Screw Loose | Easykart UK 2015 Round 4 Clay Pigeon

Nice and dry on Saturday

The 4th round of the Easykart UK championship was held over June 27th-28th at Clay Pigeon Raceway. Last year Clay Pigeon wasn't a great race for me, having struggled with tyres all weekend. This year I was hoping for better.
We arrived at the track on Friday to drop off the trailer, it was so misty/foggy that at the track you couldn't even see 20m in front of you! We then headed onto our hotel. Not much to say about Friday other than it was a good nights sleep.
Saturday, Testing. We arrived at the track to beautiful sunshine, a complete contrast to Friday Evening. We were set-up and signed on ready for the "official" Easykart Track Walk. Although I have been to Clay Pigeon multiple times the official track walk is always useful, sometimes showing me where I can gain time. The day went well, I seemed to have the pace and we were pretty confident on setup. We then went back to the hotel for dinner - steak as usual.

Qualy

Sunday, Race Day. We arrived at the track, and although it was damp it appeared to be drying. However just before the first warm up session the heavens opened and the track was soaked. I was fastest in warm up by 0.3 seconds, but that's warm up so not sure how much people were pushing.
Qualifying was good, I found grip and managed to put myself P2 on the grid for the 3rd time this season.

On the grid for the heat

The heat was good, I had a blistering start and managed to get into first by the end of the first corner. There's so much more grip on the outside! Anyway, I had a decent lead of about 1 second then my tyres started to struggle for grip. I had to change my line to try and find grip, however that didn't work out too great. I dropped down to 3rd after 2 laps of struggling for grip and held my position. Then, some laps later, Jenson's wheel flew off in front of me, promoting me to 2nd place. I finished the race on the road in 2nd, however after penalties I was promoted another place to 1st. I technically won the race!!!
Pre-final. The track had now dried off and me having to start from pole was rather daunting. I made a real hash of the start, losing 2 places by the end of turn 1. The rest of the race was OK, I got back up into 2nd for a bit but then Jenson appeared and I was back down to 3rd. I tried a different line near the end of the race, hoping to gain a bit of time, but it didn't work. I finished in 4th place.

Leading the heat - 2/3 laps in

Pole Position!

Now the final.... Oh the final..... what a great time for something to go wrong! As you can tell, something did go wrong. I had no acceleration or top end and struggled for the whole race. People were able to fly past me on the straight and also pull a gap out of every corner. It was so frustrating! How I managed to finish 8th I don't know, it was a real struggle. So that ended my weekend. It looked promising a lost screw stopped my podium chances. The loose screw was the one that holds the high jet in, having lost this my kart was seriously down on power.
Problems aside - on to G-y-G!

My 3rd Season | 2014

Looking Back
So, my third season in Easykart has been and gone. I've had some good races this year, gaining a personal highest finish of 4th, best qualifying of 2nd. However, no podium has come my way and I am yet to get a pole position. Finishing the season with a seeded number was a bonus (#8), expected but still a good feeling. Having hoped for better at the e-plate it was somewhat disappointing not to do too well, but that's racing.
Round 1 - A new beginning again as we got the new kart. Highlight of the round has got to be getting into 3rd by the end of the first corner in the final, even if I didn't hold it. Finishing 7th wasn't bad, and was improved on later in the year.
Round 2 - Well, having not gone to round 2 I can't really say much about it other than I had a great weekend with my family instead. Thanks guys!
Round 3 - Shenington is one of my favourite tracks (I know, I say that about most of them) and, although my results there haven't been spectacular considering my form later in the season, I still regard the final as being one of my greatest races this year.
Round 4 - Clay Pigeon.... Now, being a relatively short track there shouldn't be too much time difference between the quick drivers and the "slightly slower than the quick drivers but definitely not slow" drivers. This race weekend, I feel, was my worst of the year and I hope that another one of these types of weekends doesn't turn up for a while, at least the racing side of it. Thanks to my Dad for being supportive all weekend.
Round 5 - Glan-y-Gors is another track that I have said is my favourite, but I think it is simply because it has a good flow to it, not too many park and turn corners. Not my greatest weekend but a lot of experience has been gained from it I'm certain.
Round 6 - Llandow gave me my biggest high and biggest low of the season. High - I finished 3rd in a race! Low - I was under weight so was DQ'ed from the race and lost out on 5th place in the championship. But all mistakes mean a lesson learned.
Round 7 - Whilton Mill is my most local track and I have had the majority of my track time on that track. This year saw me get my first ever front row start having achieved a Personal best qualifying position of 2nd, not yet pole. Unfortunately in 2 of the following 3 races I got taken out so was having to force my way through the pack. Thanks to the majority of the male contingent of my family for coming down, along with my Mum (Not part of the male contingent!)
Round 8 - Ellough park wasn't kind to me last year, seeing one of my worst results. This year it felt like it was going to be the same, I wasn't feeling the track as I do at other venues. It felt like I was going to have to fight for a decent finish. As it happened I didn't, setting pretty good lap times almost the same as the front group. It also saw my highest finish of 4th so I was pretty happy.
Winter Cup - A one off race with hope of a podium. This race gave me my biggest incident to date but also made me realise how much a neck brace can protect your neck in a crash.

