Tag Archives: racing

Race 12: Feeling a bit flat

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It’s definitely a bad sign when you get up on a race morning and it’s still dark! Having opted to skip the shortened practice day, I had had the luxury of spending an unexpectedly large chunk of Saturday preparing the kart. There was still a small question mark over the axle following our last test day and, in the end, I decided to revert to our backup axle. Of course there was the usual last minute changing of the tyres too – I left it late to decide upon which rims to use and *really* struggled with getting new front slicks on with my girly office finger muscles 🙁

We arrived at the track at 8am and was relieved to find nobody else occupying our space 😉 It was one of those perfect prep mornings where we found ourselves scrutineered, signed on and waiting for an acceptable time to start the engine on the trolley (just to make sure all is well) an hour ahead of the first race. Things had gone a little too well obviously as our three lap warm-up was curtailed after I spotted the engine side of Junior’s bumper dragging along the track. After snapping two bumpers in testing, I’d reverted to slacking the bumper bolts a little to allow some movement on contact and, although the nylocs were threadlocked, I already had some doubts over the quality of the threadlock adhesive! It made a pleasant change for junior to a) see my signalling to him and b) actually take any notice of it! My £11 and one month old bumper bolt was no more…

With the bumper fixed tight, we started in 5th for Heat 1. We seemed to get another good start, making up at least one place but then something happened, the pack shuffled and we got spat out in last place! From there on, it was pretty unexciting for us as we were at the back of a couple karts that were held up and drifting further away from the leaders. Junior didn’t put in a bad time – a 35.9s was a decent start for the first race of the day and we weren’t last (although only because of a DNF) but we still had the age old problem of not really ever being close enough to threaten a pass.

Heat 2 was always going to be the highlight of the day (and our best chance of not finishing last) as we started on pole. For the first time, we managed to lead out of the first corner and even lead the whole of the first lap! 😀 We had a quick kart behind us though and, when he made a move into The Hairpin, we were pushed wide, giving up second in the process. Lunging into The Hairpin is becoming a particular beef of mine – this move was cleaner than a lot of moves I see there but maybe Junior needs to be less compliant in getting out of the way – get his elbows out a bit more and earn a reputation as someone who won’t just get out of the way. As I have said before, the officials can penalise under reg C2.3.3 “Gained an unfair advantage – The hearing has determined that you have gained an advantage over another driver(s) by the manner of your driving. You may not have actually made contact, but your position on the track may have unfairly impeded the other driver(s)”. The way I see it, if you muller the apex with half of your kart off-track and with no chance of actually getting around the corner unless the kart ahead takes avoiding action, you deserve this one thrown at you. I’ve not seen this rule used in a no-contact incident and, to be honest, I cannot see anything changing in that respect. We got passed for third a few laps later but finished fourth with relative ease, mostly thanks to the rest of the field being held up. We did set a new PB in the proces, however 😀 It also confirmed Junior’s preference for his CRK steering wheel.

I put the newly run-in race engine on for Heat 3, not that I suspected there was any problem with the other engine but I just wanted to compare the two and this was the first real chance for us to do so. We started last but only made up one place and finished 5th after another DNF. Frustratingly, Junior said he could feel no difference between the engines. AT ALL!!! :/ I also screwed up in not attaching the Mychron rev wire to the coil lead and it dropped off somewhere on track. Would you believe that AiM charge £18 for a replacement?!? It’s just a piece of wire! Another Dad gave me some wire to create a replacement but it meant I had no data to compare the rev ranges of the engines. We were 0.03s slower than in Heat 2 and that wasn’t enough to tempt me to switch the engines back!

There had been what seemed like ten red flags during the day, mostly involving the cadets from what I saw. One driver actually suffered some fairly serious injuries and you obviously cannot afford to take chances with the kids. That said, you do wonder sometimes if kids are told to stay in their karts so that they can take their previous lap position on the restart. Evidence of this was a Dad shouting at his kid to stay in the kart earlier in the season! I think there comes a point when you have to say enough is enough; two red flags and that should be that – end the race under yellow flags. No overtaking and no manipulation of the result because Little Timmy span out and wishes he could rewind one lap. The races were running very late but, to the club’s credit, they skipped lunch and honoured their commitment to 6 minute heats and a 10 minute final 🙂

Sixth, fourth and fifth placed finishes weren’t enough to stop us starting last of seven for the final 🙁 One of our opponents had seemed to be struggling for pace but he was starting directly in front of us. The mission was simple: pass him as quickly as possible and try to hang on to the pack. I’d given us a little more straight line speed to try to give us a better chance down the straight and into Billies. Our start was predictable – we failed to clear fifth, who quickly became sixth and got stuck for a couple of laps and were adrift by the time Junior made the pass. With the pack racing amongst themselves there was still hope and it briefly appeared that we might get back in touch with the pack. It never happened, even when the leader went off and rejoined ahead of us and giving us the opportunity to try to tag along as he caught the pack towards the end of the race. An incident on the final corner saw us gain another place – 5th wasn’t a bad result but we were a couple of seconds adrift, never really in touch and a little disappointed. In hindsight I think that this was a fairly accurate representation of where we are right now – a few tenths off the pace and lacking in the consistency that would keep us in touch. Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect more given the amount of time we spend on track.

We race at Llandow Kart club this weekend, hoping to begin bridging the gap that seems to exist between the first four and everybody else. It’s going to be a long weekend as I fly in from the US on the Saturday morning but hopefully our performance will be good and the day will be a good one.

