Dublin Go Kart Club – Monarto  – 20/3/2016

A good hit out before round 2 of the national series.

The Pines Classic is an open club meeting held at the Monarto go kart track.  Monarto once again managed to play tricks on me weather wise – It was rather cold in the morning (just like that time we camped over on a beautiful sunny weekend) and then it managed to become warm enough to make me regret forgetting my shorts (people who have seen my legs have no regrets about me wearing jeans).

I’d also like to apologise for poor quality photos.  Jim’s regular photographer (his 11 year old sister Alicia) wasn’t available to take photos, so that job was left to me.  And like all the stuff I do in karting (mentoring, coaching, mechanicking), I’m just not that good at it…

Anyway, on to the racing.  Jim qualified reasonably well, ending up in second place (by 6/100s of a second).

For the first heat, we saw the trademark ‘Jimmy Start’ – yep he fell back to 3rd.  After 7 laps he managed to regain second, but he ran out of laps to catch up to 1st.

In heat 2, Jimmy got a pretty good start, and held on to second place.  Halfway through the first lap he got a little tap from behind which sent his kart sideways.  He managed to save it, but the guy in 4th managed to squeeze through into 2nd while Jim was recovering.  Jim managed to get back into second a couple of corners later, but the leader was nearly 2 seconds in front after the first lap.

Jim managed to throw in a number of pretty quick laps, including one we believe will be the new lap record.  He caught up to 1st, but despite a couple of tries, just couldn’t quite get past.

For heat 3, Jim started in 2nd, and again managed a pretty good start.  This time, Jim managed to get past in lap 6, and then managed to hang on to the lead to take the heat win.

In the final heat, Jim started in second, and amazingly, managed a reasonable start again (3 in a row – woohoo!).  He tried to get past into first, but couldn’t quite find a way.  The gap between first and second was never bigger than 4 tenths of second for the entire race.

Based on points Jim finished 2nd for the race meeting.

We were really happy with the consistent pace that Jim displayed.  We are now hopeful we can fully concentrate on improving the kart speed, and ensuring Jim is a regular on the podium.

Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, and to CRG.  Jim would also like to thank his mum for all her support, and all the officials and volunteers for putting on the race meeting.

As a final note for those interested, I managed to somehow get degreaser in my eye as I was cleaning the kart.  Let me tell you that stings.  Let me also tell you that it is a good idea to keep your face away from whatever it is you are degreasing.

Current score: JP 0 – Go Kart 2 (Burn by exhaust, Degreasing of the eye).