Tag Archives: practice

Practice 16: No more practising

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Things have changed. I know that it is too early to be saying this aloud but it really does feel like, in being so close to the pace last weekend, we’ve reached a milestone. We aren’t on the pace – that is the ultimate goal – but to have taken such a big step forward was hugely positive. I will be gutted if we don’t confirm this in the next round of the TKM Junior Championship at Clay (although all bets are off if it is wet!). My mentality has also shifted – we aren’t practising any more. We have always had to think twice about attending both days of the race weekends as we still needed the track time but now we will just be doing the race weekends.

It was Junior’s birthday recently and wanted to take his kart out so we were back at Clay for the fourth consecutive weekend! This time though we weren’t practising – we were TESTING!!! 🙂 I’d arranged to rent a Kelgate brake system from a friend in a bid to improve Junior’s braking into corners as he’d been losing a good couple of kart lengths into corners at the race weekend. To be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood for it – the 6am starts had taken their toll but the timing was right and it was his weekend after all. I didn’t set the alarm and we left when we were ready but still found ourselves at Clay by 9:10am. My mood was definitely much more relaxed – I just told him to go out and give the Kelgate a go.

Junior spun on his first corner of course! “Sorry” he said laughing as he was sat off-track just past The Kink – “I was just trying them out!”. During the morning he was getting on fine with them but I didn’t sense that he was driving any differently to how he drives with the OTK brakes. I wanted him to start pushing them to see if they made a difference – could he brake later? could he actually lock the brakes up now? I hassled him into pushing harder otherwise the day was going to pretty pointless (bar a couple of setup learnings). From there on things got a bit hairy – Junior was snaking a lot into Billies and The Hairpin and spun a few times. As the afternoon progressed, it was clear he wasn’t really enjoying himself although I couldn’t fault his perseverance. He found that, although there was much more range to the pedal, the effects were limited until a certain point, then the kart stopped hard. It was an interesting experiment although, in reality, he was never going to get it in one practice day and we weren’t ever likely to swap brake systems mid-season. We’ll focus on getting the most out the OTK brakes for now. At least the kart ran smoothly and we eeked a few final laps out of a set of slicks that settling into their new home at recycling centre by the time you read this.

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

Total spent this year: £988

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 🙂

Practice 15: Somewhat in the dark

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Last week seemed liked an ok week based on the little data we had available – we were a three or four tenths off one of the more seasoned drivers (who was on old tyres) and six or seven tenths ahead of the our good friends (and closest rivals!!!), who are looking to race for the first time this month. It was probably where I’d imagined we would be. This week the picture was much more uncertain…

The day started off with the customary dirtying of the kart en-route to Clay; despite the sun shining for most of the journey, we met a lorry on a flooded dip in the road who was kind enough to spray us and the trailer. I am definitely going to revisit the covering of the kart in transport! Unusually, despite having to turn around when I realised I had forgotten my wallet, WE WERE OUT IN THE FIRST SESSION!!! 🙂 The track started damp but it was nice and warm in the sun. The track soon dried and we were quickly into the low 37’s, two tenths off of our quickest time last week. This week was all about improving our line through Billes and I spent most of the sessions there watching Junior run wide over and over and over… It seemed as though he was braking early but not able to scrub enough speed so he’d hit the first apex but stood little chance of making the second. The carrot of not buying any chocolate from the shop until he got it right seemed to spur him on; at least he now looked like he was trying! Lo and behold, he got it right… twice in sucession! It brought a massive smile to my face and, although the session then ended, I felt we’d made a big step forward and duly coughed up some coins so that he could show me how quick he was at scoffing Smarties 😉

Stupidly, I thought that was that. I returned to the middle of the track for the next session but wandered back to Billies when he again looked a little wide from my poor vantage point. Consistency is thing we lack but I can’t hark on about it forever – he’s going to have to learn it sooner or later! At this point, our times were not improving like I had hoped – we were lapping in the mid-37s when I was hoping to push on into the 36s. Our front tyres were bald in places so we put another set of practice tyres – this found us three tenths and we were consistently lapping in the 37.1s.

At this point I decided it was time for another momentous occassion:  the testing of the CNC barrelled engine that Junior got for Christmas 😮 I was hoping it was going to be faster but nothing is guaranteed. Before that though, we had a few issues to overcome: the throttle spring hole in the barrel was much lower than on our other engine and this caused the butterfly in the carb not to close fully as the throttle stop bolt was too close. Then the exhaust needed moving. And the new engine mount took different length bolts compared to the old engine! After an hour spent mostly arsing around, the moment of truth had arrived. 1 – the engine started on the stand 🙂 2 – the engine push started as easily as our other engine 🙂 🙂 🙂 3 – it *looked* quick 🙂 But our times were the same! Junior felt the engine was quicker out of the corners but that the track was now slower. We were lapping in times very close to our friends over whom we’d had a bit in hand last week and there were no other Junior TKMs on track so nothing else to measure against. Where this leaves us with regards to the opening round of the championship next weekend, I have no idea – whether we’ll be closer than the second off the pace that we were last year, whether we’ll be quicker than the new novice, whether our CNC barrelled engine is quicker than the cast barrelled one? It would have been nice to know roughly where we were but, unfortunately, that is not the case 🙁

At least we ran all day without any problems.

