Golden Power Series Rnd 3
Saturday 19th - Sunday 20th July 2008 (Bendigo Kart Club)
Leaving Melbourne rather early on Saturday morning (5:00am) we set out for Bendigo for Round 3 of the Golden Power Series. Having never raced Bendigo before and with rain predicted it had the makings of an uncertain event. Arriving at the track at 7:30am we had the misfortune of finding that all of the good pit spaces had been taken and we were left to pit in what could best be described as ankle deep clay. Following a survey the track and setting up the kart Dylan hit the track for the final practice session of the morning. However with only five laps to dial in and learn the track we were left with very limited data to improve setup for Heat 1.
Staring Heat 1 in third, we were forced to endure one of the longest roll-around’s we had seen, with the starter showing exceptional patience and latitude to allow several karts time to restart and receive mechanical repairs on track. After 14 laps the race finally received the starter’s flag, unfortunately the large number of roll-arounds had caused our pressures and temperatures to move outside of optimum fairly early in the race compromising our race. As a result Dylan slowly slipped back through the field to finish in 8th place. Additionally a check of the Alfano data and a post race debrief with Dylan, we found the engine struggling a little on revs. Based on this data we decided to switch engines for Heat 2.
Starting Heat 2 in 11th and with a fresh engine on we hope for a stronger result than Heat 1. Unfortunately, come the start of the race our engine refused to start, despite changing the plug, checking spark and fuel it obstinately refused. Unable to start the race we headed back to the pits to attempt to uncover the problem and to our annoyance found that the engine petulantly started every time on the stand. Attempting to trace what had become a recurring problem we checked the electrical system for the engine and kill switch for the clutch, in the process of this checking we traced the problem to an intermittent short of the kill switch. Altering the wiring to correct for the problem we hoped for better on Sunday.
Leaving the motel on Sunday we were greeted with heavy rain and a tough decision. Given the DNS in Heat 2 we had to choose between running our new wets and taking the edge off them before some important meets or using our old and fairly useless wets. Though a tough decision in the end we decided to run with the old wets and save the new ones.
Starting Heat 3, we in 11th we did not expect much and it was essentially what we got. With wets that were slightly south of effective Dylan struggled badly from the start. Though holding his own under braking and on the entry to corners the complete lack of traction meant that he had no drive out of corners and rapidly fell back through the field.
With the rain pouring down for the final it looked set to be a repeat of Heat 3 and so it turned out. Despite giving 100% and wringing the most out of the tires the worsening conditions meant that he was unable to prevent slipping back through the field and after an unfortunate spin due to large amounts of standing water finished in last place.
Though frustrating that we were unable to show our real pace, it proved to be a ton of fun.
For complete race results check out MKC's Race Report.
See Photo Gallery for photographs of the event