Charlotte Haegermark's blog

The biggest karting event of Scandinavia took place on 12th-14th of September, at Gothenburg Karting Ring. 44 drivers from all over Sweden as well as Norway and Denmark participated in KZ2.

On the Friday there were practice sessions for all classes. I had five sessions with good results and got the lap time 40,50 sec, which was only some tenths from the fastest driver. I felt that I was well prepared for the races next day.

On the Saturday I had two more practice session followed by the time qualification. I got a decent result and finished on 24th place among the 44 drivers overall.

After the time qualification it was time for the two qualification heats. In the first heat I had 16th position on the grid and finished the race on the same position.

I did a bad start and lost one or two places in the beginning, but I took them back later in the race. The kart went very well and I got a good lap time.

In the second heat I started on 16th position again and finished the race on 11th position.

Everything went smoothly and I had good pace all the time. At the end of the race I got closer to the drivers ahead of me. A few more laps and I probably would have overtaken them as well.

The good results in the heats lead to my direct qualification to the A-final. In the B-final, 24 drivers fought for the 14 places in the A-final. I got 19th starting position of the 44 drivers overall in the A-final, which is my best accomplishment this year.

I was very pleased to get such a good position in the A-final and I was certainly excited to do my best. Unfortunately my luck didn?t last for a long time, because of a driver who ran over me from behind and didn?t have much respect.

In the A-final, in the first corner, the guy ran over my kart and destroyed the radiator hose resulting in excessive leakage of cooling water.

He got up over the right rear wheel and then over the engine and finally over my arm. I kept on driving after that incident, but I soon realized that I was forced to retire from the race. The engine temperature reached 70?C before I was back in the pits.

Luckily, after the A-final, there was a second final race which is part of the Cambio Cup Championship. If I would have the time to repair the damages I had the opportunity to show my racing potential once again.

The team had only ten minutes to repair the damages and managed to make it to the grid just in time for the start. The Cambio Cup final gathered 28 drivers and I was starting at the back, on the 21st position, because I haven?t driven in Cambio Cup before. I managed to cross the finish line on 15th position after 20 demanding laps.

I?m very satisfied with the Cambio Cup race, but I had big problems in the beginning with a kart that was extremely difficult to drive since the steering was damaged in the incident in the first final. Towards the end of the race the kart went much better and I managed to overtake several drivers.

This was my last race of the season and I really feel that I have become a much better driver, thanks to the races in Germany; I?m now just a few tenths of a second behind the top Swedish drivers.

Well, enough said now? Today I?m off to England!

High pace, much overtaking and many tough fights. Those words can describe the World Cup and the European Championship in Varennes which was driven this weekend. The races were really challenging and exciting to watch. Those top drivers are amazing. In parc ferm? there were some fighting among drivers who were angry, that was probably the least impressive thing during the weekend. But it was very fun to see how everything is done on this level.

On location were three Swedes, two in KF3 and one in KZ1. Italy and France had the most participants, not so surprising.

You can find pictures from the event on my website, under Media.

I also got the chance to sit in a Formula BMW car. It felt real good.

On Saturday I will have my last race for the season. This race, Gothenburg Grand Prix, is the biggest karting event in Scandinavia and gathers over 50 participants in KZ2. Also, I will have some practice sessions on Friday at the track.

Today we?re off to France! I?m really looking forward to some vacation and to look at really good races. I hope I will learn something from this trip aswell. I mean, the karting abroad is different from here in Sweden.

I also hope that the weather will be good. I?ve had enough of rain I think.

See you next week when I?m back. Hopefully I will have lots of things to tell you and some pictures to share.

Until then, take care!

Oh! I have forgotten to tell you about the event I had last week with my sponsor Kodamera. It was great fun and appreciated.

Now the trip to Varennes sur Allier is booked. 5th-7th of September, the classes KZ2 and KF3 will race the finals in the European Championship. KZ1 will race the World Cup. I?m very excited!

Yesterday I had a practice session at the karting track in Gothenburg. 13th-14th of September it?s going to be a big karting competition at this track, the biggest in Scandinavia. The tyres we must race on at this competition are hard Dunlops and because I have driven on soft Vegas in Germany, I had to practice a few laps on the new hard ones in order to become successful at Gothenburg Grand Prix 13th of September.

