Confirmed- it's very sick

No surprises here but the motor has blown a main bearing and needs a complete overhaul. I'm expecting it to be buzzing again by 9th June. We hope so because Winton is only available for practice twice between now and the Mallala nationals which will be upon us quicker than Fernando Alonso escaping from a horde of Spanish F1 groupies.


Then we have to go through the despised ritual of running it all in. Ugh!! After that we'll know if my new go-fast mods have made any difference and I can start making bold F1-style predictions like "the package is very promising and we look forward to some substantial performance gains". Which is motorsport speak for "we've got no idea how quick it's going to be but rest assured if we come last we'll make some classy excuses etc etc..."

At least (until the end of the year) I've got the excuse that I'm still on a "probie" licence and have to start from rear of grid. So there. Leave me alone.

By the way, you may notice on the Superkartsaustralia.com site, my driver profile is listed under the name "Phillip Atherton". I can assure everyone that it is definitely still me. I suppose I have been called worst things. The site is maintained by Jon Crooke who gladly acknowledges his own insanity. This very same lunatic streak once helped him win the Aust Formula 2 Championship and drive for Brock's HDT at Bathurst in 1987 before Brocky stole his car.


Jim, er, Jerry, er Johann, er, Jon Crooke driving for Phillip Brock. I mean Peter.

Update: VSKC now six rounds

Another round has been added to the calendar...at Wakefield Park! So the Lagler/Timbermate Products team gets to travel to Goulburn, home of a 97-tonne Sheep.

Despite Victoria having four road race circuits, Superkarts can only use two, only five times, hence needing an interstate venue. I am only guessing here, but the reasons might be;
- Sandown is mostly a horse racing track, which limits the amount of car racing. Apparently if you do both at the same time the horses get scared
- Calder Park is owned by Bob Jane, who likes being rebellious and not running under CAMS. I rang Calder to enquire about practice and they said they were "not set up" for superkarts. Funny- they're set up for much bigger and heavier things, why not karts? Must be the bumps.

Sure it needs some weight trimmed and a new aero package but we may be competitive at Wakefield...

Anyway, that's all good, the more circuits the merrier. Here is the remaining calendar for 2006:

June 24/25- Mallala, SA- National Championships
July 15th- Phillip Island, Vic State Championships
September 3rd- Winton, Vic State Championships
October 28/29- Wakefield Park NSW, Vic State Championships

VSKC Round 3 Phillip Island 6th May 2006

RACE 1: 10th RACE 2: DNF RACE 3: DNS
SUMMARY: Round 3 for the Vic State Championships, race number one for me. Considering minimal preparation to the machine, not to mention zero experience at this level, it was going okay for almost two races until the engine failed. Up to this point my preparation was to simply cobble it together by guesswork whilst conforming to the rules. Now that I've seen how other competitors set things up, it's time to make a few changes, particularly aerodynamics. Good to get a score on the board.

Myself and pit crew (Cameron) headed to the 'Island early Saturday morning. In this event the Superkart Club were sharing the meeting with PIARC's (Phillip Island Auto Racing Club) circuit sprints for cars. The upside of this is that there is more variety for spectators. The downside is that the karts get lowest priority and track time is condensed for all classes. One practice and 3 x 5 lap heats, all classes together. Not that I mind sharing the track with all the gearbox karts, it makes for a full field.

This is Patrick, he's modelling a nice jumpsuit number in grey and white, casual and comfy, perfect for relaxing with friends or sucking in fumes at 180km/h

Sorting out my licence and scrutineering took forever and I almost missed the first practice session. On top of that, the little bugger refused to start. It's never done that before. Only on race day. Lucky I brought two fresh batteries.

At least the weather held out. The practice went well and everything hung together. I didn't get a transponder before going out. Being a P-plater I have to start from the rear anyway but it would have been nice to see the qualifying times. Around 2 mins is competitive here. A cursory glance at the stopwatch saw me at around 2:07 on my first laps. Just when I thought I was going at warp speed, a 250cc International class would pass me like I was standing still. Wake up!!

I was told you can go flat biscuit all the way from MG to Honda. It all sounded great in theory but the Southern Loop presented a problem. I just seemed to keep running out of road on the way out. Everything else was okay. There was water across Honda and the crucial bit at Lukey Heights. It was rather sideways through there. Over the crest and down the nauseating drop into MG was a big rush. As with Winton, I was surprised at the machine's ability to trail-brake right up to the apex without the rear passing the front. Well, almost.

