Fongy's Diary: Gold Coast Race of Stars


from Luke Fong 26 October 2013
 

Kartbook's Luke Fong competed in a KF kart for the first time at the Race of Stars on the Gold Coast last week. Fongy supplied KartSportNews with a diary of the effort:

The Fongster at Race of Stars
Above: The Fongster at Race of Stars
pic - AF Images/Budd

Gold Coast Race of Stars - Pimpama at xtremekarting.com
Pilot - L. Fong #8 AUS
Kart/Motor - CRG KT1/MikRace IAME Reedster

Day 1 - Thursday - Ipswich

I'm not sure whether it was the work that I had to get done Thursday, or if it was just the pure excitement of getting to drive something more than a Leopard for the first time in a long time that caused me a lack of sleep. Today was the first day that the WHOLE of Team Kartbook minus Finko that we all met. Mik from Mikrace picked me up from Southport and we headed off to Ipswich to run in motors and get my head around the KF1 class.

After running in, and literally having been up for 36 hours, my first instinct was to get my usual Clubman habbits on and pick up the throttle early and back the kart in everywhere. How wrong I was. These things you have to drive with absolute millimetre precision, and no slide at all. My first impressions of KF - it's like a Sherman tank compared to the old days of F100 - so much weight over the rear compared to what the F100 has. After fouling approximately 8 thousand plugs of running in, I think we ended up pretty reasonabe considering I had never been to Ipswich or had driven a KF1 before. Note to self - invest in rib protector if we are going to race CIK at Ipswich. It's bumpy! We then retired for a well-earned shower and feed. 

Day 2 - Friday - Pimpama

We arrived at the track fairly early Friday to get a look at the track and try to understand the track, and also get a feel for what the meeting would be like. I have to say, the AKA, Coates Hire and Xtremekarting.com had the place setup immaculately!

After walking half way down the straight, we saw an immediate problem, with a chicane halfway down the straight, which could have caused some accidents, however they were removed rather quickly with some consultation from the drivers.

Enter 2pm - I have never driven a KF before Thursday and I'm about to enter onto a track that has a straight longer than Puckapunyul and never really done more than some Leopard racing before. Holy moly was the track fast! We looked over the data from the first session and we had actually spent more time on the 16k rev limiter than off it down the straight! It didnt matter how many teeth we kept taking off  - we were always going to find it. I pulled in early from the first session - in fear of blowing up my motor, however the mechanic wasn't too happy with me for not doing more miles.

Our second session was much better - within 8 tenths of the fastest guys and within 2-3 tenths of the middle pack. Both my mechanic and I were pretty happy considering that our tires had no dots left on them! I got a greater appreciation for the track layout and understood where to put the kart much better.  It was then time to retire and head to the pub for a burger and beer. Apparently these KF drivers have a strict diet, but seeing as I hadn't seized or crashed into anyone, that was worth a celebration in itself.

Day 3 - Race day - Pimpama/xtremekarting.com

Our first run due to limited track time was straight into qualifying. I had never been in a session where it was 2 minutes treated as a "carby session" and then the lights go green to qualify. I have never seen the amount of games played in that session. Some people were on it straight out the gate and some people literally just pulled over to a near stop until the green. I was given strict instructions to not get into the boot until it went green to save the tire for my qualifying flyer - however this as the first time around traffic for the whole weekend, so it was good to get some pointers from the blokes that know what they are doing whilst sitting behind them (Troy Loekskew and Adam Willison). I think we ended up in 8th after a few DSQ's, but as a short man, unfortunately didn't make the most of the new tire like we should have. Our last lap was our best which was lap 7. I probably only got my act together then.

Heat one was quite the embarrassment. All these guys with front brakes told me I would be in a race of my own. I didn't believe them until I got to the middle hairpin and made an absolute dill of myself trying to outbrake someone around the outside. Off goes Fongy into the dirt! Great KF1 debut you twat! I was quite shaken after this and continued to ponder around - and see what I was capable of doing. We managed to do the same time as we did in qualifying however a couple too many mistakes meant that we finished way back down the order.

Heat two was intense - after watching an incident in front of me at turn 2, I wanted to play it safe and see how we would fair behind some of these guys. Unfortunately I spent too much time avoiding a couple of accidents which cost me a bunch of time. We had also put teeth on for this heat, which was the wrong move by far. Watching the go pro footage - we were excellent up until the clubrooms - then bye bye at least 3 tenths in a straight line for not having enough teeth. Again I managed to match my qualifying lap time which I was happy with.

Unfortunately in the final - I was set to go out the gate, but it seemed nobody else was.  They rolled us around for too long, and I managed to foul a plug on the other end of the circuit. In my 12 years of racing, this one was mostly a rookie error and I should have bolted to grab a plug, but that's the way it goes.

It was a shame as I was really looking forward to seeing what I was capable of doing after a couple of small changes to the kart - and having studied where I was going wrong in the previous 2 heats. It was however a great race to watch. Seeing Troy drive from the back like he did, was an absolutely legendary drive.

At the end of the day I learnt so much about CIK that I thought I would never get to learn. I have a much greater respect for these guys that race the CIK Championship full time. They are animals and must be tamed in such a certain way, and your physical fitness must be at it's absolute peak. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to say that I have finally done a CIK style meeting. We set out on a mission to have some fun, meet some new faces and learn a bit about KF - and I think I can say that we did that quite easily. 

The after party was another story, but maybe I will leave that for some quite beers when I catch up with people next time.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank a few people that made this possible, as without them I would not have been able to do this.

  • Mick Hazelton from Mikrace. His kart preperation and guidance with the CRG were absolutely second to none. The motor he provided me was somewhat of a rocketship, and it's a shame the driver didn't show his horsepower off even better
  • GreenDev and Greensill motorsport for their generous contributions to travel and accommodation
  • Viatek Printing solutions for their generous contributions to the race weekend costs
  • Ruff as guts - thanks for the race tires :)
  • Lateral Plains Pty Ltd - For all the help and allowing me to work away from home
  • K-Racer for their love and support
  • Kartbook.net and the gang for getting behind me
  • KartX and AF Images for their continued imagery, and excellent support

Hopefully I will get to do this meeting again, the event was absolutely awesome.

Cheers for now.
Fongy

 

 

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