Thursday, July 28, 2011

Back in shape...

28 July 2011

See the tyre marks and the dents on my right pod?
'Evidence' that the silly boy charged from who knows where from behind into me.


Parts I have to replace...
Stub Axle. Oh, not forgetting have to replace the 2 bearing top and bottom of the stub axle. Have to straighten the kingpin bot slightly too.

Steering Column. New, although the previous one was straighten, but I do not want to have any doubt in my mind at all that something wsa not right.

I hope I don't sound extravagant or outlandish.

But this is one of the most important aspect of competitive karting which is eliminate any equipment questionables. This will ensure that when we are down at the track our focus will only be of one aim and goal - To Win.

Simple?

Sort of...

HAHAHA

cheers

Monday, July 11, 2011

Races - motorsports view

14 July

There was 2 races in 2 weeks.

One on 26 June, and another 10 July.

The one in June was a lost opportunity to race more competitively as I was constantly about 0.3-0.5 s off the front two guys who were Selvan and Leo.
For me I qualified third, and finished third in both Heat 1 and 2. Talked about consistency. On the other hand, I did not managed to find any breakthrough either.

It was until a week later when I went to inspect and clean the kart. Gees... There start to have some small rust stains on some parts. Thankfully, there was nothing WD40 cannot cleaned and wiped away! haha

However I had to replace one of the component - the throttle line as it was rusted thoroughly and its movement being restricted. I guess this was one of the crucial 'loss' in time for me as I had already felt some unresponsiveness from the engine, but it's not from the engine. For me, it is highly important to have the engine to accelerate where "exactly" you want it to. That is, where lap times and the skill of the drivers differentiated.

So why does some of the parts have some rust stains? Because in the Heat 2 of the 26 June race, rain once again fell on to the track. Running with all these water from the track, and forgetting to blow dry it after the race which saw me came in third again.

Currently I do really love to see the rain falls on the track, and drive around. During the wet Heat 2, I managed to pull 2 overtaking moves partly due to slightly better tyres and my new found appreciation of driving in the wet.

FAST FORWARD to 10 July race

Young little punk destroyed my race in Heat 1, my Sunday, and damaged my right stub axle, steering column. DARN!! I do not know what to and how to curse him with. However, I will probably propose the an introduction of the Black Flag at the track to dissuade screwed up driver as such. We had seen some came and left for good. Thank goodness.

So I guess it is up to us to have insist that we want a serious and safe race, and not a kampong race.

The Sunday actually did not start off too bad at all as I was behind Selvan in P2 after the qualifying and our pace was just 0.2 apart. I was looking to the race proper.

However in Heat 1 my start was not as perfect and I was somehow tentative. Crazy boy took a wide line and was side by side as we exit.

The race was for 20 laps and I let it slipped. I knew I had enough pace. Of course, on the hindsight now, I should not and will not in the future to purposefully make room to 'let slip'. It was incredibly stupid on my part to think I could overtake easily. What I am saying here is that I will not make room as in the case here, however, I will always adhere to my principle to have room for each other to race.

That is what motorsports all about. Racing fairly with one another, and not to gain position by bumping another competitors out of the picture.

Another pissed off incident is about one backmarker which supposedly caused this mayhem. He was been shown the blue flag but was not making it easy for us to pass him. Then he started to make way only to exit the hairpin into the racing line. It was extremely extremely dumb driving. With his moves, the both of us lost speed, lost position to Leo and Chang.... then I managed to overtook crazy punk... defend my line before KP corner and that where it all ended for me then.

I guess I have the right to be pissed and angry about.

I wanted to hit someone or something but I kept my Zen.

I learnt something from the day itself... and I looked forward to the final 4 races, hell bent to ensure crazy punk will not win the championship.

Seems like I have a new target, after I had fulfilled what I hope to do for 2011.