Race Report - Round 1 - Kyalami Kart Circuit

 

Teams and Drivers, W O W ! ! ! What a fantastic opening round of the F400 championship. We welcomed the following new teams who joined some of the old hands in battle for the F400 crown: Need for Speed                                      Temple Racing   (I think this team should change their name to "By a Nose" or "Photo Finish") Mr. Bakkie Allstar Racing Tripod Racing DoDo Island Racing ITA Racing    Qualifying Defending champions Rogue Racing pulled out all the stops in qualifying to take full advantage of new tires to grab pole position from Sportstar, followed by Baldwin, Sabertek, Temple and Bunker rounded off the top six. 2^nd to 5^th places were separated by 0.17s. We also did a top 6 qualifying draw for the first time; Rogue managed to hang on to 1^st, Sabertek moved up two spots to 2^nd, Baldwin moved up one spot to 3^rd, Bunker moved up two spots to 4^th, Temple stayed in 5^th and Sportstar lost out, moving down to 6^th. Race 1 The standing start proved interesting to say the least. Everyone were reasonably well behaved on the first run into turn one, with the speeds far lower than rolling starts this proved a good decision, with few incidents or spins on the opening lap. With penalties promised to any team who were found guilty of overly aggressive driving or hitting the safety cones all teams were cautiously avoiding the cones and each other in the opening stages of the race. In lap 5 Baldwin and Sportstar had a coming together, dropping both teams down the field and earning Sportstar a stop go penalty for their efforts. This handed the lead to Rogue who were now flying, followed by a close battle between Sportstar, Bunker, Temple and a recovering Baldwin. Half way through the race Rouge held a 20s lead over Sportstar, LJ2, Temple and Universal. Race 1 eventually went to Rogue, followed by Universal 2^nd and Temple 3^rd, only 0.3s behind Universal. This was a fantastic achievement in only their first F400 race. Baldwin took 4^th and Tripod (another new team) took a well deserved 5^th place. Sportstar picked up a puncture and dropped down to 10^th place. ITA managed 9^th place in a WF kart, beating half of the more powerful field. Watch out for Isi when he gets his hands on a Honda! Race 2 Sportstar managed a fast trouble free run in race 2 picking up a comfortable win. Temple improved on their 3^rd place from race one, adding a 2^nd place with Universal finishing in 3^rd. Bunker managed to edge out Sabertek for 4^th place. Some teams were forced to make some running repairs in race 2, testing their resilience and teamwork. Race 3 Sportstar led the mad dash to turn one with Temple, Universal, Bunker and Sabertek in hot pursuit. I have R50 up for grabs to the first person who can spot the driver who is losing his cool, after his accelerator spring snapped off at the start of race 3. Mail the kart number to F400Challenge@gmail.com to claim your prize. Sportstar took their second win in as many races; beating 2^nd placed Baldwin quite comfortably. Temple lost out on 2^nd place in their second photo finish of the day, this time losing to Baldwin by a mere 0.065s, after a full hour of racing and two pit stops. That's pretty close if you ask me; in fact 2^nd to fifth were all very close at the end of race 3, 4^th going to Sabertek 5^th to universal and 6^th to Redline.   Race 4 Need for Speed managed to turn a very nice kart into a rocking horse in race 3 and could not make the start of the last race with a badly bent axle. Well back to the racing, with all to play for battle resumed for one last time... The pack was lead into turn one by race 3 winners Sportstar, followed by Baldwin, Temple, Sabertek, Universal, Redline and Rogue in a lowly 7^th place. Then down the back straight for the first time, I got a firsthand demonstration of how three karts abreast do NOT funnel safely into a fast sweep with one racing line. A driver from, let's call them team X, we will keep their identity secret for now, attempted to pass two karts down the back straight on the bricks lining the circuit in a wild Montoya type of move. At the left hand sweep the inevitable happened... Three karts came together putting Sportstar onto a wild spin straight into the oncoming pack. Luckily no damage or injuries ... But Grant's rendition of how it all played out after the race was hugely entertaining. It seems that Grant loves proving that he can wipe out as well as anybody else, because he literally knows the circuit, backwards. Caution at the next Kyalami race expect to see Grant backwards trying to build a nice wipeout on the hairpin leading onto the back straight. He seems to be trying one corner earlier each time we race at Kyalami. J All jokes aside, race 4 was a closely contested affair, Sportstar clawed back the seconds lost on the opening lap to take the lead at the last pit stop.  With 5 min to go the Sportstar and Rogue karts were separated by less than a second, as were 3^rd and 4^th placed Baldwin and Temple. Rogue took the lead on the penultimate lap despite some desperately defensive driving from Sportstar, and held on to take the win by 1.1s from Sportstar in 2^nd place.  Temple took 3^rd place "By a Nose", or 0.6s to those who want the translation. That gave them their third finish where they were separated by less than a second from their closest rival in four races. Fantastic racing all round; and judging by the e-mails and calls we got after the race, everybody seemed to have a blast at round 1. Congratulations to: The Ladies who joined us at Round 1, you were all hugely impressive, and I reckon the guys are going to have to watch out for fairer sex at the next rounds. The following teams won prizes at the prize giving draw: Redline Racing - 40% discount on the entry for round 3 Mutti - 20% discount on the entry for round 3 Sabertek - 20% discount on the entry for round 3 Bunker Racing - 20% discount on the entry for round 3   Remember you have to be at prize giving to claim your prize; several teams were drawn but lost out...    Special Thanks to: Robert our COC who ran the event better than the Swiss rail system, starting and ending every race exactly on time. Brett our timekeeper who spends the whole day monitoring our progress and after the race produces the results in a jiffy. All teams who played their part in making the event safe, exciting and enjoyable for everybody.   Notes from the editor: ·          KNOW THE RULES, this might be stating the obvious, but take not of the do's and don'ts they are there to ensure fair and close racing and to make the events safe and enjoyable. ·         Don't make changes the day before the race; they are bound to cause more trouble than benefit.   See you all at Round 2 on the 28^th of March at Vereeniging, where we are bound to have 5 more entrants than this race...