Karting Korner

1 - The Mayors Appeal.

The Mayor's Go-Karting Challenge - a three hour Pro-Kart race in support of the charity Home-Start in Elmbridge was run on Sunday 19th April 1998 at Sandown Park and, needless to say, Southern Car Club was there. Thickly disguised as BP Oil, the team comprising Gavin Edmiston, Peter Noble and non-member (silly boy) Paul Mattinson turned up in glorious sunshine to watch the end of the owner drivers charity challenge race which was due to finish at around 2pm. By the time the eleven teams lined up for practice the sky had turned ominously dark and sure enough almost as soon as I sat in the car for my session, the heavens opened and that's how it stayed.

As soon as the race started, it became obvious which teams had been round Sandown in the wet before. Woking Motors shot into the lead with Sandown Park Kart Club and AutoItalia in hot pursuit - taking nearly 10s a lap off the rest of us. By the end of the first hour, we were down in eighth - nearly 3 laps down, but it was getting wetter all the time and over the next 45 mins we pulled steadily up the field until by the time we were called in for fuel we were in the lead. Back out in third after re-fuelling and a driver change the rain began to ease off and over the next 45 mins we managed to retake the lead and extend it to over a lap.

Into the last 15 mins and a steady drive gave us first in a slightly shortened race, nearly three quarters of a lap ahead of Sandown Park Kart Club, Woking Motors and AutoItalia - some of whom had driven in the morning event as well.

Many thanks to Mark Blythe of SFI for organising the event, Andrew Crighton and the staff of Karting at Sandown for hosting it, the Mayor of Elmbridge for supporting it and to all of you who contributed your hard earned cash in sponsorship which has allowed the team to contribute over £850 to the charity.

2 - Tour of Sandown.

And so to the 26th of April - the Tour of Sandown - third round of the 1998 Southern Car Club Karting Trophy. Once again sponsored by Duckhams Oils, and the second event in a row to be oversubscribed. An early start this time with signing on starting at 08:00 and the drivers briefing promptly at 08:45.

Due to a problem with the timing system, practice times were limited to the last 30 mins and these show Windsor Lot (Windsor Car Club) on pole with a stunning 52.184s lap from Trevor Joel nearly 0.6s ahead of Team TBA where were almost 0.4s up on third placed Southern Car Club. After that, things were a lot closer with Team TBA 3 in fourth, then BP Oil, Team TBA 4 (there were no less than five Team TBA's) and regulars Bullwinkle just ahead of Roadrunners - all covered by just over half a second. Then there was a gap back to another group of five led by Team TBA 5 in ninth spot, Loobs Young Men (their second appearance), Sandhurst Storm in eleventh (last seen as British Airways), RSS HART Motorsport (HART Motor Club) and Tailenders (Basingstoke Motor Club). Bringing up the rear - having sent their fastest drivers out before the timed session began were XEXCO loonies and Team TBA 2. However three hours is a long time and being at the front of the grid isn't necessarily a sure sign of success.

No reverse grid order this time so Windsor led the charge down to The Vale - and - chaos! Barry of Team TBA had used his front row position and light weight to arrive at the corner first - then lost it right in front of the pursuing pack. By the time the marshals had sorted through the wreckage BP Oil were ninth, Team TBA twelfth, Windsor fourteenth and Southern fifteenth - and last, nearly a lap down on leaders Team TBA 4, Team TBA 3 and Tailenders (up from thirteenth) who had all been smart enough to miss the conflagration at the front.

By quarter distance when the first fuel stops were due, Roadrunners were nearly 31s ahead of Team TBA 4 with Team TBA 5 a further 4.7s behind in third. Team TBA had recovered from their disastrous start to fourth with Team TBA 3 in fifth. Bullwinkle were sixth and Windsor had recovered to seventh - setting the fastest lap of the race (51.770s) on the way, BP Oil were eighth - after a trip to the Sin Bin for overtaking under the yellow flags. Tailenders in ninth weren't living up to their name and Loobs Young Men had their lady driver out in tenth!!! Sandhurst Storm were proving more of a gentle breeze in eleventh and Southern were still struggling away down in twelfth. RSS HART had dropped steadily and were now in thirteenth ahead XEXCO and Team TBA 2.

And then the rain came - again. A few spots on the visor and lap times started to rise dramatically. I don't think anyone didn't have some kind of a spin and some people were going round faster than a top. Inevitably there were winners and losers and by half distance Team TBA 4 were in the lead and roadrunners had dropped to second - over a lap down - a loss of nearly two laps in 45 minutes. Team TBA continued to improve and were now third and Windsor had dragged themselves up to fourth. Team TBA 3 had been up and down but remained in fifth ahead of Bullwinkle in sixth and BP oil in seventh. Southern were finally making up ground by sending Adam Pearless out in the rain - and leaving him there. Team TBA 5 did not like the rain, they had gone from first on lap 39 to eleventh on lap 58 and now held ninth followed by Tailenders and Sandhurst Storm in a teacup. Another team to lose out were Loobs Young Men who had dropped to twelfth. The last three runners were proving remarkably consistent with RSS HART, XEXCO and Team TBA 2 all holding station and dropping steadily behind.

During the third quarter of the race, the heavens really opened and a thunder storm made Sandown look like a scene from a Cecil B. De-Mille remake of the Great Flood. Water was flowing down the hill and across the track so deeply that the race director considered stopping the race on safety grounds. Luckily it only lasted a few minutes and then eased up - but I can say - I was out at the time, that if anyone had come out of their kart they might have drowned if the marshals didn't get to them quickly.

