Greetings and salutations everyone. It’s time for our race report for Round 1 of the Warwick Kart Club Championship. We’ve had a reasonably productive break from racing, with some good practice and some set up changes to Jack’s kart. Now it’s time to put rubber to the road and see if we’ve actually achieved anything. *LOL*
Having finally gotten something to help me with the set up of Jack’s carby, we spent all day Saturday fiddling with different settings to see what it would do. After an entire day of playing with his carby, I can unequivacably say that I am like Jon Snow. 😉 I’m pretty sure that I got it running a bit better than I had previously. Only getting it in race conditions will I know for sure.
Sam spent the day working on consistency. It would be a challenging weekend for Sam, as the only other competitors to enter had to drop out due to illness and injury. The injury was not from karting, but from riding a scooter.
Anyhoo, I spent all day Saturday smelling wonderfully of gasoline, and the boys had a lot of fun. After washing up, we got to enjoy the social aspect of karting. It’s one of the things that is so great about our club, and the sport in general. Spending the evening with our karting family, meeting new people and making new friends.
Over the offseason, we picked up a couple of swags for the boys for when we are at the track. They used to sleep in the trailer, but it was getting a bit cramped, and I wanted to put the karts away at night in something weatherproof. Plus it make room in the pit for me to have the camp stove set up for morning breakfast. For those unfamiliar with a swag, it’s like a small personal tent. Jack and Sam each received one for Christmas. They both loved them, and slept well.
I had actually gotten everything ready Saturday after practice, so all I had to do Sunday morning after our yummy bacon and eggs breakfast was to pull the karts out of the trailer and put in a bit of fuel.
The juniors (4SS, KA4 and KA3) were the feature classes this meet, so they would have qualifying. The rest of the classes would all be random draw and reverse grids for their first 2 heats. With Sam being the only driver in his class, we didn’t need to qualify, so he went out with the KA4’s for a warm-up, but once qualy started he pulled into the pits so as not to impede anyone.
Jack’s class would start our racing off, with Sam’s race immediately after. I don’t mind this, as I get the most time between races to sort out any issues. The downside is that I don’t always get to watch both race. If the driver who is first up has an issue, I need to sort it out first. Thankfully Sam can get his kart to the grid, and one of the karting family will help him get the kart on the ground.
So onto the real reason you’re here… the races.
Jack drew 11th for heat 1. A mistimed start saw him lose a position. As the pack exited turn 1, a kart was turned around and Jack lost a couple of positions avoiding the incident. As he set himself up for the Broderick Transport turn, Beau Bromhead snuck up the inside on a very good overtake. This was nearly costly for Beau, a Kart had spun and slowed down some of the drivers in front. Jack went wide to the right to try to take advantage. He nearly got through, but Beau and Jackson Cooper were able to stay to the inside of Jack, and were able to stay ahead.
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Jack was able to stay with the other 2 drivers. In the past, they would have driven away from
Jack, but not today. Jack got a good run
on Jackson Cooper and made a nice move up the inside at the Kashy hairpin (we
have a new sponsor for the corner), and made a nice pass. Two more positions were gifted to Jack, when
2 drivers ahead tangled at Brodericks.
A couple of laps later one of the drivers (Louis Brown) who had lost a position
to Jack in an incident, pulled in right behind Jack and got in his draft. Jack had been catching the group of 3 racers
ahead of him, but having Louis draft on Jack, gave him a bit of an extra push. Louis pulled alongside Jack and made a nice inside
pass at pit corner. Later in the lap,
Louis made a nice pass at Kashy’s, which helped Jack. The driver Louis passed, had to yield the
corner, which compromised his exit. Jack
closed up on him quickly and tried to use his momentum to pass the 91 on the
main straight. That driver (Max) was
able to just hold off Jack. Jack pulled
in behind and bided his time. Driving
some nice, clean lines through the new section, Jack was able to get a run out
of new pub. He made a move to the inside
at Kashy’s and made the pass stick. All
Jack had to do was hold on for the final lap.
A well deserved fighting 10th.
For those of you who are Sam’s fans, sorry but you will be a bit disappointed
in his coverage. With hime being the
only competitor in 4SS junior, there isn’t much to tell you. He led every race, and set fastest time in
every race. I will say he did a
fantastic job considering. With no other
competitors, it must have been tough to maintain motivation, yet he did. He kept a smile on his face too. Considering the speed difference in the 2
classes (KA4 and 4SS) Sam was only lapped in the final.
For heat 2, Jack would be starting 5th.
Going into turn 1, Jack had to lift in order to not cause an accident
and lost momentum. This opened the door
to those following to jump ahead of him.
To his credit, Jack clung onto the back of the lead pack. Although it was starting to string out. Just in front, was a battle of the
Sternbeck’s. Brother and sister going at
hammer and tongs. Jack was close enough
to take advantage of any mistake. He
stayed there for a couple of laps, and when Madhava made a slight mistake, Jack
pounced. He got a great run out of
Kashy’s and moved up the inside of Madhava and passed him through old pub. The 2 of them were catching the group in
front, until they ran into a back marker.
