LCA Racing at the 13th Monaco Kart Cup

This year we managed to put together a strong team for the 6 hours of racing on the streets of Monte Carlo. Chris Hyman and I were joined by Formula V front runner Martin Farmer and 2005 British GT champion, Piers Masarati.

All looked good in practice with me, Martin, Piers and Chris all posting similar times.

In qually, Chris did a 52.7, Piers crashed on his 3rd lap so only managed a 55, I did a 52.5 and Martin a 52.4 - even our fastest time was way off the pace so we spent some time fixing the brake balance as we felt it wasn't right.


The grid for race one was based on the average of your 4 times, so we started 24th.
Martin started the race and re-fueled after 36 mins of good pace with only 1 incident where he was punted and took 40 seconds to get going. I had worked out that this would be the optimal strategy as from practice we knew that the kart would do around 50-55 mins on a tank.

Piers then went out but unexpectedly came in after about 8 laps as his ribs were too painful for him to drive (turns out he cracked a rib in the qualifying shunt!). So Chris went out for around 40mins and a fuel stop and I finished the race. With Piers coming in and Martin and I getting punted once each, we finished 26th in the heat. Not the best start!

This gave us roughly 10 laps of fuel for race 2 which Chris started and managed 12 laps before fueling :-) Martin then took over for a planned 45 min session but had to come in after 36 mins as a bolt had come out of the radiator and fuel was also leaking onto his leg. They refitted the bolt but we had to fuel 6 laps early as we'd lost that much petrol. Chris then did 15 mins and I closed out the race in a much better 10th place despite a short pit stop to get the radiator bolt refitted again.

For the start of race 3 we started 20th, but with 10 mins less fuel than planned, so Chris pitted after only 3 laps as the engine was coughing. Martin then did 40 mins before Chris did another 15 and a fill up. This left me with 58 mins to do on a tank. I tried to save fuel in the last 15 mins but the kart stopped 10 yards from the finish, but I pushed it across the line in 9th (had been 7th), but it made no difference to our final place of 13th overall.

Martin and I both gained over 2 seconds once we got the brake balance fixed and consistently ran in the mid/high 50 second bracket with a best of 50.470(Chris reckons that was my time, but Piers thought it was Martin - I should get the official times in a few days -UPDATE - It was martin who did the fastest lap, with me jsut behind with 50.486) Bottom line is we both pushed each other and there was nothing in it. We were the only team to do our best laps in the last race when the tyres were going off as we became more used to the kart and circuit. I did nearly 2.7 hours of racing in a 35hp kart with discs all round, and I'm sore:-)

In race 3 we were around 0.5sec of the pace of the fastest guys (who were all young and very small!) and a tenth off of Nelson Piquet. There were at least 12 various world/european karting champs, numerous F2/GP2/F3/FR racers and 6 pro teams.

So 13th overall was great result.

Sick

On the Tuesday after the Silverstone race, I managed a 7:46 for a 2000m row at the gym. I felt pretty good, but that night I felt awful, and spent the next week suffering all the symptoms of flu. This was followed by 10 days with a chest infection and feeling like someone had given me a good kicking. So for the first time since I started racing, I had to miss a race (Oulton Park)

The last race of the season was at Snetterton, where I'd had my best results at the start of the season, so despite still feeling a bit knackered, I turned up at the circuit on Saturday morning and promptly had my worst qualifying - ever. I just had no strength and only managed 17th, 4 seconds off the pace I'd managed in March. I considered not racing as I felt as bad as I was when I called off the Oulton Park race 2 weeks earlier, but as it was the last race of the season, I decided to drink lots of water and get some sleep before the race.

I got a decent start and got myself up to 9th, where I then had a race long duel with Pete Belsey, Steve Ough and Steve Glasswell, with each of us slipstreaming the others down the back straight. I'd pretty much settled for 11th but as the fatigue overcame the adrenalin, I lost the car through riches corner at the start of the last lap and dropped to 12th. There was a bit of a scuffle just ahead of me going into the last corner and I ended up back in 11th. My race pace was over 3 seconds a lap quicker than in qualifying, which is where the race was decided for me. I was absolutely shattered at the end of the race, and with hindsight, I shouldn't have raced, but what's done is done.

My first season in Formula V was a real mixture - qualifying ranged from 6th (Brands & Silverstone) to 17th at Snetterton, with 1 DNF and 3 races where I wasn't there (Anglesey x 2 and Oulton Park). So I ended up 12th. Considering I was in a rental car, did no testing and 25% of the season was at a circuit I'd never been at before, it's not too bad, but I'm not happy with it!

So there are a number of decisions to be made for next year - One thing's for sure, I'll be racing, but in what? If it's FV, I'll be buying my own car and doing some testing. But Formula Ford at Knockhill is also in the picture - But theres' no rush :-)

As the season comes to it's end, I'm now preparing for the Monaco Kart cup in mid October, in which Martin Farmer (3rd in FV) will be joining Chris Hyman and myself along with a yet to be named 4th driver in our annual trip to race on the front half of the F1 circuit.

There also the slim chance of a drive in the Dubai 24 hour race in January in a BMW M3 - More later!