Tag: Teamsport

Racing against stiff competition (and the clock!)

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!

“I can’t believe what’s happening visually, in front of my eyes”

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 21st May 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.270s
Best lap time this session: 26.535s
Weight (at the end of the sessions): 96.4kg

I decided to arrange another Thursday evening karting session after work with my colleague who, this week, had bought a Sony action camera and I persuaded him to give it a trial run during this session.

I was hoping for some better times than the previous time I raced, due to my weight loss through dieting (I had lost approximately 6kg over the two weeks).

The first session was delayed due to the late arrival of the other drivers and the fact that they had to go through their driver briefing before we could start.

The marshal got myself and Nick ready and into the karts. Then we got out again (because the others hadn’t even got suited up at that time). About 10 minutes later, we were back in the karts ready to go.

The first race was fairly uneventful; I managed to dispose of Nick quite quickly and then set off in clear air to put in lap after lap in an attempt to beat my PB.

http://youtu.be/nj1QDW0Tl1E

By the end of the session, I had lapped every driver in the session (including Nick) at least once, and finished top of the leaderboard.

There was only one session between our first and second races – the track combined groups, so instead of five racers in the first session, there were now seven drivers on track. This was going to make the session far more disjointed, but also more exciting!

It started very much like the first; very cold karts and myself and Nick leading the way out of the pits battling with each other. I may have got a little frustrated this time being behind Nick, forcing me into trying to make moves that really were 50:50 at best. Not only did this do nothing for my track position, but this also compromised my lap times.

http://youtu.be/tgFN9yFpN-s

Once I managed to make a move stick, I couldn’t shake Nick off my tail (which was great for being captured on his helmet camera!).

The race was full of overtaking back markers, which was entertaining, even if sometimes it got a little hairy with me trying to overtake multiple karts at the same corner, but it was also littered with yellow and red flags, ruining any consistency with my laptimes.

I did manage to shave a little bit of time off my lap times this week, but now that I can see where I’m going wrong (at one corner in particular), I am going to have to put in more effort to tweak my driving style.

I’ve always wanted to invest in an action camera for my helmet, but now I’m convinced that I should!

Like Ice In The Sun

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 7th May 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.270s
Best lap time this session: 26.596s
Weight (at the end of the sessions): 104.2kg

Once again myself and my colleague, Nick, decided to go karting at Eastleigh on a Thursday evening, straight after work. There are advantages and disadvantages to this (some of which I will describe in this blog post!).

We arrived an hour too early because, sometimes, the traffic getting out from work and getting into Eastleigh is horrendous, so we factored that into the time that we planned to leave work. On this day, however, it was a breeze and I arrived there in approximately 25 minutes and Nick in just over half an hour. We then had a chat until the “racing” started with the group before us at 6pm. The track looked treacherous; the sun was reflecting off the surface like it was a sheet of ice.

The first group out on track included a variety of driver skill levels to put it nicely. As there were only six of us in our session, we would be taking a subset of these karts currently out on track; two karts in particular were going very slow, so ideally I wanted to avoid either of those ones. Yes, you guessed it, I got them both throughout the evening!

We left the pits in the first session with Nick just ahead of me. I quickly overtook him, even though I was struggling to carry any speed through the corners due to the tyres being so cold against the slippery track. Nick retook the position on lap four after I span my kart pushing too hard at the large hairpin under the bridge.

I composed myself and chased hard to regain the ‘lead’ just two laps later. From then on, it was plain sailing for me; no pressure from behind, and then just a steady stream of people to lap, who didn’t put up a great deal of resistance. I finished first and managed a fairly respectable lap time of 27.041s in this session, over 1.5s quicker than Nick’s fastest in this session. I was happy with that time considering the feel of that kart in the first ten laps.
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After a brief break, we were back on track. As one of the drivers had pulled out of the previous session, there was a kart sitting at the front of the pits having not been driven for 30 minutes and not driven “hard” for at least a few hours. That kart was given to me for my second session, so I tried to get some heat into the tyres as quickly as possible and race around the track to lap my colleague (who I had just missed out on lapping in the previous session).