Cost of raceday: £50 entry fee, £12 petrol, £7 fuel

Total spent this year: £3,573

When is a race day too short?

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It’s going to be a busy day at Clay this weekend as there are four guest classes at the track – Junior Blue, Formula Blue, World Formula and RAFMSA will all be sharing the Dorset countryside with us. And that sets of my track time alarm!!! As my Facebook friends, or at least those that are still following my whining ways, will confirm I do go on a bit (which would be ok were the Club Competition Secretary not on there as well!). So, although I’ve said this elsewhere, I want to reiterate my appreciation of the job performed by the CompSec and I am sorry for any social media ear-bashing that you get from me on behalf of the club (even though it isn’t aimed at you)!

I do seem to be alone in being hung up on track time. For Junior, a race is too short if he is doing well and too long if things aren’t going quite so well. We’ve had a few too many long races at Clay recently :/ Other drivers don’t seem to mind and the Dads are happy that a shorter race day will mean lower costs, with less tyre wear, less fuel, less potential for damage but at what point do the races become too short to warrant the £150-odd cost of a race day? We moved from A&D karting initially because the value for money of owner driving was greater – £72 for 24 mins track time in the Castle Combe Club Championship whereas we were spending around £120 for 90 mins or more when we started doing practice days and in a much quicker kart. Obviously those costs spiral when you start racing. I’ve always been keener on longer races as we need the race experience and Junior typically wants to drive as much as he can. With the race days at Clay having gone from 8 min +1 lap heats and a 12 min + lap final earlier in the year to a 6 min +1 heats and 9? min + 1 final last month, I feared the worst but the club has managed to preserve 6 min +1 lap heats and a 10 min +1 lap final. I’m not sure how the officials and track staff will view the 15 minute lunch break!

The even bigger bee in my bonnet for this round was the potential for the club to decide to once again start the (slower) Junior Blues ahead of the (faster) JTKMs in a combined grid. They did this in March which had disastrous results for us as we were involved in an incident which saw us off at the fastest corner and then our kart was hit whilst I  attempted to remove it from danger (as the little darlings seemed to be unaware as to what exactly a yellow flag meant). I still begrudge the £72 it cost me to replace the two-race old axle (no, I haven’t done enough karting yet to shrug this kind of outlay off!) but it could have been a lot worse (for me physically, had I not dropped the kart and jumped out of the way) and I’ll always be suspicious that my subsequent comments online (you can do the detective work yourselves) were the cause of our black flag the following month. So my Facebook wall wasn’t quite the happy place I would normally expect it to be of late and I held off from entering until the grid issue was confirmed – we’ll have our own grid and won’t have to contend with slower karts in another class starting in front of us just because they have a ‘big race’, taking defensive lines against faster karts that they aren’t even competing with, or running them wide, or trying to run me down!

Onwards and upwards anyway 😉 I am quite looking forward to this Sunday and it’s a shame that a shortened practice (more Formula Blue inconvenience 😛 ) mean that it is not really worth our while in running on the Saturday. We won’t get to run the final check to ensure the axle is good after our issues as our last practice day but Saturday will be a relaxed day spent getting the kart setup. After our dire weekend last month, we’ll be on new (as in 2014 new) rubber for the first time on the new (as in 2010 new-to-us) chassis and I am really keen to see how we go. Of course, four 7th place finishes wouldn’t be conducive to a happy trip home.

Have fun if you are racing this weekend 😀 If you see what appears to be a ginger rocket in the southern skies at around 7:30am, you’ll know I’ve arrived to find someone in my pit space 😡

Spent since last post: New carb popoff tester, £32; lots of TKM carb gaskets, £25; a 35ft roll of exhaust wrap (still haven’t found one with any longevity and if you want to try some of this titanium stuff, come and see me in the pits!), £35.

Total spent this year: £3,749

Race 11: And it was going so well…

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This wasn’t really ever intended to be a race weekend – I had planned to bring Junior to Llandow during the holidays for a change of scenery and a bit of fun but, when I had mentioned this to one of the Welsh dads at Clay the previous weekend, he had suggested coming along to the club practice day instead. This was very tempting as it provided a great opportunity to gauge our pace (a nice quiet practice day can be useful but you never really how good your times were if you’ve no peers to compare them with) but we had so much to do to get the kart ready. We managed it so off we set to Wales…

Another nice early start but it at least ensured that we were ready for the first session (unlike the last time we came on a club practice day). The day went better than expected – with his newly built kart, Junior didn’t stop on track and only came in early the one time when he found himself sitting on one of the seat stay bolts! Our pace was fairly good also, knocking a couple of tenths off of the time we set on our last visit although we still found ourselves 0.6s off of the pace at times. It was also a good opportunity also to test the new chassis with the more rigid floor tray and new seat position; you would have thought Junior might have noticed some difference, right? :S How about when the torsion bar was removed? [Tumbleweed…]. We did have to bring the back end in when running without the bar but his times were only 0.06s apart and, if we were to race the following day (it was a possibility I stupidly mentioned to Junior earlier in the week), we’d be running without the bar anyway!

In the end, an offer from one of the Clay dads (for whom this was their ‘home’ track) to store our kart overnight and then to let us share their awning on the race day (rain was forecast) clinched it. We’d start at the back but it would be good to see how we fared on a track that Junior was starting to like a lot.