Yamuna was able to clear the lapped driver, but Jack wasn’t able to
clear him until Kashy’s. That caused a
gap to open up, and with only 1 lap to go.
Jack had his work cut out for him.
He managed to close the gap considerably and was in a position to have a
look, when there was a full course yellow.
The accident happened in Kashy’s and nearly blocked the track. Thankfully no driver was hurt. That’s how the race ended, under full course
yellow. Jack finished 11th. A great recovery.
The heat 3 grid would be based on accumulated points from the first 2
heats. Jack would be 11th. Not the greatest of starts for Jack. He lost 3 positions, and now had a hill to
climb if he wanted to get into the top 10.
There is a positive though, the pack was still quite all together. Jack just had to drive well, and he could
move back up the order. First up was
Yamuna. Jack drove a nice clean line
through the new section and drove up the inside at Kashy’s. One down.
There are 2 places where Jack has really improved. One is the pit/Cossor corner pair, and the
other is the 4 turns that make up the new section. His lines are so much better through these
turns. It’s allowing him to either stay
with the quicker drivers, or to catch those who make mistakes in these
turns. With him driving better, Jack
was able to make another nice move at Kashy’s, and move up into 12th. A lap later, Jack made another move at
Kashy’s and took 11th.
Ahead were 2 groups, the lead group of 5 and the 2nd group of 6. Jack was catching the 2nd group. It took a couple of laps, but Jack caught the
2nd group. They were having an awesome
battle ahead, and that really helped Jack catch up. I hate repeating myself, but in this instance
I’ll set aside my discomfort. Jack made
another pass at Kashy’s. Another nice
move to the inside and braked nice and late.
Now he was back to where he started, 11th. Two laps later, here we go again. Yes it was Kashy’s, and yes Jack got a really
nice run out of the new section. But
wait there’s more. There is a surprise
ending with this one. Jack made a
beautiful move, up the inside under brakes, but the driver saw him coming and
had a plan. He used the undercut, and
swooped up the inside of Jack on the exit and re-took the position. It was a great bit of driver. A lap later, Jack had another go. He had learned from the last attempt, and
made the pass. Ari (the other driver)
wasn’t going to just let Jack have the position. He stuck to the back of Jack. Jack left the door open at Brodericks, and
Ari went through. It was a great pass,
because it cost Jack a bit of momentum.
After another lap went by, Jack had clawed his way closer. He was almost in striking distance. Ari knew this as well. At Kashy’s, Ari took a very defensive line,
he could feel Jack breathing down his neck.
Last lap and they were nose to tail.
They stayed that way all the way to the finish. A fantastic race and a credit to both drivers
!!
Well 11th was our starting position again.
As they made their way down to Brodericks, Jack found himself in
10th. Some hi-jinx in old pub saw Jack
move up to 8th at the end of the 1st lap.
As we finished the 1st lap, Jack was at the back of the 2nd group. In what is making me sound like a broken
record (happily I might add), Jack made another nice pass at Kashy’s. This moved him up to 7th. No self-respecting driver gives up when
they’ve been passed. So when Jack got to
pit corner he got a rude shock when the driver he just passed, returned the
favour. He slid wide on the exit, and
Jack moved in beside him. They went
through Cossor side by side, but Jack yielded on the exit, so as not to run over
the curbing at the left kink. Jack had
another dig at Kashy’s, but the other driver stayed with him on the
outside. Again the 2 of them went around
a corner 2 abreast. The other driver got
a better run, and pulled away slightly.
Jack caught up again, and made a pass at Kashy’s. He got through this time, but caught lapped
traffic at the absolute worst spot.
Going through old pub. He lost a
lot of momentum, and that allowed the other driver to retake the position. He made up the very small gap, and closed in
once again. He was right on the rear
bumper as they went through the esses, and pulled out under braking for… Come on you guys should know now where he did
this. 😉
Yup Kashy’s. What helped Jack in
his battle was one of the front runners.
He had slipped back in the order due to an incident (not sure what
actually happened) and was working his way back towards the front. When Jack passed the #91, Beau was right
behind and went with Jack. Giving Jack a
bit of breathing room. Beau caught Jack
at Brodericks and slid by him in a nice move.
Beau very slowly pulled away, but Jack tried his best to hang on. Jack managed to put a gap on the next driver
and was closing on the group ahead. He
finished a wonderful 7th in the final. A
great result !!!
What a great weekend !! Not only did we
get to celebrate a win by Sam (which extended his club round podium streak),
but Jack drove wonderfully over the whole weekend. Warwick Kart Club put on a great event !!
Thanks to all of the volunteers and officials who give up their time so we
can go out and have some fun.
Thanks to the club for putting on such a great race.
Thanks to Norm at Sweet Tune Engines for Jack’s engine.
Thank you to Adam and Matt at ArcPoint Industries for all of your support last
year. The trollies still look
magnificent !!!
I also want to thank Jenny and Larry from Kaos for all of their support ot the club and to grass roots racing in general.
Lastly I want to thank our commentator Kev Davies for not only his commentary, but for taking pictures and videos as well. I have added pictures to this post, and they are from his photo album. In order to include them in a group I had to download them and re-upload.
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