Alas, due to a scattering of yellow flags, it wasn’t to be, but I did manage to pull just over half a lap away from him by the chequered flag. I posted a lap time of 26.596s in this session, finishing with the fastest lap as in the previous session, and just under a second ahead of Nick this time.
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I’m not only battling for faster times on the track, I am now also battling my weight off the track; I’m being really strict and following a diet plan to lose about 20kg of weight to at least help in my efforts to compete with the smaller, lighter and younger drivers in the local and national events.

He Who Dares Whines

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 23rd April 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.698s
Best lap time this session: 25.270s

Tonight, at the Grid members event, was a new format of race for me (and the others) to experience – The Mansell. The basic format was that, following 15 minutes of practice/qualifying, was a 45 minute endurance race. The twist was that all drivers were black-flagged in 3 minute intervals, starting with the pole-sitter and continuing through the grid until everyone had made a stop-go pit stop.
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Without blaming the kart too much, I qualified badly and ended up in last place (9th) on the grid. The other drivers and I had discussed kart #24 before the qualifying session and how it seemed to struggle with acceleration, but I will not let the kart take all of the blame… I set a fastest lap of 26.277s in this session; just over a second behind the pole-sitter, and just under half a second from 8th place!
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I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t impressed with my own performance in qualifying, but I was definitely glad not to have the same kart for the race.

As we lined up on the grid, and I looked at the eight karts in front of me, there was a certain inevitability of what was about to happen. I was the heaviest in the field by far, so as the five lights came on and extinguished to signal the start of the race, the other eight karts sped away from me. Fortunately for me, my driving skill (and some squabbling between the lower half of the field) meant that after five laps, I was right back on the tail of a group of four drivers battling for 6th position. Then the enforced pit stops started!

I was briefly promoted to 8th place, without overtaking anyone as first place pitted and came back out into last place. I was overtaken by the former leader of the race after a couple of laps, but used this to close up again on the karts in front of me.

There were some heavy (but generally fair) overtaking manoeuvres between myself and the driver in 8th place, some which came off and some which didn’t stick. One manoeuvre that did stick was mine at the top of the bridge, positioning my kart, on the exit, in the centre of the track so a counter-attack was not on the cards. Two laps later, I slid wide at the hairpin under the bridge, undoing all of my hard work in one corner!

At half distance, I was still battling away for 8th place and neither of us had taken our compulsory pit stop. I was determined to take the place on the track, not leave it to chance and to take the position through the pit stop. I made a move, made it stick, and accelerated away, to attempt to make as much of the clear air as possible. By this point, 7th place seemed a long way away, so my aim was to consolidate 8th position.

It was coming up to my turn to pit, so I tried to put in a series of quick laps, and managed 5 laps in the 25s and one 26.0 before I was shown the black flag for my compulsory pit stop. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but when I came out of the pits, I had no idea where the kart was that I had been chasing and had overtaken about 20 laps before. It was only after the race had ended that I was informed that I had finished in last place (according to the print out, I was overtaken during my pit stop).
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102 laps later my right ankle was really sore and weak when I got out of the kart and I had blisters all over my hands. But what hurt me more this evening was the result, and I still can’t quite believe not only that I lost the position but also how far behind I was following the pit stop.
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Taking the positives from the race, I did end up with a new PB at the track and finished with the eighth best lap time of the race and of the week. I don’t mind being beaten by better drivers, but I really do need to slim down to be competitive in these races where some of the drivers are racing at half of my bodyweight (I am currently at my heaviest that I have ever raced at and this needs to change!).

All By Myself

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 15th April 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.698s
Best lap time this session: 25.808s

After my “birthday week” including other adrenaline-filled activities and surprises, it was time to get back down to the track in preparation for my next race.

