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