24 July

Smarty Cam at work on Mark's kart on last Sunday race. Enjoy!

and... ACTION!

24 July

This is the Marky Production video of Heat 2, July Race.
Only 15 starters for this one.

Likewise, this has be shrank and reformat to be uploaded
here, if you want the 248Mb file of it please go to
http://video.ak.facebook.com/video-ak-sf2p/v6808/183/23/109550756669_19571.mp4

what Time is it?

23 July

Some stats after looking through the lap time sheets of
last Sunday's race.

Same lap times: Both Heat 1 and Heat 2, I have the same
lap time for lap 1, 56.24. interesting....

My best lap time for Heat 1 is 52.03 on the 2nd lap,
where Heat 2 2nd lap timed at 53.44

Best lap time for Heat 2 and overall best on the day is 51.69
on the 13rd lap, as compared to Heat 1 13rd lap at 53.17

Slowest of the lap times, excluding the 1st lap and the sliding
lap in Heat 1, shows 55.27 for Heat 1, and 53.44 for Heat 2.

As mentioned, I need to be smarter in the race start and this
is why: the front runners are doing about mid 52 for their
first lap while I am crawling around the lap at 56.24 during
Heat 1. Similarly, in Heat 2, the front guys are doing about
low 53, while I again did the lap 3 sec slower.

All in all, that means I almost lost all chances to catch up with
the front pack. It would take really something to close up to
them as they are will not be dilly dallying once the green
flag drops.

So, rolling start is to improve along with qualifying pace too!
Much to do then...

Announcing the arrival of...GP-10

23 July 2009

It's here!! My own GP-1o chassis!

And there's much work to be done before it will be
brought over to Plentong track.
Even much more work to be done before it result in
some good race result.

Can't wait for the 1st track outing with this baby!

No words, just actions!

22 July

Race video for July race, Heat 1



This video is a combination of six video cameras at work
around the track on race day.
Mark, as mentioned to you personally, you outdid yourself
in this department once again!
Thanks, mate!

I had to convert & reduce the vid size to be able to upload
it here, if anyone is interested to see a high res version,
you can download the 240Mb file from
http://video.ak.facebook.com/video-ak-sf2p/v6808/231/71/108937796669_37844.mp4

Oh, I'm in Kart #6

Eagerly waiting for Heat 2 video

Inching forward

19 July

Race Configuration

Some stats of this configurations:

Each lap is about 1.2km
Number of laps per heat, 15, and we will have a total of 2
heats. Total distance of each heat is about 18km
Average timing for each lap is from mid 50 seconds to
53 seconds.

Over the course of the race, from Qualifying to Heat 2, my
average lap times are on the mid of 52 seconds.
Personal best lap times is 51.69 seconds coming in the 3rd
last lap of Heat 2.

There had been a list of things I had planned before Qualifying
I wanted to complete, mainly on the engine settings and
assess how it really perform on the track. It was absolutely
necessary as this is my 1st time ever to be driving with the
engine! But then all plannings went out of the windows when
the engine refuses to start up after I fill the kart with fuel.
Darn !
It finally managed to start after the magician Jason(mech)
assisted to solve the mystery, which is still remain one to me.


All that means my 1st drive of the day on the 'new' engine
is during the qualifying.
Not something I would liked at all, but something I had to
make do with in such situation. And the end result is 11th
on the grid.

In the 5 laps that I did, I had the 'best' time then in the last
lap with the time of 52.26
I could have went out again and done few more laps and try
to have a better starting position. But I was not entirely
happy with how the engine is going. What I do not like is how
the power kick in over at about 9500RPM and how it seems
lost a huge chunk of power at below 9000RPM.
The main issue with the power coming in this late is
because often at this RPM the kart is already mid way in
corners. That is where we should be smooth on the throttle
and exit cleanly.
Hence, I stopped just after five laps.
Speaking to Jason again, we decided to tune to Power Valve,
have the jetting change, and clean the clutch area.

I only can hope for a better showing in Heat 1.

Starting on 11th position out of 20 is going to be tough.
The mid pack is really where I, or anyone, dislike to be in.
That's where the back guys like to squeeze into once the
green flag drops, and where the mid field runners wants to
make up all the lost places at the start.
My plan is to have a safe 1st few laps and attack along the
way. It is absolutely essential that I keep the kart's nose
clean as I am still racing with the Gillard of KP.