Again, this was a freebie from being a part of Teamsport’s “Grid” membership scheme, this time because it was my birthday. I arrived fairly early at the track to get changed and relax before my first session on the track. One of the guys came up to me whilst I was looking out at the track and told me that I would be the ONLY one on the track after the group of ten in the session before me, unless I wanted one of the marshals to join me. I was quite happy being out there on my own; no yellow or red flags to stop me, no slower drivers to get in my way, just me and my kart against the clock!

It was a great experience being out there on my own; I also had the freedom to try new things out and experiment with lines and braking points (could be very important in the race here next week!). I was very consistent in the first session; less than one second separated my fastest and slowest laps in the session. My fastest lap was a 26.293s, which with a cold kart, was faster than I managed in 50+ laps last time out!

I would say that the only downsides to being out there on my own was not having a reference point or knowing when the chequered flag was going to come down. About 4 laps from the end, I was preparing to come into the pits, so this obviously affected my lap times slightly, but it was entirely my fault – you should always race to the flag!!!

There also wasn’t as much of a break between the sessions as I had expected; I was straight back on 15 minutes later, when according to my booking email, it should have been a 30 minute break. I wasn’t complaining though, I was in the mood to put in a fast time!

The second session started a little slower. I wasn’t 100% happy with the feel of the kart and found myself shuffling around a bit to get comfortable in the first few laps. The kart also felt quite slippery, which was odd as it had been “warmed up” in the previous session. I soon got into the zone again and the lap times started tumbling… first the lap times were in the low 27’s, then the mid-26’s, then the low 26’s and even a couple of laps quicker still.

I don’t know whether this a good or bad thing, but I didn’t feel like I managed to link one lap up with my best driving… I did some brilliant lines through some tricky turns, but there was always one corner in the lap that wasn’t quite right. I’m taking this to mean that I can go much quicker if I manage to pull it all together. My fastest lap this evening was a 25.808s, just a tenth or so off my all-time best here (and that was with a kart that had been used for several hours before I got in it).

All-in-all, I am happy going into “The Mansell” race next week and, hopefully, I will be able to challenge the others to a competitive race.

Midweek Madness

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 31st March 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): 25.698s
Best lap time this session: 26.642s

After my exploits at this “new” track at the weekend (to which Nick is still recovering), I decided to use my free loyalty session at the same track after work.

I thought I may have to battle through the traffic to get to the track, so after getting changed into my karting attire at work I rushed off to the venue with about an hour in hand. Well, this must have been the only day where there was no traffic on the M27 or on Wide Lane going into Eastleigh. I arrived at the track nearly an hour before my first race!

After scouring through my Twitter timeline and doing an online survey, I went inside to watch some other groups on the track. The karts seemed to be particularly slow and slippery for everyone before me, so whilst I was hoping to beat my time at the weekend, I wasn’t holding out a great deal of hope at this point.

It was only when I got into the kart for the first time this evening that I found another hindrance; normally I kart, socially at least, after sunset. Today, the sun was at exactly the wrong height and was blinding coming out of the pits.

Anyway, enough of the “excuses”, unlike Friday evening, I felt very comfortable in the kart and I was ready to set some good lap times.

In the first session of the two, I felt like I was storming through the field overtaking near enough every driver in front of me with ease. To add to this, until about three quarters of the session gone, there hadn’t been any major incidents and my consistency was looking good. Even when the driver in front span out (on the straight) and I crashed into the side of his kart, at full-speed, flinging me out of my seat, I still managed a fast lap time straight after.
My fastest lap from this session was 26.757s – the fourth quickest of the week at that point.

I will admit that the crash I had in the first session did shake me up a bit when I got out of the kart; the half hour wait between sessions was needed as my left shoulder felt very tight and my muscles were all quite tense.

