EPS Round 6. You know when youre in for an interesting weekend when the only member of the group with a baby has had the most sleep, but awake out of our slumber we must. The Band, joined by Becci on drums and Pete Brien on flute (loaned out to VKR again) injected McDonalds and Costa and ploughed our way west to the land of clay and pigeons to circulate a Prokart for the majority of the day. As the deep mist rolled across the track we heard Andy state I need a win, eyebrows were raised, hes gotten used to pedaling that civic of his at the front of the grid.. immediately Ian reached for a Monster, I reached for a pie and Pete.. well he still puffed away on his electric cigarello, the pressure was on. Practice started and Ian went out to do the will stuff fall off test, it was a rip roaring failure, everything stayed on. Wed reverted the steering wheel from the posh Mychron model to something more traditional with electrical tape attached, wed also kept comms off (probably a blessing). Oh yeah, we broke another hub, it wouldnt be a days karting without that happening!. Andy hopped in Polly to relearn the circuit hed crashed heavily at last time out, he soon bought the kart in complaining of the back end, what followed was a bit of trial and error best suited to a days testing and not 3 hours, but luckily at the end of it we were all happy finishing sixth out of a sandbagging 21. Qualification came and the lads decided how they wanted to proceed, Ian went out first, 15 minutes of his finest on a track still quite green and not offering the grip the paddock craved came in a healthy 14th with 40.4. We knew we had 2 drivers of equal pace, youre only as fast as youre slowest driver the saying goes, luckily I wasnt driving today, so I felt good.. Out Andy went and improved to a 40.310, up to 12th, with only 4 karts under 40 seconds and 13 karts in the 40 second bracket we knew we had a good grid around us. Unfortunately fate, a weighbridge and a miscalculation presented us with a kilogram deficit to the legal limit. Our second weight penalty of the season put us to the back of the qualification standings. For shame... As it turns out this wasnt the worst thing in the world, with our super secret tactic that everyone on the grid knows about we pitted for a run around on the first lap to get our extra stop out of the way, its a risky tactic especially if you have trouble later on in the race but allows both drivers to push for the rest of the race. Ians become part terrier, part hindu cow and part metronome this season, able to mix unflappable consistency with the ability to hunt down karts ahead he set to the task of catching stragglers while in turn being caught by the leading pack. All through Ians stint wed heard a rattling from the left hand side of the kart, a few other karts were doing the same thing, wed worked out it was the left hand clutch making the noise, so preparations were made to swap out if it failed, but it wasnt affecting his times, tick-tock he was rattling in 40.4-40.5s, then we noticed the nassau had come loose in 1 of its 4 fixings, more about this later. While Ian was setting the world to rights on the track, Becci was doing the same in the pits, buoyed by flapjacks, some awesome pasta and some kettle chips (which I suggested to Andy might contain that extra 1kg hed been looking for :P) we were planning the impending pit stop, Ian had us an excellent 14th position, but we had to sort that nassau. When Ian came into the pits we were upto 10th, but this was due to others pitting around us, Ian came in, stopped on the weighbridge, we held our collective breath and he rolled off towards the fueling rig, engines off, fuel cap off and hop out, push under the tape, I grab the extinguisher and the marshall sets away on brimming the tank, Andy all suited up and Becci stand waiting, finally the fuel is in and we wheel the kart out of the fuel bay. Off come most of the weights, Becci sorting the heavy side and Andy fires up the engines, I cable tie the heck out of the loose nassau, its ripped from its bolt, this doesnt take too long but Becci saves the day, noticing Ive not put the clip back on the weight post and does it for me, phew! Andy roars out into the circuit, hes remembered to do the fuel cap up this time so we wont get to hear about *those* scars again, hes got 90 minutes to do what he does best, attack!. In the meantime Ian, who had driven superbly, was recuperating by the burger van with a 5 course meal provided by Becci, equal parts overwhelmed and knackered I think I saw a single tear of happiness fall as he tucked into course 5 : grapes. Andy meanwhile was in full attack mode, the nassau fix had