Back to Earth - With a Bump :-(

After one of my best weekends of karting in Monaco, I had the worst for a long time at Crail :-(

Despite mother natures best attempts, Crail was reasonably dry on sunday. I was driving for the Outsiders team (No 79) and given that the chassis was the same type that Ros and I use, I expected to be able to run competitvely. However, the kart felt very different to ours particularly the brakes, and the ammount of rear grip. On our kart, the brake pedal travel is fairly short, whereas this kart had the longest pedal I've ever used - I nearly went off circuit a number of times during practice, and the kart had way too much rear grip, causing it to understeer on entry and bog down on exit. I can cope with most things, but understeer defeats me :-(

I started qualifying on wets, but it was plain that slicks were the way to go so I came in after 4 laps. Slicks were fitted, and my teammate, Gegi, did the rest of the session, putting us 8th on the grid.

I had a good start and battled with Alan Kirkcaldy and Craig Alsop for most of the first 20 minutes. Alan then got a break through the backmarkers and Craig got taken out by one of them, so I handed over in 5th place. My teammate was running a similar pace to me and we ended up 6th.

For race 2 we tried adding some front grip, as we couldn't adjust the rear, but it was a similar story with the handover in 6th place, translating to a 7th placed finish. Again, similar lap times.

The Bump!

For race 3 we fitted some older tyres to try and reduce the rear grip, but we had a slight rain shower, and I managed to spin on the parade lap and then lose 6 or so places in the first lap as the kart had no grip on the greasy surface. I was getting really frustrated so as I started to get some heat into the tyres I overdid it and clipped the barrier at the entry to the first corner, causing me to spin and bend the rear axle - what a plonker!

We quickly switched to a spare kart which was quite nice to drive, but as we were 5 laps down, and I didn't want to interfere with anyones race, I kept an eye over my shoulder and let anyone through who was racing for position.

So, what did I learn? 1) All karts are different, and may require a differing style to make them work. 2) Don't overdrive if the kart doesn't work the way you want. 3) I still have lots to learn.

I'm now hoping that I can get a test in a Formula Blue (2 stroke) and that Ros and I can have a test day in our prokart. Next month can only be better :-)

Monaco Kart Cup - The Races

Race day dawned in the usual Monte Carlo way - sunny and warm and after an impromptu breakfast meeting to discuss strategy, it was off to the circuit for race 1.

Because I'd been quickest in qualifying, I was voted as the staring driver, and despite the appalling grid marshalling, I somehow managed to get onto row seven for the start. As I expected, it was bit chaotic with loads of contact, but over the course of my stint I picked up the pace, with a best of 52.686, and handed over to Bradley in 12th place.

Bradley had a great stint with no dramas and handed over to Chris still in 12th place, about half a lap down on the leaders. Chris was going well, consistently running mid 54s when suddenly on the large TV screens we could see Chris sitting in the middle of track, with his kart some 5m away - He quickly got to his feet and over the barriers, just avoiding being hit by kart no. 11.

Chris had been quickly catching a back marker, who had then been given the blue flag (to warn him that he should let the faster driver pass), which is what he appeared to be doing as he went wide on the chicane entry. However, as Chris got along side he turned into Chris and sent him into the exit barriers. This chicane is the fastest on the circuit, and as Chris ran along the protective plastic barriers he could see what was coming. About 20m past the chicane exit, the stairs from the swimming pool join main area, and Chris hit the concrete balustrade flat out - hence the reason he came out of the kart. We ran round the circuit to find a very sore Chris, and a very bent kart, and our race was over. We got the kart back to the mending tent and they managed to sort off straighten it out. I say sort off, because the kart was never quite the same after that as it was grounding through Ras Casse corner on the left hand side.

Chris went off to hospital for a check up and Fiona, my wife, went with him just in case......