Cost of day: £16 petrol, £11 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee

Total spent this year: £804

Year 1 spend: £4,594

 

Practice 13: just what the doctor ordered

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We came away from our third race day with mixed emotions – the kart had run smoothly and Junior had enjoyed himself but I was hoping that we might have been a little closer to the pace than it turned out we were. We started racing having reached the point where we were roughly a second off the pace but we hadn’t looked close to that kind of pace on race day. Although I know that race day is obviously a different kettle of fish to practising, the leaders were putting in the same kind of lap times you’d expect but we weren’t getting close to our best times. I think it is just all part of the learning process: I am definitely off the pace when it comes to judging the right pressures for the tyres (it isn’t quite a simple as it was in the summer!) and Junior definitely still has much to learn.

With all this in mind, I decided we’d head back to Clay for another practice day – it would give Junior a lot more seat time than he’d been getting on a race weekend and a chance to work on finding the time that would get us back on track (so to speak). I’d picked up the carb that I had had rebuilt for the last race day but forgotten to collect. The weather was pleasantly warm (for November) and it made a real change to turn up at Clay to see not only blue sky but a dry track!!! After the first session, Junior was already quicker than he had been a week earlier and it was nice to see him putting in lap after lap. It also gave me the opportunity to walk around the track and have a look at his lines – it was invaluable to see what really is happening out on track and provided plenty of little things to work on (although you could rightly question what do I know!).

The sessions were really pleasing – there were a couple of quick Junior TKM drivers on track for Junior to try to keep up with and he managed to nudge his times down from 37.3s to 36.6s, which only put him in the region of 0.6s off the pace. 194 laps was more than Junior had ever done before on a practice day and he was visually quicker by the end of the day and getting a much better exit out of the Top Bend. I know I have said this before so, whilst it was really pleasing, I’ll be cautiously optimistic about any potential improvement in our race pace.

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

Costs since last outing: £20 carb rebuild

Total spent so far: £4,255

Practice 12: Engine test

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I picked up the engine from the builders on Friday: he had had good look at the electrical side and could find no issues – the thing sparked every time. The crank misalignment had been resolved and some bearings replaced. My wallet was £138 lighter but more concerning was the uncertainty this left us with over the state of the engine and it left me with a decision: practice this weekend so that I could check the engine out or next weekend on the practice Saturday before we race. No really a choice, huh? It meant that the kart, which I’m a little bit ashamed to say had gone untouched since Dunks (I know… but you know I am usually *very* prompt at cleaning up), was going to need a fair bit of work done to get it ready. In the evening. In my dingy garage. With minimal lighting (even the street light outside my garage was broken!). Fours hours later and we were pretty much good to go – it was bedtime and I had barely seen the family although that seems to happen a lot since we bought this thing 🙁

Saturday – we were two miles from Clay when I realised I hadn’t actually checked to see if the track was open for practice!!! *Never* do this! Luckily, they were only two vans there when we arrived: there definitely was no event on 🙂 The track was bathed in the kind of glorious sunshine for which Clay is renowned:

If view when arriving at Clay October through April!

The view when arriving at Clay anytime from October through April!

There were two problems to begin with: when you are wanting to test a motor that has a suspected electrical issue, you really want to be able to test the spark. And for that, your starter really needs it’s battery, which I had left the battery at home on charge! Next problem was the flat tyre on our trolley: I hadn’t sorted it out which meant I’d be spending the day pumping up the trolley tyre between sessions. Ho hum – on with engine testing…

The kart started first time and we kept the kart to below 12,000rpm for the first session. That went smoothly and I pulled Junior in after ten minutes to let the engine cool and make sure all was well. The second session was hampered by a ‘feeling’. Junior has these from time to time and will drive straight into the pits and report them! Sometimes I really wish he’d just spend another lap trying to identify these ‘feelings’ although there are times when I wish he would just STOP THE KART IMMEDIATELY!!! You can’t have it both ways I guess 😉 It was time for slicks anyway so we took the kart off to check it out. I couldn’t find any real issues although the chainguard was knocking on the finger guard and he has objected to his side pods being too loose before so I tightened those a little. Typically, by the time our next session started it was starting to rain. Junior stuck in a handful of laps before coming in complaining about revs again. This was becoming a pretty big issue – he had reported it at Dunks last week and I really could have done without it becoming a persistent issue. It was raining pretty heavily now so we covered up the kart and sat in the car for an early lunch (scoff all you like – I bet you have an awning! ;)). Keen not miss two session, I got my waterproofs on an got the kart set up for the wet. The sun was shining by the time I had finished :-]

