Your last race ?

[marcus]

ok folks lets get cracking and rewind those brains get the chain lube out and have a mighty push start (unless you run rotax of course ) and tell us about the last race you competed in.

Mine was a while back now and it ended rather abrupty in the sand trap , my team mate and I decided to swap karts and evaluate each others machinery.

I dont remember where I started but I know I was annoyed because my team mate sailed off into the distance in MY KART !!!!!! I was left to squabble over the minor placings until one competitor who had tremendous straight line speed (but couldnt turn the thing at all) decided he wanted to take my spot from me on the straight , I had no answer to his speed , until the twisty bits , he couldnt turn the thing and was all over the shop , so I managed to get back past him around the outside of a hairpin but of course he past me again on the straight.

this went on for a few laps until I decided to keep to the inside all the way down the straight to try and hold him out under braking and it worked
but on the next time around I got sideways entering the straight and he got a good run on me and we were side by side heading to the corner (I was on the inside) in the braking zone and bam , he decided to just pull right across the front of me and I got him fair in the sidepod to which we both went spinning into the sand trap.

he apologised because he realized that it was my corner , I accepted that because basically I probably would have tried the same thing , in hindsight i probably should have backed out of it a little more and gave him the room because for sure I would have got him back on that lap through the twisty bits.

oh well we live and learn hey ?

ok thats it so why not tell us how your last race went ?

[Mattracer]

Not a "race" but social karting on a wet circuit on slicks. Spun on every corner for the first 2-3 laps until I spotted the dry patches and a dry line appearing. Pretty wild fun I thought!

[speedy king]

mine was yesturday, can't even call ti a race though...

First practice i completed two laps before retiring to the pits with really bad vibrations at the rear of the kart (Rotax) we thought the bumper was comming loose so we tightened that up and went out for second practice, came in after the outlap for the same reason again, awful vibrations, sounded like the kart was grounding! Found the battery cable dragging and thought maybe it was that hitting the ground and my seat, tightened that up.

Went out for the first heat, stillw ith awful fierce vibrations and it sounded awful, missed a big accident at turn two at over 60mph. Was having a good race wheel to wheel even thought the kart felt like a shopping trolly, then on the thrid lap, bang, chain flew off, end of race.

Ah i thought, maybe the chain was slack and touching the ground? So we put it back on, tightened it up and went out for heat two, at this point the vibrations were out of this world and it sounded truly awful, i retired to the pits after lap one because it was not right at all, people in the paddock at first couldn't understand what ti was until i looked on the outside of the engine by the chain and saw shavings of metal stuck tot he outside. The clutch had disintigrated itself and was literally tearing its self to pieces.

That was the end of my day apsolutely gutted

[Superliner II]

Speedy King, was the axle bent?

My last race at Dunkeswell on sunday 24 aug saw me start 29th on the grid for the final. Finished 14th after 20 laps. Still F****d

[STRATTON]

Last sunday, Buckmore Park 6hr enduro completing 422 laps in a hired thunderkart. Still feel dead.

[Warwick]

Last race was a 30min enduro in a 250 Superkart on a 4.2 km circuit, started on P2 and despite having to pit for gas maintained second place for race distance.

We were running mixed classes so ended up lapping the KT100 and Rotax Max competitors,when you're doing approx 60kmh faster you close on them quite fast which can lead to some interesting moments.

After pitting for gas atthe 20 min mark one lap later I was coming down the start finish straight and hit the brakes and the pedal was all soft and only just made the corner,every corner after that the pedal travel got longer and longer,at race end upon checking the rear pads the were worn to the metal backing plate (new before the event)and the rear disc had distorted.

[speedy king]

Originally posted by Superliner II
Speedy King, was the axle bent?

My last race at Dunkeswell on sunday 24 aug saw me start 29th on the grid for the final. Finished 14th after 20 laps. Still F****d

I'm not sure if it's bent. I have checked it over this morning and it looks OK, i then pushed it down the drive and it felt a little unever, but then again i have a block drive. I then sat in it and rolled it down and it seemed OK. In heat one when my chain came off on Monday i did knock the barrier lightly with my rear wheel.

[Superliner II]

From what you said it sounds like the axle is bent. Same thing happened to me. I did'nt notice it at first but as the day went on the bend in the axle became more noticable through vibration. I put the kart on the trolly and got someone to spin the axle. I looked carefully and noticed straight away that it was bent when it was turning. It doesnt take a big impact even into the soft tyres to bend one.

Also the shavings of metal, could they have been from the chain eating away at an out of line sprocket caused by the bent axle?

[speedy king]

I'll have another look at it

[the_tsar]

The December last year final where I wrapped up the RLKC title, against all odds. It was great considering I'd missed the previous two events in hospital with a broken back. A day i won't ever forget.

[ghinzani]

You'll like this... last sunday was my mate Marks first race meeting - as we were both novices we started off the back. Each tiime I got the jump on him, however as he and his kart weighed 163 kilos compared to my 179 he was right up behind me (and hes probably better than me..). Anyway he punted me out of the first heat at the fastest corner. Second heat he got by me when my engine died after he was pushing me along the starights. 3rd heat he takes me out again and flattens my sidepod. So... come the final he is ahead of me, 3rd corners a hairpin and I slide down the inside of him and he doesnt give way so I end up on top of him backwards... ripped his rad off but apart from that no other damage. Anyway I went on to get a trophy for highest scoring senior novice which was a surprise, esepcially after the restart in the final I went skyward over someones front wheel. Very enjoyable day tho - expect I left my licence somehwere, cant find it and probably cant race this weekend now :-(

[the_extreme]

1989 Kimbolton Sigh

Still miss it

Jeff

[Rocktracer]

Pembrey: March 1991:

[Rocktracer]

Double Sigh

[Mazuly]

My last race was last weekend and I run Rotax Max with BRM Kart. All through the morning I had problem with the kart coughing on the straits like it was lean and it did not matter what jet I put on it (I have the Maxjet with Racejet Pod so I usually don't have a problem with jetting) I had to be less than full throttle on the straits just to keep the engine from coughing. I qualified seventh for the pre-race qualification run.

On the pre-race qualification I made a sh*t start and went from seventh to last by first corner! So I just kept it on the track for 10 laps and passed one guy by the end of that race. Went to see were I was for the finals and I was shown at 7th again!!! Man I was surprised. Apparently most of the guys who passed me at the start broke down or crashed out. By the way, the kart was still coughing on the straits and could not go full throttle.

For the final, I talked to some guys and somebody suggested putting a new spark for the final. So I did that and went with a jet larger that what Maxjet recommended. This time the start was good and I kept my 7th position, but got stock behind this guy that was 1s slower, but not on the straits. The coughing of the engine had stopped and I guess it was a bad plug, but since I went with a jet bigger, I was too reach and my kart would not exit corners as fast as the 6th position guy. So for 10 laps of the 18 laps race we go to the corners, I am on this guys bumper, coming out of the corners, he is 1 to 2 kart lengths ahead. It was very frustrating. The other problem, was that this guy was braking way earlier than me for the corners and I had to be careful not to rear end him. Finally on the hairpin corner, I rear ended him under braking and went off line. By the time I got my tires clean from the rubbish, the guys behind me caught up and they both passed me on the front strait. Finished the race in 9th, BUT was second in the over 35 years category and got a trophy Next race is this coming weekend.

Sorry for the long post and happy karting,
Maziar