Good luck to all drivers contesting the British Kart GP this weekend.
Dougie from QLD is driving a Anderson for the THR engine crew, fingers crossed you have a safe, reliable and enjoyable race weekend mate, Enjoy the experience !
Thanks guys it's been really great over here so far and we haven't even left for the track yet. I've spent the last two days getting the machine ready and I now know it inside out, the guys from THR and Kennedy Motors have been great to me and I'm looking foward to an awesome weekend of racing. There will be 47 karts on the grid for the 250 single/450 race so I' m sure to have a ball regardless of where I run.
I even managed to have a few beers with the financial director of red bull formula 1 last night and we did discuss him putting in a good word for me to take webbers seat in 2014 so we'll just see how it goes :P
Thanks jase, I'm not sure if it was her or you that made me choose to stay in this sport haha
I'll give a run down of the weekend for those who re interested once i've caught up on some sleep. But for now lets just say that things didn't go as planned.
So i din't have a crash hot weekend in the UK and i've been avoiding writing this but a few people have asked so i thought i'd put it up here.
I spent the week leading up to the British GP staying with the owner of THR, Kevin, and we spent the week building the kart. On Wednesday we went round to the THR workshop and met up with Nick who is the other half of THR to do some final prep. The THR workshop is the kind of place i would dream of working on my kart in, it's fantastic and very professional. Wednesday night we took the kart round to the kennedy motors dyno for a bit of testing. After a few hours on the dyno we had made some serious gains on the engine and although i'm not aloud to tell you figures lets just say it's doing really well. The engine i was running was still just a barrel and head with standard bore and stroke (the cranks still haven't come from the producer).
So we arrived at the track Thursday night and set up for the weekend. Friday morning we were out for practice and my first session went reasonably well. It took me some time to get use to the track and the kart but it was only practice. Next session we went out we had leaned it off a little as it was really rich in the first session, but three laps in the temp came up a bit high and so i pulled in. Next session we changed the jetting again only to find we still had the same problem the temperature was sort of going up and down all over the place so to avoid damage i came in again. Turns out we had a cooling system problem that we managed to sort but kept me out for the fourth practice. Overall on friday i think i got about 9 laps in, on a track i had never seen before, in a kart i had never driven before.
Saturday came round and In the morning warm up we had put on a new motor overnight with a closer ratio box so i spent my time trying to get use to that, but it had developed a strange cough to it overnight. For qualifying we replaced the spark plug to see if we could cure it, but without any of the ones we were using we had to go buy some more from down pit lane. I went out for qualifying and it was going like a rocket ship. It was just driving around a lot of the other karts i saw, but then it never went so fast until. Coming into the final corner on about my third lap the thing had a major seize and i looped it and spun off the track. Turns out the plug that we put in was not the same model as the one that came out, this one had a longer thread depth (designed for a det sensor) and so the plug was sticking too far into the combustion chamber had advanced the timing and blew the ass out of the piston. With the issue resolved we managed to get it together for the first race starting on row 22 (somehow i wasn't at the back). Unfortunately though we had an air lock in the cooling system and while i persisted the temperature just got to high and i had to come in a few laps from the end. With the cooling system once again sorted that afternoon we were ready for sunday. Again i may have got 4 or 5 good laps in today, i still had no idea how the kart was handling at speed or what lines to take on the track.
We went out for the warm up Sunday morning and about two laps in a felt a small seize and while i managed to get the clutch and get it into the pits, it had ripped even more of the plating off the cylinder than we lost in the seize the day before and so the decision was made to put the honda on. It was a rush to do a full engine change in time for the first race but somehow the team did it. With the honda on we managed to get back out for the first race only to find the clutch had been incorrectly adjusted so i had to pull in and have that fixed before i could go back out. While i finshed the race the engine was jetted incorrectly and wouldn't clear at all.
With a new jet in it was time for the GP. I'm not sure if many of you know but there has been quite a bit of contention with the start of this race, all i know is that i was at the back and it was pretty much a standing start for us. Unfortunately we were still too rich and the engine fueled up on me but once it cleared i got going and while we were well down on power and there was zero tread left on my tires i think i managed to finish the race in about 27th.
BY the end of the weekend i knew what we needed to do to the kart to get it handling right and i had just finally gotten one good session in to learn the track but that's just how it goes.
It has to go down as one of the worst weekends racing I've ever had, but that's racing. It was still a great experience for me and i'm hoping to do another one and try and redeem myself with the UK drivers.
The THR has loads of potential and i'm sure we'll all see that come to light in the next few months.
If anyone wants to know anything just let me know.
Great effort Dougie, its bloody hard getting a package together the week before a race meeting and trying like hell to iron all the bugs out at the same time as trying to learn a new track, go fast and look after someone else's gear. Sounds like a good experience.
My advise is that if you are going to race overseas with ambition of winning or racing to the best of your ability, you can only do it with your own gear that you have previously setup. Unfortunately this cost lots of money or sometimes won't happen so a lease deal is the only next thing.....but you need to always be realistic down this avenue. It's hard enough that you need to learn the track so you can't afford to be getting into different race gear as well.
