Karting Korner

1 - Slipstream News.

Our indoor venue - Slipstream Racing in Camberley is closing at the end of June. Their lease has expired and isn't being renewed so they are having to find new premises. As an interim measure, they will be running events on the 650 metre outdoor track at the Reading Trail Park. Lap times are around 50 seconds and the track layout looks fairly interesting.

In the meantime, we are without a decent indoor venue, any suggestions?

2 - Will be Good.

Held on the 21st of June at Sandown Park, the Will be Good was the fourth round of the Duckhams Oils sponsored, 1998 Southern Car Club Karting Trophy. Not only our biggest event of the year - the Will be Good was a six hour race - it was split into two three hour heats each using a different track layout.

In order to cram seven and a half hours of driving into the restricted 10 - 6 Sunday track hours, the drivers briefing was moved forward 15 minutes but almost everyone made it on time.

With the briefing over, a timed practice session on the 'normal' 850 metre circuit left BP Oil on pole with Southern Car Club and ART Racing close behind. Slipstream Racing, on their first appearance at Sandown were fourth ahead of Mutt's Nutts, HART M. C. and Sable Design. Chalfont Green Racing making their first appearance since last August were eighth with Hornets II in ninth. Loobs Young Men qualified a bit lower than expected in tenth followed by Hornets and Vindaloo F. C. The Lost Sheep, a scratch team from BP and Newbridge Networks and possibly the only team there without members with previous experience of Sandown brought up the rear.

Reverting to a reversed grid this time in an attempt to avoid the first lap carnage of the Tour of Sandown, the field was led away by the Lost Sheep. It didn't work - at the end of lap one, Loobs Young Men limped into the pits with a puncture and bent rear axle. How often must it be said - a 3 hour race is around 200 laps, lap one is almost irrelevant - give each other some room. If you're that quick you will get by soon enough. 'Shutting the Door' on someone when they are alongside you is not acceptable either.

On lap nine, Southern Car Club, which had started the race with a one lap deficit for having two Sandown 'In Kart Club' drivers in the team was wrongly black flagged and pulled into the Sin Bin. The marshals quickly sorted out the mistake and sent them back on their way. Driver changes started early with BP Oil bringing their lead driver in from first place on lap 12.

After 15 minutes, the field - with the exception of the handicapped Southern, was beginning to look more like the qualifying positions. Newcomers Slipstream Racing were in the lead 0.4 secs ahead of ART Racing with BP Oil closing up in third after their driver change. With Mutt's Nutts, HART M. C. and Sable design close behind, the first six were all crammed into the same lap. One lap down came Hornets II, Vindaloo F. C., Loobs Young Men, Chalfont Green Racing and Southern with Hornets and the Lost Sheep beginning to lose ground.

BP Oil's driver strategy wasn't going to help though and on lap 22 the engine, cried enough and the kart rolled to a stop in The Vale. The replacement was to prove around 0.5 secs a lap slower and BP's fate was sealed.

Despite their problems, with 30 minutes and three driver changes gone, BP Oil were in the lead 1.4 secs ahead of ART Racing who were less than 0.1 secs ahead of Slipstream Racing. Ominously, Southern were now only 19 secs adrift in fourth with Mutt's Nutts in fifth on the same lap.

By just over one third distance, BP Oil were still hanging on to their lead - now down to 1.2 secs over Southern, with Slipstream Racing the only other team still on the same lap, 4.9 secs further back yet. ART Racing were now a lap down and steadily losing ground with HART M. C. a further lap adrift. Hornets II, Loobs Young Men and Mutt's Nutts were all close together on three laps down with Chalfont Green Racing and Sable Design on four. Hornets were now losing touch with the rest and Vindaloo F. C. were definitely in need of re-heating. The lost Sheep desperately needed a shepherd to help them find their way - maybe somebody was pulling the wool over their eyes.

By half distance, Southern held a 9.8 sec advantage over BP Oil who were only 1.2 secs ahead of a miraculously recovered ART Racing. Slipstream Racing were now a lap down in fourth with a two lap advantage over Mutt's Nutts and HART M. C. Loobs Young Men were pushing determinedly on in seventh place ahead of Chalfont Green Racing who were still trying to shake off the unwanted attentions of Sable Design. Hornets II had taken rather a tumble and were now down in tenth, a lap ahead of Hornets who were still two laps up on Vindaloo F. C. with the Lost Sheep now beginning to lose less time as they learned their way around.