Thanks to Club100, ACR, Spellfame, All my family, My Dad and all the guys at Easykart for being so helpful and not scared to give a tip or two on my driving.

Next year
Next year I intend to continue in Easykart and, as mentioned in one of my previous posts, I should still be competing in Juniors as I don't meet the minimum weight for Senior lightweight. I intend to be much more active on twitter over race weekends, giving updates on how it is going and lap times etc. I have 2-3kg to put on before I have to move up to seniors, so I may or may not have to move up mid season.
If possible I'd love to be able to move from Easykart into a different, more known class, however the chances of finding one of them that goes to as many tracks as Easykart (without being super1) is highly unlikely... I think.

Easykart UK Round 4 - Clay Pigeon | The Weekend Review

On the weekend of June 14th and 15th, the 4th round of the Easykart UK championship was held. This year it was at Clay Pigeon, making Clay Pigeon the most visited track so far in Easykart for me - joint with Whilton Mill at 4 race visits.
I was looking forward to the weekend as the weather looked good, and Clay is a very quick track. As mentioned in my race preview (If you haven't read it why not?!) Clay Pigeon was the first track I ever raced at in Easykart.
As this is my GCSE year I have been doing GCSEs (obviously) in the weeks leading up to the race weekend with my last one being Friday 13th (unlucky?) so we were able to leave early and get to the track around 8:00pm and leave the trailer. A 3 hour 40 minute journey that took 5 hours and 40 minutes.

Saturday 14th June. Practice day. We arrived at the track at just after 8:30 and got the awning and the kart out of the trailer. We were sharing the awning with Mitchell and his dad again, almost a team? We were running on very old tyres that had seen about 4 hours of track time before the weekend, so they weren't at their best. Throughout the day I was running in mid to high 35 seconds, so slightly off the pace but we put that down to the tyres.

James White - Trailing behind?

I was able to keep up just about with people like James White and Mitchell, but not consistent enough to stay with them for the whole session, it would only take 1 mistake and they would pull 3 or 4 kart lengths on me.
We ended the day on a 35.9 second lap, but I got a 35.5 just before lunch, so I was quite happy.

Sitting 6th on the grid

Sunday 15th June was race day, and, like Saturday, we got to the track at about 8:30 in time to get the kart out of the trailer and set up ready for warm up. We had new slicks so were hoping my times would be a bit better. I set something like a 35.5 or 35.6 in the warm up, so quicker than the end of the Saturday, but still not quick.
Qualifying I set a 35.28 as my quickest time but that only got me 10th place, later 9th place as one of the drivers ahead of me was under weight.
Starting 9th for the heat wasn't brilliant as I had to brake earlier to get around the corner, but I held my line and managed not to lose any positions. By the hairpin I was up 1 place and in 8th place, as a driver managed to take their chain off. I held my position for the rest of the race, beating my qualifying time of 35.28 by 1 hundredth of a second.
Starting the Pre-final in 8th was better than I had hoped as I was on the outside and managed to avoid the collisions ahead of me before the false start flags were out. In the restart I managed to hold my position again and was tailing Mitchell and Bailey down to the hairpin. Both Bailey and Mitchell moved out onto the standard racing line so I was able to slip down the inside and take 6th place. I drove the rest of the session trying to catch up with the group ahead of me, which I was doing early on but started to slip backwards. I stayed in 6th for the rest of the race.