I don’t know what exactly happened at the start of the second session. I set off from the pits and instantly set off in pursuit of the three karts in front of me. In a way, I felt like I needed to entertain the quite large crowd that had formed at the track; I was pushing the grip to the limit, drifting and spinning the kart at various points, pulling off overtaking manoeuvres at corners that I had no right to do so and generally showing off.

It wasn’t fast and, if I’m honest, it stopped being fun pretty quickly. I got stuck behind a trail of karts each competing with one another and realised that the only way I could salvage a fast lap would be to back right off this group of drivers and claim some clear air. This is exactly what I did and three laps from the end, I set my fastest lap of the evening; a 26.642 which whilst not being as fast as on Friday, it felt as if it just clicked this time.

I don’t know where my next karting adventure will be, but I will certainly write about it here!

New track. New techniques. New track records.

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 27th March 2015
Track: Teamsport Southampton (Eastleigh)
My PB at this track (before this session): N/A
Best lap time this session: 25.698s

Remember Nick Bennetts? You probably don’t, but to remind you, he was my good friend and colleague who unfortunately had to pull out of the event I organised a few weeks ago through injury.

Well this week, we organised an outing to a track that was new to me, but one that he had been to a couple of times before. Also, Nick had bought himself some new overalls and a new lid, but hadn’t yet worn them in anger. We met up a few miles away from the track and had a catch-up and a bite to eat before making it to the venue.

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As I had explained before, Nick has a wealth of motorsport experience from years ago, so I expected him to be tough competition this time out. We arrived nearly an hour early for the session, so spent a long time chatting and watching the previous groups take their turn on the track (having no experience of this track, I was trying to watch every single driver to look at possible lines through the main corners).

Session one was very interesting for me trying to feel out the track and the karts, whilst trying to race Nick (and ensure he didn’t finish in front of me). My first reaction was that the track was VERY slippery and that there was a camber into the large tightening hairpin after the flyover, that made braking (without going sideways round the corner) particularly difficult. Nick found this corner difficult too and caused the two yellow flags in this session by crashing out. I was very happy to finish this session in third place with a best time of 26.027s. Nick finished seventh out of the eight drivers with a 27.442s.

In the interval, Nick and I compared notes from the first session whilst watching the other group crash, smash and bash their way through the next 15 minutes. One thing I have to give credit to the team at Eastleigh was their stamping down on the obvious dangerous driving and the black flags that were shown to the drivers were clearly deserved in my opinion. It’s always nice to see that the marshals are taking steps to prevent these drivers from ruining a fun night out, because so often I have seen marshals turning a blind eye at dangerous behaviour at other tracks.

We got ready for the second session, which I suffered a transponder failure, so approximately 10 of my lap times weren’t recorded. It was relatively uneventful, I was putting in very consistent laps (of the 16 laps that were recorded, my fastest lap was 26.203s, but my average was 26.244s giving an example of my consistency in this session). Nick was satisfied that he didn’t get overtaken in this session and finished with a far faster time of 26.444s.

Nick was worried at the start of the night that he wouldn’t manage to compete in the last of the three sessions as he hasn’t raced in karts for nearly a year. But whilst he complained about his grip in his hands going, he was ready to race again a few minutes later. Before the final session, he needed to “empty the ballast tank” so left me to kit up in the pits. A minute later he stood by me and explained that he went to the toilet, but couldn’t find the urinals… he’d only gone into the ladies by accident! He said he knew that this was going on the blog, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s here!

I was slightly irritated by the transponder failure in session two as I enjoy analysing my lap times and tracking my improvement and consistency. I was going to leave everything out on the track. I went for it from the start, but a couple of yellow lights and slower drivers didn’t help me. I set a 25.698s on lap 12, but by lap 15, I was stuck in traffic for the rest of the race (my weight acting as the equaliser between myself and the driver who was probably half of my size). Every lap I would close up on the drivers in front, but then lose momentum on the short incline for the flyover. This led me to become frustrated and try some manoeuvres that were 50:50 at best. Nick finished with a time of 26.539s in this session, but I think the amount of karting took its toll as can be seen in the photograph he posted to Twitter this morning!

