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.