Mt Gambier Karting Club – Mt Gambier  – 29/4/2016

Round 2 of the State Championship Series.

We took the road trip down to Mt Gambier, and decided to make a quick detour to check out the caves at Naracoorte.  It was interesting to have a look around and learn a bit of stuff.  I was allowed to use the camera for a quick snapshot (below), and was immediately reminded why I’m not the one taking the photos during the races.

On to the racing – We had a couple of practice sessions on Saturday morning, and I was immediately reminded why I’m not very good at mechanicking.  Jim’s times weren’t the best, and it was looking like we were going to be in for a poor weekend.

Thankfully, Jim managed to drive around the problems I had caused, and qualified in 6th.  In some pretty nice conditions, Jim managed to finished 7th in both heats 1 and 2, and was showing some decent pace.

Sunday was a completely different day.  We had a fair bit of rain, which was exciting as it gave us a chance to try out the new wet weather tyres.  Another way to look at it was that we were totally unprepared and had no experience with these tyres in wet conditions.  Jim did his best, but the kart was a handful and he ended up finishing 11th.

Fortunately, it dried out for the final.  Unfortunately, Jim’s mechanic doesn’t know what he is doing and stuffed up the setup.  Jim dropped back to 12th or 13th at the start.  For once, this was nothing to do with a bad start, he just had to take evasive action in the first corner and a number of karts went past.  He worked his way back through the field and ended up finishing in 5th.

Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, to CRG, and to Alicia for her support and the great photos.  Jim would also like to thank his mum for all her support, and all the officials and volunteers.