Llandow 2012

16^th June 2012, Llandow Practice. Well, what can I say, it was typical Welsh weather on the Saturday with rain all the time. Dad and I went down on the Friday so we would be awake when we got to the circuit rather than spend a couple of mins (30) getting the Kart ready as we had sent it off for a re-build. We got the engine on and went over to Jacob’s shelter whilst we waited for the 1^st practice to start. An announcement came over the loud speakers saying that sign in was now open so we went up to the reception area and signed in. Llandow has the longest straight on the Easykart calendar however it has also got a very tight hairpin after it. Then there is a smooth few corners that can be taken in a straight line, Jacob called it a “Bendy Straight”! He comes up with some crazy things. Practice went well and I didn’t spin off to badly, when I did spin I could easily get back on the track and continue with the session. My watch failed to work as my rain suit was too thick for me to press the start button.  I wasn’t drinking anywhere near as much fluid as all I had to do was look up and I would have about a Powerade bottle’s worth of water on my face and in my mouth. No Major accidents so it was a good day and I managed to make some good passing manoeuvres around the hairpin!

17^th June 2012, Llandow Race day! Even though it was sunny and dry it didn’t get off to a good start. In the 5 minute warm up I was doing well and was following this guy, putting a bit of pressure on to see if he would let me pass. On the final lap of the warm up he spins, I went right to the edge of the track, my outer two wheels weren’t even on the track! Almost all of my kart was passed him and I thought ‘phew that was a close one’ when suddenly I spun and crashed headfirst into the tyre wall. His kart was fine and he managed to drive it back to the pits with no damage except a few scratches on his bumper. I lifted the front of my kart round and got in it however every time I revved the engine to get going it would only rock backwards and forwards a tiny bit. The marshal said not to worry as it was not my fault and I wasn’t sure why he was making such a big deal about it until he said, axles aren’t that easy to replace.

It turned out I had bent the whole of my rear axle and got it jammed, the bearings wouldn’t move and the brake disc was very close to being damaged. My dad came jogging over with the trolley all smiles thinking I had just crashed and couldn’t lift the kart however when we told him I had broken the axle he kept the smile but you could tell he was thinking ‘this wasn’t supposed to be an expensive weekend’ so not only did we have to replace the rear axle but we also had to buy new bearings and grub screws as they had been broken off. I missed out on qualifying and almost didn’t make it to the heat however everyone was very helpful and at one point we had not only me and my dad working on it but also a Club 100 mechanic (who was very, very, very helpful!), Jacob’s granddad and Adam (it was his kart before we got it) and his dad, well not Adam, he was driving his kart.

I got into the heat and was running pretty well in around 25^th-26^th out of 29 when suddenly the engine hit max revs and I wasn’t getting any power, I later found out that the whole axle had moved about 6-7cm. All we had to do was shift it back into place however because it was the axle that had moved not the brakes or the sprocket we had to get them back into place and then move the axle which took a bit of time, I made it to the pre-final but starting from very near the back.

In the pre-final my rolling starts weren’t there so yet again I had to work my way up from the back, on the 1^st proper lap there was a 6 kart pileup with a few people getting thrown up in the air, they made it back to their karts and finished the race, most above me however some got parts broken and returned to the pits, I finished in 24^th and was very pleased with myself.

In the final I did well and managed to not go down to last although I did drop a few places and found myself in second last. Luckily it was a false start and my friend Thomas Bukman had to get to the pits, all his brake fluid had leaked and as he went into the pits at 10mph his brakes failed and he went straight into the wire fence. Ouch! I made up a lot of places and even passed 2 people in one go around the Hairpin, it felt great. In the end I finished 18^th which is my best result yet, I know I have only done 2 races but still, it is a 4 place improvement. I should be 1^st in 5 races if it stays the same!

Bring on Forest Edge!

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!