Anyway….we looked a little off the pace in the wet. I think fundamentally Junior doesn’t have the confidence to push as hard as he needs to. It’s one of things that comes practice I guess. It was a pretty windy day so, once the rain stopped, the track dried quite quickly. Junior was never going to be setting any PBs today and his revs never really got much above 15,000rpm but his lines *really* improved over the course of the afternoon – he clearly had a lot more confidence when the grip was there and I couldn’t really fault what he was doing (consistency excepted!). He looked pretty quick, which was really encouraging to see. I’ll be doing a Sun Dance on Saturday evening in a bid to keep the rain away – I am quite keen to see where were are in the overall scheme of things (I’ll be going by how many seconds off the penultimate finisher we are!). We had the odd problem – Junior came straight back in complaining something wasn’t right and, when we looked at it on the trolley, the engine mount bolts were loose and the chain had much more slack than it should. I think I may have only hand tightened the engine restraining bolt – I should be above this now 🙁 but at least I didn’t lose the mount brackets and bolts. The revs issue also raised it’s ugly head again although I think we might have solved this one – after changing the carb, he said it was fine for 15 laps before it happened again and he came in. At this point I noticed that the fuel was pretty low and, running a 3l tank, I am wondering if the fuel is moving from side to side around bends and we are starting to get air into the system. We kept the tank topped up and had no problems thereafter. Consider this a tip 😉

Of course it had to rain when we were 20 minutes from home, just to ensure I spend three hours rather than one tomorrow cleaning up :/

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £9 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee

Costs since last post: £138 engine repairs

Total spent so far: £4,140 (Ouch – we’ve broken £4k!!! If you see my missus, don’t mention this blog!)

***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

Practice 11: best laps and breakages

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The second of back-to-back Saturdays. Once again I found myself awake in the early hours, brain totally engaged thinking about the day. Having found the benefits of an early arrival (i.e. plenty of time to get ready for the first session without rushing) to my liking last week, we arrived an hour before the track opened. Unlike last week however, I hadn’t really been able to do as much of the preparation at home the night before owing to the poor weather (the garage has insufficient space to actually work in it and the lighting is awful) so the tyres (a fairly decent ‘new’ used set bought from the forums some time ago) hadn’t been inflated, I hadn’t gotten the new carb gaskets fitted, nor check everything over properly after I had stripped the back end down to dry it last week. The preparation hour was a bit of a rush; I put the new 3l fuel tank on, corrected the kind of mistakes you make when working in the dark (i.e. a front wheel with three wheel nuts but only two bolts used!) and got everything set. We were on the grid when the cadets came off at 10:10.

Our first problem of the day: the kart wouldn’t fire. I gave it a couple of aborted push start attempts but there wasn’t even the hint of it starting. I took it back to the pits and checked the ignition box wire connectors were ok and then checked the spark plug and found that we were not getting a spark. I whipped out the new plug that I had bought in the week for just this purpose and things looked more promising. Hastily, I tossed the old plug in the bin and we went for another attempt at getting on track. Once again the kart is showing no signs of starting so back to the pits again – it seemed the sparking was intermittent. I had used my only spare HT lead at a recent practice at Dunks. Good job that Clay has a shop… only the shop didn’t have one! Fortunately, I was able to borrow one (from my good friend also known as KartingDad’s Karting Dad!), swap the lead over and get the kart starting reliably on the stand and running fine (shame about the plug I threw in the bin full of wasps but never mind).

Junior was on the grid for the start of the second session but only managed three laps before coming in to complain about his brakes. I could see that one pad was rubbing the disc engine-side and there was quite a gap brake-side but assumed, as he had been running ok, that it I could just adjust it at the end of the session. He did another 15 laps but with a slow best time of 39.3s and still complaining about the brake. Back in the pits, I was surprised to see the brake-side pad was rubbing the disc and the gap was now engine-side. If you are thinking “grub screws”, you would be correct: the grub screws had abandoned ship! Pleasingly, I figured that one out straight away too. Disappointingly, this was a mechanic error – I wasn’t overly tightening the grub screws knowing grub screw damage can severely weaken an axle. I have to admit that I hadn’t checked the grub screws at the start of the day so it could well have been that I hadn’t tightened them enough (even for my liking) after refitting the axle. Everything else was still aligned and looking good so it was just the grub screws required – you’d think these would be in stock wouldn’t you? As far as shop stock went, today wasn’t my lucky day so they gave me the only one they had. Having lost a couple at home recently, I only had one spare and my Karting Dad had one also. Cue wandering around the pits trying to buy spares! I managed to get some but it wrote off the remainder of the morning with only 18 laps under our belt and a best (and faulty brake affected) time of 39.1s.

