Lesson 2 : GO FASTER!

Me checking the MyChron

On Wednesday 10th July I had a training day with Richard from Spellfame at Whilton Mill, using the international circuit. This is the second training session I have had with Richard, the first was in October I think.
We arrived early, about 8:30 and got everything set up. We went and paid, I got a green wrist band to show that. After that we went back to our area and made sure everything was where it should be. Richard arrived soon after and, after getting his needed bacon butty we went for a track walk. Dad said he would get the kart sorted first. Richards was showing me the lines as the last time I had driven the circuit, in relatively dry conditions, had been October. I found out, before I had even sat n my kart, that my driving style is all wrong. I drive a wet line or a wet style instead of a dry one. I square off all the corners which, sometimes, is ok but I do it all the time. My first aim for the day was to beat my time from the double header last year, fastest time of 50.3, which is terrible. My first outing I made it out of the dummy grid and realised the kart wouldn't accelerate. it got out of the dummy grid fine, but then stopped. I couldn't get the engine revving. I choked the engine a bit, everything just to get it back to the pits. I had to stop at the cut through on the back straight. We realised it was the carb so we changed it. The new one worked fine. I managed to get out in the second session and complete around 10 laps before Richard called me in. I was making good progress but I needed to be a lot smoother. he said I was quicker when I wasn't trying too hard. The next session was much of the same except I was going quicker. We didn't change much on the carb or in fact the kart. All that changed throughout the day was the tyre pressures, they went down, and the amount of fuel as we needed to keep topping it up.

Me not quite getting wide enough. Should have most of
the kart over the line.

Much better.

Once I had got my line pretty much sorted Richard said that I needed to use a lot more of the track, and use the throttle to power out of the corners and, ,somehow, adding more power reduced my under steer. Throughout the morning I was slowly but surely reducing my time, I was into the mid-low 49 seconds at lunch time. We had bacon butties for lunch. After Lunch we only had 3 sessions left. I managed to do my quickest rolling lap in the first session after lunch, which is the fastest I have ever been round Whilton Mill International Circuit, of a 48.74 second lap! I was using the whole track as Richard said, being very smooth with my turning and having no middle ground between braking and accelerating! Thank you very much Richard, I hope I can use the techniques I have learnt from you in my future races, and hopefully get results in the top half more often!

Llandow. Round 5

I look so small

Llandow was my second race in easykart last year. I didn't do very well, as expected, and managed to bend my axle, more detail in my previous Llandow post.
Anyway, this year looks different. I am performing better, my dad knows his way around the kart and generally we have been better. Also the weather looked a lot better for Llandow this year as last year it was very heavy rain, we had no awning, and we were camping that time. This time however, the weather was scorching, almost on par with Clay pigeon last year, and we were staying in a premier inn rather than camping.
As it was a long one, distance wise, we dec- dad decided to leave on the Friday and leave me no time, except when I got home from school, to revise for my Spanish GCSE. But anyway back to karting. We left on the Friday and didn't get to see much of my Grandparents who had come up to watch my sister in a big school production and see us, however they didn't really. We left around six o'clock and arrived at the Premier inn around nine - half nine. For the first time ever I had an actual bed rather than having to sleep on the sofa as I usually have to do.
We didn't have dinner there as we had already eaten, but from the look of the weather at the time, rainy, we could be sure it would all go away by Saturday. Whether the track would be dry was another matter.

Me taking a much wider line - It worked better for me

We woke up Saturday morning at a reasonable hour and went for breakfast in the adjoining pub/restaurant. I had bacon, a crumpet and mushrooms. It was delicious. I was set, ready for the day and found out, much to my delight, that Sam was coming up in the morning, meaning he would be very tired, so I could get used to the track again before he learnt it. It sounds mean but to beat him physically, I had to be better than him mentally. We were set up before they arrived and, as it was sunny, didn't see the point in forcing them to put up their awning, so they shared ours (not pitz bitz but better in our opinion). We got out for the first session and, with a dry track, managed to learn it quite quickly and get used to it again. For me the day went quite well, Dad had set me a target of a 47.3 second lap. I got 3 or 4 in the 47.4's but no lower. I wasn't best pleased but I was close. Sam's day wasn't quite as good. he couldn't seem to get the corners but, after I tailed him for 1 session, managed to pick up the pace. In the final session everybody seemed to be going faster, everybody except me. Sam got a 47.3 and generally people were going a couple of tenths quicker at least. We had changed the carb setting and that just destroyed my times, I felt quicker but I was 4 tenths slower. The best I could do was a 47.8. Saturday was OK but not great.
 We met up with Sam and David after the race for dinner at the pub/restaurant next to our Premier-inn. It was a good meal and everybody enjoyed themselves, although we realised Sam always looks to block something rather than win (noughts and crosses).

The trail I started to hold up

Sunday was a slightly cooler day that Saturday, a layer of cloud cooling everything down. There were a few spots of rain in the air and every so often we would get a bit of a drizzle. The track felt a bit slippy under foot but when we got out there it felt just like a dry track. the warm up went well. I managed to get the times my dad had set me, +50 seconds. Sam was at Andy's for the warm up and Qualifying as the engine wouldn't start on the kart, even with the starter gun thingy that works like a starter motor. David had put something in backwards I think so something wasn't turning, we have all had our share of problems e.g. not tightening up the grub screws on the axle.... I however did make qualifying. But considering there were only 17 drivers out there and I qualified 16th I wasn't happy. We just didn't have the speed like we did on Saturday.
Sam made it to the grid for the heat, just. He made a blinding start unlike me as I dodged people who had spun. He must have been up to 13th but was being followed by a group of people who were quicker. I was closing in on him when he clipped a kerb and went into the tyres, almost riding alongside them. He didn't finish the race and we later found out that he had bent his axle, not good. I managed to finish in 16th, where I had qualified. Normally I would have been ecstatic, however there were only 18 drivers racing and Sam had killed his axle.The pre-final went very well even though the grid was held so Sam could get onto the grid and go out. I made up a huge number of places and managed to finish in 12th. A top ten finish was looking likely. I didn't feel as if the kart had enough acceleration though so I asked Dad to give me some more. He checked the spark plug and it was black meaning too much fuel was going in so we couldn't make the carb any richer. In the end I think we put on a longer exhaust flex and dropped the tyres a bit, to give me more grip.

The Final - Going through the hook

The final didn't go to well. I had a good start which was ok but the new carb setting made me lose my acceleration. I made up quite a few places at the start and was up to 9th. I had Mitchell in-front of me and some others who I really didn't think I could pass. I felt like I was going well until I got to the hook. I started losing ground straight away and slowly but surely I started to lose places. People were slowly getting past me and I was just thinking, Defend, Defend, Defend. There was nothing else I could do. I started feeling bumps every time I got out of a corner and then Dan Walden tried a pass. I realised who I had behind me and he seemed to be just giving me a nudge, either to let me know he was there which would be fair enough, or to try and push past me which wouldn't. Either way he eventually got past me and my race seemed to be set out. I would slowly lose places. I finished in 13th eventually and my Dad, not me, said that it was a mechanical fault(him) not me that caused me to lose that many places. I felt it was a half decent weekend and am looking forward to the next race, the double header at Glan-y-Gors.
Also I have a training day on the 10th July so expect a blog update shortly afterwards.
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