worked and that rattling had gone, the noise turned out to be a loose weight at the top of the post, phew! In what seemed like no time Polly was up to 12th position chasing down Mslaren, Pete, who had gotten into VKRs wagon around the same time was trying to hold onto 6th, unable to maintain his team-mates pace he was slipping down the order, there was no movement below us to indicate anyone could catch us, we were a lap ahead of the next person behind us, we knew at least 1 kart ahead had to pit one more time but we needed to work hard to close the gap on them to be on the same lap when they came out of the pits, the pressure was on and we were 12th, we needed karts ahead to break. And break they did, Prokart Engineering 2 BillyBiz had been suffering from a previous accident from a broken steering wheel, suffering another accident the driver bought the kart in, a lengthy stop allowed us to catch, pass and lap them in the standings, we lucked out and were up to 11th, on the tail of Mslaren. In endurance racing you have memorable stints, the first time ENRG roared to the green light in round 1 Ian had 60 minutes of constant battling, around the campfire in the team we remember that stint. At this moment in time Andy was undertaking a memorable stint, he had caught Mslaren, Kart 82. Mslaren are a team who were either firmly in the top ten or broken in the pits, we were dealing with the former, kart 82 were on blistering pace and were being caught by the ArtKart. What followed was about 60 minutes of constant fair tussle, Andy would catch eventually pass and fight to gap 82, only to be caught and the fight would continue. Eventually Andy would create a gap, only to catch backmarkers and allow 82 to catch him, the circle would start again, the flow of Clay Pigeon was working against us. Ahead of the fight for 10th VKR were having trouble, Petes steering wheel had lost a bolt on the steering column, luckily he wasnt at Billies, he was at top bend, he managed to save the kart and park it at a gate where it was easily retrieved, his team mate, crestfallen didnt want to continue, they would receive a DNF, with 15 minutes to go our fight for 10th became a fight for 9th. Andy had managed to get 9th, ahead Kiss My Grass were a lap or so ahead, theyd been quick as hell both on the circuit and in the pits, I didnt know if they had a stop left but I did know they were out of reach, it was us or Mslaren. Out of the corner of my eye in the pit wall I saw a flash of red and Andy running wide out of top bend, he drifted out onto the grass and tried to kick the back of the kart around to get back onto the circuit. With 7 minutes of the race left the rear of the kart impacted into the tyres and flicked the kart around for a second bite of the tirewall cake, the nassau ripped off and with a sickening thud and Andy lurched forward as the front right bounced off the wall, both came to a rest, Mslaren had taken 9th. Andy got up, grabbed the nassau and threw it off the runoff and to the side of the circuit, where a marshall collected it, to his credit he then got back in the still running kart and rejoined, obviously winded. I went mad, thinking some bugger had pushed him wide, ranting away at a fellow pitlane attendees quip that our kart should be black flagged for having no nassau. Myself and Pete set to work preparing the cable ties to fit in case we got pulled in, it would have been a quick effective fix, Andy would receive an impromptu ovation from the pitwall once everyone realized he was continuing and not coming into the pits, it was an impressive show of determination for that flag. Luckily we didnt get flagged, while not rolling around on the pace Ian & Andys hard work had paid off, we had enough of a buffer behind us to hold onto 10th position, Mslaren coming up to lap us even politely pushed us along the straight, as did the leaders autotekk, who returned the favor from the few rounds ago. Andy later told us that while this was appreciated, due to the steering being out it got a bit hairy entering the corners. After 3 hours of racing we took the flag in 10th, 2 laps behind MsLaren who ended up on the same lap as kiss my grass, what could have been! Behind us by 2 laps were Starship Enterprise and a recovering Prokart Engineering 2. Turns out Andy had just tried too hard on the last corner, lady luck hadnt completely deserted us, we were able to finish top 10 and it doesnt look like the kart or Andy are hurt too much, especially as Andy returns to the big boys racing this weekend! Onwards to the final round :)
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:36:24 +0000
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