Having had our rain dances ignored last at Clay last weekend, we were really hoping for a dry day on an unfamiliar track. We had driven in the wet at Llandow but not for over 12 months, long before Junior was racing – or even experienced! You know how things go though… we looked a fair bit off the pace in the warm-up as Junior found himself having to learn the wet line PDQ! Although the track was drying, it didn’t do so anywhere near as quickly as Clay 🙁

Now I’m the type of bloke who likes to take up a pushing post on track but that is mostly to get a good viewing point. Llandow have an unusual system whereby the pushers draw a ball from a tin to select their posts. I was the only person who stayed on after the drivers briefing to sign in and yet the scrutineer in charge of post allocation almost seemed to be considering making me draw a ball :S In the end, he decided I could take my pick – I asked which post was in the middle and he told me it was Post 2. I was little peeved when I got to Post 2 to be told that it was actually Post 1 and that Post 2 was in the far corner of the track! Not only was I going to have a pretty poor view but I was going to doing a bit of running today – at least I was going to see Junior in corners that I had not previously observed from.

Heat #1 was still wet but Junior coped really well – the pack split into two groups and he was dicing with a couple of others for the lead of the second group. The order chopped and changed with Junior not quite managing to make it stick until, when it looked like he’d pulled it off, he left the door open for a late move into Chandlers and ended up on the grass. The following lap another kart spun into the same corner and Junior spun whilst taking evasive action. We had a bit of a race – me pushing against the fast approaching novice!!! – but there was only ever going to be one winner there! It was a good start to our day though and it was pleasing to see us ‘racing’, which was something we’d not really done at Clay for a while.

Heat #2 wasn’t exactly memorable – we were 5th quickest and finished a little adrift of the front group, who were all pretty much on the pace. Still, it was nice to see Junior overtaking and he even seemed to be able to outbrake people on occassion :-O

Heat #3 was the highlight, Junior managed to jump from 7th to 3rd after the first corner and had put a bit of a gap on those behind, as a couple of the front runners were held up a little. Unfortunately, they weren’t for long and we soon found ourselves back in 5th which became 4th following a mechanical flag and 3rd after an exclusion. We dipped under 46s for the first time 😀 although we were a little lucky not to see a mechanical ourselves as our exhaust bracket extension bar had snapped but the exhaust had only sunk a few inches and was propped up on the bracket bar itself.

We started a satisfying 5th for the final. The leaders soon put a gap on us but we were comfortably holding position until Junior got his exit from The Dell badly wrong and ploughed into the tyres. It was a big accident as they are looking to get up to top speed as quickly as possible – I could only see the top half of him from my post but it seems he hit his head on his steering wheel before it whiplashed backwards and hit some tyres. Cue red flag and ambulance trip back to the pits. Junior was stiff and shaken but his hand seemed to be the most painful part – I think he hit it with his helmet. His kart didn’t fare too well though: he had pushed the nassau bracket bolt up through the nassau, bent the steering column and track rod, snapped the brake pedal bolt and had also managed to punch the steering wheel bolt right through the steering boss. He was ok though – that was the main thing.

Llandow have a novel and pretty cool twist that they offer at the end of a race day – an extra race, run in the reverse final positions that costs £5 and each class races for a voucher at the shop. We (I say we but I had borrowed the money!) had already paid our entry and Junior would now start on poll courtesy of not finishing the final. I had already discounted our chances of taking part but our awning hosts suggested it could be done as their kart was already sorted and I did have most of the spare bits. Junior was open to the idea so we got started. I’ve never had four people working on my kart before but it came to typify the kind of relationship between Dads/mechanics at club meetings – the kart was ready to roll inside 15 minutes (thanks, Gents!) 🙂 I was glad I had packed the old wheel and boss – I hadn’t expected to be using it again quite so soon! The race itself was poor – we lost the lead quickly and retired on lap #2 with a snapped exhaust manifold (it had clearly been damaged in Heat #3, so it seems unlikely we’d have finished the final anyway). Interestingly, Junior’s only real feedback on our changes came after this race when he said he preferred the F1 wheel to the OTK!

Junior was very sore and his hand wasn’t to good but it had been a really positive weekend – we’d tested the new chassis, got more experience of a track that was really growing fond of and we’d spent the day racing in the pack. *Huge* thanks to our awning hosts (you know who you are!) – for kindly sharing your awning space, giving us track advice, your company and for the bacon sandwiches! 😉 We had a great time and it’s given us a lot to consider before we choose where to race next month.

Cost of weekend:£40 practice fee, £55 race entry, £24 petrol, £13 bridge tolls, £9 fuel
Cost of new parts: steering column, £42; bumper bolts, £21

Spent since last post: new seat, £40

Total spent this year: £3,504

 

Race 9: The good, the bad and the ugly

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The past week has been a mad rush – Junior had a work experience placement at Codemasters so this meant getting as much of the kart preparation as possible done last weekend. We travelled up to Warwickshire on Monday, I dropped him off and then went to collect my new engine and also drop our race engine off for a rebuild. Whilst doing this, it was pointed out to me that the barrel on the race engine had a scratch between the inlet ports that it was feared could be a crack!!! Having to fund the new engine and a rebuild in the same month, I’d have been screwed had it needed a new barrel. Fortunately it this was not the case although I’ve yet to get it back.

