Racing with rookie drivers just means new people crashing into you

Oct 31, 2015Oct 31, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 27th October 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 24.407s
Best lap time this session: 25.547s

After the Formula One event, I arranged another “fun” session with my colleague Nick after work on Tuesday evening. Normally on a Tuesday evening there are between four and six drivers but, on this occasion, being half-term as well, there were 9 drivers on track in each session.

In session one, things on track got very busy, very quickly, and we were soon faced with the need to overtake the back-markers. Now this isn’t normally a big issue; you follow them for a lap or two, judge where you feel you are quickest and study the lines that they take through the corners. However, the drivers that were on track fell into two categories; those that were consistently on the racing line, or those that were so erratic, that you had no idea where they were going next!

In one move, in particular, I decided to move to the outside of the track and then try to cut back in at the hairpin. It was tight, but it worked out in the end. Racing the same drivers, a few minutes later in the session, I took the decision to go out wide again, towards the pit entry, but this time it didn’t work as it had done earlier – I collided with the barrier dividing the track from the pits (I did consider diving into the pits, but I thought I still had enough room!)

One of the occasions that I did gain an advantage from another driver was at the opposite hairpin – I was lining up Nick for the pass when we came across another back-marker. I took to the outside, whilst Nick decided to squeeze up the inside. Remarkably, I came out of the corner ahead of both of them and into a little bit of clear air.

One lap from the end, Nick “decided” to ram me from behind, causing me to jolt suddenly and jarring my lower back quite badly. Fortunately, I could limp back to the pits and rest up for 30 minutes before the second session. Unfortunately for me, it was going to be even worse in the next session!

I managed to top the lap times in this session with a 25.547s lap, so I was fairly pleased with my performance, but I was still feeling the strain in my back!

The second session started as the first, dodging back markers and trying to get enough clear air to set a fast lap time.

Just about halfway through the second session, I was caught in another incident, whilst rounding the corner into the bridge section. I thought I was fairly well in front of the kart behind me, so took my usual line through the corner in order to maintain the most momentum to get up the ramp. As I was almost through the turn and trying to accelerate away, the driver behind hit me at full speed, lifted my kart into the air and my body bent double sideways (watch the video (starts at about 13:10) below to see what I mean).

I didn’t know what to do: Do I carry on regardless? Do I get to the pits and check myself out? Do I stop here? I half-stopped, and, fortunately, my decision was made for me with the red flag coming out. This was one of the biggest crashes that I have been in, and it did really shake me up. Although one of my fastest lap times followed the crash, I almost felt like I was on auto-pilot.

I was slightly disappointed to come second, but at least I made it through the evening in one piece! My fastest lap in this session was a 25.584s, so slightly slower than the first session, but still respectable at this time of day.

I have no plans for karting until the end of November at the moment (I’m sure I will find myself a couple of drives in the meantime), but if you have any suggestions, or know of any races, please comment below and I will see what I can do!

Need to pick up the pace…? Give me more power then!

Oct 25, 2015Oct 25, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 22nd October 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 24.407s
Best lap time this session: 24.830s

Buoyed by my 3.5lb weight loss in the past week through my new diet and training regime (specifically for the BRKC event in January), I turned up at the track in Eastleigh in a positive frame of mind. This was improved (despite the ~40 minute delay due to overrunning sessions throughout the day) by the banter I now enjoy with the “regulars”. There were, however, some members in this event that I had not raced before, putting a question mark over where I thought I would finish at the end of the evening.

During the briefing, the format was clarified; F1-style qualifying (three rounds with the slowest drivers knocked out at the end of each round), race one (20 minute race, one enforced pit stop, with the starting grid as per qualifying), and race two (20 minute race, another enforced pit stop, but with a reversed grid from qualifying positions). The points would be handed out in the same style as F1 and any tied places would be decided by lap times. Also during the briefing, we had our karts randomly selected for the evening; your name was called out and then the kart number you had been assigned; just to be clear, I have no problem with this way of selecting the karts, it gives everyone an equal chance of getting a good kart or a bad kart and is the only fair way of dealing with the situation. Ideally, there would be minimal differences between the karts, but when the marshal laughs when your kart is drawn out of the pot and states “Haha, you don’t want that one!”, maybe there’s a feeling that this particular kart isn’t the best.

Anyway, I hoped it was “psychological” and that I could drive the kart as well as I could and end up somewhere in midfield. I also thought that I would have an advantage over the others, having raced the the BRKC earlier this year and knowing where I had made mistakes in pit stops there.

