Monaco Kart Cup

Last weekend saw me return to Monaco for the 11th Monaco Kart Cup. I thought that the standard of driver from last year would be hard to beat, but that changed when I saw the team in the pit next to us - Stephan Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy and Nicholas Minassian who all drove for Peugot in the Le Mans 24 hour this year. Add to them, Sacha Viets (Easykart World Champion), Colin Brown (ex World Karting FA Champion), Martin Pierce (World Rotax Finalist), Maro Engel (F3), Clivio Piccone (F3/GP2), Vitaly Petrov (GP2 Race Winner), Simona De Silvestro (CHAMP Car Atlantics) and a host of country champions and works drivers. Undoubtedly the strongest lineup I have ever raced against, in anything!

Micheal and Mark were unable to join us this year, so our team consisted of myself, Myles Sharman, Chris Hyman and Lane Bednash. Somehow we all made it through practice and qualifying unscathed with me setting the fastest lap for our team, Ecurrie Eccosse, but that only put us 30th of 42. However, I later found out that I had beaten Nicholas Minassian's time, so it wasn't so bad :-). Compared to last year, there was only 2 seconds between me and the slowest time in our team (4.5s last year), so we looked in reasonable shape for the race, and we were looking for a top 20 finish.

Myles started race one on Saturday morning and got up to 18th at the end of his half hour recording a best of 55.6. Lane then took over but after a further 18 minutes he didn't come past the pits. Turns out he had gone round Le Rascasse to find a kart rolling backwards down the hill which he hit flat out - The resulting collision was so hard that the our chassis split at the left front wheel. Luckily both drivers were OK and Patrick (the other driver) was happy to go with
us to the stewards to state that there had been no yellow flags shown despite him crashing some 15 seconds earlier. So not Lane's fault, but we didn't get back out in race one. The TonyKart mechanics built us a new kart at a cost of 3000 Euros! We were now 80 laps down on the leaders and 57 laps behind the 41st team.

For race two, we decided that I should start and I got a good one, passing 6 karts on lap one. From then on it was just a matter of going as hard as I could, and by the end of my 30 minutes with a fastest of 54.004, we were up to 16th place (in this race) but still last overall. Chris then got his first taste of kart racing round Monaco and he loved it. Considering that he has only driven corporate karts before, he did very well, posting a quickest time of around 55.8. He
found the kart a bit different to the Ferrari 430 he races in the FIA European GT3 series! Myles then did a solid stint 3 with a quickest of 54.8 and Lane took the flag having managed a best of 55.9.


Race 3 started in almost the same way as race 2, although the first few laps were a bit 'hairy'. By the end of the half hour I was up to 17th with a best of 54.001. By now Chris was getting more comfortable in the kart, reducing his best lap time by half a second to 55.286. Lane seemed to attract trouble and had a televised incident where he and another kart got in a right old tangle which resulted in the HT lead coming off of the spark plug. However, he managed to get going again and finished his session without further incident with a best of 55.4. Myles also had a spin during his session, but continued without any damage and ran a best of 54.9.


So we finished last, but despite that, I still had fantastic fun. I did learn that my fitness is nowhere near last year's level, but we know why that happened. So I hit the gym hard on Monday - It hurts:-) I've also realised that I need to make a tough decision over the coming months. There's no doubt that I'll be back for the 12th Monaco Kart Cup next year, but do I keep racing ProKarts, or do I try a 2 stroke championship like Rotax or Formula Blue? I'm not going to make a hasty decision, but it's something I need to deal with. I'll try to get a race in one of these classes before the end of the year and decide at that point. Maybe I can do both Prokarts and a 2 stroke championship.....


I hadn't seen Chris for a couple of year's, but it was good to see that he still has his infectious enthusiasim and gregarious love of life. He is trying to get an entry for a team in next year's event, which would be fantastic if it happens. He also plans to get himself a Rotax (or similar) and I'm sure he'll be pushing hard for fastest lap next year.

Monaco is a great place even when things don't quite go your way. If anyone gets the chance to go to this race, don't miss it.