Go Kart Club of SA – Monarto – 14/5/2016

This weekend it was round 3 of the National Championships, held at the Go Kart Club of SA in Monarto.  So, this was effectively our home round.

We had 3 days of karting action, with official practice on Friday, followed by qualifying and 3 heats on Saturday, with the pre-final and final on Sunday.

Firstly, thanks to all those people who came up to support Jim over the weekend.  Even though he was busy, he appreciated the support.

Secondly, I’d like to report that Christine (you know, the possessed go kart that keeps trying to injure me – don’t you read these things?) behaved herself for the most part, and I came away relatively injury free.  So no points awarded this week.

Qualifying went relatively well, and Jim managed to qualify 13th out of a field of 28 karts.  This meant we had that starting position for the next 3 heats and the pre-final.

Heat 1 started out as expected, with the Trademark ‘Jimmy Start’ on display.  Jim dropped back to 18th, and then swapped positions with one of his CRG teammates before finishing back in 18th.

Jim managed a better start in heat 2, but was unfortunately turned around in turn 3 and went to the back of the field.  He got going again and chased down the field but only managed to finish in 26th.

Heat 3 produced some excitement, with some carnage before the race even started…

The race was halted, and the kids were called in before the whole thing was restarted a bit later.  Jim got off to a reasonable start, holding his position and then starting to move forward through the field.  Unfortunately, he lost a couple of places in the closing laps and ended up finishing 16th on the track.  He was then moved up to 14th after a few penalties were handed out.

It was time for the serious stuff to begin on Sunday.  Jim started OK in the pre-final, but we just didn’t have the setup right, and Jim started falling back.  He ended up finishing the heat in 18th.

There was only one thing to do.  Time for some serious mechanicking before the final.  Confidence was high that we could do better (I don’t know why – again do you people actually read these things?  When has my mechanicking ever worked)?

For the Final, Jim’s combined points for the previous races meant that he started in 18th.  Something strange happened at the start, and by the end of the first lap, Jim was in 13th.  A lap later he was in 12th.  He then had a couple of good battles during the race, and managed to bring the kart home in 12th.

All things considered, Jim had a great weekend – he go to see his mates and do some racing, and he picked up some points in the National Championship Series.  We also got some ideas on things we need to be doing to improve, so hopefully we can keep climbing through the field.

Thanks go out to Jim’s sponsor Iocane, and to all the people at St George Kart Centre and CRG Australia.  Jim would also like to thank all the officials and volunteers, who helped make this a great event.