I was all too aware that with eleven karts on track, qualifying could come down to leaving enough space between yourself and the drivers in front (the haunting memory of me being the slowest driver and compromising another driver’s qualifying in my first ever BRKC heat ran through my mind again). The kart didn’t feel too bad in the opening laps, but there was a distinct lack of acceleration at any point; I consistently put my foot to the floor and there was a big delay between this and getting any forward movement – something that would come to cause me some discomfort in the race. I thought that I would easily make it through to the second qualifying stage before I got into the kart, whilst I was in the kart, I thought I would scrape into Q2 (I only needed to avoid being in the bottom three), but when I got out of the kart and it was announced that I was dead last, I knew something was wrong.

Looking at the times of everyone in the session, I was really disappointed that, with a best of 25.727s, I was about half a second off the pace I was expecting. I stood around on my own, whilst the other sessions continued, thinking about what could have been.

I was determined that I could climb back up the field as I had done to a certain extent in the top gun event at the start of this month. After all, I was racing some of the same drivers and I managed it then!

It turns out that I couldn’t in kart 24. The race was just painful; both mentally and physically, including some incidents where drivers were expecting me to accelerate away, but due to the kart’s performance, I was just a mobile chicane in the acceleration stage out of corners. There were several violent bumps from behind; on one occasion, my head jolted back so hard that I was looking at the roof of the building for a second.

Strangely, due to the nature of the pit stops, I actually led this race for a lap, before falling to fourth before my pit stop and then to last place immediately after it.

After the first race, the race director called me over and asked me if there was something wrong with the kart, I believe my response to him was “Yes, it’s s****!”. I did go into more detail, saying that there was no power coming out of the corners and no acceleration going up the bridge. I don’t like to blame the kart (I see this as the risk you run racing rental karts) but when your best time after 30 minutes of racing is over half a second slower than the guys in front of you, you start to get disheartened.

Whilst we were told that there would be no kart swapping, the race director told me that my kart was a joke and that I could swap with kart 14. Now this was a double-edged sword; undoubtedly, kart 14 would be better than kart 24, but having sat there for 40 minutes without moving or even having its engine run, I would now be a sitting duck in the first few laps for everyone behind to pick off with their lovely warm karts.

I took the swap anyway and proceeded to the grid (a grid that due to my previous karts failings, meant that I was now on pole position!).

I got a good start, but unlike the BRKC, you were able to pit on the first lap, so I soon got caught up with the traffic coming out of the pits, but a lap down on me. Surprisingly, and unbeknown to me, I actually led the race for a number of laps whilst waiting for my opportunity to pit.

I saw the yellow light come on and I dove into the pits for my mandatory stop. I came back out into 7th position, where I quickly made it up into 6th and stayed there for 3 laps.

As much as I tried to be patient, I went slightly hot into the large hairpin corner and spun around and, in my attempt to turn myself round the right way, found myself in the tyres on the outside, resulting in me dropping down into 9th place.

Finally, I managed to regain one more place, which I maintained until the finish, despite my attacks on the driver in 7th place. My fastest lap of this race was a respectable 24.830 seconds (almost a second quicker than I had managed all evening!), making it even clearer to me and the other drivers that it was the kart to blame in the first half of this event.

I would love to do this format again, but hopefully next time, there will be more of a level playing field!

Drive intelligently and be patient

Oct 15, 2015Dec 31, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 13th October 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 24.407s
Best lap time this session: 25.918s

A week after my endurance race, I returned to Eastleigh with my colleague, Nick, for a “fun” session. We are both, obviously, competitive with each other, but we have different reasons for karting; Nick enjoys karting socially, whilst I am taking it more seriously, entering in competitions and stepping it up looking for suitable championships in 2016.

In our group, we found out that there were two other drivers. This meant that the track wasn’t particularly busy but, unlike the member’s event, there would probably be a considerable difference in lap times, meaning that it was a good opportunity to practice my overtaking on a circuit that doesn’t lend itself to many overtaking opportunities (and after the disaster of the Top Gun event, this was needed).

As our group were the first on the track that day, the karts were very cold, so the first session started with a bit of early braking and drifting round the hairpin corners, before powering on and trying to overtake the other drivers (including Nick!).

Nick did a very good job at keeping me behind for the first few laps,but an incident on the other side of the track helped me to overtake him for the first time; the yellow lights flashed on briefly, but my quicker reactions got me a jump on Nick into the large hairpin and, for once, I managed to make it stick (well for one corner anyway).

