First Video

Anybody own a Rotax 257 that they'd like to give away? :)

They don't like my file at 16.5Mb... hmmm... another way perhaps?!?!

Maybe this'll work ----> http://www.cbr3.co.uk/onboard.wmv

I know it's not the best quality but I realised why the other file didn't upload. The original 30+ minute .asf file that was created became 109Mb. I chopped the bit out that I wanted and looked at the file... it had actually converted to 16.5GB!!!! So I've managed to manipulate the file again but this time down to 14Mb... not so good quality but gives you an idea (sorry no sound as the mic wasn't attached!)

I'll also have to make sure the camera is on the vertical and not at the silly angle it turned out to be :)

Race Meeting Number 2

I decided the best plan of action was to load up the trailer the night before (especially after the rush of the last meeting) and keep the trailer tight against our neighbours garage so that it wouldn't be able to go anywhere nor anything be removed. Happy that everything was alarmed and secure I only had to worry about the getting up in the morning. Oh and by the way, check out the new looking trailer!

Now it just so happened that Garry was going to meet me at Taunton Deane services for 8.30am which left us enough time to get to the circuit for 8.50am with 40 minutes to get through scrutineering and sign-on. You may also have noticed that my car has changed once again. The previous Saab I owned was not performing too well when pulling the trailer fully loaded up (approx 350+kgs weight). So I managed to acquire a Saab 2.3 Turbo off ebay for approx £1000. It was a really satisfying buy when it came with every mod con you could hope for; CD, climate control, cruise control, leather seats, brembo brakes, koni adjustable suspension, 17" alloys etc. etc. It cruised with the trailer with ease and was therefore a joy to drive. Anyway, back to the story, so we were aiming to meet at 8.30am at Taunton Deane.. we managed to get there for about 8.35am so all is good so far. Garry wasn't too far behind. Got some cash (in case I got flippin fined for something I had no knowledge about!) and filled the many 5 litre jerry cans with fuel. I don't quite know what happened, but we ended up leaving the garage at 9am! 15-20 mins to the circuit and I would be short of time again!! PANIC!

We sped up down the back streets to get to the circuit and managed to make it for around 9.15am, I remembered that scrutineering needs to be completed first so we zoomed over there once we got several bits back onto the kart (transponder, bodywork as it had just been sprayed, race numbers etc.)... Thanks again Garry for your superb assistance ;)

We all trooped down to Scrutineering (this time round we had 4 children accompanying us as Garrys' wife Sarah was hard at work; my daughter Millie, and Garrys' three children Louise, Joanne and Ciaron) and managed to pass fairly stress free - a fixture on the front of the bubble shield over the steering wheel was slightly loose.

9.30am - Drivers Briefing. My name was mentioned as not being signed on yet... oomps! I needed to go into the Control Office just after the briefing.

9.45am - The briefing finished and I popped into the office, again quite harmless although I didn't want to start making a habit of this (and I didn't get fined although apparently they could've done as I was late again).

A small break occurred which meant we could rally the troops back to the trailer and just check fuel, tyre pressures, and a few other details before the first practice at 10.30am. This time my good pit neighbour Nigel Steed managed to loan us a gallon of pre-mix (another habit that needs to be addressed). As you may have read previously though, the three practice laps were vital to the days racing.

I ran the practice and got a puncture! I couldn't believe it. Never mind I thought, move on and we can replace the wheel / tyre and be ready to run for the races, no problem. We managed to do this without any qualms (as it's also only three nuts) and all things great again.

We all wondered back down to the dummy grid, and prepared for the off. This went smoother though, as I was finally starting to learn the track. Hey, so it's been a while and the circuit is slightly different from before! I was really starting to enjoy myself again and now looking forward at last to the first race. The weather stayed sunny-ish and we were all in a happy camp.

Until.....

First race - 12.30pm, a packed grid. I was again, right at the back (no choice as a Novice)... I'm talking 23rd on the grid I think.. which was in fact very last place. Still, a good lineup of gearbox karts that's for sure. 13 years ago you'd be lucky to get more than 9 on the grid.

