Crail - Summer Endurance 5

Today's meeting at Crail was tough for me - I started to get a sore throat on Friday night, and I spent most of Saturday doing very little as I felt crap. But I didn't feel to bad on Sunday morning, so of I went on the 90 minute drive to Crail. Once again we were blessed with fine weather, although no where near as warm as last month. Ros qualified us in second place, but I had a bad start and dropped 3-4 seconds behind the lead 3 of Milwalk, XLB and Apollo. Still, I maintained the gap and we managed to leapfrog Apollo at the pit stop. Ros drove really well and diced with Mark of XLB for the lead, eventually crossing the line less than 0.5 seconds behind. Race 2 is a reverse grid and I got caught up with a guy in a GX200 kart (the rest of us race GX160s) at the start which lost me a few seconds - however, I made my way through to third by the changeover and Ros quickly caught and passed the 2 ahead to win by 8 seconds. I have to say I was feeling pretty rough by now, but I only had one more stint to do. I was on pole for race 3 and diced with Chris from Milwalk for most of the half hour - I then proceeded to hit the tyres coming into the pit lane losing us around 15 seconds, which cost us the race - Ros chased the leader down but was still 5 seconds down on Milwalk by the flag. We still won the day and gained a further point on second placed Milwalk, but it was a day of what might have been. We take a 15 point lead into the final meeting of the season at the end of September, which should make for a good race meeting. Andy and Jamie continued to improve and despite carrying a good few extra kilos, Jamie is starting to get onto the same pace as Andy.

Out of the Blue.......

I got a 'phone call tonight - I've been asked to drive for Scotland in the Internations kart challenge at the Llandow circuit in Wales in a couple of weeks. My team mate Ros had mentioned this to me at the weekend, but I hadn't taken him seriously - He can't take part coz he doesn't have an MSA license, which is not really fair as the class we race in, ProKart, no longer has an MSA series - But he's letting me use his kart, which is the one we race at Crail - Now that's what I call a team mate!. To say I'm 'gobsmacked' is an under statement, but what an opportunity. More to follow.........

UK Endurance ProKart Championship 18th-20th Aug 2006

The UK 24 hour kart race at Whilton Mill was a fantastic race. During testing on Friday, we managed to get our kart setup pretty well for the changeable conditions and we were happy that we'd do well in qualifying. Last year we managed 13th, so we were a bit shocked to only qualify 20th this year when we thought we had the kart setup much better and Robert, who normally races Rotax, posted our quickest lap and is quicker than the rest of us!

This year I had decided not to do too much pre-race (last year I did most of the Friday setup work and the qualifying) so I only did one session on Friday, on a wet track. As the forecast predicted a fair amount of rain over the weekend, this was OK, and as it turned out, I wouldn't drive a dry lap all weekend. Noel started the race in bright sunshine, and at this point it looked like the weather men had gotten it wrong. The kart didn't seem to cope with the increased temperature and by the end of Noel's session (100 min) we were in 26th place :-( Ros managed to gain a place during his session and then the conditions started to change. About 30 minutes into Robert's session the rain started and we took the gamble of immediately fitting wet tyres - A pit stop to change tyres takes about 90 seconds, or 2 laps, and he was only out for another couple of laps when the rain stopped and the sun came back out, rapidly drying the track. We had been one of 2 teams to change tyres, and we lost out. So back in he came for slicks and another 2 laps lost. Then 15 minutes later the rain returned and having nothing to lose, we changed again and the same happened:-( So when the rain came back for a third time around 15 minutes later, we had no hesitation in pitting for wet tyres again - then the heavens opened and everyone followed. Robert completed his session on a drying track and we were thinking about going back to slicks, but the rain came back and I took over. I had only done one session in the kart on Friday, but although it was wet then and now, the kart felt very different. In 140 minutes I had 6 spins (more than I've had all season) and found the kart to be very understeery followed quickly by massive oversteer. When I got out of the kart I was very grumpy, cold and wet - it turned out that the tyre pressures were 8 psi down on where they should have been and we couldn't figure out why this had happened, but at least I knew that I hadn't forgotten how to drive :-)

Scott took over on new wets, at the correct pressures, and ran a steady session with no spins! Eric then took over and as usual, was pretty quick. Noel's second session started on a wet track, but by the end of his session, the track was pretty dry and Ros went out on slicks. The race was stopped around 1AM due to an accident that waranted the use of the ambulance - I need to find out more details on this. Ros took the restart and finished his session without incident, then Robert took over - Poor guy, it started to rain again during his session and he was in and out of the pits to change tyres. My memory is a bit hazy of the all these events as staying up for a 24 hour race, when you've only managed around 8 hours sleep over the previous 2 nights, is not easy. Anyway, I was out next, on new wet tyres, and right away, the kart felt fantastic. In my 2 hour session, I was passed twice - I reckon I lapped everbody else, some twice or three times - the kart was on rails and it was a fun drive, with no spins! - Noel took over and contiued our move up the leader board. We were now 10th. Over the closing 6 hours we diced with 9th place a few times before finally getting a lap ahead of the chasing team with only 20 minutes to go, letting Noel take the flag in 9th place.