The next few laps consisted of passing a “back marker” and then catching back up to Nick for another attempt at overtaking him. Once I was close enough, I made a daring attempt up the inside of the bridge, but as before, I compromised the next corner and he took the place back.

Eventually, I made a pass that stuck and for this I have to thank the other driver that Nick tangled with at the far hairpin; Nick took the inside line at the hairpin and was blocked, both drivers lost momentum, so I went around the outside, meaning that I could slip up the inside at the on-ramp of the bridge.

Again, I tried to be patient and not make any rash overtaking manoeuvres when making any attempt on the other driver. Once I had disposed of this driver (another overtake on the inside over the bridge), I at last had some clear air to try to put some consistent lap times in. The only other incident of note, was a big collision between Nick and the other male driver. I didn’t see it as it happened, but did come across the aftermath of it (I’ve now since seen it from Nick’s perspective on his footage, and it’s a nasty one!).

I managed to set a lap time of 26.441s on my final lap of this session. More importantly, I managed to stay away from any big crashes and came through the session unscathed!

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to capture the first few laps of the second session due to a technical difficulty with my helmet camera (I forgot to switch it on), but all of the interesting footage was still there. You could really split this session up into three parts; in the first half of the session, I had clear air and was catching up to Nick, the next two minutes consisted of me following Nick, with both of us closing on the female driver and after a small collision at the bottom of the bridge and a couple of swaps of positions between myself and Nick, it ended as it began, with myself trailing Nick for the last five minutes.

I managed to just dip under the 26s barrier, with a 25.935s lap about halfway through the session. This we thought was the end of the evening, but we were about to be made an offer we couldn’t refuse.

After the second session, we were offered a third at a discount price because the track wasn’t busy at all. At first, just myself and Nick decided that we would do it and the other pair said that they couldn’t, but when we got out to the front desk to pay, the other pair decided to go for the third session as well, meaning that it consisted of exactly the same four drivers.

Nick had a big moment early on at the large hairpin, which I did all I could to avoid a big impact with him and his kart. It could have been very dangerous, but I managed to slip around the outside without touching him at all!

The other drivers had obviously gained confidence from the first two sessions and they weren’t afraid to mix it up in the third. One notable incident in the third session, occurred on the straight under the bridge, where one of the other drivers appeared to turn hard into me in an attempt to block me off. My experience paid off here, as I just backed off a little whilst maintaining my line, sending him into a spin and into the tyres, whilst I just carried on past.

Despite this incident, I was determined to keep it as clean as possible on the track; I bailed out of several moves when it was 50:50 whether I would make the move stick without contact. Maybe I was a little bit rougher with Nick, but I know that he always gives as good as he gets! Finishing (literally) with a 25.918s lap, put me to the top of the leaderboard again and concluded the evening’s entertainment.

All in all, it was good fun and, at a time where the karts weren’t performing at their best, a sub-26 second lap and to be fastest in every session isn’t terrible. I have lots more karting to come in the next few weeks… Check out the new “Upcoming Events” calendar on this blog to see when and where I’ll be karting in the future!

You can’t win the race on the first lap but you can definitely lose it

Oct 9, 2015Oct 9, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 6th October 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 24.732s
Best lap time this session: 24.407s

I was very excited to return to the karting track after my almost eight week break and it just happened to coincide with a member’s “endurance” race, in the “Top Gun” format, at Eastleigh. I had also just received my low profile helmet camera mount, so I was looking forward to checking out the footage from a slightly different angle.

I have never karted for longer than about 45 minutes continuously, so this format of one hour straight was going to be a push of both my physical and mental capabilities.

The race was scheduled for about a 9pm start (almost my bedtime on a weeknight!), but I was feeling very motivated nonetheless, and chatting to some of the members I know well, boosted my determination before the race.

My name was third out of the “hat” (or bright orange plastic bowl, in reality), meaning that I had a great chance to at least finish up the order in this race, if only I could keep the rest behind me for the next 140 or so laps!

Attack is the best form of defence and, as you all probably know, I don’t have the personality that will allow me to sit back if I am in with a chance of gaining positions or, ultimately, winning the race. This is why it all went wrong for me…

On the grid, I felt relaxed yet switched on and, before the starting sequence had even begun, I was planning my dive into the first corner to take second place. It worked perfectly; I nailed the start, stayed on the left-hand side of the track and hugged the tyre wall around the hairpin and slid (metaphorically, not literally) into second place. I may have got a little over-eager from this point on, trying to push my kart into first position at any slight opening.