I decided this was the time to try out the onboard camera (tempting fate perhaps?). I had a cracking start and must have passed at least 5 or more people. I think some of these passing manouvres were also due to a couple knocking each other out and a few retirements quite early on (and you can witness this on the footage!). Sadly, this was cut rather short due to a big accident. Two karts collided quite heavily. They hit each other with enough force for the chassis to break and one of the kart seats coming apart. The ambulance came on track and the 'battenburg' flags were out. These flags indicate a pace car / kart is on track and there should be no overtaking. Now the rules also say that you mustn't overtake after racing re-commences before the start / finish line. Three karts flew past me well beforehand which took me a few places back almost as quickly as achieving them! (Can be seen in the footage again). Then the kart started to make a slightly uneasy sound, like a knocking noise or thudding sound. I had to carry on as I was concerned that without finishing I wouldn't get a signature (you need five signatures from the RAC officials to no longer be a Novice). I also knew that several laps had now been completed and that there couldn't have been many left.

It was not long after this had commenced, that my race was over. I got out the kart to see oil flooding the floor pan of the kart. I knew it was going to be fairly terminal. Upon further review I could see that the crankcase on the gearbox had cracked completely where the chain sprocket is placed. The engine had split apart. Game over... player 2.

As you can imagine I was deeply disappointed and realised it was gonna be the end of the days racing. I hardly raced at all and it was all over again...the words in my head I can't repeat, but I'm sure that anyone who knows me, would know they couldn't be spoken out loud :)

So there we are so far. 2 race meetings, 2 practices, half a race, and I need a new crankcase and rebuild, or an entirely new engine... Loifs grate init. I will work out how to post the .avi and post soon hopefully...

On-board footage

After finding a couple of videos on the net as below, I decided that it may be a fun addition to this site to add some on-board footage. I found a Mustek PVR-A1 system on ebay for under £70 which allows you to record AV from a bullet cam: http://audiovisual.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/sbs/122701/11993073.html.

I then proceeded to find the best kind of camera to record footage direct into the PVR and found this (also available on e-bay) http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/dogcampro520.htm.

The camera can be powered via batteries and the PVR is charged to last many hours. I also acquired a 1GB SD Memory card that slots into the PVR to allow hours of footage! http://www.kingston.com/flash/sd_home.asp

Watch the site and we should hopefully be able to post some on-board footage after this weekends racing.

Is this type of karting actually very fast?

It's strange, but nobody can quite understand where my enjoyment from this racing comes from. Everybody that has any kind of a petrol head will have tried indoor karting at some stage of their lives, but I don't think anyone can quite appreciate just how fast these outdoor variants are. So I thought I'd come up with a combination of links and details for your review. I currently race in 250 National which is incidentally Division 2 in Superkarts.





A comparison of Formula E Superkarts Division 1 and 250 National Division 2 Karts:
http://www.geocities.com/benjamin_ernryd/tech.htm

Eventually, my laptimes and race times will appear here, but as I bought Paul J's transponder, you will see his times under the same numbers... It should resolve to my name in due course:
http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevents.jsp?org=18832

...and if that's not enough... they have a great introduction and laptime comparisons around Donington. I intend to get here eventually but that won't happen until 2007/2008.
http://www.superkart.org.uk/

A less quality video of a superkart round at Nurburgring:
http://www.superkart.org.uk/content/downloads/docs/Nurburgring-Superkarts.wmv

and a slightly better quality 'on-board' video of Michael Kranz travelling around Laguna Seca:
http://www.superkart.org.uk/content/Downloads/docs/kranz.wmv

Race Meeting Number 1

The first race meeting for Dunkeswell has traditionally become the last Sunday of February. This years was scheduled for the last Sunday in March. All their race meetings are scheduled for the last Sunday of the month, however, due to all the circuit work, this was the first meeting of 2006.