Well the whole circuit is a rush but not as physically demanding as Winton. You can't beat it for outright speed and flowing, undulating corners. Well, I wouldn't call them corners. In a kart, they're more like curves. As with Winton, I lost any misconceptions about it being boring driving a little kart on a big track. At these speeds, the spaces get smaller, the corners get tighter...

After sitting on the grid for 45 minutes we finally went out for race 1. It's the waiting I hate. There seemed to be an endless supply of Mazda RX-7's doing practice laps.

RACE ONE: It's quite a buzz sitting on the start finish straight in such a large field. Although, I was a looong way back. I'd never done a standing start before. I completely stuffed it up when the lights went green. I couldn't even see the lights. I didn't know there were any lights. Anyway, with the non-gearbox classes, everyone tunes their clutches differently so there's a variety of takeoff speeds. Fortunately I wasn't the slowest but all the 100's passed me because they were permitted a rolling start. Either way, the non-gearbox classes all look a bit dopey crawling off the line. When you reach the Dunlop Bridge, superman has finally jumped out of the phone box and it's all systems go.

That was all fine, I picked off the 100's and began playing with my own species. By this time I had the track sussed, more or less. But I could see that I needed to chase better setup, especially the whole aero thing. I sat up higher than anyone else and as such, there was too much drag and no matter how many karts I could struggle past by MG corner they kept nailing me before the start finish line. There were some enjoyable slipstreaming duels down the straight.

Waiting impatiently on the out-grid, right at the back. That's Lukey Heights in the background

It all went funny on lap four. The red flag came out as I exited Siberia, so I buttoned off a touch and acknowledged the flag. Then, going over Lukey Heights, my chain broke. But it couldn't just neatly fly free, oh no. It decided to tangle itself in the axle, gore some bearings and lock up. So I spun off into MG and had to wait for the recovery trailer. That's something I won't miss about sprint karts- having to walk back. In this gig you get chauffered back on an open top trailer. You have to sit in the kart, naturally, to pin down the brakes. Depending on the mood of the recovery driver, this can be more scary than the actual racing.

Anyhow, it happened after the red flag. So I officially finished my first race 10th out of 16 and collected points. It turned out that the red flag was due to a CAR driving out onto the track during the superkart race. Considering the poor organisation, I was not at all surprised.

That's me on the right, rounding up the 100's

A new chain and sprocket was thrown on and we were promised 6 laps for the final heat. Again, race 2 took a loooong time to come around, and the sound of rotary engines was starting to get annoying.

RACE TWO: Again, I barely noticed the lights go green and again, those pesky 100's sailed past. Again I picked them off and passed a couple of 125's. But the sprocket I had put on was all wrong. It was too short so the engine revved up too quickly. Exiting corners was great, but it all went backwards on the long sections. Down the straight on lap 2 I was busy trying to get a tow from another 125, then the motor made an expensive noise and stopped.

So, another return to the pits on the back of a trailer. The practice session was thus far the only one I'd finished under my own power.

Fortunately, whatever tragedy befell the internals of the motor wasn't directly due to my own stupid gearing. Rotaxes don't over-rev while under load, although the broken chain may have caused it to spin too high. Other theories range from it's age to the fact that it was sitting idle for almost a year. I suppose asking it to scream at 13,000rpm all of a sudden was a bit much.

So it looks like a major rebuild. Something Rotaxes only need every 50 hours, so I am optimistic this will be the only one required for a while. While it's all in pieces we'll be focussing on a few little changes. The radiator will be moved down out of the air to reduce drag, and the perch I'm sitting on will be relocated for the same reason.

For the record, the 125 Rotax class victory was taken out by Brad Stebbing, with Dean Crooke in second. The Hypermax driver had a problem on the warmup lap in heat one followed by a spin on the start straight whilst hurriedly trying to make up his grid position (almost clobbering me in the process!). This put him behind the eight ball all day, but Dean is still the class benchmark.

VSKC round 4 is at the Island on July 15th. But before then, we'll be heading to my happy old hunting ground, Mallala in SA, for the (non-gearbox) National Championships on June 24/25. I hope all the Adelaide mob come out and say hello.

Testing Day- Winton 28th April 2006

It's times this this I will regret choosing the road racing path instead of the busy world of sprint kart racing. At least with sprint karts you can drive down the road and find a track to practise on, instead of head bush for a few hours. For some reason there just aren't many full sized road racing circuits next door to your local servo. I was about to find out it would all be worth it.

After all the pain of making the little Rotax Max CAMS eligible, I needed a big playground to make sure everything was all working before the VSKC round 3 at Phillip Island on May 6th.

