Super 1: TKM

[tator2001uk]

gutted bout the racing, how did tkm get on?

[speedy king]

Which class are you in?

[speedy king]

Sounds like a bad weekend. I had a lot of similar luck last season so i know how frustrating it is and how angry you can fee, we too had a battering ram in our class who i think probably managed to take about 80% of the racers out throughout the season. In contrast though this season (so far! and it's the very start!) is going really well. Got a 2nd place on Saturday and am currently 3rd in the championship with a healthy gap back to 4th and very close to 2nd, which i don't think is too bad as a year ago i hadn't even raced the kart

Good luck with the rest of the season

[#15 tkm 4/]

well first heat i started 5th and finished 5th even though having a good fight with the top 4, moving upto 2nd at one point, drove into park ferme all weighed and legal, and i was dead pleased with the result, after a little while i found out that jay bridger had been dq from that race for having the kart too wide *1st heat started 5th finished 4th*

second heat i started 12th got a poor start, dropping down to last, then after a few laps and a couple of amazing moves :P i was in 6th and chasing very hard on the three in front of me, just exititing the first corner and the engine died, so i pulled of a dnf'd *found out after that the spark plug had broke, and the clutch had seized. *started 12th and dnf*

third heat i once again started 5th, got a ok start and moved upto 4th, after a lap of following the guy infront i out braked him into the first corner *the kart was feeling great btw* within the end of that lap i was on the back of 2nd place and virtually pushing him out of the corners! then all of a suddern my axle started slipping so it was full defence mode!for the remander of the 10laps i was taking the inside line in and out of every corner! *where the axle was slipping it wern't accerating* by the last lap, i was in 5th and virtually the rest of the field was behind me i had slowed the field down by about 1 seconds a-lap! second last corner i kinder power-slid it across the racing line and blocked every one and finshed 5th, came into park ferme 5th and left in 3rd! number 6 was dq for failing to come into the pits when he recived the black flag, and number 48 was dq for being 200grams under weight!
*started 5th finished 3rd*
*FINAL*
i started at the back of the grid after my dnf in heat 2, got a brilliant start and was chasing the field hard, got behind the 2 guys i wanted to be behind *jay bridger amazing fast, and chris walsh his home track* i was following them through the pack was up to about 6th when my axle slipped again and i finsihed near the back, **** happens sometimes.. if i woulda stayed behind jay bridger like i was playing to i would of finished 3rd!
no we havent found out what was wrong so we are gonna strip the whole kart and i mean the WHOLE kart and rebuild with new parts, could be a waste of time going to scotland next month to have the same problem again though!

btw im in snr tkm 4stroke and crozier is in jnr tkm 2stroke

[#15 tkm 4/]

crozier, somehow we repaired the axle and it works fine now, went to lydd last weekend and out of a grid of 18 tkm 4strokes i won 2 outta 3 and in the one which didnt win i made a mistake last corner while leading and only lost by 0.071seconds. btw what sprokets roughly should we be running at larkhall. at lydd we ran in tkm 4stroke 67-68sprocket if thats any help for 2 strokes cause we are there later in the year for super1

[crozier74]

Wow, well done at Lydd man!

Regarding Larkhall sprockets. I don't have a clue about 4-stroke gearing, but as a comparison, at Kim we were running 10:81, and for Larkhall we're usually on a 10:83. So basically, just throw 1, 2 or 3 teeth on from what you had at Kim and you should be fine

[#15 tkm 4/]

cheer's well at kimbolton we ran 69-70 sprocket so im guessing bout 73-74 for larkhall then

[speedy king]

Try the circuits club web site, some have set up advice for gearing

[#15 tkm 4/]

im getting ready for my 10hour treak upto scotland at 5am 2mrw!! gonna be very tired...!! cant wait to look at the track, and i cant wait for you to see my fancy new hair design!! bring your shades if you wanna see!! speak to you at the track!! and good luck!