If you're reading this, KP, thanks once again!!
The Gillard chassis perform wonderfully in this race
again.

Heat 1 started at about past 1pm

So what happened in Heat 1?
Plentiful!
I was among one of the finishers of the race proper at 7th.
The rest either were involved in some incidents or had
problems.
My start was conservative and was lucky to make up a
couple of places since there was a small incident at Turn 1
at the very start.
What followed through in the next few laps was that I
managed put in consistent laps and take another position
from Ivan at the beginning of the Spoon Curve in Lap 4.
Knowing Ivan, I knew he will be be very close behind me
and I have to push in the next few sections including
the infamous Black Hole hairpin to keep myself ahead.

Note: Black Hole is a tight hairpin, with cement and black
paint on top of the tarmac surface.
Slippery as hell... one mistake and you may have to visit
the gravel or somewhere unpleasant. so, Be forewarned.

Approaching the black hole, I was braking as late as I
dared and when I was about to turn the steering into
the apex, I saw the Ivan's nose at my side pod.
SHHOOOTTz !
Losing that position was ok, but in allowing him to go
through it put me on the very dirty side of the track.
After that, I was crawling through BlackHole.
My carb was flooded!
20 seconds was lost before I was got going again
I was furious. Not at Ivan but mainly myself in
keeping my foot on the throttle when the kart
was sliding all around.
20 seconds before the engine came alive again,
and these 20 seconds seems like a lifetime as a
few of the guys from behind just whiz me by.
Lesson firmly learnt!

In the next few laps, I was determined. I was
pushing with all that I have. I can see that I was
making up some ground between me and those in
front. Then in lap 6, as I was exiting from the Spoon
curve I could see ahead that there were about 3
karts involved in some sort of incident at the Black
Hole.

The incident watching from a few video captures after
the race showed Ivan tried a very opportunistic move
on the kid on a Mini Rok and he just could not get any
grip with his late brake move then he slided and
whacked heavily into Mark, he in turn hit Graeme.
Ivan and Mark were out of the race.
Graeme managed to get back to the track much later.

That gives me 3 position up, and that's where I finished.
7th place.
Looking at my lap times in Heat 1, I wasn't too happy
because it was just fluctuating too much. Apart from
those few laps which I was fighting for position with
others, some were just plain inconsistent. Then again I
was feeling slightly tired towards the end.
It had been sometime since I push this hard in a race
especially I was in a 2 weeks reservist just before this.
But I did have an improvement of 0.2 sec from the
qualifying time.

Heat 2 started at about 3pm. Rain drops fell when it was
about 2.50pm. So there was a slight scramble to assess if
rain will continue and if we are going for wet setting.
Personally, I just went for a slightly higher tyre pressure
as I reckon the rain will hold or just simmer off.
Thankfully, the rain was blown away.

Starting from 7th posed more or less a similar situation
like in Heat 1. The main idea is to keep the nose clear
of silly trouble in the 1st few corners and see what I can
do from there.

A very interesting issue occurred just before I head out to
the grid, i.e. 2 of the clutch spring were broken, and I was
thinking "Oh no, not again............"
Then came 2 reassuring claims that the engine will still be
able to race. It will be just be like a direct drive engine.
I was hesitating, but since I was all geared up off I went.

My start was pretty normal, but I think I lose a few places
by being too wary of getting hit by someone...
Anyway this will change slightly after I'm on my own kart.
As 1st or 2nd lap progressed I managed to crawl back some
places. One of which is from an incident involving
Mary and someone else at the bottom of the hill.
From that, I made up at least 2 places. Then within another 2
laps I overtook Sam, who returned to racing after one year
absence! He did real well in Heat 1, getting to 4th from the
back but he conceded that he had no more in him to race in
Heat 2.

After overtaking Sam, there was no one else in sight for me
to catch up with until I saw Graeme. Looking at the lap time
sheet, I wondered why did I not managed to close in on him
to challenge for that position (4th).
Perhaps I just lost too much ground at the start, a 0.5 sec here
and a 0.2 sec there is just not enough to stick the kart right up
to kart's rear.

Looking at the bright point of Heat 2 is that I managed to shave
another 0.4 second from Heat 1 best time, doing a 51.69.
The overall lap times are more consistent too.

All in all, that just goes to show starting position is absolutely
important and how to get off from a rolling start is superbly
essentially in determining final finishing position.
That will be one of the keys in all future practice sessions.