Anyway I stayed away with Junior during the week and only on Friday did I decide we would do both days of the Clay Pigeon Kart Club Charity Race Weekend, as opposed to just the standard club raceday on the Sunday. Friday night was a late one and I think I got the tyres changed at around 11:30pm and then set the alarm for 6:00am :/

The Bad

Saturday was definitely the bad day – it started off with my pit neighbours encroaching into our spaces to the extent that we couldn’t get our 6x3m awning up. So, whilst they enjoyed lunch in the shade, my ginger ass was melting in the sun – cheers for that! 😛

The club used a GP format for the Saturday, with practice, qualifying, one heat, a pre-final and a final. Qualifying went badly: Junior lost his transponder on lap #2. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anybody (but only just). Then I upset the scrutineer who, when checking the kart over, started marking up the carb and asked if this was the engine I would be racing on. I replied that I’d be changing that carb (it was the first time we had used it and Junior hadn’t looked particularly quick), at which point he told me to get my kart out of the way and muttered something which I assumed meant he wanted to see the carb I would be using. I came back and fitted the replacement carb!!! Doh! He wasn’t happy at all. It was an honest mistake – we’d only been scrutineered once before (last year when we finished third of three at the Turkey Trot). At this point he wanted to speak to the Chief Scrutineer? (this may not have been her title) and, after ignoring me whilst he scrutineered the entire senior grid that had now come in, I went and checked with her myself. Obviously I realised immediately what I had done wrong (as in not touching the kart whilst it is in scrutineering) and I was fortunate that the Chief Scrutineer only wanted both carbs checked and told me not to do it again! :/

Worse, was the fact that we had no pace whatsoever – we were just being driven past for fun. Junior was complaining the engine was not picking up out of the corners and blaming the new engine. I thought it was a grip problem and did what I could to lose some. In the heat, we were last of the finishers, six tenths off of the pace. The pre-final was slightly more interesting as Junior nudged his friend (with whom we share an awning but also have what would sometimes be described as a little more than a friendly rivalry), gained a spot but then spent the rest of the race waving his arm at every nudge he received until he lost the place a few laps from the end. He was very angry but not as angry as me – how he could be so upset at being on the receiving end when he had gained a place from dishing it out? I was properly annoyed! We had a few words in the car (the words were mostly flowing in his direction). We finished sixth in the final although I have no recollection of it whatsoever. On a slightly positive note, we had lapped within a tenth of our fastest time at Clay but it was scant consolation given how far we were off of the pace.

The good

The drive to the track on Sunday was a long one. Not the time spent driving back down to Dorset but just the knowing that there really wasn’t much cause for optimism. We would be on slightly newer used tyres but, if the track conditions were the same, it was going to be another bleak day. I had a single setup change that I wanted to make (that  was inspired by a chat in the Gents with the MSA Steward after racing on Saturday!). Other than that, I was hoping there had been significant overnight rain to freshen things up.

The rain had been minimal but it was notably cooler. We got the kart setup and crossed our fingers. Junior noticed the difference instantly – he was still well off of the pace but the three lap warm-up has never been about pace for Junior, it’s all about making sure the kart is working (I think this is a leftover from the days when it often wasn’t). Although we finished last of the finishers in Heat 1, as Junior gradually dropped back from a good start, he did set a new personal best – breaking 36 seconds for the first time 😀

Heat 2 was a shame – Junior made another good start but got clipped and spun around in The Esses and then shunted into the tyres. He picked up a few places after an incident took out a couple of karts and another was excluded. We were a little slower but Junior assured me he was taking it a little easier – and, of course, I believed him 😉 Heat 3 was a decent result for us as, although we dropped from 2nd to 5th, Junior was clear of the back half of the grid and set another PB.

The ugly

Sunday had been a decent day for us up until this point. Junior started 7th out of 10 and all I wanted him to do was to keep his nose clean from the start and enjoy the race. He made up a place at the start when kart ran off at The Esses, another couple when a couple of the front runners fell over each other and was then in a fight over 5th place with his friend and awning companion. These are the moments I enjoy the least as I am basically waiting for one to take the other out. Junior got a run up the inside into The Esses and his friend maintained the outside line. At this point it was going to take some very good driving for there not to be contact. Junior was ahead and on the racing line but needed to leave enough space around the inside of The Esses exit to avoid contact. He didn’t. His back wheel hit the front wheel of his friend’s kart and, although they both carried on, his friend lost time in the incident. It was one of those scenarios where I know Junior would have tried exactly the same thing had the boot been on the other foot and would have complained just as bitterly when he lost out.

But this wasn’t the ugly part!!! It turned out after the race that Junior had been the one who got caught out as the pack entered The Esses and shunted the kart in front off of the track. A first corner (or second in this case) at-fault incident was exactly what I was hoping to avoid. Fortunately, it hadn’t been reported – although there had been a fair amount of contact during the day which included us losing out so, had we been called into the Clerk’s office, I’d have been a tad upset! We clearly still have a thing or two to learn about close racing, however…

Back to the positives: we set another PB and, unusually, the JTKM final was early in the running order which meant we were home for Sunday roast (via McDonalds for a shake) by 6:30 – round about the same time we had left the previous month!

Cost of weekend: £100 race entry, £24 petrol, £7 fuel

Total spent this year: £2,452

Race 8: Can’t cope with too many more of these!

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It would be fair to say I am still feeling pretty low about our race weekend. It’s a different kind of low to bad ‘day in the office’ feeling when you encounter problem after problem – the kart ran very well but we can’t keep getting caught up in situations; whether through our own fault or not and then having to defend ourselves in front of the stewards. It would be fair to say that I am already not looking forward to next month!

