearly new slicks. Ironically Junior set his PB around Clay in his final session using them but there is no time for sentiment 😉 I have replaced them with another set of nearly new slicks that I bought for £30 from one of the forums 🙂 Removing the tyres from their rims was a smoother process than putting the new ones on – especially the rears. I think I could claim credit for maybe 1.75 of the 4 tyres so definitely more practice required. Not sure my office fingers are up to the job!

Whilst I was doing ‘kart stuff’, I completed the addition of the weight to the seat so we are almost good to go on Saturday (I have some good friends offering to help me with the push starting if the toe is problematic). I am really looking forward to seeing how Junior fares in the kart at his racing weight. Not so much looking forward to lifting the kart onto the trolley with him – he really struggled before we added 7kg…

Warning: motorsports can be dangerous!

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Sorry for not having posted recently – as you’ll soon see things have ‘interesting’ of late :S I’d been spending quite a bit of time on the kart: I needed to put the engine back on following it’s rebuild and, whilst the engine was off, I had wanted to give the back end a good clean but had trouble removing the sprocket carrier so I was keen to put that right.

I spent three successive evenings working on the kart last week (when it comes to kart maintenance one thing invariably leads to another), firstly tackling the sprocket carrier: it was a little awkward as the sprocket protector was still in place on the brake side of the carrier but tap by tap, I managed to knock it with a hammer (lubing, hitting each arm of the sprocket carrier in turn and repeating until free – all whilst I had a pair of screwdrivers carefully tapped into the slots on the carrier to help free it from the axle. I got there in the end!

Whilst cleaning the back end, I noticed that the chassis was running at it’s lowest setting:

Tonykart chassis height

This is how you would set up a kart in hot weather, where you had too much rear end grip (you would typically raise the axle in the wet when you want to raise the centre of gravity) but this was not how I wanted the kart set up whilst Junior is still learning to drive so I removed the axle and set it to the standard (middle) height. And of course, I took the opportunity to clean the chassis around the bearings whilst I had the chance 😉

I then decided to adjust the seat as my measurements were some way from the Tonykart recommendations. With hindsight this might not have been a great idea: it took a long time, Junior got hacked off holding the seat in place and I don’t think I ended up much more ‘optimal’ than I had started out. And I forgot about the weights when putting the seat back on.

Ah, the weights… the highlight(?) of last week!!! Having weighed Junior at Llandow I reckoned we needed 7kg of lead and the black restrictor to put us at the correct race weight. I already had 3kg that came with the kart and I bought a 4kg lump for £15 from the forums, it just needed fitting – 3kg went on the side of the seat (low on the brake side to offset the engine weight). After hammering the lead weights flat so as to fit flush to the seat, it was pretty straightforward. The 4kg weight had other ideas – I hit it flat and held it in position to mark the drill holes. My marking pencil had disappeared so I went off to fetch it, holding the lead in place against the seat in one hand. As I went back outside the lead slipped and I instinctively (and stupidly) put my foot out to break the fall!!!!!!!! Painful was an understatement.

I got back from hospital just before 2am with very swollen, very sorry looking broken toe. Funnily enough, I haven’t done anything on the kart since! I have a injured toe photo that I took in A&E that was very popular with my Facebook friends but I’ve decided not to post it here 😉 I am hoping to be fit enough to run Junior at Clay on Saturday but push starting is an obvious concern. Fingers crossed…

Cost of an especially damaging 4kg lead weight: £15

Total spent so far: £2,925