As the rain eased, Team TBA4 still led Team TBA 3 by over two laps, Roadrunners were back up to third, some 40s behind and Team TBA were fourth, another 26s down. Bp Oil had pulled up a bit to fifth but were still 35s adrift of TBA and only 14s in front of Southern, finally beginning to make up for their poor start and only 11.12s ahead of Bullwinkle. As some go up - Windsor had lost out and were now down in eighth, but at least they were in the same race. Team TBA 5 in ninth were a full five laps behind Windsor, but were being tracked closely by Sandhurst and Tailenders who held almost a lap advantage over Loobs Young Men in twelfth, with RSS HART, XEXCO and Team TBA 2 apparently using a much longer circuit than everyone else.

With only fifteen minutes to go the rain was easing up and lap times were falling as the track dried out, but, several teams had still not completed all of their driver changes. Biggest losers were Roadrunners who were three changes short and dropped from third to sixth in the last few minutes. Loobs Young Men pulled up from twelfth to tenth as Sandhurst and Tailenders both completed their last stop.

Which left Team TBA 4 the winners by the handsome margin of two laps from Team TBA 3 with BP Oil in third a further lap adrift. Southern finally made up enough ground to get fourth, 28.7s behind BP they only lost third at their last driver change they finished with Team TBA only 0.682s behind them in fifth. In sixth, all on their own were Roadrunners, followed by Bullwinkle, only 1.037s ahead of the unfortunate Windsor. The other teams had all found various ways to lose time to the extent that ninth placed Team TBA 5 were a further five laps down, nearly a lap up on Loobs Young Men who had suffered a terminal engine failure in their race kart and had to run a Tiger while the engine was replaced. Tailenders had sunk - not quite - to the tail end and rolled home eleventh in front of Sandhurst. The final three were still in formation with RSS HART ahead of XEXCO and Team TBA 2.

What a race! Team TBA 4 were definitely in a class of their own and despite our fears the rain seems to have absolutely made the day for some people. Anybody remember all those warnings about the first bend ? Anybody listen ? No ?

Once again, many thanks to Darren Barnard and his team of marshals who kept us going through appalling weather - they must be as mad as we are, and of course, to our Sponsors Duckhams Oils, especially Sue MacGregor who emptied a warehouse of prizes in our direction, it is much appreciated.

Finally, just in case it's dry in June, I have been asked to investigate the use of a water truck to dampen the track down if the racing looks a bit too tame. Hmm.

3 - Will be Good.

I haven't had much success this time persuading people into providing me with 'Competitors Reports' from The Tour of Sandown.

The only one I got is from Trevor Joel of team 14, Windsor Lot.

Who were:
Stefan Arndt
Trevor Joel
Andy Watson
Andy Juniper

Failure to pay attention to dates and times meant a fairly hectic weekend leading up to the latest kart endurance race, this time at the outdoor Sandown Park circuit. Originally Stefan Arndt and I were both planning to compete in a Hart MC 12 Car on the Friday night, the Powerush Road Rally on Saturday night, then straight on to Sandown for 08:30 signing on at the Kart Track. Various car problems changed all that, which is probably a good thing as I find driving a Kart in the wet hard enough, let alone being half asleep at the same time. Though it did mean the very unusual situation of being awake at 7am on a Sunday morning without having been up all night.

Stefan and I met up with Andy Watson and Andy Juniper at Sandown and after a short (?) drivers briefing practice commenced. There was trouble with the computer at first and only the second half of practice got timed, which may have contributed to us getting pole. The track had less grip than I remembered from last summer, probably the lower temperature, which meant the slower corners were much easier. I found myself driving the track much more like an indoor circuit, full throttle and chuck it in, and in the end was only braking for the right hander at the entrance to the pits.

The race itself started rather badly for us. Stefan was outdragged off pole by the driver from Team 9 TBA, but at the end of the vale he lost it directly in front of Stefan who was left with nowhere to go. First to last in 2 corners and from then on it was a question of trying to catch the guys up front, who had a good 40 second lead, and of course there were 13 other Karts to get past first.

Stefan dropped a little time to the leaders but kept us on the same lap handing over to me in 12th. Despite setting consistent mid 52 lap times, and one 51.7 which seems to have come out of nowhere, I could get no higher than 9th, not a problem we still had 2 1/2 hours to go. Andy Watson was also consistently quick and his slightly longer 20 minute stint brought us up to 5th. For his last few laps a little rain had started falling and AJ took over on a slightly damp track. The next 20 minutes with a damp track saw us climb up to third, and Stefan in his second stint held on well as the rain got heavier.

Half distance, I'm about to take over and the rain just gets worse - and so does my driving. After a couple of entertaining moments, and a fuel stop I had dropped 2 places, and then coming into the vale everything went pear shaped. After the marshals had dug me out of the tyres and carried the Kart back to the track we were 8th, I immediately got called in for a driver change ( if only they'd done it one lap earlier ).

As the rain got heavier and the track got deeper in water Andy managed to maintain position. All we could hope for was an end to the rain and a rapidly drying track - some chance. As the track started to dry AJ pulled us back to 6th briefly. In the last half hour Stefan maintained 6th / 7th position until a final fuel stop with only 15 minutes to go somehow dropped us to 8th. The last 14 laps just weren't enough to do anything and although the track had an almost dry line by now I couldn't quite catch anyone to get a position back.