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I left my first evening karting at Eastleigh feeling pleased with the progress I made in a short period of time. I’m booked in again at Eastleigh after work on Tuesday for a “freebie” so I will see how I progress next week.

Review of the Fianium Unofficial Company Karting event

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

It was early afternoon on a overcast day in March. In a warehouse on the Fareham-Gosport border, 12 brave souls entered the unofficial Fianium company karting event. Lots had been said about who would win, but this was the time, this was the hour when the best kart drivers within the company would show off their skills and lift the trophy…

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Okay, enough with the dramatic introduction, but I was really excited to race my colleagues on the track and surprisingly, I was feeling a lot of pressure on my shoulders. Everyone expected that someone with my experience would be able to trounce the opposition, but I was very aware that I had one severe disadvantage – my weight.

It was a shame that my good friend and colleague, Nick Bennetts, had to pull out from the event due to injury, so he was substituted by his son, Dominic.

After everyone registered and got kitted up, there was just time for a quick chat and a group photograph (or two, after someone spotted that Tom was missing in the first one) before the safety briefing.

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It was a good safety briefing, although some of the group got very worried about the cleanliness of the helmets after this was repeated on multiple occasions in the briefing!

After the safety briefing, we headed down to the pit lane where I had stood many times before, but there was a nervous excitement buzzing around there this time.

We went out in a random order from the pits for our first session; this appeared to assist the drivers at the front, but hinder those at the back. I left in the middle of the pack, but tried to pull as far clear of the other drivers as possible to get a clear run for my hot lap. James nailed it in lap one as he started second from the pits but overtook Tom within two corners, giving him clear air from the start.

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I honestly had no idea how fast I was going, or how fast anyone else was going; I did see a few of the same karts again as I went to overtake them for the second or third time, but some (like James and Ruud) I only saw the once in the session. It was a very close run thing; three people sat in provisional pole position throughout the session, but I managed to first snatch it in lap 18, after passing the “impossible-to-pass” Adrian Piddington, and held on to it until the end with a 32.0s lap.

Reviewing the results of the first session was eye-opening. The first four drivers; myself, James, Lee and Ruud were separated by less than seven tenths in terms of fastest lap and the next four drivers; Rob, Tom, Adrian and Laura were separated by less than two tenths of a second.

Qualification results:
1. Brett Gaskin – 32.029s
2. James Strachan – 32.405s
3. Lee Archer – 32.699s
4. Ruud Jonkers – 32.723s
5. Robert Sharman – 33.610s
6. Tom Strudley – 33.763s
7. Adrian Piddington – 33.777s
8. Laura Bim – 33.788s
9. Antonin Billaud – 35.459s
10. Ana Orec-Archer – 35.646s
11. Dominic Bennetts – 39.281s
12. Lucy Hooper – 40.802s

I said to all of the others that any of the top four could easily win it, and I became very cautious about the man starting directly behind me, as he had been in the provisional pole position for the longest time and had been easily the most consistent driver in terms of qualifying lap times. I was comforted somewhat by Adrian saying that once I had overtaken him, I was gone and he couldn’t keep up.

We started from the pits in the second session and both myself and James fashioned a very good rolling start between us. We crossed the line, and then we were racing!

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I tried to put the hammer down and pull away from the field on the first lap, but by the second lap there was a yellow flag, so we bunched back up again. I hoped that this would not become a recurring theme throughout the race, because I was instantly back under pressure when the yellow lights went off (carrying the extra weight is a massive disadvantage when trying to accelerate after driving at walking pace). Unfortunately, the race was littered with yellows, disrupting the race on 5 or 6 occasions. Each time the race restarted, I had to drive defensively, as I came under attack, first by James and then by Lee.