Coming up on two thirds distance and Southern now held a one lap advantage over ART Racing who were nearly 40 secs ahead of BP Oil holding a similar margin over Slipstream Racing. The rest of the field was now well strung out with Mutt's Nutts, HART M. C. and Loobs Young Men all spaced a lap apart. Chalfont Green Racing and Sable Design were still about half a lap apart. Hornets were up to tenth and Vindaloo F. C. eleventh at the expense of Hornets II who were falling steadily back towards the Lost Sheep who continued to post faster times as the day progressed.

With half an hour to go, Southern, who had their one lap handicap repealed looked to have it sewn up with ART Racing a lap behind in second but both still had several driver changes to make (3) to BP Oil's one. Slipstream Racing were still in there, only 25 secs behind BP. Things could still happen. Mutt's Nutts, HART M. C., Loobs Young Men and Sable Design - who had finally broken free of Chalfont Green - were all spaced a lap apart. Hornets II had recovered to ninth ahead of a fading Chalfont Green Racing. With Hornets, Vindaloo F. C. and the Lost Sheep keeping station.

Into the last few minutes and BP Oil held a slender lead over Southern, who had their fastest man (boy) out on the track to chase down the lead which he duly took with only five laps to go.

And so after all that, at half distance, Southern came home 11.1 secs ahead of BP Oil with ART Racing in third, 46 secs further back and around 40 secs in front of Slipstream Racing with Mutt's Nutts in fifth. Five teams over the line in under two minutes after three hours racing - pretty close. Loobs young men finished sixth with Sable Design and Hornets II seventh and eighth. HART M. C. suffered badly during those last minutes, dropping to ninth having spent most of the race in sixth. Chalfont Green Racing were tenth, Hornets eleventh, Vindaloo F. C. twelfth and the Lost Sheep thirteenth.

Having done all that, most people would have been happy (clever) enough to go home - not us- the track was altered to an alternate 850 metre layout and after everyone had practised on it, the grid was formed up in reverse finishing order of the first heat and off we went again.

On the new layout, the first corner is only yards from the start so the first lap was run as a complete loop of the outer circuit, allowing the field to settle down a bit before running through the tighter infield section. It may have helped a bit, everyone except Vindaloo F. C. got round OK but the bumping a boring soon started again. On lap 12, Slipstream Racing - who admittedly are more used to contact during close racing on their own indoor track were black flagged and treated to a trip to the Sin Bin. Slipstream protested, but when on someone else's track you have to follow their rules.

Coming up on quarter distance, Southern were nearly 6 secs up on BP Oil who were just over 3 secs ahead of HART M. C. Sable Design were obviously happier on this track, only 10 secs further back in fourth and holding a 26 sec advantage over Loobs Young Men. The next three teams ART Racing, Chalfont Green Racing and Hornets II were all a lap down, but still close enough to be able to pull back if any of the leaders relaxed. Then there was a gap back to Mutt's Nutts and The Lost Sheep! Yes, the Sheep, without the disadvantage of not knowing the other track were in a race best tenth position. Slipstream were now running a Tiger kart and were some four laps down in eleventh, not far ahead of Hornets who were four laps up on tailenders Vindaloo F. C.

With an hour's racing gone, Southern had increased their lead over BP Oil to 9 secs. Sable Design had got past HART M. C. but both were now a lap down on the leaders. Two laps down came ART Racing, 4 seconds ahead of Loobs Young Men and an improving Slipstream. Hornets II still held eighth ahead of Chalfont Green Racing with the normally competitive Mutt's Nutts (Team TBA) slipping to tenth. Vindaloo F. C. had recovered somewhat from their disastrous start to regain eleventh ahead of Hornets and the Lost Sheep.

After two hours, Southern were a full lap ahead of Slipstream Racing with BP oil a further 16 secs back in third. Sable Design were now fourth, with Loobs Young Men fifth. Mutt's Nutts had improved to sixth but HART M. C. and ART Racing had both suffered badly, dropping to seventh and eighth. Hornets II were down one in ninth, still ahead of Chalfont Green Racing which left the final three places unchanged with Vindaloo F. C., Hornets and the Lost Sheep all now on thirteen laps down.