Saturday was a decent day; we ran well enough and Junior was enjoying ‘racing’ with his mates as they would revise the order in which they hit the track and then go for it. The play was a little rough at times but they would still come off the track smiling and, to be honest, hard racing experience is what we need. Unfortunately, in the final session of the day, we suffered a fair amount of damage when Junior found himself taken off-track by one of two karts in front of him that had come into contact in The Hairpin. We jumped the back wheel of the other kart and hit the tyre wall quite hard. The rear bumper-bolt had snapped, the seat cracked and the side pod bar, steering column and track rod were all bent. The icing on the cake was my best exhaust burn to date (rushing to get the kart out of danger whilst pushing by the bumper mount on the rear of the chassis is not recommended). Not really what you want when you are planning to get off the track a couple of laps early to join the scutineer queue and then get off home! With the help of a couple of the other Dads (and my ever decreasing stash of spares), we had everything done in a couple of hours and I was home by 9pm. I then had to visit A&E to get the burn sorted – it had blistered nicely and 111 were adamant it needed seeing :/

Not much sleep and a record journey time to Clay later (I had left the kart at the track), we were back at the track. It was very nice to find myself having to apply sun cream at 8am and we were ready in plenty of time. For the first time, Junior had fresh rubber on his kart – that’s right WE WERE USING NEW TYRES!!! 🙂 I’ll temper that now by saying that, although the tyres had never been used, they were made in 2012 and part of the retirement package that we had bought 16 months ago! We were about to find out if they were still good…

Heat one was excellent – Junior started fourth but gained an early place and was putting second under a fair amount of pressure for a time. Unfortunately, a failed passing attempt cost him and put him in the clutches of the fourth placed driver. He was passed and then got caught out on the last lap, leaving the door open at pretty much the last passing opportunity of the lap 🙁 Fifth place was a bit of a shame but we’d competed much more closely than we had ever done previously 🙂

It went south from there – we were summoned to the clerk’s office after finishing 5th in heat two; Junior was at the back of a group of four karts, the others were three-wide going into The Horseshoe. Three became two as one backed out but that caught Junior out and he punted them quite hard. He didn’t gain a place but it was duly noted. He hit the same kart again a few laps later as they fell over a Formula Blue that was wandering around in front (as Junior Formula Blues seem to have a habit of doing). The clerk told us that all contact was being called in and he just wanted to know what happened. Junior gave his version of events and, as the other driver didn’t appear, that was that.

Heat three still makes me mad now – we started on pole, got overtaken into the first corner but were holding second for several laps as the leader cleared off. Third place dived up the inside into The Esses, forcing Junior wide. Two abreast in The Esses (which is basically an elongated chicane) is not a great thing and, being on the wrong side, Junior had lost a fair bit of speed. He arrived at the second apex at much the same time as the fourth placed driver, who hit Junior’s back wheel and went off quite hard. Fortunately he wasn’t injured and his kart took no damage. I was stood on the marshalling post for The Hairpin, as was the Race Observer and I could he see him make some notes. A few laps later I asked how he saw it, he showed me what he had written which was along the lines of “Junior hit the other kart, the other kart lost places, Junior to receive a warning”. He asked me which was my driver, I pointed Junior out and he said “Oh!”. I didn’t say anything else. The fun wasn’t quite over – there was still time for Junior to close the door on somebody who was trying to follow another driver up Junior’s inside. I didn’t see that as Junior’s fault as at no point was he even remotely alongside Junior! But I digress… it was some time after the race that I saw the driver (from the first incident!) and his Dad in the clerk’s office so the call was inevitable. Let’s look at the incident (I don’t believe that these points are disputed – although I obviously wear slightly tinted spectacles, no matter how hard I try):

  • We had just lost second and been forced wide
  • We were still on the track
  • We were still in third place
  • Fourth place hit the the rear wheel of Junior’s kart
  • The Race Observer was stood next to me, some 50 yards away (where you can’t see the middle part of The Esses, just the hill), and said he didn’t have a great view

And yet, despite all of this, we were defending a charge of causing the accident!!! WHAT ON EARTH??? I was livid! I still am livid! I’m not wanting to criticise any individual but, if you cannot see properly, how can you make a judgement? It simply was not possible! I wasn’t blaming the other driver – it was a racing incident every day and twice on Fridays!!! Getting the drivers in to discuss the incident was the right thing to do but I was amazed that we were in the dock. How could we have caused the accident just by driving around the corner? What was Junior supposed to do? I am still confused by what happened next – the kids seemed to be talking about different incidents(!) but the other driver’s testimony exonerated Junior. The Steward told us that we should be thankful he had(?!?) which just wound me up even more. Had the decision gone against us, my £110 would have be down in a nano-second! I have to admit that I didn’t handle it very well (in terms of just standing around looking ready to explode and not having a word with the other Dad!) but it was my first such experience and one I have learnt from – I will definitely speak to the other Dad before and after we go in to any future hearing (is that the right word?) to ensure off-track relations are maintained 🙂

At this point, I just wanted to pack up and go home. Resigned to one more race, all I wanted Junior to do was drive behind everybody else and keep his nose clean in the final. And then it rained. Junior has no wet experience for six months! He started fifth of seven – an achievement in itself but the day continued to worsen as Junior outbraked himself in to Billies and pushed the third-placed kart wide then, on the run down to The Hairpin, he went flying down the inside as he saw his chance (to do what exactly, you could well ask!). You could hear he was going much too fast, it was just so lucky he went sailing down the inside and off-track backwards without skittling a few karts out with him. Junior berated himself as he went past me and I just smiled – he was learning the hard way. Encouragingly, his laps were ok – much closer to the pace than when we had last raced in the wet and another fifth placed finish was good for us.