But it wasn’t just at the front, there were battles across the field, from first to last place. Two battles of note include Ruud and Ana, with Ruud taking the inside line at the pit exit hairpin, but also taking Ana’s inside wheel away and spinning her through 180 degrees, causing her to be facing me when I came around to put a lap on her and there was a monumental battle between the two members of the same team at work; Adrian and Laura (Laura still has the bruises to prove it!).

Eventually, the race came to an end just after another yellow flag incident… I had held on to first place from the start, and boy was I relieved!

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Everyone came off the track buzzing with excitement and the chatter continued into the changing room. I ran off to pick up our timesheets whilst everyone was getting changed and I came back to award the medals and the wooden spoon award for the last placed Fianium employee.

Lucy was the “lucky” winner of the wooden spoon (and hopefully will display it proudly at work). But there was an element of controversy with the medals…

The medals were handed out as follows; the bronze medal went to Robert Sharman, the silver to Lee Archer and the gold to Brett Gaskin.

However, following a review, it was then apparent that the order given on the time sheets was by fastest lap and not “finishing position”, therefore, the driver in third place was actually James Strachan. No redistribution of the medals are necessary after James’ good sportsmanship agreeing to allow Rob to keep the third place prize.

The official classifications (and gaps to leader) are as follows:

Official Results:
1st. Brett Gaskin (@ 21 laps)
2nd. Lee Archer (+2.1s)
3rd. James Strachan (+3.0s)
4th. Robert Sharman (+20.1s)
5th. Ruud Jonkers (+25.9s)
6th. Laura Bim (+30.8s)

7th. Adrian Piddington (+1L)
8th. Antonin Billaud (+1L)
9th. Tom Strudley (+1L)
10th. Ana Orec-Archer (+2L)
11th. Lucy Hooper (+2L)
12th. Dominic Bennetts (+2L)

Fastest laps by driver:
1. Brett Gaskin – 31.841s (S2)
2. Lee Archer – 32.305s (S2)
3. James Strachan – 32.405s (S1)
4. Robert Sharman – 32.432s (S2)
5. Adrian Piddington – 32.438s (S2)
6. Ruud Jonkers – 32.653s (S2)
7. Antonin Billaud – 32.940s (S2)
8. Tom Strudley – 33.428s (S2)
9. Laura Bim – 33.788s (S1)
10. Ana Orec-Archer – 34.230s (S2)
11. Lucy Hooper – 34.399s (S2)
12. Dominic Bennetts – 35.486s (S2)

Youthful exuberance

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 13th March 2015
Track: Teamsport Gosport
My PB at this track (before this session): 29.956s
Best lap time this session: 30.311s

A little practice before the unofficial Fianium GP, but also an evening where I introduced an eleven-year-old to the track for his first ever experience in a petrol kart.

Unusually for me, as a member, I attended the safety briefing with Michael before heading out to the track, which was interesting as it was nice to see a real importance being put on the safety of the drivers, especially the children, that were going out on the track.
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I was determined to see that Michael had a good time karting; all too often I had seen youngsters, brought karting by their parents, who struggled (and in some cases failed) to get out of the pits at all. Michael, although slow around he track at first, really seemed to warm to karting. In fact, I really enjoyed karting with him, despite the extra responsibility I felt, because of his youthful exuberance – we set targets together at the end of the first and second sessions and I had never seen someone so happy at coming last when he looked at the leaderboard at the end of the second session. Michael showed continued improvement throughout the evening, finishing 7th in the last session, with a best lap time of 40.3s, which puts some of the adults to shame when they are karting for the very first time.

I started off slowly, trying to take care of the youngsters; make sure that they were having a good time, not to rush them or overtake them in a way which may have worried them. But when I got into some clear air, I felt good and on top form. I finished second in the first race (I wasn’t really racing at that point) with a 32.316s fastest lap.

As Michael grew in confidence, I did too; knowing that he was handling his kart well and enjoying it, meant that I was less preoccupied by watching him around the track and more into my own racing (still, every time I did pass him, I gave him a thumbs up which he responded to). I missed out on first place by 0.03s in the second session, finishing with a best time of 31.595s.