I thankfully managed to at least get out on the circuit last weekend so I had a few bits of knowledge before the day. I realised that I needed to get the Transponder fixed to the kart but was informed that it needed to be 25cm from the ground and that it needed to be a complete vertical position. This I was a little unsure about, and wanted to speak to the scrutineer before attaching it in the possible wrong position. So I left this until race day. I also needed to attach the numbers to the kart (I was set to use Race No. 77) but thought this would be a fairly simple task.

I posted a message on the site forum to find out about times to arrive, scrutineering, first race etc. and got a reply stating that you need to be signed on, through scrutineering and ready to run for practice just after 9.30am! 9.30am is the drivers briefing that you MUST attend. If you missed either the briefing or the three laps practice, you couldn't race for the day!! This was effectively to show the officials that you were familiar with the circuit. That's about it.

All I had to remember was the list of items I needed to put on charge the night before:

• The transponder - This sits in a little cradle charger.
• The tachometer (Scitsu - www.scitsu.co.uk ) - This requires charging for at least 24 hours and charges whilst attached to the kart
• Cordless screwdriver
• Cordless drill
• Camcorder

My mechanic (Garry McCandless) was due to be driving over to me from Swindon and the clocks had gone forward an hour the night before! This meant he needed to be up and at 'em before 5am!! Scary. No surprise that he was running late then!

He turned up at my place at around 7.15am where it took us another 30 minutes to load up the trailer. I was unsure if we were going to make it at all! We arrived at about 9.15am, and had very little time to get things sorted. I took my paperwork to the circuit office and expected to fly through this... not so. I had forgotten to attach a flippin photograph to my license which incidentally then cost me £40 in fines. Crazy.

After paying the fine somewhat reluctantly, I then needed to get the kart through scrutineering. Fortunately there was only one bolt slightly loose and the numbers / transponder must be securely positioned. I also needed to acquire a motorsport sticker to attach to my crash hat! (£1.50)

We rushed back to the car and managed to place the items on in about 10 mins. Thanks to Garry for paying for some of the numbers!! (as I'd spent all my cash on the fine and stickers!)

We got the kart back to the Scrutineering cabin only to find that the drivers briefing had already started. We quickly joined the group and listened carefully. It was all the normal type of stuff, however, due to Nigel Mansell taking over at the club, he did a speech to thank everyone involved towards the end and to look forward to a great days racing.

Straight afterwards, we managed to get through Scrutineering successfully. A comment was made that another number would be required on the side of the kart, but that can be done after practice ('the clerk of the course' did make a note of it).

The next little worry was that they hadn't got everything in the office yet and therefore scratched me off the list for the racing. I begged and pleaded and answered all their queries to finally convince them that I should be able to join in! Thankfully just in time.

The rain started coming down quite heavy now. I still only had slick tyres and we certainly didn't have any time for any more changes now... Everyone was in the pre-grid ready to set out on their three lap practice. I had no fuel and slicks. Fortunately a friend of ours was nearby and managed to loan us some fuel... I still owe him 5 litres of premix :) Garry gave me a push start and I was in.

The kart was running like a dog, spluttering all over the new circuit layout, and I only just managed to keep it running before it clonked out. I slowly crept around the circuit just to complete my three laps and be able to race... pulled off the circuit at the end of the practice and realised that I was a complete numpty and left the CHOKE on!

I've now made a label and stuck it on the steering wheel as a reminder. But then, never mind, I made it round, the pressure was off and I was allowed to race. There was now a break (whilst the local church had a service between 11 and 12). We setup the kart / car / trailer and awning and swapped the wheels over to rain tyres. (You can now see there was fog setting in by the picture).

Delay after delay occurred and the racing never really took place. A couple of races and there was still very slow progress due to the fog. Sadly, the fog was the only thing that could have a negative impact on the day. If the fog stayed, the clerks were concerned that if you are going at over 100mph down the straight, if someone spins out in the middle of the track, you won't have enough time to react and slam straight into them. Rain, sleet or hail would keep the meeting on schedule and people would race, but the fog... well it was a totally different kettle of fish.

