OEKC Round 7 – Whilton Mill
September 30th 2012
More Trouble!
After the last race in Milton Keynes, we had an emergency test at Whilton Mill to try and iron out the braking issues we have been experiencing all year. If we solved the issue great, if we didn’t we decided to scrap the system and look for another because we believe this has cost us a great deal of lap time during the year. The top man from the brake manufacturer agreed to come to our test to work out the problem. After a lot of head scratching, it appears we were sold a brake system for endurance racing (which we asked for with extra thick pads) but with the internals of a sprint system (which are designed to take standard pads). When we were putting extra thick pads in the system they would immediately touch the disc and overheat. Finally! problem solved and the braked worked better than ever with consistency.
When we got to race day the brakes were still perfect. We had nothing to do until practice started and were very confident. Once we were allowed to start our engine we tried and guess what? The kart wouldn’t start! How much bad luck can we get in one season! We changed the coil, carb, fuel pump, battery, spark plug etc but still nothing. By this time we had missed practice and qualifying had just started. Richard ran to the kart shop and bought a new wiring loom for the kart. We clipped this over the kart any old way to keep it on and it started immediately.
Reece went out and only had about 5 laps but managed to put it on pole! We lined up on the grid in 1st position. As the race started, Reece drove away from the pack and was around a quarter of a lap in front of the 2nd placed team. We made our first pit stop and Richard continued the race. Within 2 laps the kart lost full drive and sounded very loud and rough. We limped back to the pits to find the engine drive sprocket had stripped. We got a new sprocket and clutch drum and changed the parts. The race continued and once again we were last.
Today we ended the day in 6th position.