The grid for the final - I am just behind James White (#5)

The start of the final was without incident and I was able to keep my position. I was also able to keep up with the 5 karts ahead of me for a while, but they started to pull away and I never managed to catch up again. Later in the race, at about half distance, a mad lunge was made by Bailey into the hairpin sending him wide and allowing me to regain the position I lost for all of about 1 second, and allowing Jonathan to go through into 7th. He later got past me which put me down into 8th as Bailey got past as well. I was able to keep up for a bit but a mistake by me allowed Mitchell to get past, dropping me into 9th and further back from the group. I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up and unfortunately failing to get close enough meaning I finished my weekend in 9th.

Not the best weekend but still points for the championship. Next race G-y-G!

Easykart Round 4 - Clay Pigeon | Race Preview

Coming up is the fourth round of the Easykart UK championship, held this year at Clay Pigeon. All the way back in 2012, Clay Pigeon was the first race I went to. Although I have never done very well at Clay Pigeon I am sure I should do better this time, new kart, new mentality. It is a great circuit to drive, wet or dry, with lots of fast, but technical sections. It is one of the smaller tracks we go to I think, but that just puts more pressure on the driver - it also means we get more laps, Yipee.
From reading the Club100 circuit guide, as I normally do, I have decided that probably the most important corner is turn 7, or the Top bend (Winston's Flip), as if done well it allows you to get lots of speed along the start finish line and hopefully set you up well for the next corner(s). "This looks like a very straightforward bend but it is very easy to get wrong. It is very important to get the exit correct or you will not have the speed going into Billy’s Blind. It is possible to overtake going into turn 7 if a lesser driver has made a mistake at the Horseshoe or Symonds Grass track but can lead to accidents." Also it could give you enough of an edge to storm past someone before the next corner. With my rather unconventional race last time out at Shenington I hope to keep my position better.
Quotes from the Club100 circuit guide.

Image from the Club100 circuit guide

Andy's suggested set-up for Clay Pigeon (Junior)
Set up

• Carb setting start 50mins to 60mins low jet
• Main jet : 83
• Sprocket 77tooth
• Suggested chain length 100 or 102 links (CZ Chains remember!)
• Exhaust flex 75mm to 80mm suggested

Dry

• 20mm or 25mm from spacers
• Rear track 138 to 239..... wait no, 139
• Tyre pressures from between 9 to 12 psi

Wet

• Full front spacers
• 134 to 135 rear track, unless you are James in which case nothing changes
• Tyre pressure 11 psi - grease, 14psi - wet, 18 psi - monsoon

I am looking forward to this weekend away racing because, as mentioned before it was the first track I raced an Easykart. Also unless it is the e-plate the weather is normally stunning. Hopefully see you there!

Clay Pigeon 2013

Saturday 20th April, Practice Day. Practice day, well all I can say is I wish it was the other way round. The track on the Saturday was amazing, it was quick and grippy. I really felt as if something clicked on the Saturday as for ages my dad has been saying "Brake later," "Carry more speed," and my response had always been that I was braking as late as I could and if I carried any more speed through the corners I would have spun out. Well I was proved wrong. I could brake really late into the corners and was carrying a lot more speed. I was quicker than Sam Nicholas. I didn't get out in the first session as we were still sorting out the kart, and fitting the engine on after the rebuild. We made it out for the second session however I could only go about half speed on the straights and full speed through the corners as I was told shouldn't and mustn't over work it, so much later braking... We finished the second session and Sam still hadn't arrived, it was now about 12:00 to 1:00 and we were starting to think maybe he wasn't coming when out of nowhere we saw the silver zafira that signals the arrival of Sam and David, but there was no trailer. So Sam and David had arrived with no kart or awning, but everything else. Apparently their trailer wheel had come off on the motorway at 70mph, but I think they meant 60mph as you cannot tow a trailer and go 70mph, unless you are breaking the law... Yes it must have been 60mph. Anyway to cut a long, boring story short their trailer eventually arrived on a AA flatbed and they were sorted. We both made it out for the third session and I was told to take it easy for about 5 laps then slowly build it up to full speed. My fastest lap was a 37.71 second lap which was very good as I had out lapped, if that is the word, Sam for I think the first time ever in practice save the e plate. The afternoon went about the same as session 3, me beating Sam and feeling very smug. I also nailed the hairpin and did an out braking maneuver on Matthew Rainbow which I held and also did in the race against Sam.

We picked Sam and David up and went out for a meal as we normally do. We went to the Quicksilver Mail which, if you are ever racing at clay pigeon or in Yeovil, I definitely recommend as the food is brilliant and so is the service, a nice little country style pub with good ale and beer according to my dad.