August race awaits. Really looking forward to it!

Rain Man

6 July

I was at the track on Sunday, 5 July.
Most times when I hit the track, I first think of what should
I do or achieve that particular day. Otherwise, I will spend
the day ' just driving' on the track turning out to be a
rather fruitless day. Even a target time to meet constantly
lap after lap can be a good aim.

A few days before Sunday, I did promised Julian that I will
assist him in sorting out his Intrepid Cruiser chassis
with Max engine. Driving his kart a week back, I find that
the kart front end is much too sensitive to any steering
input and the power boost from the Power Valve burst
to life too late at over 9000rpm. This make the kart very
difficult to drive, at least to me.

So that's one objective. However when I reached his 'pits' I
realised they are almost ready to go on to the track.
Deciding that setting up a kart can really take up quite
some time and effort, and that they may just want to enjoy
the day karting away regardless I just took measurement
of the front and rear width. Perhaps use it for future
references.

One 'task' done in relatively very quick times!

Then came the next few objectives which is more delicate.

Some issues had came up in the past weeks after the last
race in June one of the most teething was that some thinks
that some are "cheating" on the minimum weight
requirements. So before it get any more 'nasty' and become
a wildfire topic I had to put up a notice on our FaceBook page
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/topic.php?uid=45212103499&topic=10449

some attention pls.
there had been some rumblings abt perhaps a few of us may not hv the min weight set. pls note the min weight is as follows, and it is the weight after the race NOT before that counts:
* Rok (160 Kg),
* Rotax Max, Comer, Iame, Vortex, Maxter, Sonik, Biland & KF3 (165Kg)
"Female 20kg less than male with respective engine"
* KF2 (175 Kg) * KF1 & Rotax DD2 (185Kg)
* Shifter & Aixro (205 Kg)

therefore, i will work with Louis that for all remaining races those who finished in the points will be weighed accordingly after each heats and as well as qualifying.
since there's points allocated for each. should anyone found to be underweight even by 0.01kg, it's a DQ. no excuse.
and the next position finisher will be promoted and be weigh in as well. in any case, i see this being good for everyone involved because none of us likes to be accused of being a 'cheat' not that i think anyone is doing so. hence, pls take note.

One of the side task arises from this particular episode was
to try have Mary getting to a higher weight scale. If you
have not noticed, there's a tiny clause which states
"Female 20kg less than male with respective engine"
How nice of us, right??
This 'rule' came about earlier this year when she was driving
a very aged chassis with an slightly odd engine that just prove
to be more than a handful. Therefore, Louis (the track boss),
thought that to have her racing proper with the rest of the
field the 20kg advantage is necessary and it's a sign of
good will.
No one wants to be at the back of the grid always, right?
So, if you are female reader, we do not discriminate or look
down upon driver of the fairer sex over at where we race
by giving her 'handicap', ya? I feel that need to be explained.

Then last month, June 2009, she had received a very nice
birthday present in the form of an new Alonso kart with a
new Rotax Max engine!
*ENVY*

With the brand new kart, and the weight of 145kg for her
as opposed to 165kg for others, she achieved a pretty
good result. I was pleasantly pleased for her.
Because that brings me hope that my new GP-10
will be bring me some excellent race result too.
However, her race finish had not endear too well to
some and had came up to say that one should not 'abuse'
the good-will bestowed upon her. Which I had to agree to
a large extent as we all want to have a good race, a fair race
and not be 'weigh' (pun intended) down by something like
this.

Thus one of my aim was to speak to her and see if she
will be fine to get back to the standard weight stated.
Although I did not managed to speak to her earlier in
the day, we did spoke about it just after lunch.
Quite thankfully, she took in my points well and had
agreed to at least have at least 155kg if not, 165kg
for the next race. Nice!
With that, guys (me included) please don't say she flying
away at feather weight in the coming race!