This tactic slowed me down at certain corners for the others to catch me up and make their attempts to overtake me; I slipped down into third and then fourth on lap six, before I made the massive error of fighting back where there wasn’t the space or time. I clipped the back of the kart in front of me, spinning me into the tyre wall, and almost to the back of the field.

All the hard work and effort that I had put in, mixing it with the front drivers, had been lost in one moment – for the next 55 minutes, I would be playing catch up and having to try to pass back markers on a very difficult circuit to overtake on.

I was gutted, but still determined to do my best with what I had left.

As anyone who has raced in an endurance race will probably say, I can’t remember a great deal about the rest of the race – lap after lap basically blended into themselves. Things I do remember though was getting very angry after constantly being held up by the same two drivers, who seemed to weave across the track in front of me (apologies for the exasperated hand waving at times), getting severe cramp in my accelerator foot on three separate occasions during the race and the pain in my ankle when I got out of the kart at the end (I will have to watch the footage throughout to see if any other details need adding here!)

After 137 laps of the Eastleigh track, I finished ninth out of the eleven drivers who took part (one driver didn’t make it to the track at all after booking on, so I’ll claim that I was ninth out of twelve). I was pleased to set a new PB (24.407s) at this track, but I keep thinking about what might have been.

This is why I feel that it is important for me to take part in as many races as possible, at as many different tracks as possible, leading up to the BRKC in January; I know how to drive a kart fast, but if I make the wrong “racing decisions” in the championship races, like I did in this race, I will be shown up against the level of competition (if it is anything like last year!).

Nothing ever becomes real ’til it is experienced

Oct 2, 2015Oct 5, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 26th September 2015
Track: Drift Limits, Bovingdon
Vehicle driven: Formula Renault 2.0

After my summer hiatus from racing (and blogging), I finally got the chance to cash in my birthday voucher of a Formula Renault experience.

Setting off early to get to the track with plenty of time, myself and my wife cruised up the A3 and around the M25 at a leisurely pace (in comparison with the speeds I was expecting to hit during my first real single seater race car). I say my first ‘real’ experience because on my 18th birthday, I was invited to Donington Park as a Renault VIP and got to sit in a Formula Renault car back then.

Throwback to my 18th birthday at Donington Park… How young do I look here?!

Having arrived too early to check in at the track, we stopped for a McDonald’s breakfast at the service station on the other side of the dual carriageway. Once I had filled up, we then navigated down this one track road to the venue. I was excited but also slightly disappointed that it was not a “proper” track, but rather some markings and cones on an old runway. Now, I wasn’t expecting to see Brands Hatch, but I did hope to see some kerbs and track limits marked out professionally.

Anyway, I checked in on the customised bus/office before heading out to the track as a spectator. As my wife and I went to watch, one of the guys on track at the time managed to spin the car completely and rolled into the field on the side of the “track”.

Due to the lack of any defining features, it was difficult to see where the racing lines were, or even which way you were meant to go from the “spectator area”, so watching others wasn’t useful at all.

From here, all of the drivers for my session were called into a safety briefing; there were so many do’s and do not’s that it did overload most of us sat there. Basically, the aim was not to crash (big excess to pay) but also to make the most out of the experience. One of the things I did love about the guys there, were how friendly they all were, and also that I was allowed the opportunity to use my helmet and helmet camera during the session.

Purely by chance, I was first up in the stripped out Mazda MX5 for the instructor to drive me around the track for four laps, so I could get used to the circuit, the braking points and general driving style that was required.

Once that was over, it was my turn to be strapped into the Formula Renault and take it away! One of the first things that struck me was that it was far more open than I remembered from Donington, but yet the pedals seemed to be on top of each other (damn my wide feet!). The other thing that I noticed was that my thighs were in the way if I missed my turning in point and wanted to put a little more steering into the corners. However, my body size and shape aside, I just tried to slowly make my way around the circuit on the first lap to get used to the twists and turns under my own steam.

A running theme of this blog seems to be the scrapes or near-misses that I find myself in (usually not even my fault!) and this was another one of those occasions. About three-quarters of the way around my first lap, the other driver obviously lost his way after three corners, and came careering across my part of the track just in front of me!

After this scare, I ramped up the speed for the next 15 minutes, being fairly smooth (but maybe not too fast), only having a couple of wobbles where the back end slipped from under me as I pushed onto the power too early.

I loved the experience of single-seater driving, but I didn’t feel that I pushed the car to its limit or even pushed my driving skill to its limits, which was disappointing. It would be great to do some more single-seater racing in the future, but on a purpose-built track (with a long enough straight to be able to open the throttle up).