[#15 tkm 4/]

Got back from scotland yesterday and i couldnt be assed to go on net yesterday to post how i did so i'll do it today!
Heat 1: Started 6th on the grid. Got a poor start and slotted into 6th behind robing godding. For the next couple of laps i followed him till he made a mistake and ran off into the bark trap, promoting me to 5th.. then i chased down the leading four *carl, Chris needham, chirs walsh and jay* after a couple of laps i was right on the tail off this group, after overtaking carl, at the first corner i chased jay and got him on the first in-field hairpin and from there i just followed the other two home.
2nd heat: Started 1st. Got a great start and lead the race from start to finish. Really boring race but atleast i got the win
3rd heat: started last *12th* got another bad start and stayed in 12th, from there on i over took some1 every lap till i was 5th, but by the time i had got through the field the leaders had pulled too much of a lead so i settled for 5th.
*FINAL* Started 2nd on the grid and made ANOTHER poor start *im starting to think it was because we were running a much lower sprocket than anyone else, because i could carry the speed* got hit into on the first corner by carl, and dropped down to 5th place... after that incident i had to get my head back together and i set off for the lead. After some really good driving *if i do say so myself * i was on the tail of chris walsh who was in the lead, i then got a better run out the last corner than him and i made a dive down the inside on the first corner to take the lead, for the next 2 laps i drove calmly and was making a little lead untill, my chain ****ing snaps! while leading so i had to pull off! so all in all i had another bad finish to the weekend

[speedy king]

So sorry. Sounded like a good few races and you must be gutted about the final. I've had similar fotunes and i know how much it hurts to come away from the circuit after something unfortunate like that happening

Better luck next time

[crozier74]

Been a while since the last update on Sam and my progress.

Congrats to Sam on his first podium in S1 at this weekend's round at Lydd! Having also taken the most points from the weekend, he's now up to 5th in the championship, and once dropped scores are taken into account, he'll be right up there with a shot at the championship! Good on ya lad!

As for me, after the disaster of Larkhall where the chassis was totally hopeless (perhaps my worst weekend in karting ever), I decided to miss Lydd to concentrate on trying out a JKH at the Larkhall club meeting* (last one at the track before the Scottish champs there next month), to hopefully return to the championship with renewed vigor for the last two rounds Turned out pretty well actually. On the Saturday we didn't encounter a hint of the horrendous over-gripping problems we had with the Wright the previous two meetings, so went and bought the kart that night.

Was lying an OK 10th in the first heat before I went off on the last lap avoiding the driver in front who chopped across my line

2nd heat was better, coming through to finish 8th from 17th (last) on the grid.

Last heat was looking good for a decent result. Starting 2nd, I was ****ed about at the start when the polesitter backed off ridiculously in the last corner, meaning I had to wait for him down the straight to avoid a penalty, and the loss of momentum lost me another 2 places, before getting hit up the back in Turn 1, at the time without consequence. As the 2 leaders collided in the last corner at the end of lap 1 (divine retribution for the ******* on pole ) I was promoted back into 2nd. Then lost 2 places, struggling with a big lack of straightline speed which plagued me throughout the weekend, which we've still to figure out the cause of. But a nice gap back to the rest, so a comfortable 4th in the bag, only to suffer the after-effects of that 1st corner contact, when the springs on the silencer came off, allowing it to rest just outside of its cradle. How the hell they noticed such a small thing I don't know, but I swiftly got a technical flag, pitting to repair it, only to cross the line 15th, 4 laps down

So a kinda disappointing 14th/17 on the grid for the final, where the sunshine of the opening heats was totally contrated by one of the wettest Finals I've ever had. And it was in these conditions that I put in the most encouraging performance of the weekend. In my first ever wet outing in the kart, I made passed three people in the opening laps, then made up another 3 through attrition, before getting stuck behind a slower defending driver for several laps, getting passed by the 2 behind, one of which thankfully shoved the slower driver way off line, allowing all 3 of us through, and quickly closing in on the leaders. I wasn't able to make much more progress from here, stuck at the back of a 7 kart queue battling over 2nd, but recording the 4th fastest lap in my first ever wet session with the kart - conditions I don't usually do particularly well in, gives good signs for the rest of the season

Next up is Boyndie (home ground) for the Super Series, then the Scottish at Larkhall, perhaps the TKM Festival at Kim or Larkhall Kart Festival, before measuring our progress against the S1 boys at PF, then rounding out the season at Whilton