Sunday 21st April, Race Day. Well at least this time I got a cooked breakfast. Thumbs up for little chef. We arrived at the track at about 9:00 to set up what ever we had to set up which wasn't much. My dad being my dad he decided that it was a good investment to buy an AMB Tranx transponder, unfortunately Club 100 didn't notice that he had put the number on the sign up sheet so I had to go and tell them. The warm up was ok and, unlike Sam, I only scrubbed in my new tyres and did about 4 laps, he decided that it was a good Idea to go flat out the whole time and almost wrecked his tyres. He said that it was better to get to know the new tyres before qualy than during.
Qualifying next, I put in a half decent time and managed to get 19th out of 22 with Sam as my partner in crime, he was to the left of me for the heat.
The heat went ok and I finished where I had started, 19th but not by luck, I had terrible acceleration, did for the whole of Sunday actually, so my start was terrible, I think I got down to 21st or 22nd place. I made up the places though, taking Sam on the last corner I think.
The Pre-final. Pretty much the same as the heat, we still couldn't get the acceleration so I just had to deal with it and brake slightly earlier so as to be able to accelerate earlier, I wouldn't brake as much but it worked. I finished 19th again but at least it wasn't a negative movement.
The final, now this was pretty good. We somehow managed to get a bit of acceleration out of the kart so I managed to hold my position during the start. I had been tailing 2 people, Mantas and Jessica, for a number of laps and, at the hairpin, I managed to get an amazing drive out of the corner and power past not only Jess for 18th but Mantas as well for 17th. Mantas later had to come in as his engine was "without power". Mitchell crashed at the hairpin and had to stop. On the last or penultimate lap Jess got past me and in my attempt to regain the place I had to take evasive action so as not to crash, slowing me down and unfortunately allowing Brandon Bishop to pass. Somehow though I managed to finish 16th which I believe is my highest finish to date.

All I can say is bring on Shennington.
oh and as requested here is your mention Matas.

EK Spa (AKA Glan Y Gors) 2012

22nd September 2012, Glan-Y-Gors Practice. Throughout the Saturday I was doing 48 second laps around this amazing fast circuit which is known as the Spa of the Easykart Calendar. 

When we arrived we tried to start up the engine however the starter motor wouldn't cut out, we would turn it on with the button, it would go, we would release the button and it would still keep going, the only way to stop it was to pull out one of the wires that connect the starter motor to the electrical part. We went to see Andy and he said that it was probably the starter motor that was the problem; I missed all 3 of the morning sessions just trying to get it sorted! We bought a new starter bendix; however that did not stop the problem so Andy said to open the electrical part even though it explicitly says not too. Nothing seemed to be out of place so we just tightened every screw we could see and that seemed to do the trick - it must have just been a loose connection. I made the afternoon sessions but I couldn't get below a 48 second lap. I thought 48 seconds was good until I saw what people like Thomas Bukman and Mitchell White were doing, Thomas was doing 46.6 seconds a lap I think but I knew I would never get close to his time, Mitchell however (who I am usually the same as) was doing 46.8 or 46.9 second laps so I knew I was well off the pace. Really annoying. So Saturday did not go well however we did go out for a really nice meal at a pub called Y Giler Inn, the food was really nice and all the staff were friendly, so Saturday was not all bad. We slept on site in a tent, it was FREEZING. Dad and I got warm inside our sleeping bags and tried to get some sleep.

23^rd September 2012, Glan-Y-Gors Race day. When we woke up it was freezing and I happened to be the 1^st junior driver up on site. Everyone else was either off site or asleep in their caravan e.g. Mitchell White. We had delicious Bacon butties for brekkie from the Cafe on the ground floor of the club house, it was very nice.

We got the kart sorted and went out for the warm up however I still wasn't getting any faster! Sophie Harris and I both waited for everyone to go out, however when we were coming up to the 2^nd corner at about half speed we both spun as if we got to the corner, we were both amazed that we spun because although we knew it was quite slippery and damp we didn't think it would be that easy to spin. When we got off the track and I looked at my times I was still doing 48 second lap times and this really frustrated me. We talked to Sophie afterwards and she said to me that if I braked later into one of the corners I might go a bit faster and also that I should go straight from the brake to the throttle, no coasting. Weirdly that made me strip one second off my time and so in qualifying I managed to do a 46 second lap, I was really pleased with that.

In qualifying I drove pretty much as I would normally maybe braking slightly later and a bit less coasting but I was astonished that that had really taken a second off my time, but that doesn't matter, the point is I did.