Ciao!

The first race in Kerpen gathered 49 entrants. To this race in Hahn, there were only 30 drivers on the entry list. It was only the ?top of the line? drivers who were going to participate in the final.

In the practice sessions on the Friday, my focus was to learn the track and the newly introduced ?-corner combination. The team also had to find the right gearing and a good chassis set-up. On top of that, the drivers had to learn to drive in a way that would eliminate excessive wear of the tyres.

Saturday?s schedule included: practise sessions, time qualification, two heats and briefing.

For some reason, I?m always fastest at the Saturday morning practise. I had my best lap time then, but unfortunately the time didn?t reach the top on the time qualification.

In both heats, I started on the 19th position. In the first heat I finished 18th and in the second I ended up on 17th position.

In the second heat, it went very well. I had a very good first lap and passed H?yrup-Hansen in the last corner. Also, when I had overtaken Siebecke at the end of the straight, I was almost involved in a crash with Hauenstein and I was forced to go around him on the outside. Due to that, I lost those two positions and I started my chase of the Dane and the German again. The heat was only 9 laps, so I didn?t have the time to catch up on them.

On the Sunday there was a Warm-up session, a Sprint race and the Final race.

In the Sprint, which lasted for 9 laps, I got a good start and fought my way trough the field, and became 24th overall.

The Final race became a tough challenge. The soft tyres got stuck to the hot rubber covered tarmac on the starting grid and the engine stopped when the green light came on. I had to jump out of the kart and try to engage the neutral gear and then get it rolling. This was a difficult moment but finally after 22 seconds I managed to push-start the kart and get it moving. This problem happened to three other drivers on the grid as well.

I had to do the best from this and started chasing from the back of the field. I finally ended up on 24th position.

Since only the best drivers in the Championship took part this time, it was really hard for me as a private driver from Sweden, but I think I managed well.

In the final overall standings of the Championship Charlotte I ended up on the 37th position of the totally 68 drivers having participated in the DKM.

It was also nice to hear from two competitors that my engine is really powerful. They both claimed that they had no chance to overtake me since my engine is pushing extremely hard out of the corners.

When I?m now looking back at the 2008 DKM season, the first one abroad, I really have to say that this is the best I ever have done in my karting career. I have evolved immensely as a karting driver during these five races. I feel that I have been treated with great respect from not only the DKM organization and the officials and marshals but also my competitors.

The next and final race of the season takes place on September 12th -13th at my home track Gothenburg Karting Ring. The event is Gothenburg Grand Prix which is the largest karting competition in Scandinavia. In my class, KZ2 there are more than 50 drivers registered on the entry list.

For pictures and more information:

E-mail: charlotte@charlotteracing.se
Website: http://www.charlotteracing.se

Hello,

Today we are going to Germany again. This time it?s the last race in the Championship, so it will be kind of special… and fun!

Lately I?ve been working a lot at RB, I became sick last week (but now the cold is gone) and I?ve been arranging with practical things before this trip.

The final in this Championship will be driven at Kartbahn Hunsr?ck, near the airport Frankfurt/Hahn. We havn?t driven on much rain at all in the Championship, so maybe it?ll be time for some wet races. One thing is clear though, the races will be very exciting.

Due to the problems with the tyres, CIK have decided to not use the first sweeping right corner. So instead we will use a corner combination called “Omega S”. I think this will be new for all drivers.

Friday: Practise sessions
Saturday: Time qualification, qualifying heats and B-final
Sunday: A-Final

Wish me luck!

The Swedish Motor Magazine ?Svensk Motorsport? has just started a voting competition on their website. The readers are voting on the person they would like to read more about in ?Svensk Motorsport?. I?m one of the 20 drivers you can vote on.

- We have nominated 20 drivers competing in different motorsport disciplines. We have taking various considerations when choosing theses drivers. They are all interesting motorsport personalities and has previously not being featured well enough I our magazine, declares Anders Wallsten, Chief Editor.

