Round 2 - PFI - Race Day

Naturally, given how the weekend had gone so far we would wake up to a rainy day and a soaking wet track. Having never been to PFI before and thus far only driving it in the dry, entering qualifying at full race pace in such condition would be just a little nerve racking, so much so that two teams dropped out.

The Kart was prepped and wheeled to Parc Ferme for weigh in and control tyre fitting.

Weight requirements (minimum kart weight 185kg inclusive of driver at all times) in order of stint position.

• Ryan - 2x 2.5Kg (1.5 Hours + Quali)

• Curt - 3x 2.5Kg (1.5 Hours)

• Ben - 0kg (1.5 Hours)

• Alex - 0kg (1.5 Hours)

With wheels fitted and tyre pressures set (50psi hot) the kart entered the dummy grid, following a short “don’t be a dickhead” briefing, qualifying started, given nobody had practiced in the wet that weekend and the dummy grid being undercover it was a mess of karts and body’s crammed together trying to get ready and out.

With Ryan both completing qualifying and the first stint of the race he went out for his first lap but immediately realised that whilst both engines were running, only 50% power was available, following an immediate pitstop without completing a lap, the frantic troubleshooting and disassembly of the kart commenced.

Initially it was suspected to be a clutch or keyway and as such the engines were removed and they were checked again, RPM Power additionally checked the engines themselves but found no fault.

The fault was only present when the kart was on the ground and the peddle was being utilised to throttle the engines, yet when on the stand and the engines where throttled by use of the throttle levers no issue seemed to arise, upon refittment it was noticed the disconnect between the upper throttle cable and the L/H engine in which it had been dislodged to get to the area which required welding.

Having fixed the issue, the kart was dropped back to the ground post reassembly and sent out for a single full lap.

It was assumed, given it was the first full lap completed with only 4 minutes remaining of qualifying that we would qualify last and be at the back of the grid (which given 1 lap is all the practice we had in the wet didn’t seem a bad thing) but by some sort of miracle ended up qualifying 4th from last which is actually our best start yet (not really sure how that happened)?!

Within 20 minutes of qualifying ending all karts were lined up on the grid in their starting positions and after a short wait the formation lap commenced, the pace of just the formation lap was phenomenal with karts going from massively spread out to bunched up bumper to bumper for the wet rolling start.

As each kart crossed the start line it would come as no surprise that it would be instant mayhem, with almost zero visibility given the standing water and the plus 50mph speeds, on slicks, in the wet the pack was tightly bunched up.

Capitalising on the absolute chaos of the first two laps, kart after kart was overtaken shifting position from 43rd to 37th in just a few corners, whilst this was an achievement and would have certainly made good watching, once the pack spread out the lack of practice was evident shifting back to our original place by lap 8.

Over the course of the next 15 laps and careful driving we slowly regained places sitting at a tidy 39/40th by lap 26/7 where we stayed for a prolonged period, naturally, given the conditions there were a few excursions across the grass and a major +40mph crash under the bridge but the kart survived and was passed off reasonably unscathed (all be it a broken clutch spring and bent rear bumper bar) at lap 52 to Curt.

Curt is nothing but consistent and put in good lap times in the wet conditions and stayed relatively out of trouble other than a collision resulting in him coming to a standstill tangled up with another kart on the start finish straight (his life flashing before his eyes).

With the circuit starting to rapidly dry out, times started dropping with the wet times in the 1’40’s and the end of the stint being 1’15, Curt received the Kart in 43rd position (post the loss of 3 places due to pitting) and passed on the Kart to Ben in the same position, overall, given the changing conditions, a fantastic and mostly uneventful 1.5 hours.

Ben’s stint on the other hand was anything but and seemed to have jinxed himself by taking off his wet weather suit and gloves, Ben started off by setting some quick lap times in the dry at around 1’09 but also managed issues with the broken clutch spring as slowing down could result in the L/H engine stalling out and required pitting to restart it.

About halfway through his beautifully dry stint, the heavens opened and a major thunderstorm hit, with 30mph winds, lightning, thunder, rain and hail, Ben did what he could to keep it tidy and settled in around the 1’45 mark for the remainder of his wet race.

Alex’s race didn’t get much better, given it was his first time under race conditions, varying weather conditions, aggressive race ettiequte and a broken clutch spring, the first 30 minutes were brutal whilst wet. As the track started to dry back out again, the pressure was eased and the pace increased with confidence. A fair few pitstops were required to restart the L/H engine post stall, but our aim was only to ever cross the finish line, anything else would be a bonus.

Low and behold (but to no-ones surprise given the weekend thus far), with 40 minutes remaining, Alex was rammed off track snapping a steering arm and needing to be recovered by marshals, luckily, we had one to hand and a quick replacement later he was back on track to finish his stint.

Given a requirement to fuel 4 times a final stint was needed to be completed, Ryan took the opportunity to enjoy a dry track for the first time that day.

Swapping over for the final 15’ he enjoyed a quick sprint to the finish, but of course not without its issues, 3 laps in he snapped the brake pedal bar leaving only the secondary safety cable as a brake, but with little under 10 minutes to go it wasn’t going to stop us from crossing the line and just crossed fingers it would hold.

Whilst an absolute slog of a weekend we crossed the line 44th out of 46. With the 20 odd pitstops, multiple mechanical issues, every possible weather condition and on a track none of us had driven in wet, it was a great result and a fantastic show of resilience from everyone… if it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.

A big thank you to everyone involved, for sticking with it and for all you enthusiasm and help, what a great weekend!