The Heat went quite well for me because at the start I managed to gain 3 places which is a real achievement for me as I have rarely gained places off a rolling start before. The race was going well and I was pulling away from Sophie who I overtook at the start until I tried to take the last corner too sharply and it pulled me wide at the exit, my wheels hit the grass and I found myself spinning around at 60 mph going towards a barrier. Luckily I had slowed down by the time I reached the barrier and I didn't do any obvious damage to me or the kart. Unfortunately Sophie got passed me when I was trying to get back onto the track. Scott was very close behind me and I was just trying to keep ahead of him for long enough to finish in front of him. However Scott had set his kart up for top end speed which I didn't have, so along the straights he would gain on me however through the corners I would pull away, but it was not enough. About 4 laps from the end Scott overtook me so I finished in 27^th, ahead of Mitchell.

The Pre-final was carnage because one of the people at the front managed to knock the cone over making it fly across the track almost hitting Sophie who swerved to avoid it at the same time Scott swerved, they collided causing at least 3 karts to crash, I got through unscathed and managed to follow quite a few people who weren't slow. Throughout the race there were quite a few crashes and by the end I had managed to get into 21^st place, which I thought was pretty good.

The Final was quite tense because before we went out it looked like it might start to rain and lots of people were wondering whether to put wet tyres on; we were sure it wouldn't rain so we went for slicks. Luckily we were correct so we didn't have to rush back to get the wet tyres  Unfortunately at the very start of the Final when we were racing, not just doing the rolling start laps, I didn't see Brandon Bishop, who had spun, and so I somehow flew over the top of him, all 4 wheels in the air. My front bumper got crushed and my steering was messed up, I had to go to full left lock to go round most of the corners slowly. I was a hazard on the track so I decided to come in before I caused anyone to crash or mess up their race. In the end I came 26^th out of 29 which isn't great but it isn't last.

My next entry will be after the E-plate at Clay Pigeon on 24^th-25^th November which leads into the 2013 season!(Although the 1^st race of 2013 is in March I think) 

Clay Pigeon 2012

26^th May 2012, Clay Pigeon Practice. The weather was unbelievably hot; you would get in your kart, drive for 15 in your practice session and then want to jump in an ice box it was so hot. As this was my first race weekend was going to take it slow just so I could get to grips with the track. Of course I didn’t drive to slowly because I wouldn’t have got an idea of where to brake but to start off with I just played it safe. Clay Pigeon is a very fast flowing track with a few tight hairpins but if you can get your braking points sorted it is great to drive on. Anyway back to me. I don’t have any of this fancy equipment like a Mychron4 or a GoPro helmet cam; I just have a rather nice AIM MyTach GPS Watch which works just as well as my friend Jacob’s (he is in Cadets) Mychron4. I come off the track, sit in the boot of our car and drink at least 1½ bottles of Powerade whilst my dad checks the kart over and has a quick look at the data from my watch on his laptop. I then check the tyres and basic things like that. It is so hectic we almost missed one of the practice sessions! All in all practice (Saturday) went very well and I felt I learnt the track well.

27^th May 2012, Clay Pigeon Race day! The 5 min warm up session went well and I felt I could come above last by the end of the day. Qualifying, I placed myself at the back of the grid so I could focus on just driving and not having to worry about people trying to overtake me. I was passed a few times as the people who finished in 1^st from qualifying were around 1 second per lap quicker than me. I finished in 19^th place out of a total of 27, not bad for a first timer.

Heat A, I was in Heat A and realised that if I was going to keep my position I would have to nail the rolling start. I didn’t. I dropped right to the back of the grid and had to slowly make my way up again. I was doing well, about to overtake someone for 23^rd but I missed my braking point and spun right into the hairpin, my kart wasn’t rolling backward enough and someone came careering towards me and smashed into the side of my kart, bending the side pod right up and ending my heat race.

Pre-Final, starting from 24^th place with 3 people behind me who are actually VERY fast was quite scary because yet again after the rolling start I was dumped into last place, I don’t mind working my way up because I get to practice my overtaking. Finished the pre-final in 22^nd so I made up a few places, 2 people went into the pits so I overtook 3 people.

Final, I felt good and was sure I would nail the rolling start however people up at the front kept shoving so we did a few restarts however people wouldn’t let me back into my position so I got pushed down to last place even before the race had started! The race was quite uneventful but I made it up to 22^nd again just before the chequered flag. For my first race weekend I fell it went quite well. Looking forward to the next in a couple of weeks time!