At about 2pm, they finally decided to cancel the meeting! £100 down from the fuel, entry fees and silly license fine and I got a spluttery three laps.... ah well, that's motorsport eh!

And onto the next meeting.... 30th April... Watch this space :)

First Practice - The first drive

Hooray I thought, it works :)

So I was keen to get straight out on the circuit, however everyone was warning me about how slippery the circuit is. It still felt like less than Zero degrees and the cross wind was blistering, however, I was still keen to get onto the circuit. I had to for my own sanity.

Gearbox practice was in about 20 minutes time.. 48 minutes past the hour, every hour.

We got on the dummy grid, my dad pushed, and away I went. I got the choke down early on and experimented with the handling and feel of the kart. Fairly quickly, I found people passing me left and right but I knew I just had to concentrate on what I was up to and not worry about being left behind just yet. I found a few surprises. 1) I didn't perform to well with left foot braking yet. 2) The kart had an extremely close ratio 2nd gear! 3) It wasn't running very well when I hit the straight and wanted to accelerate lots!

The points made 1) I need to keep practising! 2) Not a great deal I can do about changing the gear ratios in a hurry but something to look at a lot later & 3) The jetting must be wrong. The jetting is all within the carburettor (this uses a Dell'Orto Carb). There are many components and jets to play with in the Dell'Orto including a main jet, needle jet, float valve, idle jet, needle variance and so on. I'll need to get this onto the circuit during the racing next week and look more closely at the jetting then.

I continued round the circuit for around 4-5 laps (can't remember how many) and just carried on with the familiarity exercise... experimenting with later braking and just generally enjoying myself. At this point, we had got to around 3pm (long day for 5 laps eh!) and I needed to get home as my Dad still needed to travel back from ours afterwards too. Before we left however, someone (I think it was Paul J.) had informed us of a change in the regulations. We needed large 5+cm washers at the higher bracket sections of the seat. They were mainly safety orientated as if the brackets came through the seat in an accident, something serious could get punctured.

We bought several washers and fitted them on our arrival back at the house... lucky we did (on my Dad's advice) as it took another hour!

Next up, the first race meeting...

First Practice - Arrival

Finally arriving at the circuit where it was absolutely freezing (only 2 hours after we left), we wondered over to the circuit. It looked fantastic! A lot of work had clearly been carried out. The circuit was a lot wider and a fair amount longer. I was told that the resurfacing work cost in the region of £100,000.

We got the kart out the trailer, did some minor work on it (placed some of the bodywork on etc) as it was just TOO cold to spend much time out in the open, then tried to start it.

Jim pushed whilst I sat in the kart. It proved a little difficult, not only due to the cold, but the effort it required for my dad to move it with me sat in it (not a lightweight me). We pushed and tried but didn't seem to get any life. A couple of people next to us assisted seeing we were struggling. They checked we were getting a spark (all ok), checked there was fuel (all ok), checked we'd blown the fuel through to pressurise the tank (all ok), and checked that the choke was on (again all ok). So the bloke sat in it, with his son and my dad pushing, no room for a third person to push (as I was willing to help before I get any comments!). Not three metres further, it started!

First Practice - The journey there

The first race meeting of the year is now a week away. I realised to this point, that I hadn't even started the kart, let alone drive it.

I really needed to get out onto the circuit and see what on earth I was doing. I hadn't used left foot braking at such high speeds before, I hadn't used the hand clutch that this kart was configured for, and I hadn't driven a kart in over 12 years (not one with this much power anyway!).

The circuit was opened for the first test on the 18th March. This was the first available date since it had closed last year (2005). Resurfacing work over the winter was carried out and everyone at the club was excited about it. You just had to read the forum on the club site to see how excited people really were. Mostly due to Dunkeswell Kart Racing Club being purchased by Nigel Mansell and his administration team... I just had to get down there to race.

