Southern Go Kart Club – Bolivar  – 5/6/2016

If I had a word to describe the day, it would be ‘wet’.  Not wet like Queensland flooding, biblical type wet, more like annoying little bit of rain, Adelaide type wet.

Sorry, let me start again.  The SA Restricted Zonal Championship is a three race series designed to give the people who race in the restricted engine classes an opportunity to compete in a series.  Generally, the restricted classes are not represented at State or National level, so this provides a bit more excitement for those drivers.  It’s also an opportunity for have a run before the State Championship round in 2 weeks time.

Now, where was I?  That’s right, Adelaide.  We knew it would be wet, but we held out hope when we arrived that we might get qualifying in the dry.  Not for the first time, I was wrong, and qualifying was performed in the wet.

Based on our form from Mt Gambier, I wasn’t expecting a particularly strong performance from Jim.  We set up the kart a fair bit differently from Mt Gambier and Jim managed to perform a lot better, qualifying in 4th.  We were still a fair bit off the front runners, so we had a bit of work to do.

Heat 1 was contested in the wet, and Jim managed to improve his pace, and managed to finish in 4th.  Cue some further mechanicking, as we were still a bit off the pace.  Heat 2 was a better prospect on a wet track, with Jim finishing in 2nd, and lapping around the same pace as the the top 4 or 5 kids.

Based on the results from heats 1 and 2, Jim started heat 3 in 4th.  On a drying track, which had just had a light sprinkle of rain, Jim looked pretty good.  He was running in second, until he spun and dropped back to finish in third.

The final was run on a track which was fairly dry, but still fairly slippery.  Jim started in third, and fell back to fourth at the start.  He worked his way up to second, before a mistake dropped him back to 3rd.  He stayed there for the remainer of the race, finishing the final in 3rd.

Then came the most epic PA call of the season so far – ‘Sliders to the out grid’.  That’s right, the kids were given a chance to break Jimmy’s lap record of 2:25.22.

Well, the lap record, was broken – smashed in fact.  The new benchmark being set at 2:17.47 (lap records held here).  Well done to Jimmy for lowering the record by nearly 8 seconds…  Well done to Clint Smith for doing something fun for the kids, and for handing out lots of chocolate – he also donated a Slider for a raffle for the kids, just to make the day even more funner.

Even with all the rain, and changing conditions, we had a great, fun day.  Jimmy picked up 3rd for the race meet.

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.

Time to check the score between me and the possessed go kart named Christine.  She was feeling a bit off this week, as she only made a half hearted effort to injure me.  I just didn’t think there was any real malice when she cut my finger while installing the exhaust, and anyway, the bleeding stopped after 10 minutes or so.  It just didn’t give me the impression she was having a real go, so I’m not awarding any points this week.

Current score: JP 1 (survived 2 weeks without hurting himself) – Christine 3 (Burn by exhaust, Degreasing of the eye, Magical Goggle Piercing Metal bit).