Much before the talk with Mary, I had another one with
Mark. That's not something I had plan for, but it's always
good to talk to the Big Boy himself.
One of the points I raised to him was that I am still worried
about having a 50bhp Axiro racing in the same class as the
2 stroke engines in the long term. Although I am happy that
everyone can race together, but it can be rather unsafe and
simply ridiculous for the ballast needed to race which he
agreed. In fact, our discussion of it was based on what we
spoke briefly on the FB when the minimum weight issue
came about:

Mark, perhaps u like to share wat is the ones dun make sense or dangerous?
if you are suggesting the issue is that your dad has to hv go with 205kg with his Aixro, then my personal view is this: the min weight required is such that everyone of us using same or different engines can be racing on a 'level' playing field, rite?
Aixro is a four stroke engine with over 40bhp, up to 50bhp, which is 50% more bhp than a Max and much more torque than any 2 stroke engines.
look at the times which your dad did with his aixro in previous races. he is competitive.
in fact, i have to say he is quick. however as i pointed out to him, he seems to be racing much better with Max. much lesser incidents in any heats. very likely because he don't need much weight on the chassis, and make handling better.
furthermore, his times on a Max is not far from what he did on a Aixro i believed.
hence, shld we perhaps reduce Aixro to 180kg, and then seeing your dad running ahead all the time and be back to square one saying it's under weight. the idea of one running with less weight but then deduct a certain amount of times from the final running times is not good.
i guess we all want the winner to be the one who cross the finishing line 1st. and not to be counting after the race has ended.
bro, i hope u understand and know i have nothing against anyone using Aixro, including u. but the fact is that your dad may have to choose.
Max with a good handling, with less ballast or a Aixro with large amount of lead sticking on the chassis. cheers

During the conversation, he did conceded that the lap
times he did on the Max and Aixro is about a second
difference. While he thought that there are no problem
in continuing using the 4 stroke power plant.
I, on the other hand, question why don't they use Max
instead then. This debate has two very opposing views
and neither are wrong at all.
One of the 'conclusion' is that he may be thinking of having
another class only compromising of Aixro and shifters.
Which I think is great, so that, at least some of us can watch
them race and they can watch us race! Entertainment all
round for everyone. But this, of course, need further
approval from Louis, which will be tough I reckon.

So much about talk.

On the track, I hop in my Rok and went on a expedition
drives on the kart. My expedition was not to record good
lap times or to uncover items that fell on to the track by
some fun karters, it is to iron out a few more handling
issues which I did with help from Tony.

Then I went about to find the optimum jetting for the engine,
which I believed I did that too.
One thing I did not really manage to do is to get a good lap in
because I tried a couple of different race lines, and different
braking methods and points. I'm at least one second or so
from my best. But I had to be pleased with it since the
front tyres were all shots, and the rears are breaking
traction too.
I did tight lines with hard braking, tight lines with smooth
braking, then wide line with hard braking and with smooth
braking etc...
More adjustments needed and done. More trial and error
laps.

Then somehow the sun hides behind the cloud and the
sky opened up and pour! It was raining.... again!

You have to believe that in the past month or so, it just
rained everytime I am in for practise. Everytime!
It's true because everytime I wanted to bring my car to a
car wash after going through the dirt track enroute to & fro
the track I just did not not get to do it. Rain just came
falling... Amazing!

Here it is, another day at the track with much done, and
always more to do.
And here it is too, the Rain Man on a go kart!


P.S. kart 55 is up for sale. I only want to have one kart
to take care of, which I can fully focus on make it
really competitive. Do drop me an mail if interested.

cheers

Racing Strongly in Heatwave

1 July

Got this from http://www.karting1.co.uk/news/?p=865
which is very applicable to us karting in the region
when the temperature can soar to over 33 deg C.

Karting in a Heatwave - How to Make Sure You Perform in
High Temperature,

Karl Bickley at Fit2Race gives us an interview on what to
do to make sure you are physically prepared to race in the
current summer heat-wave.

It’s not so simple as drinking loads of water and staying
out of the sun, Karl gives some unexpected tips on
preparing your body for karting in the heat.

Hear the podcast:

http://get-it-lit.com/karting1-podcast/fit2race-heatwave.mp3

There are a few points that are essentials from it (i hope my hearing is ok ):

* Acclimatise to the environmental factors.
Meaning one has to train or kart at the time when the races are
held.

* Keep COOL throughout the weekends.
It is no good to be standing in the sun and got into any chance
of dehydration or heat exhaustion.
Do all settings in shaded areas, if possible.
Drink cool sports drink to rehydrate. Avoid Coke or Red Bull.

* Avoid complex carbo foods. Our body wants to have simple
food so that it can draw energy from what we eat easily.
Complex food like pasta or rice will take more time to digest
and have the body sluggish. So, go for frequent snacking instead.