Sunday morning 7am, one degree Celsius and
monsoon rain. With Helen's sleepy "where ya goin?" now just a far off memory
of a warmer place, I slipped through the pre-dawn grime of the City, Fireblade
slithering and sliding on the diesel soaked streets beneath me.
Destination, Thruxton (/www.iantaylor.co.uk/new_site/karting/index.htm), via a meeting with Toby and Paul en-route to swap the bike for Paul's 7-series BMW (the old-git model), and to change out of damp leathers. [thank god – he smelt like a cross between old ladies you know whats and a damp horse]
The weather and our spirits lifted as we trekked westwards past Basingstoke and into Andover. After years of Rye House, we had added the usual 30 minutes hanging-around time onto the planned 9am start. However, to our surprise the briefing had begun on time, and we arrived sheepishly for the last five minutes.
The Thruxton kart circuit was pretty amazing looking, a lovely series of twisty chicanes, bridges and tunnels. The karts were a well maintained fleet of race-chassis’d and nicely prepped Thunderkarts, each with an on-board datalogger cycling lap-times, race position and distance to the kart in-front (if you were short enough to be able to peer through the steering wheel to see the display that is – sorry Paul).
We needed every second of the 45 minute practice and qualification session just to learn the track. It's a pretty closed-in circuit, and first time out every corner looks like every other (is this the twisty chicane that opens-up onto the back straight, or the twisty chicane that doubles back on itself??!). Unsurprisingly against strong local competition we qualified in position 6 out of 9 karts, with Toby pulling us back from the brink of 8th position on his last lap.
While Toby took a celebratory trip to get some provisions (apparently an adventure in its own right as the circuit is in the middle of the back of beyond), Paul agreed to bring his race-craft and experience to bear and start our race. A poor pull-away left us in 8th going into the first corner, but Team Motorvation are at home in the wet, and Paul was looking good as he passed the grandstand to complete his first lap. In fact, he looked so good that even the marshals were giving him a friendly wave as he passed each checkpoint. However, friendly turned to frantic by the second lap, so Paul made an early pit-stop to see what all the fuss was about.
An embarrassing two minutes and 13.78 seconds later, Paul rejoined the circuit, this time with his helmet strap done-up (see video).
With Motorvation now in a firm last place, the rest of Paul's session passed uneventfully. The rain had stopped, the circuit was drying, and lap times were tumbling down. Luke went out next, unfortunately for a fairly dull twenty-five minutes. Thruxton is a long circuit, and with only nine karts in the race it was pretty lonely at the opposite end of the track from the rest of the pack.
After a rapid fuel stop, Toby took our kart out for the third stint. A pretty short session though, as he was back in one lap later having used half a tank of petrol. Apparently the fuel-hose had become disconnected during the switch-over, and most of the tank had emptied onto the circuit. A quick cable-tie to fix the problem (only evidence of dodgy maintenance on an otherwise spotless kart), a re-refuel, and Toby was sent back out with the lost five minutes reclaimed.
Lap times were falling still as the track dried, and Toby put in a pretty nifty 1:07:01. Paul bettered that on his second session with a 1:06:05, and Luke topped it again with a 1:05:27. Toby finally put paid to the issue by driving a stonking 1:04:81 in the last four laps of the race (incidentally Toby set third fastest lap of the race, and Luke fourth – not bad for a bunch of first timers up against the locals).
Team Motorvation finally finished in a very reasonable 7th position. With only one lap separating third and seventh place, Luke and Toby awarded ourselves a notional podium finish, allowing for the helmet-strap incident which left Paul in a tardy 7th.
Notably, we were the only competitive team to run 6 sessions over the two and a half-hour race. Everyone else managed to run with a single drive each. Losing around twenty seconds per driver change, it looks like a few sessions in the gym might be called for all around.
Anyway, three roast beef dinners and two hours of mickey-taking later, we arrived back in London, tired but satisfied at a good performance. Given the overall quality of the circuit, it might be time to start planning a day of summer madness away from our usual hangouts.
09 Feb 2003 -Thruxton Endurance (Toby, Luke and Paul)
