Better technique required

27 Oct

Last Sunday, 25 Oct, my kart had the ultimate pleasure
of having James Lee piloting it. For those who do not
know, James was last year RMC champion.

He basically just shaved off about 1.2 second from what
Ivan and I can do with the same machinery without
any adjustment at all... Beat that!

So, anyone who had doubt about his skill and suspect he's just
using a 'better' engine... please wake up and smell his exhaust
smoke!
And if I do hear anyone saying again he may be using a "better"
engine, I will not be hesitate to slap them there and then!


What Ivan and I observed is that he is indeed a very very
smooth operator of the machinery. The line he took is very
neat which basically utilize the entire track possible for his
corner entry, which then in turn give him an superb exit
speed.

There was one lap when Alan was on his Aixro closing in a bit
on James for the 1st hairpin after the start finish.
Alan was close, and I thought Alan will probably just overtake
James on the straight that follow with his 50bhp engine.
Nope!!
James just continue to drive smoothly through the hairpin,
have more momentum for the exit, and shot into the
straight to pull away...!
Darn! That was a sight!

In that moment, I am just inspired and determined to
improve my overall technique. I have to! Because what he
had just showed was that engine power can only do so much,
skill is really what differentiate one driver from the other.

We continue to watch him drive for a few more laps in my
kart before he returned into the pits.
He discussed with us on a few areas that can improve the
handling of the kart, but had 'warned' us that what work
for him may not work for me.
But I will have to make it work!

So, there will be some changes to the kart setup which will
require more track time to be get used to, and fine tune.

I hope I will take the 'lesson' which James freely gave, and
learn well from it.

At the end of the day, Ivan and I had a simple conclusion
to what James had showed us. Which is the simple saying
in motorsports which is 'slow is fast and fast is slow'
Simple to say it out loud but it is not easy to do so at all.

Now, I will be looking forward to go back on the track to
try the kart once again, and applied all I have seen.

my blistered right hand

PS. had a mini race as a finale for the day. Me, James, Alan,
Joey and Louis
I started at the front but ended supposedly last after Alan
retired with a carb issue.
Honestly, I was already tired, and the rear tyres was all shot.
It was fun, but I could not do better than lapping about 1/4 lap
behind Joey and James.