Southern Go Kart Club – Bolivar – 27/8/2017

Jim has been putting in a fair bit of work recently, doing a lot of practice and testing to try to get some extra performance out of the kart.  We decided to relax a bit a have some fun racing at a club day at the Southern Go Kart Club as the final preparation for the Nationals round next week.

The kart has been handling really well recently, so we’ve dedicated a lot of practice time to trying to improve the straight line speed of the kart.  This has meant a bit of time at the track for me and Jim, and a lot of aggravation for David Haak as he fields numerous phone calls from some idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing.  We thought the race meet would be a good chance to see if we had made any improvements.

Jim’s starting position for the heats was selected via random draw, and Jim started from the middle of the field in both heats.

Jim got to the lead early in heat 1, but was passed for the lead in lap 3.  He worked his way back, took the lead again on lap 7 and went on to win the heat.

In heat 2, Jim worked up to second fairly quickly, then went after the leader.  In lap 7, he moved up to first, but was passed a bit later and finished in second.

Jim started the pre-final in second, and both he and the pole sitter battled for the lead throughout the race.  The lead changed 3 or 4 times, but Jim was unable to stay in front and finished 2nd.

Jim started the final in second, and was fighting for the lead straight away.  On the 4th lap he made a move for first, and then started to build a gap.  He held on to take the heat win and the win for the event overall.

Dave Haak has been really helpful in helping us get the most out of the engine, and the kart was handling superbly.  Thanks to all the practice and effort, Jim was able to consistently produce fast lap times, which should hopefully show up as better results in the future.

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.

Christine was well behaved again this week.  I’m starting to like this.  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).