Last year we finished 10th overall and first in club class. This year, more than half of the pro teams had dropped into club class, and the best 'club' team finished 3rd overall. How you can call a team that has factory support, and is spending a reputed 12k a year on engines, a club team is beyond me. Anyway, we were a place ahead of last year's position so that's got to be a plus. I then drove home to Glasgow (around 4:45 journey time) and I have no recolection of the middle 2 hours - In hindsight, a crazy decision and one I'll remmember not to repeat next year.

This post marks a year of blogging at the Racers Edge:-)

Whilton here we come....

After the excitement of last week's trip to Bedford, there wasn't much going on this week. Ros and I are joining forces with Eric and Scott (Apollo), Noel (MS kart) and Robert (races Rotax) to enter the UK 24 hour race at Whilton Mill next weekend. We managed to win the Club Class last year and, with Robert no doubt bringing some speed with him, we hope to defend the title this year. I'm still profoundly affected by the experience of Thailand, and today I managed to send them six thousand pounds to make up for the cash we didn't win in the race. I'd been saving this money over the last 2-3 years to fund some car racing. Of course, this means that I'll not be making my annual appearance in the FPA Autumn Trophy, but I'd like to think that the money will be better spent helping some of the fantastic children we met out there. Those that know me well, may think I've "lost it" by giving away my only chance of car racing this year (Fiona said much the same!), but if you'd been there, I think you'd understand.

Team MacRenault

On Thursday, 22 of us headed for the Motorsport Sensation at Bedford Autodrome. Over the past few years we've had up to 8 going along, but this year we had enough for a team of 20 of our own. Dave Morgan had also bought 2 places from a charity auction on Radio Forth, so he booked in for the same day. Of the 22 attendees, around half race karts fairly regularly, and most drive good road cars, so we reckoned that we'd have a fairly competitive day. After the recent good weather, it was a bit strange to arrive at the circuit under a heavy sky and temperatures more like autumn, but it was dry, so all looked good. We were to be the Renault team, with Dave M and Neil M joining the Red Bull team (max 20 per team). We had a hectic morning starting with the Jaguar JP1, karts and the FPA race car. It was almost as much fun as driving to see peoples faces after having been round the west circuit in these cars. Then it was off to the north circuit for the Clio's and the Nissan 350Z. I always have my worst of the circuit events in the Clio, which i really like driving, and this year was no different - I guess I need to learn to drive a FWD car. The 350Z is just a fun car to drive - Opposite lock everywhere :-) Then it was over to the offroad area where, new for this year, they have a Caterham head to head (or really back to back) race. I was first up against Craig , and got well and truly thrashed 3-0. In my defense, I have to say that my half of the course was much wetter, and over the whole 10 races , only the last guy won on that side. Then it was the off road, and for once, I managed to hit every target and stay on the rails. Lunch was the usual quality affair, and then we were off to the east circuit for the Caterhams. After the FPA, this is my favourite event, and this year I managed to go sub 50 seconds for the first time. Then it was off to the south circuit for the Porsche JP3. I was really struggling with this car and it didn't make sense as I had managed a 70.85 in May? My instructor then told me that they'd had to use harder tyres as the orig ones were too sticky and they'd snapped a number of half shafts - So I pushed on and was way up on my previous best, but managed to spin on the exit of the chicane just before the timing beam, throwing away what would have been my quickest lap. It was worse than that coz he then told me that I was now on my last lap. I pushed really hard and despite the slow start to the lap (due to the spin) set my quickest time before diving into the pits. And that was it, all over for another year. So how did we do? The only event we didn't win was the Porsche, and the Clio, which was won by Neil M. In the overall standings we took places 1,3,4,5,6,7,8 & 10 and everybody had great fun. It's not a cheap day out, but the value for money is fantastic. Apparently, the guy who finished second, has won each of the 12 times he's been there - you should have seen his face :-)