Whilton Mill May 21st 2006
Round 3 Open Endurance Summer Series
The Met Office was predicting rain followed by more rain followed by showers for the day, but when we arrived at 8 o'clock it was still dry, although the track was damp from overnight downpours.
But we felt safe in assuming it would be a wet race and got a new set of Vegas ready while putting a worn set of Kartline slicks on the kart to use until the rain started.
Thomas had stripped, cleaned, replaced or repaired all sections of the fuel system, so we were hoping that we weren't going to be plagued with the same misfire that we had back in March.
He went out first, with the rain still holding off, but he only got in about 5 slow laps before it started in earnest.
We swapped onto the Vega wets and waited for the track to get a bit wetter, and then James went out.
First impressions were that the engine was OK but that we were running too high a gear - it was really struggling to get into the power band.
We changed the plug and James attacked the track with a bit more vim, and it quickly became obvious that we still had exactly the same misfire problem. It refused to pick up in the mid range, this being particularly obvious in the left hander after the pits straight where it would die and then stutter all through the next right hander.
We tried changing the power valve setting and changing the battery and finally tightened a loose earth lead but it made no difference.
We think James qualified in about 53.04 for 7th position, but with eighteen karts and a 4.5hr race its really pretty much irrelevant.
Thomas was due to take the first driving stint again and at the start, having had virtually no practice and none in the wet, he dropped a couple of places before settling down in 9th.
Then all the handicaps were applied and we ended up about 17th.
But he was making good progress up the field in pretty heavy rain, briefly punctuated by an early spin, and getting his fastest lap of the race on lap 33. We think it was about 52.89s but with no lap sheet times we can't be sure. Still the lap times were coming in consistently under 53 seconds.
The pit crew were due to bring him in at 67 minutes but at 50 minutes the timing system broke down and the race was red flagged.
All the karts were quarantined in parc fermé and Thomas went off to borrow a coil from George Robinson to see if that was the culprit causing the lousy engine performance.
Dominic had turned up by now, having been at Heathrow at 4 o'clock in the morning, so we got everything ready to change the coil at Thomas' scheduled refuel in twenty minutes time.
After the race restarted we were lying in 12th position overall and 4th in class - and making good ground on those in front.
Thomas came in for his re-fuel and then he changed the coil as planned before James went out for his first drive.
He managed to stay on the track and as the quantity of rain lessened or increased so his lap time fluctuated. On lap 110 we think he got the fastest lap of our race in a comparatively dry spell.
He had quite a battle with Box Tech who were also running a Rotax, but did finally pass them and get away.
Meanwhile in the pits Dominic had been sent off to buy some new fuel to see if that was the cause of the engine problem.
He didn't get back in time for the changeover back to Thomas so we filled the refuelling canister with the new fuel for James' last session.
Thomas was still going well in increasingly heavy rain, getting slightly held up on the Boot when a kart spun in front of him and all he could was stop. Then the engine wouldn't re-start....
The pit crew kept him out there long enough so that James would just have to do 68 minutes in his last session - no problem with fuel consumption in this weather.
The changeover went well and the brand new fuel went in....
No change. The engine still wasn't running correctly.
James had a nasty moment as The Litigator spun on Christmas Corner at the top of the straight. He was initially bang in the centre of the track and with a another kart on his inside James went for the outside only to find the gap closing as The Litigator reversed slowly off the track. James took to the grass to drive round the stricken kart - fortunately without damage.
But only a few laps later our luck did run out as Kartsmart came past right at the end of the back straight got all crossed up and spun on the entrance to the Boot. James, a few centimetres behind on full right lock and under steering into the right hander could do nothing and the resulting collision broke both track rods and bent the steering column.
Our race was over but we decided to get the kart going again so that we could try some changes to the jetting to see if we could get the engine working correctly.
We changed main jets up and down, changed the slow running adjustment and the needle height but nothing made any difference.
We were classified 13th - brief results are here - in the end and it was a frustrating day - but still enjoyable. Many thanks to Jason Redding, Ian Norman and George Robinson for help and advice and especially to Dominic for turning out to help in such lousy weather. Of course once the race finished the sun came out. And it was good to see Sue Hart from Club 125 again, checking out how the OEKC was run.
R e d S t r i p e R a c i n g