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We
had decided to race both karts, and to do a full days practice too, giving
Steve and Mark their first taste of (Rotax) Max Power.
The plan was that Toby and I would share kart 78, and Steve Smelt and his brother Stuart (who was due to come along later to race) kart 24.…. Should make for a good race. First plan was scuppered as we found out that Stuart had broken his ankle earlier in the week and wouldn't be able to race - but Simon Jones offered to step in so all was sorted for a two kart race…. Or so we thought.
Things started off with the usual amount of focus needed on getting both karts set up properly - and both needed the brake fluid topping up as pedal travel was excessive…. Kart 24 seemed to be a bit down on power and backfiring too - maybe due to months of inactivity and sitting upright in my garage..
We had a few jobs to do but were just taking turns to take the karts out …. Then when it came to my turn I jumped into kart 24 and did a couple of slow warm up laps to wait for Mark to catch up so we could have a bit of a race…. He soon caught up so I floored it down the back straight, round stadium and headed for the apex on the flatout left hander, but the kart had other ideas…… and it speared straight on towards the tyre wall …. All I remember is thinking “This is going to hurt” and seeing my life flash before me - Toby wittingly commented that given my advancing years this must have taken some time…. Next thing I felt was my chest and crash helmet hitting the steering wheel and my nose hitting the inside of my helmet… and seeing a lot of stars…. I initially just felt a bit dazed and after a few seconds of checking that all my vital organs were still attached to me I got out of the kart to examine the damage. Which was quite comprehensive - crumpled nose cone, bent nose cone mounting bar, bent track rod, bent accelerator pedal, bent steering wheel and bent steering column (now in London Bus mode, i.e. horizontal) - I.e the kart was knackered and beyond repair on the day… and then I saw the front left wheel lying a couple of yards away…. The cause off the incident being an insufficiently tightened front wheel nut coming off, leaving three wheels on my wagon…. No witch hunt was conducted but Toby and Mark were advised to check their car wheel nuts VERY carefully before driving home….
While Toby et al recovered the kart, I hobbled to first aid for a cold compress for my ankle….. Investigations showed that was the end of my racing for the day and I was confined to hopping duties…. Stuart and I making a fine pair of cripples… not a good advert for karting !
And so to the race - Toby and Steve to race kart 78. Having been penalised for being late to briefing a number of teams were put into a random draw for the grid…. We drew number 13 - how apt !!! This was definitely a a blow as we could have a top three start again as Toby saw a 36.00 in practice and 35.84 in the race…
Toby started well, keeping out trouble and picking off a couple of stragglers on lap one, and then he continued at a blistering pace to catch and pass others until he had dragged himself what seemed like well up the field (we reckon about 6th). A couple of good scraps on the way , one in particular kept the crowd amused and showed that kart 78 was proving to be a good buy !
Steve took over after 20mins and continued to set a strong pace, seeing us 5th on the scoreboard….. But the tyres which were on their second race started to go off and his times slipped from 36s to high 37s… however he raced well and also had some good races and apart from the leaders no-one got past so we expected a good result, but after the second stop we had slipped off the leader board and weren’t in the top 6 anymore.… and as we all had “appointments” elsewhere we didn’t hang around for the results… a bit like Arrows where Steve used to work, so he was used to early departures !
And today I’m on hobbling around on crutches with strained ligaments in my ankle…. Marvellous…..
22 Mar 2003 - last round of winter series. Paul/Toby/Steve and Mark