Val & Joyce Findlay Memorial
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th August 2007 (Geelong Kart Club)
Our return to Geelong for the Val & Joyce Findlay Memorial resulted in our most unlucky weekend yet, ending in an incident in the Pre-final that destroyed our Monaco GP5.
In an attempt to improve on our reliability from recent events, we made a switch from direct drive to the SSS Clutch. Unfortunately things did not quite go to plan when our attempts to fire-up the engine for practice on Saturday morning proved unsuccessful. Fortunately with some outstanding help from Graham Ritter and the guys at MKC, the problem was nailed down to a faulty rotor and ignition module; and after some quick work we were able to make the grid for Heat 1.
Starting Heat 1 on pole Dylan’s hope for a good result was dashed by a major setup miscalculation which saw him fall back through the pack rapidly to finish in 21st position. An inspection of the kart following the race showed that the clutch had locked during the race; again Graham came to the rescue servicing the clutch and getting us operational.
Starting the reverse grid Heat 2 in 31st position, Dylan was caught out by a mid pack incident on the first lap and though he was able to keep going the incident caused him to lose almost half a lap to the field. Without the pace to catch the pack he was left having a lonely race in last place.
Hoping for better in the Pre-final Dylan made rapid progress after starting in 29th place, gaining 3 places in the first corner and a further 2 in the second. Unfortunately his progress came to a sudden stop when in the third corner while diving up the inside to a further two karts he was struck an out of control kart. A post crash check has since shown that our Geelong curse has struck again and this time with venom, with the crash having severely bent the chassis. With only four days to go to the Australasian Sprint Kart ‘C’ Grade Titles it will be a race against time to source a chassis and get back on track.
