Your Racing Stories

GPG has a bunch of motorsport enthusiasts and a bunch of us every now and then race something somewhere so this is the place to share your stories! I shall start:

This Thursday night I went kart racing and I last raced in April in that place - but in a different track - and then in May in Rio so I was excited for tonight, as I hadn't done anything for way too long. Before the race I told the main guy that I felt I was going to be like Lewis tonight but didn't know if for good or bad. The place runs a system of 3 20-lap races where you start in back/middle/front packs and final results only matter to qualify you for the main and final race. There are no blue flags, only yellow flags and very rarely a penalty given (drive through). Onto the races now:

-Race 1: kart felt alright, nothing special but nothing bad either.
I started in 7th out of 10 and right off the bat started overtaking. On lap 3 I was 6th and on lap 5 I was in 3rd place and closing in the top 2 and just as I go make my move for P2 on lap 12 I get spun out by a backmarker on a tricky left hander and drop to 6th almost 7th on lap 13. 5th place is very distant but I start making my way through the backmarkers and then on lap 19 I make the move for 5th and almost get to 4th but the finish line came too soon. I was unhappy with the spin but almost pleased with the recovery.

-Race 2: Kart felt ok but a little rough on the steering
I started on P1 and kept it that way throughout the race. 2nd place was right up there with me the whole race but P3 came in 16.2 seconds behind, almost a lap down.

-Race 3: The steering felt awesome and the kart felt a bit loose, I was very excited
I started in 8th (out of 8 this time) and was very keen on making the best of my kart. By lap 3 I jumped to 4th place and on lap 5 I get to 3rd, very strong pace attacking 2nd but... on lap 6 I am going around the outside of p2 but he's struggling with a backmarker, he steers towards him pushing him to the barriers and I get my tires locked and am launched up the barrier, smash my knees on steering bar and cut my right hand on wheel.
I was pissed but still on it, hadn't lost a position. Then the very next lap I get f-in spun off by a backmarker as I attempt my move at the start/finish line, the bastard locks up my left rear and steers right as I hopelessly try to correct it. I lose 2 whole damn laps and drop to 6th! So now I am far more pissed than the first race because this kart really felt very nice and light but now I had to settle for only salvaging something. I resume hammering down the track and start lapping sub 16s consistently - I actually did a 15.671s lap which placed me 4th best of the place (including racers) for the week - when the average laptime for the winner was 16.707s. Unfortunately all I could do in the remaining 11 laps was unlap myself once and finish in 6th, 1 lap down and actually pushing my kart between 5th and 4th but we crossed the line before I got ahead.
So race ended, I was severely pissed that I got royally screwed again, injured on both right hand and my banged up right knee, while the people that caused the accidents didn't even receive a warning. Now I have no idea where I will start race 4.

-Feature race: Kart felt ok, steering was a little lighter than my first kart but not feeling as good as the kart for the previous race
So in the final race I start from 4th and 2 of the 3 guys ahead of me (p1 and p3) are very good, short, and difficult to overtake. In the first couple of laps I worry more about ensuring I open a gap to the driver behind so I can start driving in a different line to pass people. In doing so I fall back for about 3 laps but then I see I got a gap to P5 and start pushing. In 2 laps I am on P3's butt (he started 2nd and lost a spot to the fastest guy) and quickly get by him on lap 5, now sights set on not getting screwed up by anyone and winning the damn thing.
On clean air without traffic I am lapping 16.0-16.1s but then I go under 16s again and on lap 8 I am right there with the top two guys who are still keeping a strong pace but I have the advantage of not worrying about anyone behind me nor fight for a spot. I make quick work of the backmarkers and take no risk until on lap 9 I get to the left hander after the flatout section (last left turn) and I come in wide and keep a good speed through the corner and swing from right to left, then right to take a sharp corner into the start/finish, passing both p1 and p2 on the inside and off into the distance, making sure I keep some room to my left just in case someone tries to spin me.
Now that I am in 1st and happy with the race so far I go on about opening a gap and trying to lap as many people as I can without getting into risky situations. It all goes smoothly until lap 19 where I get by a backmarker who tips my rear left but luckily he didn't have much speed of the corner and I held off my kart with a drift. Then I get to the guy who took me out on race 1 and I am very tempted to pass him as he's painfully slow but given how erratic his driving was I chose to just settle down and ride off his ass to the finish, a good 5s ahead of 2nd place and almost 16s ahead of 3rd.

