Whyalla Kart Club – Whyalla  – 21/11/2015

Jim has moved up in class!

Now that the Festival State Cup is over, Jim has moved up to the next racing class – Cadet 12.  This means the removal of the restrictor from his engine, and a bit of extra weight being added, resulting in the kart handling differently and going a bit quicker.

We also decided to throw an extra challenge in, competing in a race at a track he’s never seen before.  We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning practicing, before racing started on Saturday afternoon.

The competition format was random starting order, then reversed grid, followed by 3 other heats where the starting positions were based on points earned through the night.  Heats 1, 2, and 3 were raced in the clockwise direction on the track.  This presented a further challenge, as we had only completed 1 session in this direction.

In Heat 1, Jim started in 6th, and finished in 4th.  In heat 2, he started in 4th and finished in 3rd.  This gave Jim a starting position of 3rd in Heat 3.  At the start of heat 3, Jim fell back to 7th, and managed to pick up a place to finish 6th.

We then had a break, while we waited for the sun to set.  It was then time to race under lights in the anticlockwise direction.  Jim started heat 4 in 4th and managed to finish in 4th.   In the final, he started in 4th, fell back to sixth at the start, and got back to 5th by the end of the race.

His accumulation of points enabled Jim to finish the meet in 4th, an excellent effort for his first outing in the class.

Jim’s team mate Aaron Oliver had an excellent race meet, winning all 5 heats and taking out the win.

Both Aaron and Jim were really tired after two days of practising and racing and late nights, but we still had to stop at the Southern Go Kart Club as we drove past it on the way home from Whyalla.  These kids just love the sport!

Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, and to Steve and Aaron Oliver for all their help.  Jimmy would also like to thank all the competitors for some great racing, and all the officials and volunteers, without whom he wouldn’t be able to race.