Lincoln County Raceway – Dubbo – 5/2/2016
A step up to the big time!
For Jim’s second race of the year, we travelled to Dubbo to compete in the first round of the Australian Kart Championship. Jimmy was excited as he was going to be competing in a huge field of 42 competitors, and he was going to be part of the CRG Australia Team.
Jim was under pressure from the start, as his new kart was only delivered on Thursday and needed to be put together ready for practice on Friday. We had three sessions from Jim to learn the track, get used to his new kart, and to try and get some form of competitive setup. On top of this Jim almost missed practice 2 due a mechanical problem.
Saturday was a huge day with qualifying and 3 heats. Jim qualified in 28th, which put him in the middle of the field.
Jim first heat went well, with Jim nailing the start and moving up to 17th. After a few close battles, and falling back to 22nd, Jim finished in 21st. This was to be the highlight of Jim’s weekend, with mechanical and setup issue marring the rest of the heats.
In Heat 2, there was some confusion due to an accident and Jim was passed by 8 cars while the course was under yellow flag conditions. Jim ended up finishing in 33rd.
Jim got another good start in Heat 3, but unfortunately a kart spun in the middle of the track after turn 3, leaving Jim with nowhere to go. He ended up with a DNF and a bent kart. Many thanks to the good people at St George Kart Centre and the CRG Team for all the work they put in to straighten the kart and get it ready to race on Sunday.
Jim had a poor start to heat 4, and was pushed to the back of the field. He worked really hard to get himself back up to 36th, but ran out of laps to get any higher.
In the final, the kart setup was off, and Jim had no real pace. He ended up finishing in 37th.
All in all it was a great weekend. Both Jim and his mechanic learnt a lot from the experience (and had a good time as well). While the results aren’t there yet, the package now appears to be heading in the right direction and we should be close to unlocking some of the speed and consistency that were on show last season.
Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, and to all the people at St George Kart Centre and CRG Australia.