It was still a long drive home and I had a few things to say to Junior about the state of his bumper. He thinks I am cross about it being a new bumper with hitherto new decals and that’s fine – but it is not the case at all. I am determined that he won’t be the one who is seen to be a bit of a wildcard, the ‘bumper boy’. I would walk away long before that happens. He knows that he needs to learn to better read the situation when braking with karts in front of him to avoid any more punts. It is hard learning to race once you have the pace, which he certainly now has, but he has got to step it up now. Racing incidents happen but your bumper doesn’t lie.

Next month is massive for us – I want no more bumper contact (although I know these things happen from time-to-time and there might be little you can do about it on occasion). If someone hits our back end, that’s just one of those things – so long as we are not at fault or accused of being so. I also need more time to gauge the consistency of the officials; following my criticism of them not doing anything, I still think we were hard done by with the black flag last month, the two this month would be understandable if all contact is being reviewed but the tone of the second and the fact that not all contact is being reviewed (and I am not even talking about the starts where the pole-sitter lifts before he reaches the acceleration zone – sometimes twice – and causes chaos behind him) makes me wonder. How things pan out next month will tell me a lot…

Cost of day: £28 petrol, £13 fuel, £35 practice fee, £50 race fee

Total spent this year: £1,926

Dad drives Clay!!!

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They say that you should not judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Today I walked the mile although it would be more appropriate to consider me wearing their slippers – today was the day I got to race at Clay. Ok, so it was only a corporate thing in the Raceway’s arrive & drive karts but I learnt to appreciate what Junior does *so* much more – to drive Clay lap, after lap on the edge, not wanting to enter Billies too hot, taking enough kerb in The Esses, exiting fast but not too wide, getting The Hairpin spot-on, not losing too much momentum through The Horseshoe and nailing the Top Bend. To feel how rough some of the kerbing is on the exit of the corners I have been telling him to hit for the past year. And I was driving a much slower kart doing 44s laps!

There are some things that seem to run in the family – it wouldn’t have been a Team Karting Dad effort without the now customary black flag! It was an honest mistake – I was trying to pass another karting dad, we were side-by-side around The Kink, some mutual squeezing going on and I was focused on the amount of space he was leaving me (or not) to claim the entry into Billies. Made the pass, looked up and saw two karts facing the wrong way before The Esses and got a black flag for not spotting the yellow being waved on the kink. The drive-through proved a costly 28s delay too as we (my randomly drawn partner and I) lost by 5s 🙁

Anyway, it is fair to say I have learnt to appreciate even more what it takes to try to lap consistently, inches off of the floor in a bloody fast kart. I am tentatively looking forward to the Junior TKM Dads day (Dads drive JTKMs!) that we have lined up for next month – then I’ll be able to say I really have walked the mile in his shoes 😮

Race 7: Disqualified!?!

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Since our ‘bumper’ day last month, I have been pretty vocal on my thoughts regarding enforcement of the rules regarding ‘incidents’; here, on Facebook and on the forums. Perhaps it was just down to my naivety in expecting your average ‘Arrive/Drive’ circuit rules to be at least the as tough in MSA racing. I’d like to think it wasn’t solely down to me but no matter – a club official spent some time during the briefing explaining that the club had read what was said and what actions were being taking to address this (marshals being given radios and calling in any contact witnessed) and then the MSA steward made a comment about not wanting people complaining after every race! I think that one was aimed squarely at me although, like I say, maybe that was just my naivety – it was the first time I had ever spoken to an official and half of the time I was one of a number of Dads complaining about the very odd decision to start slower karts ahead of faster ones! Who could have foreseen what was about to happen?

Junior was really looking forward to Heat 1 as it was his first ever start on pole. He looked like a natural leader on the warm-up lap 😉 but that was about as good as our day got 🙁 He outbraked himself into the first corner, ran wide and was overtaken by everybody except the novices. It was probably the worse defence of pole position you’ll see this season! Then the field bottlenecked into The Esses, a kart was spun and they carried on. A few laps later, Junior pulled in the pits. I assumed there was a problem only to find HE HAD BEEN BLACK FLAGGED!!! Until this point, I hadn’t even realised he had made contact with anyone, then came the chat with the MSA steward. The next part was a bit of a blur, Junior was stunned to the point of not being able to give any reasonable explanation to the steward, who told us why we had been black flagged rather than allowed to continue and an inquiry held after the race (I didn’t really understand this bit) and then proceeded to tell us about drivers at Buckmore Park who wouldn’t be racing next weekend because they would be having their licenses revoked (I understood this but even less). I admit that I had no idea if or what penalties could be imposed. At least I do now 🙂

With the benefit of the internet, I surmise that Junior was penalised under rule C.1.1.5:

Driving in a manner incompatible with general safety, and/or departing from the standard of a reasonably competent driver.

Now this seemed somewhat harsh, not only to me, but to every other Dad who had assumed we had experienced a problem only to find we had been black flagged. I’ll quote the driver who lost out  just to prove I am not making this stuff up:

“Was a racing incident, I tried to miss someone and slowed up a bit and ****** hit me, wasn’t his fault at all!”