The voting takes place on the website www.svenskmotorsport.se and the closing date is August 31st. The driver who gets the most votes will get an article in the magazine featuring him or her being the reader?s favourite driver.

So, if you want to read more about me in this magazine, just enter the website http://www.svenskmotorsport.se and click on ?Charlotte Haegermark (Karting) in the column to the right.

Hello everybody,

The rain is pouring down in Gothenburg. So I?m inside working on my sponsor presentation for next season.

9 days left to the final race in the German KZ2 Championship.

The fourth round of the German Karting Championship in KZ2 took place at Kartbahn Liedolsheim near Karlsruhe on July 25th-27th. During the whole weekend the weather was very nice with temperatures exceeding +30?C most of the time, only interrupted by a thunderstorm with hail during the price giving ceremony on the Sunday.

As usual the weekend started with the free practice sessions on the Friday. Four 20 minutes sessions were held during the day.

When I was at Liedolsheim for practice a month ago, there was virtually no grip at all on the track and I already had cut more than two seconds from the previous lap times on the first Friday sessions.

The Saturday opened with a practice session followed by the time qualification. After that there were two qualification heats. The B-final, that normally is run on the Saturday afternoon, was cancelled since the number of participants this time was exactly 34 (which is the maximum number of karts allowed on the track), i.e. all drivers would go direct to the A-final this time. About 10 to 15 drivers had by this time withdrawn from the Championship since the first round at Kerpen where there were almost 50 registered drivers.

The time qualification was a bit disappointing with a 32nd place for me.

The time qualification was extremely important at Liedolsheim since the track is so narrow with almost no overtaking possibilities later in the races. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a perfect lap during the qualification session but still I managed to get my best lap time of the weekend in the time qualification session.

In the first heat I advanced to 18th position over the finish line of the 22 starters.

It was very frustrating that I could not get any good overtaking opportunities since I was much faster than the driver in front of me.

In the second heat I got a bad start, thus losing several places down the start straight. It was more or less impossible to catch up the guys in front so I had to be content with 20th position this time.

On the Sunday it was time for the final races, the Sprint and the A-final.

In the morning warm-up session, I scored the 26th best lap time of all the drivers.

In the Sprint, once again I had a bad start and had to push hard to gain on the guys in front. I managed to gain some places and was 30th driver over the finish line this time.

Later on it was time for the A-final. I got a very good start but my luck did not last for very long, since the clutch started slipping in the first right hand corner after the start/finish straight. The clutch discs were gone. I aborted the race and had to retire into the pits. At this very moment the race was stopped due to a bad crash on the first lap. All the drivers were called back into the pits and were informed that the race was going to be re-started in 20 minutes time. Now the real race against the clock started.

Despite the stressed situation we managed to replace the clutch discs with new ones and we were passing the gate to the Parc Ferm? area with just 5 seconds margin before it was closed.

I would like to thank some very helpful persons for their assistance in the moment when I was almost certain that my race was over for this time. My competitor Joey Hanssen from Holland, assisted me with five new clutch discs with short notice and the Audi engine development engineer J?rgen from Neckarsulm, who just happened to stand nearby in the paddock, assisted with his helping hands when repairing the clutch. Apart from all this, I need to thank my mechanic and supporting crew for a great job during the whole weekend.

The re-start of the A-final went very well and I managed to gain some more places and ended up on a 25th position over the finish line after 24 very ?hot? laps together with all 34 participants.

Despite everything that happened prior to the A-final, I?m pretty pleased with my overall result. The 24 laps in +30?C temperature and at a very high pace was really a tough moment for me.

The finals in the German Karting Championship take place on August 15-17 at Hahn/Hunsr?ck Karting Circuit adjacent to Frankfurt/Hahns Airport.

For more information and pictures from the race please go to: www.charlotteracing.se or contact: charlotte@charlotteracing.se

Hi!

This time I?m blogging from Kassel, Germany. We are now on our way home from the race in the German KZ2 Championship.

The final yesterday included a lot of drama for me, but over all I?m quite pleased with the result of the race.

Tomorrow when I?m back in Sweden, I?ll publish my press release for you all to read.

Until then, have a great evening.