Go Kart Club of Victoria – Port Melbourne – 23/9/2016

Time for the last round of the National Series, and this was only a short drive away in Melbourne.  We had the chance to do some testing and preparation at the track, so we were hoping to be able to come away with a decent result.

Friday morning was interesting, as they had the team down from Sunrise, and they were crossing over during the broadcast.  Jim and Adrian decided to wander down to have a look…

The boys just calmly put themselves where everyone could seem them…

Anyway, we had official practice on Friday, and Jim was classified as 20th out of the 28 competitors.  Things didn’t look too bad though, as he was improving throughout the day, and we had tried a few things to see if we could get a bit more speed.

Jim got to work on Saturday morning, and managed to qualify in 14th.  Not a bad result, and we believed we could still extract a bit more pace from the kart.

Heat 1 Jim got a reasonable start, and drove well to finish in 15th.  This was a fairly uneventful heat, but we noticed we were lacking pace and Jim was getting picked off down the straight.

We tried a few things, but we had the same problem in heats 2 and 3, and Jim ended up finishing in 17th in both heats.

The team took a decision to change the axle.  As I’m still under mechanicking probation, a random person walking past was dragged in to help with the axle change, rather than allowing me to do anything major to the kart (thanks Doug).

For heat 4 on Sunday, Jim managed to last about 2 and a half laps, before someone spun in front of him, and Jim was hit while avoiding the accident sending him off the track and ending with a DNF.

Jim started the final in 19th, and almost got through the excitement at the first corner.  Unfortunately, he was clipped at the end of the corner, which ended up bending his axle and taking him out the race.

In the end, it was a bit disappointing, as we looked to be getting on top of things, but we just never had the chance to see how he could go.

Jim would like to thank Iocane, WIFA Racing, EvoKart Australia, and his mum and sister for all their support.  Thanks also to all the officials and volunteers, without whom Jim couldn’t race.

I’m not sure how to take Christine’s behaviour.  Were these random racing incidents, or has Christine changed her strategy, and she’s now choosing to sabotage Jimmy’s racing rather than trying to injure me?  Only time will tell…

Current score:

JP -> 3 (Survived 2 weeks without hurting himself, use of Angle Grinder Persuasion, Ancient Spirit Mumbo Jumbo)

Christine -> 4 (Burn by exhaust, Degreasing of the eye, Magical Goggle Piercing Metal bit, Special Combo).