The third session was more like it: 23 laps with a best of 36.6 and lots of time still evident in Junior’s lines. The fourth was better again: running with the camera on-board for first time of the day, Junior managed a 36.5s before the camera mount snapped :S See if you can spot the moment in my YouTube video. I am not convinced this punt on the camera is working – the camera itself is fine but the case and mounts haven’t looked up to the massive vibration that karting poses. For this session we were also running with the MyTach GPS watch. I’ve still not really read up on this but the watch gives you top speed readings and we were looking to test sprocket sizes. Running a 78 sprocket (what we had always run at Clay although I know the quicker guys run a fair bit smaller), we did a fastest lap of 36.57 with a top speed of 64.6mph (ironically analysis at home showed this was not on the fastest lap, which included a top speed of 60.8mph). With our problems seemingly behind us, we switched to a 76 sprocket and ran the GPS again. This time Junior put in a 36.42, the top speed on that lap was 63.8mph and his maximum speed during the session was 64.7mph. Not much in it, I am sure you will agree – I put this down to inconsistency, particularly out of the Top Bend but there was some interesting data in there: he was 3mph quicker down the straight into The Hairpin on the smaller sprocket.

The track then seemed to cool a little and I think my not increasing the tyre pressures a fraction may have cost us a few tenths as we drifted in the 36.6/36.7s laps before we encountered our biggest problem of the day: Junior had been holding up a couple of RotaxMax’s for a few laps and ran wide at The Horseshoe, matey decided to stick his nose up on the outside and, as Junior moved wider to get a line for the bend, they hit – flicking our back end up and causing Junior to run onto the grass. He rejoined the track and ran for another 8 laps. I was very surprised when he came in and I took the chainguard off – the chain looked blackened and dry (it had been freshly lubed) and was missing a few chunks, then I noticed the teeth on the rear sprocket (a brand, spanking new one that day) were wrecked which lead me to a front sprocket with some nice sharp spurs! At this point I needed KartingDad’s Karting Dad (again) as I had no idea how to remove a front sprocket and have learnt I need to buy some new tools :S With hindsight, either of two changes I made during the day may have contributed to this: I removed the sprocket protectors after deciding to use 6 sprocket bolts instead of three (it looked like the front sprocket alignment was a little uneven as the rear sprocket was rotated so I add the extra bolts in case this was the cause and the protectors have three warped holes that no longer easily facilitate the extra bolts) and the chain was running a little looser than I normally have it (on advice!). We went back to the 78 sprocket (now my smallest), a 110  chain (also now my smallest) and fitted a spare front sprocket (thanks again, spares :)).

The track was quieter now and Junior spent the last couple of sessions racing his friends. His lines through the afternoon had really come on – a screech and a lift entering Billies always looks good, taking The Esses with a decent amount of kerb was becoming more of the norm and, although his exit from The Hairpin was still a little tight and he had acquired a new, slower line through The Horseshoe, he was carrying [a little] more speed into and out of the Top Bend. New PB!!! 36.11 🙂 Racing was obviously paying off. For the final session of the day, he spent a few laps following the South West Junior TKM champion 😉 until said champion decided he had enough and wanted to put Junior in his place. Junior didn’t mind though, he was chuffed to bits with another new PB – 36.06s.

So we got off to the worst possible start, endured a pretty expensive day, breakage wise but ended up clocking 166 laps and Junior making further progress.He is definitely quick enough to race. I have no lofty goals/dreams about exactly how competitive he will be, it would be nice to be close enough to the pack to race someone but I doubt that will be the case initially. Whether I am ready to race is another question. I am still making mistakes but I think that is just human nature – I’ll make more than most mechanics, I just need to make sure I learn from them! The troubleshooting is a worry as, if things go wrong, there is no second engine to pull out the trailer, nor is there likely to be for some time. We’re just going to have to see how we get on 🙂

Cost of day: £12 petrol, £7 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee, £5 grub screws

Cost of replacement stuff: £10 ‘new’ chainguard from eBay, £100 new spark plug cap/spark plug/HT lead/6 grub screws/10-tooth front sprocket/Talon size 76 rear sprocket/Panther (I know I could have spent less but I am keen to see if it is stronger and longer lasting) 108 link chain (from Kart Parts UK/Spellfame)

Total spent so far: £3,396

I plan to limit outgoings to race weekends and associated running costs/repairs only for the remainder of the year so kick me if you see me post about new bits and pieces!

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