My weekend didn’t stop there with the thrills; I went to Thorpe Park the following day to experience massive acceleration on Stealth – 0 to 80mph in 2.8 seconds – the same acceleration as two F1 cars! Now that is truly rapid!

Clash of the Heavyweights

Aug 17, 2015Aug 17, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 13th August 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.186s
Best lap time this session: 24.732s

Following my three best lap times being set and submitted in May, June and July at Eastleigh, I had the opportunity to race in a Track Attack session (which is basically a semi-final for Teamsport’s Kart Champs competition). The format of the evening mirrored that of the “unlimited” sessions; there were five sessions of ten minutes each, with the fastest lap time in each period (for each driver) being added together to make a total time. It was this total that decided the winner in each weight category.

Going into this session, I was made aware that there were only two “heavyweights” remaining in the competition at Eastleigh, and that myself and Jordan would be going head-to-head in this session, with the winner basically sealing his place in the Grand Final in Reading.

There was definitely a competitive smell in the air, albeit mostly friendly, with all of us chatting away before we started and also in the breaks between sessions. One of the running jokes throughout the evening was Jonluc’s new kart suit being very similar to mine and that he was copying (and cramping) my style.

After the laughing and joking, the racing was taken very seriously; I went for it from the word go, resulting in a spin for me on lap two of the first session. Fortunately, I had managed to get enough of a lead that I could spin it around without causing a yellow flag. I kept on pushing, however, and even got close to beating my all-time PB, with a best lap of 25.253s, despite me not really feeling in control of this particular kart all of the time. I finished 6th out of 7 karts, but what was important here was the time difference between mine and Jordan’s best lap; unfortunately for me, it went in Jordan’s favour by 0.337s.

I felt the pressure building; I thought that taking about a tenth off Jordan in each of the next four sessions was possible, but was still a daunting task. My second session was far more consistent; only four laps were outside of 25.750s and I even managed to break the 24s barrier for the first time at Eastleigh. I finished 5th this time, but Jordan was ahead again, taking another 0.297s out of my best this time around.

Whilst I was still very much in the competition, the uphill struggle was seeming like a sheer vertical ascent at this point.

I did race well in the third session, beating my PB yet again with a 24.811s lap right at the end, placing me sixth this time around. The gap was still widening between myself and Jordan, but this time, there was less than a tenth of a second between us.

I had to take a chance in the final two sessions to get through; if you watch the video below, you can see that I pushed too hard at times! It was unfortunate that, in this session, I let any chance of the win slip away from me.

Whilst I didn’t have the kart I wanted underneath me to challenge Jordan’s lead in this session, what annoyed me more after the session was that I let it get into my mind, and this affected the way I drove for far too many laps; it was only on laps 16 and 17 that I got my head back into the game and became competitive again.

I still managed to pull a sub-25s lap out of the bag, but Jordan finished nearly half a second ahead of me just in this session alone. His lead was now over a second and the chance of me pulling that out in the final round was slim-to-none. Nevertheless, I was not going to be defeated until the chequered flag fell for the final time.

As I started the final round, I was determined to be more positive and try to get my consistency back from the earlier rounds. I managed to achieve this and then some; there were only two ‘bad’ laps throughout the session (i.e. over 25.750s) and I managed to go sub-25s five times in the session, smashing my PB again with a 24.732s.

A little while later, the official results were confirmed on the Teamsport Eastleigh Facebook page; I had finished with a combined time of 124.619s compared with Jordan’s 123.071s total. To put this in context, both of our times would have been competitive in amongst the lighter driver categories, despite some of the other drivers weighing far less than us.

I could take one more stab at getting into the finals in the last chance saloon on Tuesday, although it’s a difficult decision; I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to race in the Grand Final, but it is yet another expenditure both financially and in terms of my time. Oh well, only time will tell!

Winners train, losers complain?

Jul 29, 2015Aug 2, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 26th July 2015
Track: F1K Loughborough
My PB at this track (before this session): N/A
Best lap time this session: 24.872s

Following straight on from my exploits in Birmingham, I had arranged to take part in a 50 lap race at F1K Loughborough, on the following day. I had never been to this venue either, so it was another completely new experience for me. But unfortunately, it is not a track I’ll probably be revisiting.

I turned up an hour early for my race because the weather was terrible, I didn’t really know where I was going and I wanted to make sure that my Grandad was comfortable at the track too. This was my Grandad’s first visit to a karting track and, therefore, the first time he had had the opportunity to watch me kart, despite him being very supportive in my “career” to date.