So, after helping out some of our valued customers at the shop in the morning it was off to Winton in Ned Kelly country to grab some precious track time. Perfect day for it too. I went up solo but John and Dean Crooke from Hyperracer.com were there to provide some help. Naturally, they were shaking down their new weapon, the HyperMax kart. It's quite a machine with it's lowdown aero and sexy bodywork, and seriously quick. That's the last thing I wanted- a carrot in front of me when all I need to do was learn the machine and the track.

The competition. This little sucker (the kart, I mean) goes way too fast and needs to be beaten!

This was also the day that John Crooke, former Australian F2 champion and 1987 Bathurst team-mate to Peter Brock, decided he was too old for this caper and hung up his helmet to focus on helping Dean.

Anyhow, out onto the track. At Winton the trackday organisers must groan when they see superkarts. You can't let them out with cars, so letting them out with bikes is the lesser of two evils. Cars would just run over us...that is, if they were faster. Most of them aren't :). So, instead, they would just get in our way and wouldn't see us as we nipped at their mudflaps.

It's a sluggish takeoff. The stall speed on the clutch is fairly low so it drags all the way up the hill. It's the only frustrating part of this non-gearbox category. However, once the powerband lights up it's all worth the wait. It's like Clark Kent jumping out of the phone box with his superman cape on.

Apart from the new nosecone bottoming out over the bumps, there were no major problems. Well, no problems with the machine itself. Physically speaking, I reckon I would expire before the kart does. It is very hard work.

Once I got the confidence monkey off the back it was time to remove the Phillip Island gearing and put on a sprocket more suited to the tighter, challenging Winton layout. Here's some track indulgence for the motorsport initiated:

The old turn 1 and 2 is great fun, you can trail-brake right up to the apex. Turn 2 you don't brake at all, just feather off slightly. The big left-hand sweeper is taken flat and the best spot to overtake bikes- (around the outside), but there is a big bump near the exit which gets your attention whilst on the limit of adhesion. The old "tank" complex down the back is a little slow and hard to pick a line. It's way off-powerband onto the old main straight. The left-hander into the new section is deceptively slow- outbrake yourself (which I did, once or twice) and the protective barrier comes up rather quickly. Off the new back straight into the double right-hander, you brake at around 30-50 metres depending on bravery. You can run it right out onto the flat kerb at the pit entry lane, then barely feather off for the second right onto the new pit straight. Here the outside kerb is one of those nasty scissor ones, best to avoid unless you like losing teeth or a spleen. At the end, where the new straight covers the old, are some crazy bumps which almost threw me out of the seat. And the left-right esses- frighteningly good fun, with braking way past the final marker, trail on the brakes right up to the apex. Then bury it all the way through up the hill.

It was hard to get a clear lap with all the bikes. They brake and corner so slow, yet accelerate so fast. The mental imagery of my nose cone scooping up their rear wheel kept me reasonably well behaved. Although, when you can gain 100m under brakes and turn in, it's tempting to have a jab at them. Whilst it was annoying to get held up, it was good to see them having a go, especially the petite woman on the big GSXR750.

The last time I was at Winton, on the correct side of the fence, was Easter 1988. I was in a standard Austin-Healey-Sprite which I drove from Adelaide on a very eventful quest to compete in the Sprite Clubs' national challenge. That was a defining moment in my life, so this little trip was quite nostalgic. How the circuit has changed. It's 800m longer, and yet my lap times were probably the same as they were in 1988!

This little machine is impressive. I've always wanted to drive something that scares me, and I've definitely found it. With 30hp powering 160kg, the power-to-weight ratio is similar to a Formula Ford. The only handicap is the amount of air being pushed. Being a converted sprint kart, the driver sits up in the wind like cocky on a perch, so we'll have to work on this. The HyperMax is probably the benchmark on aero efficiency. It will kill everyone at the 'Island. The brakes are surprisingly good, being only rear axle, and can carry you right up to the apex with loads of grip, providing you're careful...

Around medium-fast corners it still behaves like a sprint-kart- twitchy and nervous. This gets your attention at twice the speed of sprint karts. We'll have to work on getting some rear-end grip also.

It's hard not to get cocky about the scale of speed vs. cost compared to a fancy road car or race car. This thing hasn't got doors, a roof, a slick paint job and big wheels. It doesn't have suspension or a gearbox with a smooth, silky gearchange. It cannot cruise down Lygon street and pick up chicks. It doesn't cost the price of a small house.

But it laps any circuit faster than all of that. I have always wanted to drive one of those great little Formula Vees, and I still do, yet this thing is faster than one of those.

Roll on Phillip Island.