Dougie, the main thing it was an experience and learning curve for you and I'm very happy for you that you gave it a crack while you had the opportunity to do so.
Dougie, the experience you gained is awesome. I am sure the boys up here would give anything for what you have accomplished. Well done Mate, we are proud of you.
Thanks guys, it was definitely a great experience and I learnt a lot. Your right sammy, best way to do it would have been with my own gear. Now I think it's about time I got home and used this experience to start giving you guys a hard time :)
Comments13
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP
I even managed to have a few beers with the financial director of red bull formula 1 last night and we did discuss him putting in a good word for me to take webbers seat in 2014 so we'll just see how it goes :P
Thanks jase, I'm not sure if it was her or you that made me choose to stay in this sport haha
Hope I can do everyone proud this weekend :)
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP
http://www.tsl-timing.com/barc/2013/132822f25.pdf
I must say, what a very professional and informative timing site.
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP
Jase
Re: British Kart GP
I spent the week leading up to the British GP staying with the owner of THR, Kevin, and we spent the week building the kart. On Wednesday we went round to the THR workshop and met up with Nick who is the other half of THR to do some final prep. The THR workshop is the kind of place i would dream of working on my kart in, it's fantastic and very professional. Wednesday night we took the kart round to the kennedy motors dyno for a bit of testing. After a few hours on the dyno we had made some serious gains on the engine and although i'm not aloud to tell you figures lets just say it's doing really well. The engine i was running was still just a barrel and head with standard bore and stroke (the cranks still haven't come from the producer).
So we arrived at the track Thursday night and set up for the weekend. Friday morning we were out for practice and my first session went reasonably well. It took me some time to get use to the track and the kart but it was only practice. Next session we went out we had leaned it off a little as it was really rich in the first session, but three laps in the temp came up a bit high and so i pulled in. Next session we changed the jetting again only to find we still had the same problem the temperature was sort of going up and down all over the place so to avoid damage i came in again. Turns out we had a cooling system problem that we managed to sort but kept me out for the fourth practice. Overall on friday i think i got about 9 laps in, on a track i had never seen before, in a kart i had never driven before.
Saturday came round and In the morning warm up we had put on a new motor overnight with a closer ratio box so i spent my time trying to get use to that, but it had developed a strange cough to it overnight. For qualifying we replaced the spark plug to see if we could cure it, but without any of the ones we were using we had to go buy some more from down pit lane. I went out for qualifying and it was going like a rocket ship. It was just driving around a lot of the other karts i saw, but then it never went so fast until. Coming into the final corner on about my third lap the thing had a major seize and i looped it and spun off the track. Turns out the plug that we put in was not the same model as the one that came out, this one had a longer thread depth (designed for a det sensor) and so the plug was sticking too far into the combustion chamber had advanced the timing and blew the ass out of the piston. With the issue resolved we managed to get it together for the first race starting on row 22 (somehow i wasn't at the back). Unfortunately though we had an air lock in the cooling system and while i persisted the temperature just got to high and i had to come in a few laps from the end. With the cooling system once again sorted that afternoon we were ready for sunday. Again i may have got 4 or 5 good laps in today, i still had no idea how the kart was handling at speed or what lines to take on the track.
We went out for the warm up Sunday morning and about two laps in a felt a small seize and while i managed to get the clutch and get it into the pits, it had ripped even more of the plating off the cylinder than we lost in the seize the day before and so the decision was made to put the honda on. It was a rush to do a full engine change in time for the first race but somehow the team did it. With the honda on we managed to get back out for the first race only to find the clutch had been incorrectly adjusted so i had to pull in and have that fixed before i could go back out. While i finshed the race the engine was jetted incorrectly and wouldn't clear at all.
With a new jet in it was time for the GP. I'm not sure if many of you know but there has been quite a bit of contention with the start of this race, all i know is that i was at the back and it was pretty much a standing start for us. Unfortunately we were still too rich and the engine fueled up on me but once it cleared i got going and while we were well down on power and there was zero tread left on my tires i think i managed to finish the race in about 27th.
BY the end of the weekend i knew what we needed to do to the kart to get it handling right and i had just finally gotten one good session in to learn the track but that's just how it goes.
It has to go down as one of the worst weekends racing I've ever had, but that's racing. It was still a great experience for me and i'm hoping to do another one and try and redeem myself with the UK drivers.
The THR has loads of potential and i'm sure we'll all see that come to light in the next few months.
If anyone wants to know anything just let me know.
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP
Jase.
Re: British Kart GP
It's hard enough that you need to learn the track so you can't afford to be getting into different race gear as well.
Dougie, the main thing it was an experience and learning curve for you and I'm very happy for you that you gave it a crack while you had the opportunity to do so.
Cheers mate.
Re: British Kart GP
Re: British Kart GP