When we arrived at the front desk, there was nobody in the office and despite ringing the bell three times, it was a long time before anybody came to book me, and the other group who had just arrived, in.

It looked, on paper, like a fast circuit; there were no complicated turns every corner was either at 90 degrees or a hairpin bend and having the bridge and a long straight after the down ramp meant that you could build up a great deal of speed for the second half of the lap.

The karts seemed to be good from a distance and I was looking forward to it into the safety briefing. One thing that disappointed me from the start (and I know this is at numerous karting venues now) is that chest cameras and helmet cameras were prohibited.

At the end of the safety briefing, there was an off-hand comment that the track on top of the bridge was quite bumpy, so be careful. I wasn’t too bothered by this, I thought that experience would play into my hands.

We were told that we would start in a random kart and the first person to complete 50 laps would be the winner (it was that simple). I started in the fifth kart of eight, so in order to win, I would have to overtake at least four drivers on the circuit. I actually only NEEDED to pass three on the track, although I lapped some of them a lot more times.

It was quite an interesting start; one of the karts in front of me didn’t want to go at all (according to the printout it only managed to complete one lap with a top speed of 6.8mph and took 3 minutes to do it). As a result, the start of the race was littered with yellow flags mainly because of this kart being pushed around part of the track. I should have guessed from this experience not to try to push my kart as much, however, when you’re racing it’s far easier to say that than do it.

There seemed to be a lot of vibrations coming through the steering column in my kart but I thought to just ignore it and to carry on racing, as I was carving through the field and even lapping some drivers within a few laps. However, the harder I pushed the more the vibrations got to me; passing through my arms and bruising the insides of my knees as they continually bounced against the steering column.

It was particularly bad on the bridge where going slow or fast didn’t do anything to reduce the kart doing what it wanted to do; it took a lot of strength to keep the kart from going into the barrier every time I turned into the hairpin on the bridge.

I was there to win and I was not going to let a bad kart stop me so I continued to push from lap 1 to lap 51 (I know it said it was a 50 lap race but they missed me as I crossed the line to complete my 50th lap)

According to the printout, I wasn’t the fastest driver there but I was certainly the most consistent and could take a line into the hairpin at the bottom of the bridge that nobody else could take. During a yellow flag in the middle of the race, another driver pulled alongside me and asked me how I managed to carry so much speed through the hairpin bend at the foot of the bridge. I wasn’t going to give him any tips during the race, but I did tell him afterwards the technique that I was using.

One positive from this venue is that it provides you with a top speed as well as your two best lap times during the race (my stats: I reached 50.7mph and achieved my best lap time of 24.872 seconds on lap 28 of 51).

It was a bitter-sweet experience; I was very pleased to win and, other than the “Fianium Grand Prix”, this is my first real race win (a small trophy is being placed in my “cabinet”), although this has come at a price (I am now paying for it with big bruises on the insides of my knees and strains and shooting pains in my arms).

There’s clearly potential for this venue, but it just seemed sloppy in comparison with the other places I have been karting over the years. I am tempted to visit a different F1K venue in the future to see if that is any better, but that won’t be for a while.

Brum Brum!

Jul 29, 2015Aug 2, 2015 Brett Gaskin2 Comments

Date: 25th July 2015
Track: Teamsport Birmingham (Oldbury)
My PB at this track (before this session): N/A
Best lap time this session: 50.759s

I took the opportunity this weekend to try out a couple of new tracks; on the Saturday, it was one just outside of Birmingham.

Looking at the track online, it seemed to be a very technical and demanding circuit and when I arrived it didn’t disappoint.

Track layout from http://www.team-sport.co.uk

I arrived fairly early for my session, but this gave me the opportunity to stand on the balcony and view the drivers who were out on track before me. One thing that struck me from the beginning was how helpful the staff were there; I’ve always liked the people of the Midlands, and especially Birmingham (I spent four years studying at the university there).

The track was very foreboding; the dark, under-track section was very difficult to see from the balcony and I didn’t know what to expect until I got track side. Due to the length of the circuit, more drivers were allowed on in each session – this also slightly worried me before I took to the track because there seemed to be a significant number of collisions in the previous races (although there were also a lot of black flags for dangerous driving). Whilst a part of me was apprehensive, another part of me was raring to go.

