Ellough Raceway July 9th 2005
Rounds 10 and 11 Stiddard Trackside GP Premier Series
The day started well, setting out on time from Cambridge with Chris Smith who had kindly volunteered to help with pit management.
The weather was perfect with a slight drizzle - just what we needed to reduce the stress of four and a half hours racing.
However there were a couple of worries: first, that the weather forecast said it would dry up pretty quickly and second that both James and Thomas were still suffering a little from damaged ribs after the last race at Whilton Mill. But both of them were confident that they would be able to race.
Sure enough we arrived to a rapidly drying track and after Kelvin had scrutineered the kart and we had gone through the usual formalities, James went out first. The track was just wet enough to investigate the outside line on the corners but just dry enough to make that a waste of time.
More serious was the fact that James was unable to drive round right hand corners without his ribs really hurting - left hand corners felt really good.
But there are only two of those.
He came back in and took some pain killers.
Thomas went out to get on with the testing and was going OK, but it was obvious that the most important thing was to get the kart in state that James could drive it.
So we spent some time trying different combinations of foam and rib protector and James went out again.
This time it was even worse. Just getting into the seat had been agony and it wasn' t the sort of pain that goes away once you get going.
After two laps of continuous high volume swearing James came in and threw in the towel.
Plan B was put into operation.
This was for Thomas to do the first race by himself.
So on with the testing and we ended up stiffening the chassis and getting some good times in.
For qualifying we put on new tyres but Tom looked as if he might be wilting already, with lap times off his previous best.
He confirmed it when he came in. There was no way he was going to be able to race solo for an hour and a half.
Never mind the afternoon.
The only sensible - possible - course of action now was to withdraw from both rounds.
We did so and watched the racing from the bank, which gave us a very good view of some "interesting" racing.
In the free testing period in between races Thomas took the kart out again and got in some good lap times, but his ribs were taking a battering and there was no point in going on.
It was an enjoyable day in a sense, though probably not so much for Chris, but undeniably disappointing that we weren't able to race. This is the first time we have had to scratch from a race in this way and we hope it will be the last. We also hope that both drivers will be fully re-covered by the next round on August 14th. It feels as if we done half a season's racing without achieving anything special, but in fact this will only be our third days racing this year.
So we have a lot to look forward to.
Read Neil Ashcroft's report of the race.
R e d S t r i p e R a c i n g