I was joking when I mentioned driving like Lewis but it turned out to be a very eventful night with a lot of accidents and getting screwed (but unlike Lewis I didn't cause anything :P) but on the flip side I drove the best I've driven in many years and finished the night winning the race that mattered with fastest lap of the night making it even sweeter. I was even told by the marshalls to drive my victory lap and then one marshall stopped me to give me his checkered flag so I could take another victory lap!

Here's the map of the track:

Probably my most memorable karting experience was a couple of years ago. I had four 15 minute stints booked. In the first one it was dry, and then it started raining just at the start of the second stint, and got gradually wetter during the day. It was quite incredible to feel the changing conditions and the effects of cold tyres, different lines etc.

This thread reminds me that I really need to go karting again, I don't think I've been since that day!

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X (@ed24f1)

Last summer for Vader Trophy's annual Knockhill weekend get-together it started raining during the race. We've all raced in very wet conditions on slicks before, but I think this was the first time it had started dry and then rained. It wasn't even rain but drizzle - you couldn't even see it, save for a tiny bit of moisture appearing on the visor, but the sudden lack of grip in certain corners surprised me.

Going around a corner that's just about flat (some said it was quicker having a brief lift - you know the sort of corner), the turn in went fine, you'd get to the apex, then you'd just lose all grip and be heading straight at the scenery, then it would just about stick enough for you to get around the corner. It was greasy, but you had to push on, as the tyres would lose all temperature (not that hire karts get much in the first place with their hard slicks). It wasn't wet enough to start going offline permanently though.

Driving as hard as you could it was surprising how many places some of us managed to get as others floundered around or spun.

It only lasted 3 or 4 laps until the track dried completely again, but it was a fun few laps!

How common is it in Europe to have go kart places only do hotlapping instead of actual qualifying and race? I've read about several places like that and when I ran in Madrid it was that same system.

Can't speak for other countries, but most places offer an 'arrive and drive' system hear, with no real format. Usually if you ask nicely they'll do a quick qualifying/race format though.

You generally pay more for a proper qualifying/race set up, but most tracks offer it.

Places like Knockhill itself (we don't kart there, we kart the day before in England) do a basic arrive and drive during race weekends, which is usually more entertaining than the racing on the track - it's bloody hilarious.

Yeah, I usually go for the arrive and drive over at Cheddar, which is indoors but bloody good fun.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Most tracks have "open events" with a generic format of practice, qualify and heats/race. These are often more expensive hence why I normally go for arrive n drive practice sessions, which many people treat as though it's a real race anyway, it just has no grid start nor official race order, most places still give you a print out of your times.

I think I know the kind of corners Gav refers to which are possible flat out but technically quicker with a feather on the throttle. In Caxton an indoor track I used to go to there is a flat out left hander which is immediately followed by esses, I've driven it completely flat out many a time but it's ultimately quicker with a slight lift in the left hander because going through flat out usually induces much more sliding and you end up with a wider and slidier line through the esses which basically scrubs off your speed. More fun flat out, but quicker with a lift :P

At Daytona MK, the outdoor track of my choice there's a long radius left hander at the end of long straight (about 300m). It's a down hill entry and as a corner on it's own it's possible to get through it flat out. However keeping it planted usually results in oversteer on the apex, which you wouldn't mind dealing with if there wasn't the tracks heaviest braking zone for a tight right hand hairpin immoderately afterwards. It means you can't take the classic line through the flat out left hander, because if you did you'd arrive at the hairpin completely on the wrong side of the track or backwards having locked up because you braked whilst not steering in a straight line. Because you need to take a tight line I tend to employ the following tactic, flat out entry, feather throttle on the apex the heavy cadence braking as soon as I've got the steering straight again. It's an exchilerating couple of corners, fastest corner followed by the slowest with tricky camber, bumps ans potholes to contend with. It's a braking zone you do not attack with cold tyres, I did once and ended up locking the brakes, even though I released them immediately the tyres didn't grip the track again and the tank slapper was in full swing I was pitched onto the grass at unabated speed and nearly launched having gone straight through a little hole in the ground, that got my heart beating and earned me a reprimand from the marshalls. Rather stupidly.. I made the same mistake 2 laps later!