The track was run like clockwork; whilst the current drivers were finishing their race the next heat of drivers were in their karts in the pits, ready to go. I wasn’t expecting to set particularly fast lap times, especially not in the first few laps as I thought I would take the time to learn the circuit without being too reckless. However, if you give a racer clear air, then you do push it a little bit harder. In fact, my fastest lap time came in the fourth lap of during the first race, as later on in the session, the traffic started to back up and a few yellow flags came out. I was amazed, and very pleased, to set a 52.5s laptime and finish second on the leaderboard for the first race.

During the interval one of the other drivers came up to apologize for hitting me in the first session; I really didn’t know where/when he had hit me and I couldn’t remember it affecting me at all, so I accepted his apology, explained that I’ve been in a lot worse on the track and for him not to worry because this is part and parcel of motorsport.

In the second session, I was just looking to better my time – I wasn’t trying to race anybody or top the leaderboard, I just wanted to improve and be more consistent. I did expect to get faster and faster as the session went on, but this didn’t happen for any of the drivers (both myself and the person who topped the leaderboard set our fastest laps on the second lap of the session). I was very consistent (out of the 13 laps without a yellow flag, I lapped within 4 seconds of my best time and my last four laps were separated by approximately half a second). I didn’t manage to break the 50s barrier but I came away satisfied with a 50.759s lap.

As I left the venue I was aching already; the track was long, twisty and tight in places and it put a real strain on my body as I drove back to the hotel, but I thought it was a brilliant track and I really enjoyed my time racing in Oldbury. If I had to make a minor criticism it would be down to the positioning and quantity of the warning lights for yellow and red flags; there are certain sections of the track where no lights are visible causing people to make mistakes and possibly overtake under yellows.

A nice little touch, that I really appreciated, was that my times were emailed to me, as well as receiving a paper copy at the time.

I will certainly be coming back to this track and am already looking at booking for the next time that I am up in the Midlands!

So two second place finishes in a timed session at Birmingham, could I go one better tomorrow in a 50 lap race in Loughborough?

Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a Video!

Jul 19, 2015Aug 2, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 14th July 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.270s
Best lap time this session: 25.186s

It had been a long time since I last went karting due to some personal and financial reasons, but I couldn’t turn down this chance to put in my last qualifying lap for the KartChamps competition and to use my helmet camera in anger for the first time.

As has become customary when going for a later session with my colleague, Nick, we stopped at his house after work to get changed into our race suits and watch some motorsport before heading off to Burger King. Now, I realise that Lewis Hamilton probably doesn’t follow the same pre-race preparations, but I find it enjoyable to spend some time with Nick outside of work all the same.

Down at the track, we would be racing the same old faces, all of which I had raced before at some point. I was purely motivated by laptimes on this occasion, I just needed to set a fast, competitive time for this competition.

In the first session (and a theme that ran through the whole evening), Nick was consistent but not particularly fast. I remember that, for between half and two-thirds of the race, I was staring at Nick’s behind. I kept having my lap being compromised by his defensive line, having to drop back and then making an effort to catch him back up within the next few laps.

Eventually, I managed to overtake Nick and for the rest of the race, I pretty much had clear air. It was in this clear air that I managed to set my best lap time of the session, a 25.824.

Teamsport_Eastleigh_140715_RaceOne-00-10-30-517 — Seeing the gap…

Teamsport_Eastleigh_140715_RaceOne-00-10-30-677 — Lining it up…

Teamsport_Eastleigh_140715_RaceOne-00-10-33-197 — Making it stick.

(Going forward, all of my karting videos will be added to my YouTube channel (brettstersview) straightaway, and then embedded in this blog as soon as I have the time to write it!)

The second session started with a big coming together; I was overtaken and in my attempt to retake the place, I was overly ambitious going into a tightening corner. As you can see from the photographs, I made the attempt from a LONG way back and it didn’t quite come off as I had planned!

140715_VIRB_0005-00-01-22-539 — Seeing the gap…

140715_VIRB_0005-00-01-24-219 — Lining it up…

This turned out to be a positive, in a way, because I was far enough away from everyone else once I had been pushed out of the barriers. Towards the end of the race, I again caught up with Nick, but just ran out of time to pass him. I did manage to put in a 25.325 second lap in this session, just one tenth off my all-time personal best for this track.

Both myself and Nick were slightly aggrieved that some members didn’t necessarily play fair; as you can see from the videos, we were involved in a number of incidents in each of the sessions, where a kart would punt us out of the way when they were following behind. That being said, I was clearly at fault for a couple of incidents too.

The third session started with the drivers steaming away, but I was still stuck in the pits! The driver, due to be in the kart in front of me, made an appearance in the pitlane and then disappeared back towards the changing room, so I had to wait until the marshal moved the kart enough for me to squeeze past.