For the second race of the day, this meant that we would have to split the driving between just the 3 of us, and because we needed to do 4 driver changes per race, and had only managed 3 in race 1, we were going to have to stop more than we wanted too. As he hadn't driven in race 1, Alex started the race and tore through the field - A trend which Bradley and I continued in 2 15 minute stints each, before Alex did the last half hour. We all were pushing to the max. but didn't manage to match our times from race 1 (bent chassis). But we had to drive what we had and in race 2 we actually gained back 3 laps on the leaders and up to 12 laps on others. A great drive from all, with my own highlight being able to re-pass the race leader 5 laps into my second stint after having let him past under a blue flag on my out lap :-))))


Chris returned from hospital after having been told that he'd badly bruised his ribs, and he'd be OK, much too all our relief.


So on Sunday morning I was had to admire his courage when he decided that he'd do the 4th stint of race 3 and take the chequered flag.

Bradley started the race and was doing mid 53s - When he handed over to me it was immediately obvious that the kart was not as good as it was on Saturday as you just couldn't get it to stop as quickly - the front left in particular was very mobile under braking and I was constantly adjusting the brake bias to stabilise things. I managed a 53.1, but knew it wasn't that quick.

On handing over to Alex, Bradley said the same problem had impacted him, so at least we knew what was wrong. The front tie rods are made of hard plastic, but we reckoned that with all of the braking force that they had taken over the weekend, we were stating to see some kind of 'plastic fatigue' as they lost some torsional stability - but we weren't the only ones with lots of people suffering similar issues. Normally, you'd have steel tie rods, but with the unforgiving barriers, many people would have come to grief as at least there is some give in the plastic rods. After posting mid 53s, Alex then handed over to Chris - we were a bit worried how his ribs would cope, but he soldiered on and took the flag at the end of a very physical 6 hour race. I'm not sure where we finished overall, but it would be no higher than 38th or so as losing 45 laps is never going to make life easy.

Still, it was a fantastic event and really good for me. Make no mistake, if Alex and Bradley were at my weight, they would be quicker than me, but I managed to be fastest in the team, and more importantly, without Chris's incident, we think we'd have been on the fringes of the top 6. We gelled really well, with the 2 young guns complementing the 2 gentleman drivers very well.

Apparently the guy in the middle is some sort of movie star (the young guns recognised him) and looking at the size of him, it's no wonder it took Bradley (on the right) a few laps to pass him :-)



There are rumours that next year's event may be impacted by planned re-working of the harbour area, but I'd be surprised if the don't manage to relocate somewhare else in Monte Carlo for what's become for me, the highlight of the season.

Monaco Kart Cup 2008

I arrived in Monte Carlo yesterday evening after a hectic journey where I was called to say that 2 of our drivers had called off! A number of names were put forward ( Chis Miller - no license, Alan Kirkcaldy - too busy, Mark Johnston - family illness and Ben Clucas - stuck somewhere in Germany) but eventually, we found that Alex Mortimar and Bradley Ellis, 2007 Brittish GT champions,current front runners in the FIA GT3 series and karting champions in thier youth, would be joining us - A good end to a up and down day. Chris Hyman also races in FIA GT3 so I would be the odd one out :-)


After 'stickering up' our kart (see above), we went into first practice where everything was going OK until Alex didn't appear - turned out that a guy in front of him had hit the barriers and bounced back into his path, resulting in a broken track rod. This was easily fixed and in second practice we all did good consistent times, ending up 25th of 44.

For qualifying, Bradley was first out and he consistently low 54 second laps. Then it was my turn and I was happy to hear that I'd managed a 53.5 while runing lots of consistent 53.7s. It was then Chris and he again was very consistent with a best of 54.7. Alex rounded things off with a best of 54.1. - This qualified us 17th, but another 2 tenths would have gained us 7 places! I've no doubt that Alex and Bradley will get much quicker as they learn the circuit, so we are looking in great shape for the race, the first of which is at 10:12 on Saturday morning. More later.....