At PF International for the 2nd round of the TVKC Winter Championship and the weather and entries were to play a big part in the meeting.
I arrived at PFI on Friday hoping to build on the strong run out at Whilton last week and got straight to prepping my kart ready for an early start Saturday morning.
Over night it rained and was cold so the 4 test sessions prior to the Saturday Timed Qualifying would prove to be essential. TVKC had a massive number of entrants so this made things like signing on etc drag out as queues were out of the race control building!
Anyway out for the test sessions and the track was not the best, slippery and changing but we worked to dial in the chassis from where we were last weekend.
Last test session and we nailed a race-able setup and went quickest in our session which was nice heading into Timed Qualifying.
So TQ arrived and I headed to the grid for a short 7 minute TQ.......In front of us was a very big black cloud which looked to be heading towards the circuit at a great rate of knots. We went on the grid and lined up at the front to try to get some laps in quickly should it start to rain.
The big black cloud however had different ideas and unleashed it's torrents before we managed to get out.
Instructions from the officials were allowing the changing of wheels (tyres) ONLY, which is what we did and stayed within the rules. Others, however did not adhere to the instructions or rules and made multiple changes to their karts such as gearing, castor/camber chassis setup changes for the wet conditions with multiple (up to 3 mechanics and a driver) working on a kart!
This firmly left me on the back foot but time to focus and make as good a job as possible........At the front with teammate and lights go green...go straight out to maximise time.
We left the grid and stated to go to work putting in very good times considering our setup limitations and surprisingly were buzzing in the top 3 times, working with my teammate and we were pushing round well.
Things were looking good....right up to the point my engine's electrics got soaked from water on track. Due to being on the grid we couldn't waterproof the electrics and this was causing my engine to stutter and try to stop whenever I came off the throttle.
This meant I couldn't push properly as I had to go into the corners and balance the throttle and brake to try to keep the engine running which resulted in me having to take a different line so as not to hit my teammate. I tried to let my teammate come out in front to push to the next corner but this was hampering our lap times and finally I TQ'd 4th, which was very good all things considered so happy with that.
Onto race day and I woke up to a frozen track!
1st race was supposed to be at 08:15 and finally hit the track at 10am in far from ideal conditions. We were 3rd race on the programme and by the time we were out things had not improved a whole heap.
Starting in P5 I hoped to be pushing towards the win but a change to my brakes meant I was not 100% comfortable with the kart and although managing to move forward took the flag in P4. Not a disaster but had hoped to be in the mix for the win.
Back to the awning and make the needed changes to the brakes and prepare for the 2nd and final heat.
We were in the 3rd Honda heat so went to the grid to see a track with a semi dry line now. Kart setup and looking forward to this we took our starting position at P5.
Lights go and I nail it pushing really hard on the 1st lap to see how many places I can make up. Over the line I'm into P2 and catching the leader at 0.5s a lap and feeling strong.
Lap 3 and I go into the lead at the 2nd hairpin but get overtaken on the way out so later in that lap going round 'the complex' I go in again on the right and get through.....only for the leader to come back onto the track and make contact which nearly puts me in the tyre wall and costing me 3 places.
I get my head down as I'm now over 1 second off the leader and 0.6s off 3rd place so time to put some laps together as we are on lap 3 of 7 now so nearly half distance......it takes a lap or so to clean up the tyres and on lap 5 I move into 2nd with my teammate leading and start to try and push away for a couple of laps to gap the group.
We start to pull a little lead very slowly but time is running out so on the last lap I go for the win at 'the complex' and take the lead.....just two corners left and the straight, round the left and the back slides which means I can't get the right onto the straight excatly how I'd like and lose a bit of momentum.........I look round to my teammate who's on my bumper and wait for him to make his move, he goes to the right so I drift to make him go the long way but he manages to get me on the line by 2/100ths of a second.........great race and well done to Josh.
The upshot of this means that I would be P3 for the Final which is OK, always like to be top 6 or higher so this is cool. It's a long wait for the final and the weather is not improving but the time draws close so I get ready to go to the grid and over the PA system it is announced that the meeting is abandoned due to safety and having seen the track, which was effectively a river by this point I can see why this decision was taken.
A very hard weekend but enjoyable and learning so much about our new Zip Vanquish kart is great in perparation for Super 1.
As always many thanks to ARC Audio Visual for getting me on the grid, Zip Karts for the chassis, RPM Engines for the power, Tillett for the seats and Global Karting for the advice and help.
Next weekend....TVKC Winter Seris Round 3, February's Meeting and hopefully the weather will be better!