VSKC Round 5- Winton, Sept 23

I even look uncomfortable

That's a little more like it! Good weather, kart running well and not too much driver brain fade. And, at Winton we had the whole meeting to ourselves so the classes were divided into their own races, as it should be.

I should explain at this point that Rotax 125 is divided into light weight and heavy weight. My natural weight (kart and me) is smack bang in between the minimum light and heavy weights. So, theoretically, at the moment I should finish in between the light and heavy classes. This is pretty much what happened in round 5, in the 3 x 5 lap heats and 1 x 8 lap final.

Next season I will probably ballast up to the minimum heavy weight (or eat more donuts). But while I'm still on my provisional licence, meaning I have to start from rear of grid regardless of qualifying times, I see no point.

Art Winton the biggest problem was my old "sprintkart" style seat which is mega uncomfortable. The twisty and bumpy power-down layout of Winton is torture on an unfit body with a seat that doesn't fit. After three laps I was getting forearm pump where your fingers start to curl up and cannot grip tightly. Yeah, it's an excuse. But it's a good one.

I've ordered a hyper-racer seat and steering wheel combo, but there have been huge production delays. It should be ready by Wakefield Park. The Hyperracer seat is a mega comfortable F1 style thing. I cannot wait, the fatigue from Winton was that bad.

Nonetheless I bagged some points for the State Championships, where I have managed to climb off the bottom rung having started the season late.




PRACTICE/ QUALIFYING

Practice was spent bedding in some new Dunlops and qualifying was, as always, pointless but I had a go anyway and my times would have put me halfway up the grid had I not been a humble P-plater.






RACE 1


Despite using the long circuit, we started on the "old" pit straight, which meant an uphill start for us rear-of-fielders. At the green light my weight advantage gained me a few spots by the old turn 1. It was fun dicing back there and I didn't rush anything but I soon got the red-mist, decided there was no point in hanging around, and had a go. From 14th on the grid I finished 6th, but couldn't quite crack heavy #56 David Byrne. He was very quick in parts. We had a race-long duel.

Up front Dean Crooke, Nathan and Daniel Bey, and Brad Stebbing had a close fight for the win, with Dean coming out on top. The Hyperracer didn't enjoy quite the margin as it did the last time at Winton, but the writing was still on the wall. It was clearly faster.

RACE 2

It was more of the same in race 2 at the start. The silly non-gearbox standing start, crawling away from a standstill, waiting patiently for the power to come on. Again I passed the same guys, mostly on lap one, then settled in to play with David Byrne, the last of the heavies. Again, despite passing him in places the forearm fatigue was taking its toll. I should have been able to put some distance between us but I lost bags of time around the big left hand sweeper through simply not being able to grip the wheel. I finished 8th, behind Byrne again dangnabit!!











Up front Dean Crooke won by a country mile from Nathan Bey.

RACE 3

This time the starts were a little more difficult. Maybe everyone else was getting the hang of it. But again I passed most of the heavies on lap one. David Byrne and teammate Lee Filliponi were proving to be the most challenging, despite my weight advantage. The strange thing was, I was losing time on the slow sections but quicker than them on the fast bits. If it was only the weight difference it should have been the reverse. Anyhow, this time I nailed them both on the last lap on the new pit straight so I was a little happier.

Up front it was Daniel Bey from Dean Crooke, who was trying to time his move but was foiled by the absence of a last-lap board.

RACE 4

I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of trying to battle fatigue for 8 whole laps. What also didn't help was that my start was appalling and I would have been last, except for Shaun Trounson (Hyperracer) having stalled off the line. Then, going into turn 8, the left-hander from the old back straight onto the new section, a yellow flag got hung out just as I was lining up to pass Michael Smith. So, I threw it down the road to avoid a collision (and a penalty).


So I was stone motherless (second-to-) last, and with the slow takeoff-from-standstill, the rest of the field was probably 15 seconds up the road by the time I got moving. I should have known the day was going way too well.

So, with no pressure other than the oncoming bout of forearm fatigue, I had a huge go at making up the gap to the field. By around lap 3 I'd caught the last of the heavies. One dropped out, I passed three others to finish 9th. Maybe the fatigue complaints were mind over matter. But I still can't wait for the new seat!

Next up- Wakefield Park, October 28-29.