Another hot day. For race 4 of the summer
series a lack of weekend time meant that we turned up for the race only foregoing
a practice session beforehand on the assumption that the kart worked perfectly
last time and would need little doing to it before going out this time.
Fortunately that turned out to be about right and after bleeding the brakes
(buy a brake bleeding kit - best £25 spent so far this year!) and pumping
up the tyres to 12psi we were ready to go. Well almost, just before starting
the engine we spotted the throttle cable elbow had broken (again). Luckily
the shop had one so 10 minutes later we were ready to go.
Practice confirmed we were on the pace and Toby set a fastest lap in the low
37s bracket. Paul went out and came in complaining of slight under steer.
A quick check of the tyre pressures shocked us both - up to 22psi due to the
heat. Realising this was way off normal levels we deflated them to 14psi and
Paul went out for qualifying. Two laps later he came back in puzzled. The
kart was undriveable. Apparently it had so much grip it almost turned over
on the hairpin twice and then suddenly snapped out of line on the faster corners.
We've always had problems lifting the rear wheel on corners but to lift back
and front a foot off the ground is a very unnerving experience!
Pumping the tyres up to 16psi improved matters a little bit but Toby came
in complaining that he could feel the tread moving under the kart and in fact
could see it visibly trying to peel itself off the rim on corners. Needless
to say our performance in qualifying was abysmal and we were placed 18th out
of 20. With no time left to correct the problem Toby had to go out and start
the race knowing the kart felt terrible.
After 2 laps dropping away from the pack he was in the pits. We decided to
pump up the tyres again to 18psi which helped a little but 2 laps later he
was back again. An executive decision saw us pumping the tyres up to 22psi
again. God knows how this compares to the manufacturers guidelines but it
seemed to work. So much so that other teams seemed to be adding air to their
tyres too during their planned stops.
In fact it worked really well and Toby was immediately back on the pace setting
the 5 fastest lap time (including Bilands) of 37.11s. Unfortunately we were
now 8 laps down on the leaders with no chance of making that kind of deficit
up. However being on the pace meant that he had a number of good scraps and
ended up passing quite a few karts.
The planned pitstop went smoothly and Paul took over. The handling suited
him slightly less well. We think his higher centre on gravity generated more
grip which meant he was still lifting both wheels on some corners but generally
he was close to the pace. After passing a few more kart during his stint we
ended up 15th with a gap of 3 laps to the next kart.
So, an unusual race, fun but ultimately frustrating as we could have challenged
for a top place without the tyre problems. Perhaps the practice session would
have helped……
29 June 2003 - Summer Series Round 4
