Bayford Endurance Round 4 15/07/07

With new side pods since the last round and fresh oil in the engines being the only preparation I had managed, Kev Sharpe joined me on Saturday to go over everything and make the kart pretty if nothing else.....

I turned up at the circuit at 10am and then put the Gazebo up single-handed (it's supposed to be a four man job!!) and just as I finished, all hot and bothered, Kev, Andrew and his dad all arrived!! At least I was provided with a much need drink by Andrew's dad.

After all the usual tinkering, checking, signing-on and scrutinising, I took to the circuit for half an hour of practice and qualifying.

We were not running new tyres today, but the kart felt reasonable for about five laps, then started sliding. Just as I was deciding to play with tyre pressures it started to rain and everyone ducked into the pits.

We headed for the gazebo and adjusted the tyre pressures down and sent Andrew out to complete the three mandatory laps that each driver must do. As the circuit was damp it seemed pointless trying to improve on our 6th place grid position, so fuelled the kart and decided to sit out the rest of the session, ensuring that wets tyres, etc. were all ready just in case it rained again.

Towards the end of qualifying we noticed that the track was drying rapidly and lap times were tumbling, so Andrew went out for two laps but did not improve our time. We maintained our 6th position, and left the kart unchanged for the race.

A couple of faster teams had been caught out by the rain in qualifying and hadn't posted representative laps. It was unsurprising that they were able to pass us in the first ten laps or so and we found ourselves in 7th, having managed to pass one of the teams ahead of us on the grid.

Andrew drove very well and moved to 6th when another team ran out of fuel prematurely. It turned out that the reason for this was a fuel leak!! They lost a couple of laps recovering the kart and refuelling it, but the leak still remained as I was to find out later when behind it.....

We briefly moved into fourth as other teams pitted before us, but settled back into 6th after the first stops had all been completed.

I soon started getting messages from Kev that I should 'push' and was catching the karts ahead of me. Throughout the race we were struggling with oversteer, but I drove around this and used the drift into a corner to lose speed, and the throttle and brakes to steer...!

I moved to fifth on the track and was promoted to fourth due to a broken wheel on another kart, and was gaining ground on third place. Unfortunately, we have to make a minimum of two stops and the 13 second deficit stretched to 20 after ours. I was still making inroads into third ans a potential podium finish, but did not have enough time left and finished in fourth. A good result for us though, and if we can improve the handling we could be up there....

The Bayford Summer Cup 11/07/07

I was invited by Kev Sharpe to join him for the two hour hire prokart Summer Cup at Bayford, and we were joined by Alan Churchyard. Kevin named us the 'Graveyard Gang' in honour of Alan, and we all turned-up promptly for the 6.30pm sign-on.
Well, for once our kart wasn't the worst on the grid - not the best, but good enough for me to put it 4th in qualifying. I took the start and after a couple of laps moved into third and started to pull away from Steve Best who was doing the whole race on his own. Unfortunately I was already out of touch of the leading two teams who were steaming ahead with their two lightweight chargers in control.
I did about 40 minutes and handed over to Alan who maintained third with a steady, but uneventful drive.
As we were about to change drivers from Alan to Kevin, we were 40 seconds ahead of Steve Best in fourth. Steve then developed a problem with his kart and went back to the pits. They changed his kart and put him back out where they thought he should be - just 15 seconds behind Kevin!!! - Try to work that one out???
Steve had got a better kart and was reeling Kev in by a second a lap and we still needed to do another stop. So we dropped to fourth and felt that was quite secure. What we didn't realise was that team Koks' last driver was their quickest as stormed through the field to take fourth from Kevin on the very last lap.....
Oh well - next time (the Autumn Cup...)

Moral victories just don't count...

Well..... if bad luck comes in threes, lets hope that my next race doesn't make it four!!
I raced on Sunday in the first of the Met Police events this year at Buckmore Park.
The format is a three hour, four driver endurance race with a minimum of five stops including a re-fuel, in the 390Pro hire karts.
Quite a few of the usual suspects were not available this time, so together with Dave (ex Kent Police) and Roy and his son Mark, we made up the team F.A.S.T. (Fathers and sons together). Thus Dave became my honourable dad for the day !!!!
The kart we were allocated did not seem to be working too well, so Roy came in and changed it during qualifying, then I went out and, to my suprise, put it on pole.
Mark took the standing start and dropped back to 2nd for a while but was visibly quicker than the leader. He took the fastest lap of the race on lap 15 (51.18) and went on to take the lead on lap 19. We left him out for a while longer than the 45mins we were each due and he handed over to Roy in the lead. The plan was for Roy to pit after 25 mins for fuel and then hand over to Dave at the 1.5 hour mark. However, he picked up a puncture on lap 71 and we dropped to 2nd and were given a naff kart. We had a chat with the mechanics and they duly wheeled out our original kart with new rear right tyre and we called Roy back for another change. After the change and fuel on lap 87 we were still 2nd, but Roy was soon a second or more quicker than before the change. Just shows the difference in these hire karts!!
We had now done two stops to most teams one, so this put us into a strong position even though we were second and not in the lead. Roy handed over to Dave at lap 101 and he was quickly into his stride putting in some good lap times in the mid to high 52s and as consistent as ever. As the leaders pitted we regained the lead on lap 113 and Dave, lapping quicker than 2nd place was able to build the lead to about 45 seconds.
Dave handed over to me on lap 151 and I rejoined in the lead still with about30 seconds in hand. Within a couple of laps I was down to low 52s and then into the 51s and around lap 164 lapped the second place kart and began to pull away.
All seemed to be going so well, and then the gremlins struck and the throttle jammed fully open causing braking into the hairpin and Paddock corner to be very entertaining! Although I was able to maintain my lead I knew that it would only be a matter of a couple of laps before the brakes were completely cooked and useless and I'd be joining the traffic on the M2!!!
I took the plunge and on lap 174 dived into the pits and changed the kart yet again.....
As soon as I got out in this particular kart I knew I was in for a tough time - it was useless!! The best I could manage was low 53s, and that was ringing the neck of the thing. Over a second a lap slower and the second placed kart was only 15 seconds down on us now and closing rapidly. A few dodgy moments with back-markers didn't help the cause and I soon found my hands full of kart number 11. I made my kart as wide as possible and made the best use of back-markers to keep us in the lead. Then a backmarker made a hash of things in hairpin one and helped me into a 5 to 6 second lead with about 3 minutes remaining. Phew I though, baring any more problems we can scrape a victory....... I didn't count on having completely the opposite problem to the previous one - instead of the throttle sticking open, this time, just as I exited the first hairpin, the throttle cable snapped!!!!! There it is - SOD's LAW!!
I sat there on the infield grass fuming and hitting the steering wheel so hard I bruised my hand. The marshall came out with yet another kart, and this one survived the remaining two and a half laps to the end of the race.
To lead until three minutes to the end of the race. To have had a whole lap's lead until 15 minutes from the end and then to be relegated to third through no fault of our own was just gutting.
If anyone from Buckmore staff is reading this - it is totally unacceptable for us to pay good money for a three hour race and to have three karts break on us! Oh well, good job there was nothing more than a cheap piece of silver coloured tin riding on it...........

UPDATE - Apparently we came second - the scoreboard was wrong, but the printout correct... this will be crutial as you will find out in a later post......