May 18, 2004

Pro Kart Endurance Champs May 2004

Sandown Park Round 3

Improvement!

For this race we were much better prepared, and I guess with motorsport its all in the preparation. We actually had an itinerary of what we wanted to achieve for Saturdays practice session and I was very surprised that we stuck to it like glue. We arrived on time with the sun shining and set about getting the kart handling correctly. About half way through the session it was decided that we would change the gearing from 74's to 73 rear sprockets.

So John and I started to change the sprockets in the pits. Once this was done I was checking chain tension with my fingers while Chris was putting the rear wheel back on with Adam holding the brake. Brake slips axle spins and my index finger disappears into the small gap between a chain and sprocket :( I yanked it out as fast as I could but sadly left half of it behind! My pit crew not being the best at first aid all felt sick so I walked off to get some attention. The daytona first aid lad promptly said eeeeurrggghhhh I cant look at that. That must really hurt. This in hindsight was a very good observation as I was as white as a sheet sweating profusely and about to spew in his face :)

Anyway I got a plaster on it and we carried on with setup. At this point one of JJ's drivers went out in the kart to check our setup. Came back in and told us the kart was actually better than his but with less castor. Our problem was the motors. JJ said we could have some of his better ones which we fitted for the race. All in all a great days setup and practice from which we learned loads. I have decided to check chain tension with a screwdriver in future :)

Race day

Race day came and I look out the window to see sun and more sun (at last). This is going to be a nice hot day which makes a change from the miserable race before.

Qualifying

We arrive at the circuit and get signed in and setup in the pits. So out we go for qualifying with Chris doing the whole stint and qualifying us in a very (for us) respectable 31 st place! So its back of the grid for me again!! I appear to be getting nominated to start the race as I have a knack of making up 10 places and staying out of trouble. So once again its me to do the first stint of the day.

Race

Race on and its me who is out first. So we are away and as usual there are a couple of pile ups and I do my duck and dive and make some places. About 3 laps into the race I go wide on the bottom right and end up in the hole. Bounce up about a foot and crash down on my rib (again) After this my pace went right off as its difficult driving hard when your in pain. I managed to get myself back together and started to put in some 46 second laps consistently. My Bro who is now our Ross Braun in the pits decided to pit me after 1.30 so Chris could go out. Im glad he did as my finger was killing me and so was my rib. Anyway Chris goes out and has a very strong drive of 1.45 mins drive making us up some places to around 22nd I think.

Chris back in quick fuel stop and Adam out. My bro now knows not to lean his hand on a hot exhaust whilst pitting :) He had a massive blister which I am sure by now is very sore. Adam managed not to kill anyone or do more than a modicum of damage to the kart and overall didn't drive too bad at all. By this time we are still hovering around 21st place and were eager to make the top 20 which was our target for this meeting. Adam pitted and out goes John for the last 2 hours. Great drive from him and with a quick splash and dash of fuel he made us up some places to lead us to a very respectable 19th overall and 7th in Clubman.

This has opened up Clubman for us with us moving upto 14th place. We are 28th overall so I don't think there is any danger of us threatening the big boys of this series. Still all the same they need to watch out :) Especially JJ as I am going to offer Shaun 250 quid a race to drive for us (only joking) After all he did say our kart was better than his :) Our next target is to get into the top ten.

Im hoping for another strong improvement at MK and with double points on offer we want to do well. The kart is driving very well and will be sporting our new dyno motors and graphics, so we will have to see what we do as last time we were doing low 70's at MK. Im hoping with all the improvements we have made we can change that to 65's ha ha ha ha ha ha ha We will see ehhh

Roll on round 4..

Mark...

Posted by Mark at May 18, 2004 2:42 PM

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