May 16, 2005

Endurance Kart Racing: Round 3 2005: The Joy :) The pain :( and Murphys law!

What a weekend!!!!

Saturday we arrived at the circuit in high spirits with our newly tuned motors supplied by JJ (Pro-Kart Engineering) and set about setting the kart up. To say we were flying is an understatement! The Super pro teams were setting around 46.8 secs a lap and we as a clubman team were hitting 46.2 which is only 4 tenths of a second off their pace :) In real terms thats like Minardi in F1 being right up Michaels Ass! Yes we were very very pleased. Our nearest Clubman team rivals were doing around 46.9 secs. We decided to stay in Esher Saturday night and went out for a nice meal to reflect on our practise.

Race day saw Nick qualify us in 13th on the grid (our highest place to date)! Normally we are around 25th or even further back so again new territory for us to be in the top 15 at the front :) Chris was elected to start amd got our race off to a flyer. He held our position and then settled down for his stint of 1 hour 45 mins. When he pitted we were in third place Clubman and I think 11th overall. I took over and quickly settled into my rythmn. After I had been our for about 50 mins I started to here noises from the front spoiler. I radioed the pit crew to possibly get one ready in case I needed to come into the pits to change it in a hurry! The kart was also becoming increasingly difficult to get round left hand corners. Lap after lap this got worse until karts I had passed easily were now overtaking me. I decided to pit and came in where to our horror we saw that the left hand chassis bracket had snapped and was bent up :(

That's it game over as we cant weld it back at the track. I dont think I have ever felt so dissapointed and I know the team were suicidal! So we packed up and came home early with us all reflecting on why Murphys law seems to apply to us all the time!

What did we learn?

1. If you add the word Endurance to any sport you have many tears. Some of pain and some of joy.

2. We have worked hard for a year and a half and now feel we are on the pace, which is an achievment in itself

3. Endurance karting is very hard to be consistently good at! Try it!

4. We will be back at Milton Keynes for round 4 in 3 weeks time as I NEVER give up :)

Mark...

Posted by Mark at May 16, 2005 9:09 AM

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