Geelong Karting Club – 31/3/2017 to 2/4/2017

Round 2 of the Australian Kart Championship was held in Geelong, a short 8 hour drive away (well that’s better than the 2 day drives we have been doing lately).  And just for something different, the weather wasn’t that hot either.

This round threw us an entirely new challenge – the ‘over-subscribed’ format.  There were 44 entries and the track only holds 32, so it meant that we had to compete in the heats and then 12 kids would be going home early and not competing in the finals.

Practice on Friday was fairly ordinary, and Jim was classified 27th by the end.  This meant he would be qualifying in the slower of the 2 groups, making it all a bit harder.  Jim put in a monumental effort though, and by the end of qualifying, he was classified 13th overall.

Jim got a reasonable start in heat 1, but had to avoid an incident on turn 3, and dropped back a few places to 10th.  He eventually finished in 9th.

In Heat 2, Jim was involved in an incident a few laps into the heat, and dropped back to 18th.  He made up a few places to finish up in 13th.

Jim finally got a reasonably free run in heat 3, getting up to 5th before the kart went off, and he dropped back to 7th.

After the results of the heats were sent of to NASA to be calculated, Jim was classified as starting in 16th for the pre-final.  Jim started well, and was working his way forward before disaster struck.  While running in 11th, the engine electrics decided to play up and Jim lost power.  Eventually it got too bad and Jim had to pull in.

Jim started the final from 22nd, and just as the field was coming round the last corner, the kart stalled.  The wiring connector also fell off the battery, delaying Jim’s effort to restart.  He finally got going, but the race had started and the field was the half the length of the straight away.  Even though he was a fair way back, he put is head down and chased making up a few places along the way.

Jim ended up finishing in 18th, and showed really good pace.  He’s starting to show he can match the pace of the guys at the front – he just needs better quality mechanicking to be there regularly.  I’m hearing whispers there may be another review coming, so I better pull my socks up.

Jim would like to thank Iocane, WIFA Racing, EvoKart Australia, Haak Engines, 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 going to the classify the mechanical problems above as not being related to Christine at the moment, as they were more engine related than anything else.  The current score:

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

Christine -> 7 (Burn by exhaust, Degreasing of the eye, Magical Goggle Piercing Metal bit, Special Combo, Epidermal Peel, Degrease, Rinse, Repeat, 98 Octane Eye Wash).