Round 3.
Canberra – 9th May 2009
Race Time: 5 Hours
Qualified: 4th B Grade (10th outright)
Race Result: 6th B Grade (13th outright)
Considering it is our ‘home track’ (having never raced there before) the pressure was on us to have a good result. To do this we thought we would get in some early practice so Eric and I went to the track 2 weeks before the race to get a better understanding of the track and setup the kart. What we thought to be a good idea turned out to be disastrous for Team Canberra. After only 4 laps I noticed a problem with one of the motors, I came in only to find that one motor had a throttle jammed. We managed to fix this only to have the other motor seize up when we tried to restart it, our practice day was over.
With the race only 2 weeks away, Eric and I decided to buy a new motor rather than rebuild the seized one. This meant we needed help from The King of Parts to source, get race ready and tag a motor for us all the space of a week. Aydee from The King of Parts came to the rescue and had a race ready motor shipped to us the weekend before the big race. This allowed us time to prep the kart and run the new motor in before the big day. Thanks again Aydee.
Finally race day came. Practice and qualifying went really well, all 4 drivers putting in competitive times while still leaving a little in reserve. Rob once again proved to be a valuable asset to the team with his knowledge of kart setup. After a few minor adjustments we were all quietly confident and looking forward to the start of the race. Eric qualified the kart 4th in B Grade (10th on the grid) in a 9 lap session that looked to be very easy and he looked as though he had plenty in reserve. The kart was good!
I started the race and was amazed how the kart was handling on new rubber, it didn’t feel as good as it was in practice on rubber that had done over 8 hours work. Even though it wasn’t quite as good, it was still a lot of fun to drive and the track also proved to be a lot more interesting than we thought. All 4 drivers were putting in consistent times and the more the tyres wore the faster the kart got. All was going well until Chris came in for a regular fuel stop, it was then we noticed that the support bracket for the side pod had snapped. The kart was taken back to the pits where we managed to secure the side pod with the aid of some cable ties, plenty of gaffer tape and a piece a wood. We were back in the race but unfortunately we dropped around 15 laps which put us back to 18th position (10th or 11th in B Grade). With this little problem out of the way in was now a case of putting the foot down and going for it, we had nothing to loose. The Kart just got better and better as the race went on.
After 5 hours of racing and all 4 drivers doing a really good job we managed to fight our way back up to 13th outright, 6th in B Grade and in so doing picking up some valuable points. Even though we did not get the result we would have liked it was still a very enjoyable day. Hopefully our luck will change soon, let’s hope Dubbo brings us that elusive podium that we have all worked so hard to get.
Our thanks must go to Aydee from The King of Parts, the Canberra Kart Club for putting on a great event, all the AKA officials, TEKA for finally choosing to come to Canberra and to the Canberra weather, it was just magnificent!
There is an old saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. This is true with the Canberra track, don’t judge a track until you have driven it for 5 hours. First impressions of the Canberra layout looked to be anything but exciting but after 5 hours most teams that competed all had a new appreciation of this technically demanding track and with plans to extend the track by 400 metres, next years race should be even bigger and better, maybe we could have a 2 day event at Canberra next year?
See you all at Dubbo.
Gil
Popularity: 55% [?]
Add A Comment