It seems Junior found himself with nowhere to go when the pack bunched and a few drivers took evasive action. I would love to know exactly where Junior was supposed to put his kart in light of this but… the irony of having been so vociferous about not penalising contact and then becoming the first to fall foul of the new enforcement of the rules was not lost on me! It was very harsh but I could only take it on the chin and move on. I knew very well that my comments would put Junior in the spotlight. It was funny how, after last month, another Dad had warned me not to make a name for myself for complaining to the stewards and I admit that, at one point, during the conversation with the steward, I did find myself gauging whether there was any hint of retribution in his demeanour (there wasn’t!). He seemed like a nice bloke although I definitely left with the feeling of having been roughed up a little (I guess this is the intention!). Once we had got back to our pit space, Junior found his tongue and declared all of this to be my fault! Had I not said anything about last month, this wouldn’t have happened apparently. There is probably some truth in that (in so far as contact would still have continued unpunished) but I don’t play the blame game – we had a curt chat about what a team was and Junior had to decide whether we were staying for the remainder of the heats (as a team) or whether we were packing up and going home (as individuals). On with the day…

Heat two was almost as bad – we found ourselves behind a novice and they were racing closely when one of two things happened: the novice lost his back end in The Esses and we had nowhere to go except into him or Junior spun the novice in The Esses. Either way they took each other out. One driver had one view, the other driver had the other. I have mine but all that matters is that race observer didn’t report us as being at fault – things could otherwise have gotten much more, um… ‘interesting’!

Heat 3 was largely anonymous – we finished 6th in a pretty strung out field. Unsurprisingly, we started last for the final. I made a few setup changes and we actually made a decent start – passing the novices into/during Billies and were dicing at the back of the main pack. It was going really well – we gained and lost a place and were showing our best pace of the day and our fastest lap since September last year (still don’t quite get why we haven’t yet bested that having set it before we started racing!). Then our bumper snapped 🙁 There had been some minor contact a few laps earlier and my plastic ties had only lasted so long. Junior was shown (although didn’t actually see) the black and orange flag with a couple of minutes remaining and that was that.

A shitty end to a pretty shitty day. Our run of 23 races without causing an incident had come to an end just at the wrong time. I have no complaints about the strict enforcement of the rules although I sincerely hope that they will be applied in a consistent manner. On the plus side, I think our setup was good and we were pretty much on the pace at the end. Junior does need to improve his racecraft – I know that will come with experience. He also needs to be a little more sturdy in his defence – he is definitely considered a soft touch by some, who make the most of the knowledge that he’ll jump out of their way given any lunge into a corner. I think that regulation C2.3.3 sums it up nicely:

Gained an unfair advantage – You may not have actually made contact, but your position on the track may have unfairly impeded the other driver(s)

😉

Cost of day: £15 petrol, £49 race entry fee

Total spent this year: £1,716

 

Testing at Llandow: Junior’s new favourite track?

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I had been trying to arrange some time to visit Nigel in the shop at Llandow so, even before our troubles last weekend, we were going to be testing there this weekend. Lucas had driven there once before – last May ahead of his ARKS test and, at that time, hadn’t really enjoyed the track; he was very inexperienced and it is a much harder track to drive well compared to Clay so I was interested to see how he fared now being considerably more ‘competent’! It was also the race weekend for Llandow Kart Club so it would give us a good measure of his pace on an unfamiliar track.

Having arrived a little late, we amassed a mighty two laps before lunchtime – missing the first session and then Junior stopping on track in the second. He said that he had just lost power and my first instinct was to check the carb. It was then that I noticed the fuel hose looked empty (a good reason why you should replace old, brown hose) and, when I blew some more fuel through, found it sprinkling out of a hole where the hose had been dragging on the track! :S The fuel hose was tied in place after that!

I had made some changes to the brakes; Junior reported my first change to have made them worse but the next tweak seemed to make the better and Junior actually said he had LOCKED HIS BRAKES!!! 🙂 The day went pretty well thereafter. We only managed four and a bit sessions because of the number of Bambinos taking part in the Llandow leg of the Bambino Kart Club Tour. I hadn’t actually realised there was such a thing at that age but it looked pretty cool – the kids do time trials rather than actually race. Anyway… we were continually changing the setup throughout the afternoon and knocked 1.3s off of our best lap to finish around 0.4s off of the pace. It was clear that Junior was something of a rolling road block at times but he was able to get a bit racey towards the end. Driver feedback was at a premium – Junior had a tendency to wander off to spend time with the other juniors, which was great for him, but it meant there was nobody to do the fuel, lift the trailer lid, help test the brakes etc and I even experienced a karting first: loneliness!!! Ok, it wasn’t as bad as that – the other Dads (whom I had got know from the last couple of rounds at Clay) are very nice but you don’t like to hang around whilst they are making setup changes on a race weekend. It’s just one of those things particular to race weekend – you are busy and aren’t too keen on giving anything away – I am the same at Clay. For the first time, I found myself phoning the wife just for a chat during a karting day!!!

In contrast to our last visit, Junior really enjoyed the track and, predictably, he wanted to come back and race on the Sunday (today), offering to fund his own entry which would have been fine had I not used said money to pay for this additional test day 😉 Having had to fund six car tyres, a service and a cam belt change in the past week, bonus kart funds were pretty thin on the ground!