By the end, Southern were a lap ahead of BP Oil who relegated Slipstream racing to third with only minutes to go. Sable Design were only 12 secs behind in fourth and only 8 secs in front of Mutt's Nutts. HART M. C. recovered to sixth at the expense of Loobs young Men. ART Racing lost out badly during the last hour, struggling with a replacement kart which was losing them up to 2 secs a lap. They were still well ahead of Hornets II and Chalfont Green Racing. Hornets managed to push past Vindaloo F. C. for eleventh leaving the Lost Sheep to come home in thirteenth place.

Some hard sums then followed before the final results showed Southern Car Club the clear winners ahead of BP Oil with Slipstream Racing coming home third despite their troubles - and using up no less than six karts during the day. Mutt's Nutts were fourth, just edging out Sable Design, who in their turn beat ART Racing by virtue of a better result in race 2. Loobs Young Men took the halfway slot ahead of HART M. C. and Hornets II with the top ten rounded out by Chalfont Green Racing. Team Number 1, Hornets strolled home eleventh with Vindaloo F. C. and the Lost Sheep completing the field.

Awards were presented from both the circuit and our sponsors Duckhams Oils and some highly corrosive 'fizzy pop' - it dried on my helmet and I couldn't get it cleaned off - was sprayed liberally to complete the celebrations.

Once again, many thanks to Mike Head and his team of overworked marshals (and mechanics) for getting us through a long, hot day.

Looking at the times and numbers of laps completed suggests that the 'second' track layout we used was slightly quicker - with the winning team completing 200 laps as opposed to 198. Compared to last year, when then winning team did 388 laps, the pace has also gone up considerably - the top six teams this year all did better and even seventh and eighth both did 387 laps apiece - that is good going.

3 - Team Challenge.

I haven't had much success this time persuading people into providing me with 'Competitors Reports' from The Will be Good. The only one I got is from Peter Noble of BP Oil.

The First Race.

Started from the back of the grid after the qualifying slots were reversed, stayed well out of trouble for the first few laps (this time!) and watched a lot of drivers get tangled up and make mistakes in front of me. I was running with the front five by lap 4, the kart we had was running on paraffin I reckon, cause it was a flyer. As soon as I overtook Daren Arnold for first place I just ran away, and on lap 12 I had a time of 51.023 in the bag (my quickest in a single at Sandown) and everything was looking rosy for BP Oil.

I handed over to Gavin after 10 mins, who came out in third place. In a matter of a few laps it all went pear shaped as we could not see Gav any more. The engine had seized in The Vale, and that was it for our quick kart!

We got a replacement and our laps back and off we went again. Mark Wyatt took over and managed to squeeze 51.8's out of the replacement, so we were reasonably happy if a little uncomfortable with it. We all ran short stints for the first 2 hrs, but it was becoming apparent that SCC were just a little too quick for everyone else, especially when little Adam was tearing around.

Our longer stints for last hour helped us to pull up from 4th to first, with Mark taking over our last stint and leading by a half lap from SCC.

It was the little lightweight contender that saved SCC's bacon, over a second per lap quicker, he took the lead from Mark, easily on the straight and went on to win by 11seconds. 3 hours and just 11secs, good racing.

The Second Race.

The track was changed around, and everyone had a few laps to practice the revised circuit, the field was started in the reverse of the finish in the first race, we were at the back again!

A cautious start again, and a little lawn mowing when avoiding some carnage near the pits. This version of the track was very tight so there was some close racing going on, for one team and one driver a little bit of consideration would have been nicer. I remember thinking, if this idiot doesn't give me a little room I'm going to whack those tyres! (The ones out of The Vale) Guess what, he did'nt give me any! Never mind, I nailed him half a lap later. That driver upset a few others ,was brought in for a sin bin, and all hell broke loose. Poor Gav, had to sort the mess out!

BP Oil stuck to the same strategy as the first race, short stints then longer ones, but it was the same result as the first race. SCC were just TOO bleedin' quick-all of them! Colin Early gave me a fright on the straight when he just drafted straight past me, I couldn't believe it! Mind I retook him a couple of corners later and buggered off into the distance. Gavin and Mark took over respectively, both were driving well.

All the excitement for me was at the end, Slipstream, left young Ross Kaiser out until 4 mins before the end, and in second place, but with 1 driver change to do. They pulled of a quick change, and got out ahead of Mark Wyatt. He stayed behind Slipstream and couldn't get past until the penultimate lap, now that's the second close finishing race in one day! Spot on!

Over all the day was very enjoyable and hot, but there were many complaints about the karts. Brakes especially, but having worked at a kart track before that's nothing unusual.

Well done SCC! Jammy dodgers!