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2011 01:02PM by J i m.

Gav, when do the Vader Trophy crew usually get together at Knockhill? I know I'm not a member, but it's my local(ish) circuit and I wouldn't mind meeting some of you dudes in person.

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We meet in the north east of England the day before the BTCC races at Knockhill.

I did suggest that next year we try out the karting place between Edinburgh and Berwick, and then stay at a Travelodge/Premier Inn somewhere nearer the track (last year we all met at the Middlesbrough karting track (Teeside Karting), stayed the night in Rothbury (where one of us lives) then travelled up to Knockhill on Saturday morning).

It's never been strictly VT members... it's just that we've met up for a good few years now and we all tend to organise any get-together. We've more often than not had non-VT members at either the karting or the track. Others are more than welcome. I'll try to remember to keep you posted when we start discussing it next year (though we did leave it very late to organise things last year!).

One condition. You need to drag DELLIS down with you. We've missed him the past couple of years.

That all sounds cool. There'll be plenty of time to get ready for that then(Famous last words, I'm disorganised at the best of times). It's ages since I attended a BTCC Knockhill meeting as well, so that would be sweet.
Yeah, I'm in touch with Dave on Twitter and Facebook so I'll try and get him to come along. It's ages since I saw him myself(Last time was when he came round to mine to watch the Malaysian GP in 2003. Weird, since I live in Dundee and he only stays a short distance away) so everything would fit awesomely.

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My main regret is that I missed a rather legendary meeting at Dongington one year, although perhaps that was probably for the best as I'm not sure the likes of Gav and Dave have recoverd from the pueonomia and other incidents that have since passed into folklore

It was April and MINUS @#$%& SEVEN! Despite being "hardened northerners" it would have been stupid to stay another night.

People in caravans were leaving, so us in our tents wouldn't have been very bright had we stopped over another night.

Dave Ellis had zero dry clothes left after, as I remember, his bag become damp and all of his had frozen overnight. Graham had spent the night in his car with the engine running in an attempt to stay warm. All of our 2 litre bottles of coke had frozen completely solid. Even Ian's gas heater stopped working due to the cold. I think from our party only Dave Liddle and I had any relative comfort in our thermal sleeping bags, but still we didn't sleep much.

I do remember 3 of us (Dave Ellis, Dave Liddle and myself) having to restrain ourselves from seriously assaulting Andy Scott for smuggly turning up the following night (when it was above freezing point) and calling us cowards for deciding to leave. He'd spent the night before in an undoubtedly large and cosy house. Then when we were on our way home he texting Mike and telling him to give us hell. I can't recall ever being more annoyed with an individual.

Check out this picture for a bunch of happy campers. This was on the Saturday after 'that night'. Hopefully Pete doesn't mind me posting this photo.





It was good the following year when we met up for the LMS at Donny and the worst thing to happen was Dave Liddle getting a blister on his foot during the track walk on the first night... prior to that, all of our other track trips had something weird going on!

I had a really good experience at the BUKC race at Bayford Meadows last month. For those of you who don't know, it's the British Universities' Karting Championship and we race in Club100 2-stroke karts. Anyway.

