Dave Forber's website
Race report - Rissington 03/04/2016
Saturday practice
We arrived bright and early at Rissy on Saturday and were set up well before practice started. As it happened, Hondas weren’t first so we could have had another half hour in bed, easily, but never mind.
It was a dry day and we sent Henry out on slicks. He was left for dust. Everyone bar three seemed to be faster than him, and I blamed gearing combined with the new DEP exhaust. About 1/3 of the field were running the originals, so we assumed it was that.
A change of gearing to a bigger cog improved things a little, but his bottom revs were still low and, being 9, I didn’t really get any feedback as to why.
“How’s the kart”
“It’s alright”
It was about lunchtime, when Henry was still in the 51s (he was mid 50s in March) that it finally twigged. His brother had bent both track rods and a stub axle last time he was driving at Shenington. I’d replaced them both, and TP had lined them up by eye. So we went to Spellfame and they lined it up for free. The laser on the right wheel wasn’t even on the device, but a hand width to the right!
So we went out again and ... crashed. It’s on video - nothing that could have been done, but the correction found us the missing time and the next session we were back to where we were in March - 50.6ish.
It’s a shame it took me that long to realise something was obviously wrong. I had thought maybe the kart was bent from Will’s accidents at Shenington, or the pressures were off. But no, it was simple tracking.
I really need to buy lasers.
We were running alone this weekend, but TP had suggested we stop by their friends - the Cunningtons - for some friendly advice. Eventually we plucked up the courage to. We found that they were helping their cousin - a new novice fresh out of ARKS. We were rewarded with some of Guy’s data, applied a sprocket close to their data and the same pressures. Instant PB.
For the final practice, Henry insisted on starting in front of Guy’s cousin to “show him how it’s done”. They both had PBs, but - understandably - several seconds apart.
Race day
We parked up next to the Cunningtons and their cousins. Henry had insisted on it as it was only the novice’s second race and we’d become fairly friendly with his parents. It was typically wet for practice, so we just put on some inters and left the rest of the kart alone since the Clerk had declared a dry meeting with open practice.
Practice was fairly pointless in those circumstances. Everyone went on wets aside for three, and they were near the back.
In heat 1 we were binned in the first lap.
He just turned in on me! I was alongside and he just shoved me off!
Never take a kid’s explanation. I was a little annoyed with the kid who had “shoved him off” as Henry had done well at the start, and there were tyre marks on “the perpetrator’s” kart’s left sidepod. I make a point never to talk to kids or parents about issues like this, and I was glad I didn’t. It turned out that they were front tyre marks, so a demonstration with two karts was in order. “At what point can you see him”.
It was an clearly accident.
Heat 2 went better. We started in 7th and finished 8th, and for heat 3 it was warmer. So I changed the tyre pressures. And we were 2/10s slower, finishing P9.
The final saw us starting in P10. I’d changed the sprocket to one tooth lower than Mr Cunnington’s advice but kept the advised pressures. This was mainly because Henry’s preferred overtaking point is into the dog-leg and - it seems for now - not really anywhere else. We followed another kart (who did shove him) for a lot of the race. Henry had been close to him for most of the weekend - typically (with straight tracking) 0.2-0.5s faster. But that meant he knew exactly where Henry was going to try it and positioned his kart in the way every time.
It’s frustrating to watch sometimes - you know he’s faster, but sometimes you just can’t get past.
Eventually - after about 7 laps - Henry finally tried something different. Not something I would have tried. He went around the outside at the dog-leg. Balls. That, or red mist. Regardless, he held it to finish two places up in P8.
Second race off novice plates? Yep, we’ll take that. It was a good day at a good track spent with good people.