*Bold was just so anyone who can't be bothered reading the whole thing know that I wasn't reporting back from Lydd

[crozier74]

Results for Lydd here

[speedy king]

Have you got a Dynamite? I've looked at buying those chassis' before and would love to have one as they are great from what i've heard and seen. I've tried to buy about 3 now but they have never succeeded due to not being able to sell my 2001 Gillard

[#15 tkm 4/]

richard, i won the first 2 heats *first one by 6seconds!!* second one i overtook on last lap, thrid heat i finished thrid place and in final i started pole led the whole race except for the last lap where 2 karts got me and i finished 3rd! But the good news is im now 5th in championship and if you take a dropped round it puts me into 4th! Will we see you at the TKM festival??

[crozier74]

James, yes, it's a 2003 chrome-moly Dynamite. Very good kart from what we've seen so far, except the brake, which is a bit fiddly, what with the tiny pads and floating disk. Found out that it was the brake binding that was costing us the speed down the straight, would have been much quicker (about 3 tenths a lap) if it hadn't been for that.

Not so sure they're all that hot for Rotax though, flavour of the moment seems to be Intrepid, but the cycle of popularity always seems to return to Tonykart.
FWIW, Gillard's have been dominating Scottish Snr Max for the last 2 years or so, run by Saltire Motorsport, with some very good drivers such as John Boyd, so they can't be that bad

Tough luck in the final Sam. Still a good result, hope you're happy with it Might see you at the Festival, I think it's a toss-up between that and the Festival at Larkhall two weeks later. If we do both of them it would be 4 or 5 big races in a very short space of time -Scottish, TKM Festival, <break>, WSKC Festival, PF S1, and maybe Midlands, so we'll have to prioritise. Looks like there's a few other Scottish JTKMers going, including the folks who sold us their chassis, so I think we might be persuaded to go along too

[speedy king]

Originally posted by crozier74
James, yes, it's a 2003 chrome-moly Dynamite. Very good kart from what we've seen so far, except the brake, which is a bit fiddly, what with the tiny pads and floating disk. Found out that it was the brake binding that was costing us the speed down the straight, would have been much quicker (about 3 tenths a lap) if it hadn't been for that.

Not so sure they're all that hot for Rotax though, flavour of the moment seems to be Intrepid, but the cycle of popularity always seems to return to Tonykart.

They done pretty well in 2002, Daryl McDonald winning both Super One and Champions Of The Future Junior Rotax with JKH.

How have you been doing recently?

[speedy king]

#15 TKM 4/, where did you finish in the end? You were in contention for the championship going in to the final round weren't you?

[#15 tkm 4/]

yea i was, i finished 3rd overal (which is a bummer) whitton mill isn't my favorite track and then it started ****ing it down it made it worse!! (we have really good dry and intermediate setup but pant's wet setup!!) At pfi round 5 i actually won the meeting with like a 6second gap, which put me second in the championship 7points behind leader for final race! whitton, had a big off while in 3rd place in first heat and managed to somehow finish in 6th place :S second heat i won very comfortably.. (now the rain starts) third heat was batterling for 6th place when a retard who goes by the name of Jay Bridger decided to turn in on me and wipe off my nose cone ending in a dq, and in the final i was all on my own finishing 6th. We worked out that if i hadn't of got DQ'd then i woulda got enough points to actually Win the Championship even if i had finished 6th.


Btw about my DQ, with 2 laps to go someone knocked off my nosecone, i kept racing round and they didnt put out the orange and black flag, so i completed another lap and still it wasn't out so when i crossed the line to take 6th place i had not been shown the mechanical flag. But when we came into the pits they DQ'd me for not having all my bodywork on even though i wasn't shown the mechanical flag. CAN THEY DO THAT?!?!

[speedy king]

Sounds rather off to me. How can you give it 100% effort and take risks if you MUST finish with all your bodywork!? Thats not in the Blue Book...... You were hardly going to get a performance advantage without it! If i were you and it decided on me winning the champs or not i'd pay the £60 or whatever to appeal, if you can do that against that sort of issue with scrutineers?

People in Rotax where i race have finsihed minus nose cones, side pods, common sense and engines and still been classified.....