Challenge '97 - Round 6 at Kartsport, Caxton 

Group 1 & 2 Race Report

It was wet. It was very wet. It was so wet it was more like a duck pond than a race track so I, for one, felt right at home. Ray missed his chance to shine in the rain and no Rick again, so it was down to the six of us to skate our way round.

It was actually dry, if overcast, when we first arrived and our immediate concern was that there were only ten of the single-engined 390cc karts available. These were allocated to the Group 1 teams while us low-lifes in Group 2 had to make do with the older twin engined 200cc karts. Although, in theory, the two Groups would be racing just each other for the points, it turned out that the single-engined karts went much better especially in the wet. The effect of this was that the twin-engined karts acted as mobile chicanes for the single-engines and there was a lot of bumping and barging as they tried to get past.

Rain started to fall during the practise session and by the end it was chucking it down, which was unfortunate for Ciaran as he only got a couple of laps in before he was unable to see a thing. Kam, Louis, Max and myself had done the sensible thing and come up two weeks ago to practise, but that was in fine, dry conditions so we hadn’t gained much advantage by it. In any case, our kart had another one of those damn binary throttles which is not the ideal choice for racing on a wet track.

The rain eased off to stair-rods as Louis started us off again. This time his caution meant that to start with he was trailing the field. This didn’t last for long as the inevitable happened and the karts ahead soon started to indulge in extra-curricular mud-skipping. Louis came in twice for a mandatory safety check after stepping off the track himself (any part of the kart off the track or straddling a kerb counted as an off), the second time because he was T-boned off at Turn 1 by a kart, who’s driver either overestimated his braking power or his ability.

Kam took over and was going well except that we noticed that the front-left wheel looked a bit wobbly. We had a chat with the mechanics who agreed that there seemed to be a problem and black-flagged Kam to come in. This startled Kam, who assumed it was because he had been wrongly convicted of not coming in for a check after going off. The wheel was not far short of coming off completely so after tightening it up, we sent Kam out again. The wheel looked better but still not right so at the end of Kam’s stint we changed karts.

I went out in the new kart (after remembering to wait for the transponder to be moved over) and found the throttle to be much better. The rain had eased off to drizzle at this point but the track was still wet and there was a lot of mud and crud on the track dragged on by karts which had paid a visit to the boggier parts of the circuit. This made it especially difficult coming out of the esses as drifting the slightest bit wide meant that the all grip was lost and it was hard to avoid putting the left-rear wheel off. I had to come in twice for a check because of this before I learnt the lesson. I was being subjected to a lot of pushing from the single-engined karts behind which did not put me in the mood to be helpful when they tried to squeeze through on the inside. On at least a couple of occasions I had no qualms about slamming the door and putting the offender off when they had their nose inside my rear wheel. I was also surprised that overtaking under yellow seemed to be the norm as nobody but me, not even the marshals, were paying any attention to the lights.

Max went out next and this time he went through his full stint without suffering kart problems. I don’t remember him coming in for any safety checks which could either be because I wasn’t paying attention or Max was driving well or the track was drying. At this point we were running 3rd in group not far behind the Met Police A. Our overall position was 11th but this was meaningless, as apart from a couple of teams who had major problems all the single-engined karts were at the front of the field.

Dennis was next out and put in his usual error-free perfect drive. Except for the one occasion, when he had an off and came in for a check, Dennis did not put a wheel wrong (or am I mis-remembering?)

Ciaran went out for the last stint with his smart new shiny white race-suit hidden under a crappy yellow wet-suit. Ciaran was closing on the Met A and posted the Group 2 fastest time but Texaco put in an even quicker lap (by 6/100 of a second) to steal the extra point. Ciaran could have gone even faster but he was being seriously held up by traffic and this was also balking his attempt to catch the Met A. It all became academic as Ciaran drove over one of the large, sharp pebbles which had been littering the exit out of Turn 1 and got a puncture. This allowed the other Police team to get past and we finally came home 4th in Group.

This result leaves us still 6th in the points table and puts us into Group 1 for the last two races. Given the way the points system works, we can expect to be overtaken by the best of the Group 2 teams unless we can finish on the podium in the last two races, so I reckon we will do well to finish the Series in the top ten.

After our race, Kam and Louis spent the afternoon helping Trisys to 4th in the Group 3 & 4 race and Max and Ciaran spent the afternoon in the pub. Trisys too, should be running the last two races in Group 1 and I have visions of Kam and Louis being out on the track together, coming in for both ANKC and Trisys to do a driver change with Kam and Louis swapping karts and going out again.

So, back indoors, where it will be interesting to see if Kvaerner can refind their winning ways and stop Haliburton from running away with the title. I think our other objectives should be to be the first of the new teams and the first of the financial services teams (i.e. the best bunch of bankers in the Series).

Stuart Shearman

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