Dunkeswell (http://www.dunkeswell.com) used to be my home circuit all those years ago and I knew the previous layout, but all of this was going to be new to me again. It used to be 800metres and now up to 1050metres I imagined there to be some major changes.

Well, after several friends bailed out on me as they needed to do their hair (only jesting), I caught up with my Dad and he agreed to come along to give me a helping hand! How grateful was I that he could assist! Thanks Dad!

The day arrived and I was looking forward to being on the circuit. It took us 30 minutes to load up the trailer, then we set off. Trouble ensued almost immediately when we found that the trailer was 'snaking' all over the road at only 40mph. Jim (my dad) looked at the wheel on the passenger side of the trailer to find that it was having a considerable wobble on.

We stopped at the first services (Gordano) near Portishead and looked at what needed to be done. Sure enough, the wheel was dangerous. We took the wheel off (after me leaning heavily against the trailer to get the wheel off the ground!) and found that the nut holding the hub on was at the last point before no return. It was hanging very close to losing everything entirely due to the split pin holding the castellated nut on was missing. We found some strong wire (off the end of a bungee rope) and used that to hold everything in place. After tightening everything back up, we had secured the wheel. It drove like a dream... a steady 55-60mph the rest of the way.

Trailer Part 1

The trailer. Well what can I say. It took a while, but it now works very happily.

My good brother-in-law (Leigh) came up with a great idea. Buy a flat bed trailer and weld a steel frame over the top of it to create a box trailer. Box trailers were normally around £800+ and I wasn't prepared to pay that much for it.

So the bed trailer / frame option was top of the bill. When I picked up the kart from Paul J., he had a trailer available if I wanted it for £150. Great I thought, superb idea, so I snapped it up.

Travelling back with the trailer was fantastic, good run at around 65mph and it took very little time to get back home. I'd got the kart, the trailer, a cover, ratchet straps and spares (gear sprockets, bead breaker for changing tyres, transponder, spare exhaust, wet tyres / slicks and wheels etc.) for a sum total of around £1750.

All I had to do now was learn how to use it. Anyway, back to the trailer.... it had rotten plywood around the base and I managed to purchase replacement wood from Travis Perkins for around £12. Sum total of trailer £162.

Leigh's Dad (Mac) was able to cost up a frame for me with the steel surround for £100, but the work would have to be done in Calne, Wiltshire. So Mac kindly offered to drive it over to the site. On the way, one of the wheels fell off! I have no idea what speed he was doing but I was concerned for Mac and his motor more than my blinkin trailer.

He managed to recover the trailer back to the shop and managed to get most of the things sorted out for me. His team found out what suspension units were needed and kept me well informed... Thanks Mac!! A vital contributor to the Team Star efforts :)

I found some replacement hubs on ebay ... higher weight capacity (500kgs instead of the original 350) and brand new with guarantees from Indespension. £75 and the bloke dropped them off at my house the very next day!

Sum total : £162+75 = £237. The work was carried out and I was extremely happy with the results >>>

Moving the trailer was the last problem, I needed a Jockey wheel which totalled around £30. Sum total £267. A decent saving I believe.

Next thing is to get it painted and applying all the logos / decals that I'd managed to collect..... to be continued

The Beginning

At last, after a 12+ year sabbatical, I'm back into racing Karts. I bought myself a 250 National kart after racing 125 Open series 12 years ago. I managed to qualify for the Woolwich British Kart Grand Prix in '93 and finished 12th out of around 26 runners. I only managed to get 12th due to lots of retirements, but at least I crossed the finish line.

Since then I met my wife Jo and we brought three amazing children into this World; Millie (6), Eliza (3) and Phoebe (nearly 1). We have a fairly hefty mortgage and the idea of racing again never really crossed my mind until I had a couple of near incidents on my motorbike (CBR600RR). It was at this time, Jo really didn't want me to continue riding due to having a family and huge responsibilities. IT MADE A LOT OF SENSE!

I therefore came up with this solution, kart racing. It would provide the 'need for speed' to let off steam in a safe, monitored environment.

Next up ... The first race meet