140715_VIRB_0006-00-00-09-144 — Getting ready to go…

140715_VIRB_0006-00-00-16-123 — False start.

I continued to improve throughout the race, and actually achieved a brand new PB in the last lap of the session; a 25.186s lap!

I honestly can’t believe that I managed to set my all-time PB in this block, given that my previous best was set during an endurance race where the engine and tyres were nice and warm and the fuel levels were low.

I have a lot of racing planned for the upcoming months; I’m up in Birmingham on the 25th, I have a 50-lap race in Loughborough on the 26th and a “Track Attack” session at Eastleigh sometime in August. I also still need to book my Formula Renault day that was bought for my birthday (this has been a pain to organise due to the company’s lack of availability).

P.S. Bonus points if you noticed the Alan Partridge reference in the title of this post!

Racing against stiff competition (and the clock!)

Jun 14, 2015Aug 2, 2015 Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 9th June 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.270s
Best lap time this session: 26.304s

A special offer and the chance to race exclusively against other members was the driving force for me to go karting on Tuesday evening this week.

I realised why, when my colleague and I go karting of an evening, we set off from work at half four on the dot and get there with plenty of time. This time, I had to run a quick errand on my way, so it meant that I was a little later on the road to the track – BIG MISTAKE! It took me nearly an hour to travel 2 miles, and meant that I arrived just 2 minutes before the session started (in my work clothes and sweating profusely!).

I did steal a moment to myself to get changed and prepare for the session as two other drivers were also delayed on the roads.

There were five of us who had signed up for this hour-long exclusive qualifying session; I had raced against all of them in the past and it hadn’t been overly successful, but this time I was relishing the chance to race them all again.

When we started the session, I had planned to take it easy for the first 10 minutes or so, just to warm the kart and settle into the evening of karting ahead – I didn’t think that I could go flat out for an hour straight! (As it happens, it turned out that we weren’t doing one hour straight racing, but splitting it up into 15 minute sessions, with different karts each time, as usual).

I don’t usually blame the kart for any failings on track, but this kart in particular had NO grip at all (later confirmed by a fellow member who drove the same kart later on in the evening). I was about a second off the pace throughout and finished with a very disappointing lap time of 27.774s.

We were surprised at seeing the chequered flag after 15 minutes when we all thought that we were getting an hour of continuous racing. We discussed this amongst ourselves and then the staff member at the front desk in our break between the sessions.

I had a completely different perspective in the second session (along with a different kart, thank God!); I could go out hard from the very start and not worry about it being more of an endurance event. I did exactly that and it paid dividends. Whereas in the past, I have fallen off the back of this pack of drivers, I was mixing it up with them, whilst giving them room to overtake if they wanted (the whole point of this was to set qualifying lap times for the KartChamps competition, so I wasn’t going to hold anyone up if they were behind me). I finished with a much improved lap time of 26.449s and even managed to finish 4th.

At the end of this session, I was quite pleased with my performance, but knew that there was much more to be done in order to set a competitive time for KartChamps.

The third session was fairly uneventful for all of us. I couldn’t improve on my lap time from the second session, and finished with a best of 26.698s. I think that in the back of our minds was the fact that we would get the opportunity to race against another group straight after this one (I know that it was in my mind during the session).

With 9 drivers on track in our final session, there was going to be a lot of overtaking opportunities, traffic and possibly red and yellow flags with addition of the inexperienced drivers. We all loved the challenge of racing one another on track – motorsport is best when it is about racing others at 100%, not racing the clock. Surprisingly, I set my fastest lap of the evening in this race, despite having to deal with all of the added traffic; I set a 26.304s, in 5th place, just three-thousandths of a second away from 4th place and just over half a second away from 1st place.

All-in-all, it was a very productive evening and very satisfying experience; my best performances seem to come from those events where I am racing more experienced or drivers in a lighter weight class.

Other important news for the blog… I have now taken receipt of my Garmin Virb helmet camera, so there will be raw footage, screenshots and, possibly, some interesting overlays and analysis – lots for you guys to look forward to!

Gaskin Racing

A blog charting the journey of a thirty-something Quality Manager to realise his motor racing aspirations

Racing with rookie drivers just means new people crashing into you

Need to pick up the pace…? Give me more power then!

Drive intelligently and be patient

You can’t win the race on the first lap but you can definitely lose it

Nothing ever becomes real ’til it is experienced

Clash of the Heavyweights

Winners train, losers complain?

Brum Brum!

Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a Video!

Racing against stiff competition (and the clock!)

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