I'd been to Bayford before in a Rotax about 8 years previously, back when I'd owned a kart as a young teen and wasted a lot of money (that my mum didn't really have) struggling to get to even one raceday per month. From what I remembered, the track was very hard to overtake on and I didn't like it that much. I was somewhat optimistic because in BUKC testing I felt I'd finally been able to really push the kart and understand how to use it, and as the fastest one in the team in the practice session before the race, I asked to take the 35th grid slot that we had been given for one of the races, since I thought I could get a better result out of it than the other guys. So I lined up 35th, last, and the first lap was a bit scrappy but I was up into 27th at the start of lap 2. Unfortunately for reasons unknown to me, some guy ploughed into the back of me at the first corner, off into the tyre wall and I had to wait for a pusher kart to get the engine restarted since it stalled. I was back to 35th and around 30 seconds off the leaders so I felt like my race was a bit @#$%& but I kept lapping hard anyway. I caught some stragglers and then eventually sighted the main bulk of the pack, and around 15 minutes into the race I carved into it and every overtaking move just felt effortless, ridiculously risky some of them but I just knew they would work. I tried to lose at little time as possible and overtake at the earliest opportunity, however scarce, and it worked out well as I passed yet another person on the final corner to finish 12th. Never overtaken so many people on track in one go! The BUKC is pretty competitive too so I was well-pleased.

In the afternoon we had the team races, where you share a kart with another guy in the team for a 1 hour enduro, and we got pole position for the race! I had the slightly-nervous pleasure at leading the pack off from the front, but I got away cleanly and just about kept the rest at bay on the first lap, driving quite cautiously. I looked back at the gap as I crossed the finish line to complete the first lap and thought "screw this" and decided to go as hard as I could and to my surprise the gap just kept getting bigger and bigger...by the time I handed over to my teammate, 25 minutes into the race, the nearest guy had been 6 seconds behind before he pitted, and the rest I'd just dropped completely. And this was with running 8kg of extra weight because my teammate was under the weight limit and we didn't have time to add it to the kart during his pitstop! We ended up 7th which I guess is disappointing considering how we were easily leading it just before the halfway stage but, it's a team event after all and our team as a whole is nowhere near good enough to be hitting podiums in these team enduros. Still, for me individually, it was a really great day...confidence boosting for sure.

Also, here's a video a teammate filmed of me leading the first two laps....might not happen again, so :P:


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Nice story! Also there's no such thing as "ridiculously risky" overtakes

gav Wrote:
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> Dave Ellis had zero dry clothes left after, as I
> remember, his bag become damp and all of his had
> frozen overnight.

Dave usually has no dry clothes left at Le Mans either traditionally he has a leaky tent, one night his tent completely flooded and he ended up sleeping underneath the gazebo, that may have been the same year Andy Scott got padlocked inside his tent. Ah memories.

Just deserts.

Still, I'm guessing in France at the start of summer it isn't often sub zero?

Admittedly no... And I don't recall Dave's clothes ever resembling an ice cube there. However having said that the past few years it has been quite cool and nippy during the nights and very definitely multiple layers if you're up and trackside during the darkest hours. The past years in particular have felt far too cold for the middle of June. Sasjag very wisely took his sleeping bag out to the Porsche curves this year when we decided to watch the night racing from there, I only wish I did the same because I was shivering like an idiot.

Still... I don't think I've ever been colder at a race track than at Silverstone during February F1 testing when it just so happend to be snowing.

How do you get padlocked inside your own tent? That sounds like an impressive achievement. LOL at the mental picture of someone trying to escape from that.

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Well he didn't do it himself and technically it wasn't his own tent. One of the group (none from this thread) took it upon themselves to padlock the zip levers together one evening after he went to bed. It wasn't until the morning after that the penny finally dropped and hilarity ensured. Sadly I slept through the best bit.

It's the kind of random occurrence and memory that make these occasions with like minded friends from motorsport sites so addictive. Even when things go so incredibly wrong.. Hilarity usually follows and you don't want to miss a moment.

Agreed. Even in the most absurd of situations we always seem to find the funny side. It's not always fun, but it is nearly always funny. Andy Scott aside, I think it's all been very friendly too, and everyone seems to fit in with everyone else with ease. We're all there for the same thing (though it's not the racing I go for, it's just the random banter), so it makes it easy for everyone to get on.