VSKC
Round 5- Winton, Sept 23
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.
At
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.
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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.
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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
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