The weekend started upside down as we struggled to get to pace. We were about half a second off the pace. I tell you, I do not think I have ever changed so many sprockets in one weekend…We must have tried 6 different ratios and tried some of them a couple of times as we struggled our butt off to try and get up that massive of a gradient of a HILL. But we never got the combination right.
Just as we thought we were doomed, my engineer tried a different combination of sprocket and jet and BOOM we were just 1 tenth off the pace!
The handling of the kart changes with the performance of the engine. So the handling was a hole lot better as well.
We qualified 2nd and finished 2nd in the first heat. The leader pulled a gap on me though as his kart looked more consistent than mine. So we adjusted the tyre pressures and the 2nd heat was a whole lot closer, but just not enough and I finished 2nd again. We were quite chuffed with that as we were making progress! So we adjusted the kart for the last heat and I was looking forward to it as I knew if we crack it now, our testing was successful and we will look good for the National on the 4th of July.
I started the kart on the grid to make sure it starts and it was fine. Then the green flag came out for us to start our warm up lap for the last heat. My heart dropped….The kart did not start! The battery went faulty and drew all the power and went flat. So there I was standing on the grid watching the race….
I immediately thought, ” Better now than at the National!”
So the Test Race went quite well. we got our engine performance to a good basic. We might have to change the jet according to the weather etc.
All in all it was good that we went there as I feel more confident for the National.
Thank you for reading my blog and for your support!
Fabienne
