Crail - Summer Endurance 2

After last month's clean sweep, we expected a much tougher day at Crail - It was a nice sunny day and with 24 karts on the grid and we had an hour of practice, instead of the usual 30 minutes. We started on our old tyres from last month and the kart felt really good to both Ros and me, with us posting the 2nd fastest lap on the short circuit. The second 30 mins of practice was to be on the long circuit - we missed the first 5 minutes or so as we changed over to our new tyres, but immediately, I thought the kart felt 'wrong' - The left rear felt like it was folding over when turning right - I put this down to the pressures being wrong and continued my 15 minutes - When we changed over for Ros to do the last 15 mins, we adjusted the tyre pressures, but it didn't make any difference - we qualified 4th. We thought about going back to the old tyres but decided to persevere with the new set and adjusted the pressures some more. At the start I maintained 4th but was losing touch with the top 3 every lap and it wasn't long before Jack, in the new XLB Anderson kart, came past me. We swapped places a couple of times after that , but I handed over to Ros in 5th place. Ros drove a great stint, aided but some poor pitwork from MBM, to get us back up to 3rd by the flag, but way down on our championship rivals, Milwalk. So for race 2, we changed the rear tyres to last months, as we discovered that the new left rear tyre was on back to front (race tyres are directional - it was on the wrong way). I started 3rd from the back on the reverse grid from race 2, and got punted into the gravel of pit bend on lap 1. This seemed to wake me up, and I later found out I was consistently the fastest driver on the track as I made my way up to 3rd. We were about 4 seconds down on Milwalk/MBM at the change over - But again Ros was straight on the pace and we won the race by 15 seconds. At least we knew what the problem had been. For race 3 we started, along side Milwalk, on the front row with MBM and Apollo on row 2. The start was clean and I managed to get into the lead, albeit for only 2 corners , before making a mistake that allowed MBM and Milwalk through. I eventually got past Grant in the MBM kart but Chris from Milwalk was pulling away by 2-4 tenths a lap. I eventually managed to almost match his pace, but not consistently enough and at the half hour change over, Milwalk had a 13 second lead. Ros chased for all he was worth, but at the flag, we were still 7 seconds behind. The rear tyres were pretty shot by the end and the kart was getting quite oversteery, so second overall is not a bad result, but we've decided that we need to do some testing to find an extra 10th or two from our setup. If we manage that, we'll be in good shape for the rest of the year.

Craig continued his karting education with a 6th overall, partnered by Michael (who races at Raceland with us) - I think we may well have another "Crail Convert".

Bedford Part One

Hugh and I spent today at Bedford Autodrome driving an exotic mix of fast cars. We traveled down last night to make sure we could be at the circuit for the 8am start, and arrived at the circuit in the pouring rain. Apparently, the south east has been getting it's wettest May for years, even though there is officially a drought.

After the obligatory safety briefing, delivered with some good humor by Martin Brundle, we headed out for the first event. So if it's pissing down, what would be the worst car to start in? Yep, the FPA single seater. It was OK for me, but for most other people it was a bit of a leap of faith - No babysitter/instructor to help, no grip, cold tyres/brakes, and for most, not knowing where the track went. Still, we gave it a go and all did pretty well. There were a couple of off-track excursions, but no damage and everyone enjoyed it. Then it was onto the off road course which I'm usually pretty bad at - no change today. Then back to the still damp West Circuit for the Jaguar JP1s. We were still on wet tyres, and after 3 or 4 laps you could feel the tyres squirming around as they overheated - Luckily, we were the last to use them before lunch and Nicky, my instructor, thanked me for killing his wet tyres - I raced against Nicky in my half season in FPA 2003, so it was nice to be out with someone who just sat back and let me get on with it. The kart circuit has been lengthened this year , but with all the rain, there were 2 big puddles on the track, so it wasn't a timed event, and most decided to give it a miss. However, whilst some of my team were out in the JP1s, I gave it a go and got totally drenched - Still good fun but you could see why they cut it from the day.

After lunch we headed off to the North Circuit for the Clios and the Nissan 350zs. I'm always amazed just how well the 350z, in standard road car trim, copes with the demands of circuit work. And the Clios, 900kg, 185bhp and a sequential gear box makes for a really quick little car - within half a second of the much more powerful 350z.

New for this year is the Porsche 996 Carrera 2 - Well that's what they started out as - Palmersport have done some major work on the suspension which has made it more akin to a GT3 (so I'm told). On the challenging South Circuit, I was expecting a car that wouldn't turn in, quickly followed by snap oversteer - I couldn;t have been more wrong - The car was really neutral and very quick - Yes, demanding to drive, but not out to throw you off at every opportunity. My favorite event of the day!

Then it was off to the twisty East Circuit for the Caterham Superlight. 10 Laps in one of these really gives you a work out as I doubt all four wheels were pointing in the same direction for more than a few seconds. Great!

Hugh and I both had a great day and we're both looking forward to our visit on Aug 3rd with 20 of us heading down for a day of automotive excess :-)

Team F'Sport

Today the full F'Sport team met up for the first time at Raceland's 90 minute endurance race. Ian partnered Sarah 'O', Jack and I shared a kart, as did Neil and Craig. Kenny was also out with Ian's son, Ewan.

We arrived to find a wet track and it started raining heavily just before practice. I did the first 15 mins of driving with Jack finishing the session, with us lining up second behind David Rooke/Michael McGuigan. Craig and Neil were 3rd with the others further down the field. I quite like driving in the wet, and even the new slow karts were quite challenging in these type of conditions. I started the race and managed to squeeze past Michael on lap one - the kart didn't feel very quick in a straight line, but handled nicely and I managed to build up a nine second lead by half way. The track was just starting to dry up a bit and I could see that Michael had started to close up, so on the in lap I pushed (too hard!) and managed to spin - Even so I was right on Michael back bumper as I peeled off into the pits for Jack to take over. Within another 10 or so laps, there was a dry line, and after another 10-15, the track was as good as dry - This was bad news for us, as Jack was getting passed by folk while going down the main straight - He kept going and managed to finish 3rd behind the young Testosterone guys and David/Michael, but our quickest lap was over 2 seconds slower than the leaders - a bit discouraging.
I'll say it again, these are new karts and there should not be such a huge difference between them (as much as 5%!). See The Racing Drivers Excuse Book, point Number #27 :-)

The F'Sport team are planning to go down to Buckmore Park in Kent, as they have the same karts that we will be driving in Thailand, which uses the same chassis as the Raceland karts, but they have a 390cc engine (270cc at Raceland). Check out the team at www.fsportkarting.com.

Neil can't make it to Crail next weekend, so Michael is teaming up wuth Craig - Should be fun.

I'm also off to Bedford Autodrome on Friday for a day of fun:-))))))))

This week...

I'm back in Whisler for some great late season ski-ing. This means I missed last Sunday's Super GP at Raceland, but as I don't get on with the new karts, I'm not too bothered. We've had some new snow and some sunny days as well - doesn't get much better:-)