Race Day, 23 Nov

This was the race that I thought I could do Okay...
oh well, I did only OK, which is slightly disappointing as I
wanted to equal my previous race finishing position or better.

To be better I may have to rely a lot on luck which I think we
all had after we had to wait for more than 2 hours before Ken's
brake been fixed to start the Heat 2 under huge cloud But no
rain at all. Phew! Collective luck but not for individual

Qualifying is not too good. As per normal, I start almost from the
back. sigh
Before Heat 1, and after my qualifying, one of the mechanics, Ah
Seng, took my kart out for a spin or two. He confirm my feel of the
Rok engine. It is that there's no low end torque, which is quite
particular important in this track when the several hairpins that
go uphill upon the exit. Without the torque, I lose out in the
hill climb. I literally see the rest of the field pull away from
me almost after exit. It's a depressing sight.

He recommended a change in sprocket and I decided to roll with
his idea.

Come Heat 1, I realised it was still just not good enough too.
I was just following James very closely, but unable to find a nice
place to overtake him. I was holding my position, waiting for my time.
Our race was for a start grid of 6 or 7. It was quite fun.
Somehow on Lap 10, I got a bit impatient and try to take him in the
slippery hairpin behind the pit building. Bad idea... I ran so wide that
I went into the grass! After that, I tried to mount a chase again but
seemingly impossible. I lost 4 seconds in my trip to the grasslands
Looking at the back, there seems to be no one near so I just decided to
lax my throttle and drive for the next few laps.

Heat 2 started under huge clouds hanging in the sky. It is no doubt
threatening to rain, but it went on dry for the full race.

After a lap of rolling start lap, I was ready to go. Seeing the green flag
early I throttle on earlier and got side by side to James at the hairpin
and I throttle harder for the straight that is to come... I should be sixth
already and then the very unexpected came about, I felt slow!
I was feeling even slower than a tortoise when James, Graeme, Kelvin,
and Ken all overtook me in like a flash!! WTH !!!
Forget about position then, I was just going to try to get it all back.
It wasn't easy at all. I only managed to finish 7th at the end.
At the end, I was thinking if there's 2 more laps I should be able to
get closer to Graeme and try to take 6th. Well, on a hindsight lah.

Am I happy about the race? NOPE. Mainly because I need to address
the lack of low end torque of the engine, and try to see how to fix it or
at least improve it. Come on Rok, up your pace for me!

till 7 Dec.