OEKC Round 3 – Rye House
April 24th 2016
After the disaster of Round 2 at Bayford Meadows we were optimistic we could repeat our Rye House win from last year. We setup in the morning with plenty of time to spare. The kart started with no issues and we continued with our normal morning preparations. After briefing, we fired up the kart again after filling with fuel then wheeled it to the grid. Once on the gird we tried to start the kart to go out and would you believe it… It wouldn’t start! Electrical problem again. We frantically recovered the kart to the pits and started to look for the problem. Once again, the starter motor had packed up. We changed the starter for a brand new unit but by this time we had missed practice and qualifying so had to start the race from last place on the grid. Neither driver had a chance to practice so we were immediately on the back foot.
The race started and Reece had a brilliant start and first stint. 30 minutes into the race and we were in first position. The top 3 positions (including us) diced for top spot until the end of the first hour at which point we came in for a fuel stop in 3rd place. Our stop wasn’t the greatest and we lost a few positions on the changeover but were still 6th when we entered the track again. During the second stint Richard preserved fuel for the first half of the stint and we were back in 3rd place by the time we needed to stop again. We promptly made our way back to first position with a good margin over second place when we made our last stop. All we had to do was finish the race and bring it home.
We changed driver and refuelled. Hit the started button and… The kart failed to start. Our race and victory was over. The brand new started motor we fitted in the morning didn’t turn. This was probably one of the hardest disappointments we’ve had while racing in the OEKC. We will be changing everything electrical, good or bad to eliminate this intermittent problem.
