July 20, 2004

Pro Kart Endurance Champs July 2004

Sandown Park Round 5

Getting better

For round 5 Chris and I decided to go really early so we could get the awning set-up and be more relaxed. This plan was working just great until we stopped on the A1 at a service station to get some food and fill the van with petrol. I took out my kit bag and the awning bag and put then next to the fuel pump. Then we merrily got back in the van after filling up and drove off leaving them there! We didn't realize until we arrived at the circuit and started to setup. PANIC! Fortunately my brother and the rest of the team were coming later and had not left yet. We found the garage by looking at the receipt for petrol and gave them a ring. The man had found the bags and put them in the office thankfully. My bro then picked them up on his way down so disaster averted :)

Qualifying

Qualifying was performed by Chris again and was a massive team effort. The kart setup was excellent and the new tuned motors from JJ were keeping us with the better teams (at last) Chris finally qualified us in 20th place which is a massive improvement for us. To put this in perspective from 40 karts on the grid the difference between position 1 and position 40 was only 1.3 seconds! Anyway we were mid-field for the race start and more than happy with the kart set-up

Race

Race on then and Chris has been selected to start with me running in third spot for the day. This is nice because you get several hours off relaxing but also it plays on your nerves as your drive approaches too! Race off and Chris settles down to a very steady pace and starts to pick of places. After a stonking 1.50 min drive with some great passing he has taken us to 16th overall.

Chris pits and makes a fuel stop and Jon takes over. Once again Jon does us proud with a great drive. Moving steadily through the field he manages to make up some more places and at one point we were running in 10th overall. Sadly during an overtaking maneuver he clips the rear wheel of another kart bounces up and when the kart lands it bends the rear axle. This is on his in-lap to the pit for me to take over for my drive.

Jon into the pits and I jump in looking forwards to a solid drive. I fly out of the pits and what's this the whole kart is shaking up and down and I can hardly see. I quickly radio to the pits to check the kart out as I come past as something is very wrong. They radio back that the rear left wheel is bouncing due to the axle being bent that side and not running true. GREAT! They get ready for me to pit so we can try and straighten it out. I should point out that it is blue sky and 31 degrees and we are all sweating buckets! Anyway I pit and sit down while the lads and Pete start trying to bend the axle back to something like straight with a 6 foot scaffold pole (high tech eh) It looks better but I am so tired after fighting with the kart for the 30 mins I was out that we decide Adam will do a long stint.

Adam out then for what turned out to be a 2 hour 25 min massive drive with one fuel stop in between. The kart sadly was not handling its best with the bent axle so we gradually dropped places, but even so we managed to finish 9th in clubman and 22nd overall so quite a good result. Endurance racing is all about being quick but keeping out of trouble. We are quick but we do get into trouble and this has to change for us to improve.

Roll on round 6..

Mark...

Posted by Mark at July 20, 2004 9:55 AM

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