We're Back

After a few months sitting on the sidelines, Ros and I returned to Crail. We met up with Jeff Johnston, who we bought our new Wright chassis from, at the circuit on Saturday morning. Jeff had driven up from down south and he spent all day with us helping us set up the kart and providing pointers based on his extensive knowledge of Wright karts. It was really nice to drive and both Ros and I were very happy with it. However, given that we hadn't raced for a while, and that Sunday was the final round of the winter championships, we didn't expect too much from race day.

Sunday was dry, but cold - Ros managed to grab pole position on the last lap of quallifying, but when he came into the pits one of the engines was spluttering badly. I managed to find and remove some grit in the main jet in the carb, and we were ready to go. We decided not to try new tyres and see what happened. The teams in 2nd,3rd and 4th on the grid were all fighting for the championship so after the rolling start I stayed wide at the first corner and MBM and Milwalk came past. I then followed them for the next 20 mins or so when MBM pulled off to the side and left Chris of Milwalk with me on his bumper - it was like we'd never been away:-). I felt as though I was quicker and if we'd been in the championship, I had a couple of chances to go for the lead, but I decided just to sit there. I handed over to Ros at 30 minutes and once Milwalk pitted, it was fairly plain sailing with Ros winning by 8 seconds. I got the fastest lap on lap 34.

For race 2 we had to fit a new set of tyres as the ones we used on Saturday and in the first race were down to the bottom of the wear markers. As we had been on pole for race 1, we started last for race 2. I got a good start and made it up to 2nd behind Milwalk with Scott from Apollo close behind. However, after about 25 laps, the rear of the kart started to lose grip (the sun came out) and I dropped to third. Ros found the same issue and he just managed to hold off Panther racing to keep 3rd at the flag. Again I got the fastest race lap on lap 21.

For race 3 we made some changes to deal with the increased temp. I started from pole and knew that Chris was right on my tail and that when I made a mistake, he'd have a go, which he did. It was back to race 1 with me sitting right on Chris's bumper for 25 minutes. He pulled a gap of a second or so through traffic and then he went into the pits????? He normally runs around 40 mins before handing over so I didn't get it - but all became clear when I handed over to Ros - Because the winter championship was on the line, Chris was doing the whole hour himself. Ros finished a comfortable second giving us the overall win on the day which was a real surprise for us, and bodes well for the summer championship. (3rd fastest lap this time :-))The results of the Winter Champs aren't finalised yet but it's going to come down to a point or 2.

So, the new kart is great, and it looks like there will be 6 or 7 teams who can win the summer championship - bring it on!

It's a date!

The postie delivered the news - I go under the knife on April the 5th - seems a lot more real now :-( However, for my birthday next week, I've booked myself onto a Palmer day, so at least there's some good news.

On the GGWS front, check out http://www.djmotorsport.com/cc.pdf for some proper science.

Just in case anyone is unsure, I'm cynical enough to doubt everything that the govt tells us, and the current hysteria/evangelism that we are being bombarded with on a daily basis makes me wonder - Could they be wrong? I think so.......Apparently that places me firmly in the minority - But would that still be the case if the mainstream media showed Joe Public both sides of the debate?

Consensus in the scientific community used to state that the earth was flat...................

Post Diagnosis

Since my last post, I've slowly been getting back into my usual routine. I got the all clear from the doc to resume exercise, but if I had any of my symptoms, that would be the end of it until the operation. So in the past few weeks I've started playing 5-a-side again, although instead of the usual heart rate of 170, the max I've seen is 141 - I guess the beta blockers really work....
I also took part in an indoor endurance kart race, which Al took part in - he even whacked me a couple of times just to let me know he was there, and I also decided that a race at the Raceland GP series would be the next 'test' - At my request, I started last for the first race and as it went OK, I continued, managing to go on and win the final by 8 seconds and set the fastest lap. Given that exercise seemed OK, I have just returned from my annual trip to Whistler where they've had a record snow fall this year. I had a great time, but the girl in the picture (Mrs DJ) managed to lacerate her knee with one of her own skis whilst attempting a triple salko in fairly deep powder :-) So we had a few days off, but still managed to have a good time overall.

So this weekend, I'll be returning to Crail, with Ros, to try our new kart, which I haven't seen, and I'm not even sure what make of chassis it is.

Meanwhile, I hope you all saw the Great Global Warming Swindle on Channel 4 a few weeks back - It was nice to hear the other viewpoints in the mainstream media - As expected, the true believers didn't like it - But still no one wants to take my 1,000 pounds.......