So where we race next month will entirely be down to Junior. There are pro’s and con’s to both Clay and Llandow: I didn’t enjoy the last race day at Clay whatsoever, from heat one through to the final – it was the polar opposite of the March round and I felt a little let down by the officials. Then again, there is a really strong TKM community at Clay, Junior is keen to contest the entire championship, they sell ice cream and they have a tarmac road that leads all the way to the grid! Llandow, on the other hand, has an awful gravel car park that really does test your bolts on both kart and trolley. I honestly think you would need to budget to replace your trolley each year if you raced at Llandow regularly! Junior really enjoyed the variety that the track offered, however, and although he would definitely be the slowest driver there, that is not something that has ever really phased him. It would be something a leap into the deep end, as the next club round is also the Welsh Open but we’ll see what he wants to do.

Cost of day: £18 petrol, £6 bridge toll, £6 fuel for the kart, £40 practice fee

Total spent this year: £1,562

Race 6: This is MSA racing???

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As you may have gathered from my last post, our first race day off of novice plates didn’t really go to plan. The weekend began with one very lucky escape: Junior was carrying out the trailer light tests before we left home and then asked why there were no ratchet straps on the kart!!! I normally put the straps on loosely the night before and then tighten them up in the morning (I do this because so as not to stress the chassis for longer than I have to, whether this has merit or not I don’t know!) – I realised as I put the kart away that I hadn’t strapped it but decided to do it morning. I am so, so, so, so lucky that Junior spotted this – what might have happened doesn’t even bear thinking about.

Saturday was a decent enough day at the track. We were a little off the pace, maybe 3/10ths or so but I was content that the race engine would bring us a little closer. It was notable only for my getting sun burnt (again) and deciding to stay overnight at the George Albert Hotel next to the track in a bid to help me overcome jet lag having arrived from the US on the Thursday. It was nice to stay over for a few beers with the regulars although I would recommend the Karters Menu rather than the restaurant menu (or ideally, the Karters Menu then the white chocolate cheesecake from the restaurant menu 😉 ). I didn’t get any extra sleep though, as I didn’t nod off until 1:30am. The full English breakfast hit the spot however!

The first heat was a little disappointing; we started 2nd, quickly dropped back and then spent the remainder of the race fending off the lead novice. We got clipped once into Billies, as the novice flashed his nose down inside as Junior committed to the entry but he just ran up over our wheel and we continued unhindered. We made a couple of changes for heat two and we were doing ok until Junior allowed himself to be forced off on the entry to The Horseshoe on the penultimate or final lap. The driver that made the move had just performed the exact same move on someone else too. It was unfortunate but Junior should have held his ground and either let the karts come together – no point in letting yourself get pushed off! Both Junior and the other driver who had been persuaded off wanted to see the Clerk about it but nothing had been reported and it was then that we learnt any further action would cost us £110! 😮

Heat three saw the club make the ridiculous decision to put the slower, small Formula Blue grid ahead of the Junior TKMs. I still don’t understand why, it just seems like a stupid thing to do – why on earth would you start slower karts ahead of faster ones??? I asked the Clerk about it afterwards but he said that, having watched the race, he was happy that the JTKMs only caught one FB (conveniently ignoring the fact that the JTKM Dads had held back their drivers so that the Formula Blues had three-quarters of a lap head start!). It was an average heat – we comfortably held off the novices without ever really challenging those in front.

We started sixth for the final; last of the full license holders. It was a really good race. At least the first nine laps were. All bar one of the JTKMs were pretty much in a line. We weren’t falling off the main group but then we caught the Formula Blues(!), the pack got bunched up and we got clipped coming out of the Top Bend – the fastest part of the track. The kart behind stuck his nose up the inside (again) as Junior exited the corner and he got spun, hard into the tyres. He was as angry as I have ever seen him and I cannot really blame him – I bet the adrenalin is flowing when driving at 60mph a couple of inches from the ground and you are on the ragged edge, focusing on pushing the kart that tiny bit harder to make up ground. And he was driving a really good race. The fun didn’t end there though: there was no yellow flag initially as I tried to remove the kart from the corner exit. And when the flag was finally shown, someone ignored it and hit our kart hard. The bumper was bent into the tyre but I thought I had gotten away without any further damage until this evening when I discovered that the new axle is badly bent. I am still hoping the chassis is straight – I have taken some measurements and it looks ok. We visited the Clerk for one final time – nobody had seen us being spun and, although the MSA steward had witnessed the Formula Blue hit our kart under yellows, it wasn’t deemed worthy of any further action. Unless I wanted to part with £110…

So there we have it – I am still amazed at the contact permitted without even a word for the offenders. Is this MSA racing or maybe it’s just what is permitted at Clay? It wouldn’t be permitted in arrive and drive karting and I absolutely thought this would be officiated in a much stricter manner. Any initial perception I had that non-MSA racing would somehow be less ‘safe’ has gone straight out of the window. Where we go from here I am not so sure – Junior wants to complete the season at Clay and the TKM community there are amazing but I am feeling more than a little disenchanted with several aspects of racing at Clay right now. Maybe I just need to get over it – that’s karting, right? But is it??? Being ginger and headstrong doesn’t help either! Putting the camera on the rear of the kart is one option. Racing elsewhere is another…

Cost of day: £15 petrol, £9 fuel for the kart, £35 practice fee, £49 race entry fee, £130 hotel bill

Items purchased since last post: Exhaust flex, wrap – £27

Total spent this year: £1,492

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