OEKC Round 1 – Rye House
March 25th 2012
Reece’s assault on the grid
Today marked the start of the new OEKC season. We had hoped to get our new chassis on the grid for round 1 but couldn’t manage to prepare and test the new machine in time. We started this race with our old chassis which deserves a well needed rest after two seasons of hard work.
It was a full grid with the majority of teams starting with new chassis and equipment. We hoped we hadn’t got it wrong but persevered regardless. During practice we found we had little grip but this was to be expected as this is a characteristic of the track. We also found we were slow exiting low speed corners and did our best on the power side to cure this. We didn’t quite get it right but continued anyway. With qualifying underway Reece took to the track and promptly put us on pole by a thousandth of a second! Not bad for an old chassis and power issues!
When the race started, Reece pulled away to gain a third of the lap as a lead. We were in a strong position. We pitted and Richard took over the second stint to continue our progress. Midway through, a kart turned in on Richard which caused a spin and lost us a little time and position. After resuming, Richard realised the axle was slightly bend and was causing vibration continuously. When this stint was complete we pitted for fuel and a driver change. Jon continued with the wounded kart until the end of his stint but he has trouble with the rear of the kart. When he pitted for Reece to continue ?we fuelled as send Reece on his way only to notice the rear left tyre had a slow puncture.
Reece proceeded to drive the kart as if nothing was wrong and passed everyone in his way! We had numerous fastest laps throughout the day and some were set on this stint. After a while we pitted Reece to his displeasure but we felt it was too dangerous to risk an accident. We fixed the issue and sent him out again to set another fastest lap which stood for the day.
We finished the race in 7th position (from 24) due to the puncture but picked up valuable points for our championship challenge.