In the final session, I went for it from the first lap. Surprisingly, I barely overtook Michael, because he was holding his own and was probably one of the most consistent drivers in racing lines out there. I managed to pull together a 30.3s lap, to put me first with the fastest lap of the night from our group.

Karting with a young novice is a completely new experience for me, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it and the practice has hopefully served me well for the unofficial Fianium GP in 4 hours time and counting…

When the wheels come off…

Brett GaskinLeave a comment

Date: 27th February 2015
Track: Teamsport Gosport
My PB at this track (before this session): 29.956s
Best lap time this session: 30.599s

As my wife was out for the evening for her leaving party, I thought what better time to do a spot of karting. Speaking to the guys at the front desk, they expected me to top the timing boards on the night, but I wasn’t too sure.

I was first out of the pits in the first session and after a spot of warming my kart up (it hadn’t been used in the previous session, so felt very slippery at first) I started accelerating over the bridge to get up to full speed before the start-finish line. As I prepared to turn into the first corner, I saw a kart coming head-on at me! It turns out that when the other driver came out of the pits, she had turned left instead of carrying straight on.

The track seemed very busy; a number of yellow flags were shown throughout the three sessions, which does nothing for consistency and there was a LOT of overtaking to be done each lap, also compromising my lap times. My fastest lap in the first session was a disappointing 32.5s, but I did top the timesheet. In hindsight, that wasn’t the worst time that I could have pulled out – 11th place had a best lap of 51s.

I had a good chat with the duty manager at the track between the first two sessions and chatted about the upcoming karting with my colleagues at work. There will be 12 karts on track that day and there were lots of concerns that the track will be too busy for proper racing. But the manager wasn’t concerned (as I am a member and I wouldn’t organise it with people who will be crashing all the while) and actually was looking forward to it!

The second session started with me leaving the pits in kart 7, but finishing in kart 11! I wasn’t particularly happy with the response of the kart after the first corner; I tried to turn into the hairpin under the bridge, and had to turn the steering wheel over 90 degrees to get any sort of movement (normally, just a twitch of the steering can start the kart turning in to that corner). I thought that I would just have to drive through the “problem”, so I continued to struggle around the track with lap times ranging from the low 32s to very slow 38 second laps (where I literally had to wrestle the kart around the corners). I persevered until the end of lap 7.

Coming down from the bridge, I heard a clunk and then massive vibrations started to go through the kart. I slowed down and looked at the wheels, but everything looked fine. It was only when I sped up that I noticed that the front right wheel wasn’t going round and round, but wobbling side to side! I drove as carefully as I could back around to the pits to park that kart and get into another. It was almost a seamless change (hats off to the marshals tonight), but this was a true spare; the engine was only started when I pulled into the pit lane, so it being cold was an understatement. Anyway, I warmed this kart up the best I could with the limited time remaining and amazingly, set the fastest lap of the session again (a 31.3).

I had a bit of a chat with lots of different people in the break between session two and three and also had a bit of time to myself. I felt very relaxed having topped the leaderboard in the first two races and set out to have some fun in the final session. It started off quite messy and stop-start with the interruptions of yellow and red flags, but I totally blitzed it. Overtaking isn’t easy at the Gosport track, but I was finding new ways to pass at every corner (my favourite manoeuvre was going around the outside of the wide hairpin under the bridge in order to pass another driver). I managed to post the fastest lap of the evening in this race, a 30.5s lap.

I really enjoyed the evening and I will remember it as the night of many firsts; the first time I have encountered someone driving the wrong way on the track, the first time I have had a kart malfunction, the first time I have overtaken so many people (and not get overtaken on the track myself) and the first time I have topped the timing sheets three times in a row.

On another note, I hope that I can grab someone with a camera to do some photography during my upcoming practice sessions (for the blog) and also the unofficial company karting event that I have organised on the 14th March.