Barossa Go Kart Club – Nuriootpa – 29/4/2017 to 30/4/2017

Time for round 2 of the Clipsal 500 South Australian State Championships.  The championship has an interesting challenge this year – we are limited to 2 sets of tyres across the 3 rounds, effectively meaning we had to run on old tyres for this round or the next.

Practice went OK, with Jim on the pace straight away.  When we got to qualifying, we faced a huge challenge as a number of competitors opted to use use new tyres while we were using an old set.

Jim did his best in qualifying, and managed to qualify in second.  Both he and the kid in 3rd recorded exactly the same lap time (to the thousandth of a second), so their second best laps were used to determine the positions.  Thankfully Jim’s second lap was 3/1000s of a second quicker, giving him the spot.

Heat 1 Jim slotted in to second place, but he couldn’t quite keep up with the guy in first.  The old tyres just didn’t have the grip level to compete.

Heat 2 was run at night, and again, Jim was in second.  Again, fresher tyres proved the difference, with first being able to drive away.

We went home on Saturday night, and discussed our options for the prefinal on Sunday.  After making a decision, some world class mechanicking was performed, Jim went out and did his best… and finished in second place.

When we got to the final, some top notch mechanicking was performed to try to make the kart a bit quicker.  Once again, Jim did is best.  He managed to get into the lead for the first lap, but once again he just didn’t have the grip to maintain the pace and was fairly quickly relegated to second.

Jim managed to finish second for the meeting.  He will now be able to use a new set of tyres at the next round, which should help make him a bit more competitive.

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 either getting better at this mechnicking gig, or Christine is getting lazy.  At no stage over the weekend did I feel like I was about to lose a finger, or that my eyesight was in danger from a chemical attack.  Another week of this, and I’ll be getting a point for myself.

The current score:

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

Christine -> 8 (Burn by exhaust, Degreasing of the eye, Magical Goggle Piercing Metal bit, Special Combo, Epidermal Peel, Degrease, Rinse, Repeat, 98 Octane Eye Wash, Inappropriate Tool Grabbing).