But not in that order
The Bad.We all met up at Nice airport, with Me, Michael, Chris and Barbara flying in from Edinburgh with Mark coming from Paris and Myles from Manchester. Mark had driven to Paris on Wednesday as he was heading up to Spa today. However, Air France had managed to loose his luggage between Paris and Nice, and as it turned out, it wouldn't arrive until 01:30 on Saturday morning. We grabbed a taxi over to Monaco that took about and hour and found our respective hotels. Michael and I were staying in the Fairmont which has it's entry at Loews hairpin, and the rest of the team were in the Port Princess which is on the right between the chicane and Tabac. Michael and I were keen to walk the circuit so we dumped our stuff in the very impressive room and headed down to the track. For those that know the Monaco GP circuit, the Kart Cup track uses from the exit of Tabac, through the swimming pool and round Rascasse, It then cuts back into the F1 pits area and back down a ramp towards Tabac where there is a 180 hairpin.
We had 2 free practice sessions of 40 minutes on Friday which gave us a brief feel for the circuit, but it wasn't enough for me, or Michael as we'd never driven the circuit or these karts before. The karts were TonyKart Krypton chassis with a Rok 125cc water cooled 2 stroke engine. And for the first time, these karts had front brake discs with a bias adjuster to change the brake balance between front and rear. You had to drive the karts as they were, with no changes allowed, not even tyre pressures! Despite our lack of circuit/kart knowledge , Michael and I were reasonably quick with a fastest of 55.9 by me.
Qualifying started around 16:00 on Friday, and by the time it came to my turn, Michael had posted our quickest with a 55.5. I didn't even manage a lap, as on the approach to the hairpin on the 'out' lap, the guy in front of me braked a little early - So did I but the guy behind didn't and I got punted very hard, resulting an a badly bent rear axle - the kart wouldn't move and that was it. So we qualified 25th based on Michael's time. I was pretty pissed off, but I was glad it didn't happen during the race. The mechanics replaced the axle, but as we'd find out later, they didn't tighten things up fully!
Michael started race 1 and made up quite a few positions to get us into ~17th place. Myles took over and drove a steady session followed by Mark. I took over for the final half hour and now with a decent time in the kart, I was getting quicker. Around half way through my stint the chain came off half way round Rascasse, but luckily, I could go straight into the pits for the juniors and I managed to get it back on. Out of the junior pits and down towards the hairpin, as soon as I hit the brakes, it came off again. Once more I managed to re-fit it, and headed into the 'mendings' awning where the TonyKart mechanics were. It was plain that the sprocket on the axle had moved and they quickly put it back and, this time, tightened it correctly. I lost around 7 laps through this 'failure', but still managed a 53.693 lap. This put us in 34th place and our race was, effectively, over.
For race 2, we ran the same order, with Michael again making good progress through the field. Myles again put in a solid stint, but halfway through Mark's half hour, he didn't come past, so things looked bad - turns out that he'd gone into the pits as the brake pedal had become increasingly ineffective. The rear pads were completely worn away, so they fitted a new set and we were back in the race having lost another 6 laps. When I took over for the last 30 minutes I nearly crashed twice on my out lap - the brakes were very snatchy and seemed to be working like a switch. I turned the brake balance much more to the front and every couple of laps wound it back half a turn towards the rear. This seemed to work OK, and by the end of the stint, I was managing around 53.4 second laps.
The Ugly.
Because the race was being recorded by Eurosport, the race stewards were looking at an incident that had occurred between karts 5 and 8 in race 2. We all watched the big screens as they replayed the crash dozens of times. It looked like kart 5 got a slow exit from the chicane before the hairpin at Tabac, and as he came down the ramp, kart 8 was closing rapidly. The track is quite narrow here, but instead of waiting until the bottom of the ramp, where the track widens, kart 8 just drove straight into the back of number 5 and spun him off and into the wall. The kart was badly damaged, although the driver seemed to be OK. What happened on Sunday morning was a direct result of this incident being replayed so many times for all to see. The driver of kart 5 went into the pits of kart 8 and a punch up took place. I wasn't there, so don't know the exact details, but suffice to say that although team 8 finished 3rd at the end of the 6 hours of racing, they were stripped of their podium position. To see a driver (from team 5) with blood pouring from a busted lip, is not good.
The Good.
At the start of race 3 , our team, Ecurrie Ecosse, were classified in 36th place - without the chain and brake problems, we'd have been in, roughly, 21st. Michael again started the race and consistently put in mid 53 second laps and made up loads of positions. Myles managed to get down to mid 54s in his half hour with Mark having a similar run but struggling with traffic. At the beginning of the weekend, a lot of time had been spent applying foam padding to the seat. I didn't like this as I felt that I was sitting on top of the kart rather than in it, with all the subsequent issues with regard to centre of gravity etc. So when Mark came in we ripped the padding out of the seat and off I went. I joined the track just behind the second placed team and after 4 or so laps I got the blue flag. For the final race the top 3 teams were getting the blue flag waved to let them past slower traffic. So I eased off and kart 8 went past me. I was still in 36th place, but for the next 25 minutes or so I stuck to him like glue. This helped me get past traffic and put in some great times with a best around 52.4. I say around because our own stop watch system had put me on a 53.9, in race one, when the official time was 53.693. Anyway, I go to the end having gained 2 places to 34th. Not a great team result, but very satisfying for me to be within 0.5s of the fastest lap, posted by a current F3 driver. I had expected to come across some 'corporate' drivers, but the standard was exceptionaly high, with many well known drivers taking part. I would love to go back next year, finances allowing. We had a quick look over the kart post race, and were surprised to find that the rear pads were, once again, getting close to their wear limit. We just couldn't figure it out until I asked if anyone was "power braking" - this is a technique used in low powered karts to try to keep the engine revs up to help with the corner exits. Mark chipped in with "I do that on every corner"!! I guess if no one told him that it's not a good idea on a 30bhp kart, then it's not really his fault. Still, it explains his lack of pace and our brake problem. Personally, it's something I never do, but I know many folk swear by it in lower powered machines.
Driving a 2 stroke, and driving it well, has made me seriously consider the Easykart championship which will start in March next year. All the races are in England, but it should be similar to Monaco, from a kart perspective. More later..........
So now it's back to reality and we're off to Crail in a couple of weekends for the first round of the winter series.
Monaco is a fantastic, if surreal, city. Every second car seems to be some exotica like Ferarri, Porsche, Aston Martin and the likes. And the yachts! - the status symbol of the obscenely rich. It's back to earth now with the first round of the winter series at Crail in 2 weeks time.
Hopefully, I'll add some pictures to this entry later in the week.
Labels: karting
