Whyalla Kart Club – Whyalla  – 12/3/2016

The first round of the 2016 State Champs

Time for the series racing to begin, and we started off in sunny Whyalla for round 1 of the Alpha Industries 2016 SA Kart Championship.

First of all, thanks to the great people at the Whyalla club for their hospitality and for putting on such a great meeting.  Secondly, thanks to the really hot exhaust for the burn on my arm.

The Cadet 12 class was ultra competitive.  Qualifying was really close, with the first 9 karts within 3 tenths, and positions 4 to 8 all within a tenth of the same lap time.  Jim ended up qualifying in 7th, resulting in him starting the first 3 heats from that spot.

Jim reverted to his usual form for the start of heat 1 – meaning he had a really bad start.  He dropped back to 10th at the start, and worked his way back to finish the heat in 8th.  The same pattern followed in heat 2, with Jim falling back to 10th and finishing in 9th.

Saturday night saw some furious mechanicking (it’s a word, feel free look it up in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Jimmyisms) from Jim’s pit crew.  Phone calls were made, beers were drunk, and changes were made all over the kart in the hopes of wringing some improvements on Sunday.

Sundays race was a 20 lap prefinal.  It will come as a shock to some of you who have followed Jim for a while, that he had a poor start, dropping back to 8th at the end of lap 1.  He worked hard during the race, and worked his way up to 7th by the finish.

The final was a gruelling 27 lap race in the middle of the day, and as we were in Whyalla, that meant it was hot.  The pit crew again worked feverishly on the kart, and Jim’s mentor and driving coach (who is the same person as his pit crew) had a discussion around the start and general race tactics…

And astonishingly, all of this seemed to have a positive effect.  Jim started in 9th, and actually had a decent start.  He lost a couple of positions in the first lap due to some good moves by other kids, dropping him back to 10th.  Then the long slog started.  Jim drove really well and ended up in 6th place by the end of the race.

It appears we have a handle on the inconsistency and handling problems that plagued Jim in earlier races.  Hopefully we can now begin to work on getting some speed into the kart.

Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, to CRG, and to Steve and Aaron Oliver for their help and advice.  Jim would also like to thank his mum for all her support, and all the officials and volunteers.