First Race of 2008

After a break of nearly 6 months, Ros and I returned to Crail for the first round of the 2008 endurance championship. No new kart this year, but lots of changes!

Crail has now got a new layout which has added 2 new corners and re-profiled a third. Previously, after exiting pit bend, it was a fairly straightforward run to the entry of the roundabout, but no more! Just at the point where the dummy grid joins the circuit there is now a flat out right hander that is quickly followed by a left hander of around 100 degrees. So although the new right hander can be taken flat, it means you need to be super accurate with your line or it makes the left hander a real issue to get right. Once you're through you then rejoin the old circuit at the entrance to the roundabout. You're going a wee bit slower than you would have been in the old configuration, so it's tempting to keep your foot nailed, but the exit now has a much tighter right hander and getting it wrong here means , at best, using the very bumpy exit kerb or the grass beyond if you miss your apex by more than a few inches.

Both Ros and I couldn't make Saturday practice, so it was in at the deep end for Sunday. We decided to go out and learn the new circuit on old tyres, from last September, and a combination of that and the learning process saw me 1.5 seconds off the pace over 10 laps or so. Ros found it to be much the same, so I did the last 10 mins of practice and I hooked up behind Michael in the Panther Racing kart and found over half a second. For qualifying, Ros did the first 12 mins and we were 9th:-( Every one else had found that last months tyres were quicker than new rubber, but as we didn't have that luxury, we bolted on a new set, and I went out for the last 10 minutes of qually. The kart felt better straight away and I improved every lap eventually posting a 47.97 on my last tour, which put us second - only 5/100ths off the pole pace.

I was a bit worried about the start with the 2 new corners, but everyone was sensible and I slotted in behind Ryan Cannon is the SA Racing kart. However, on lap 3 I made a slight error on the exit of the roundabout which allowed Chris Millar to get along side at the end of the straight and he took second, but in doing so ran a bit wide allowing me to get along side, but on the outside. I should have known better than dice on lap 3 but I stayed put - Chris thought I had backed off and he moved over and I was off:-( I rejoined in 12th and over the next 30 mins made it back to 4th where I handed over to Ros. He pushed hard but at the flag was 1.09 seconds behind MBM who were third, with with Milady (Miller/Kirkcaldy) first and SA second.

Race 2 is a reverse grid, and the start was abysmal - so bad that we got red flagged! The second attempt wasn't much better but I had worked my way up to 4th by lap 7 when again the red flag came out. This time it was a technology issue with the lap timing computer, so it was another restart from the back row, for the 40 mins that remained. The traffic wasn't so kind in this race, but I did get to 5th - Ros then had a titanic struggle with Chris in the Frog Racing kart (who's his boss!) with Chris taking the 5th spot by 2/100ths!

For race 3, we knew that we needed to change something, as the sun had come out and we'd lost pace relative to everybody else. We widened the rear to lose some grip and from the first lap it felt better. I started 4th and I could stay with the front 3, eventually handing over to Ros in the lead, as he let me stay out for just under the 40 min limit. So we finished 4th again, but much closer to the race pace.

Looking back, we need to get our gearing sorted as we're probably 2 or maybe 3 teeth to low now that we have these slower corners. Also, not having the correct rubber didn't help, and we were both a wee bit rusty so all in all, better than we expected.

It's going to be e really competitive season, and it'll be tough to retain the championship, but we're not beaten yet!

Plans for latter in the year are progressing with the Britcar 24 hour at Silverstone and the Monaco Kart cup confirmed. I also hope to get to the Le mans 24 hour kart race in Juy and maybe even a few outings in a Radical SR8 :-)

Let's wait and see.......