Toymods go-karting day - Saturday May 1 - Eastern Creek

[RONA]

Awesome day as stated in the WMMH thread, big thanks to Vito for organising it. Definately keen for any future days regardless of the venue.

If I get bored later tonight I may head out to see how the racing is going.

[ZZE92]

Oh yeah, hanging out to see the results sheets online!!

[trdee]

i think pretty much everyone was in the 56'es, with cuzzo posting a 55. the ****

[MR22ZZ]

Yep, just about all of use were running the the 56s by the end. Not bad at all considerring there were only 5 times in the 56s for the entire month of April from the general public... I think this had alot to do with the way the guys marshelled the event, just letting us get on with it, at it was pretty obvious we all knew what we were doing there.

[-GT-]

Haha, sounds like you guys had an awesome day, really wished i'd been able to do it but i'll be at the next one for sure. Thanks Dylan, Cuzzbro, Vilo and Steve for dropping in and saying g'day, sorry i had to dash off for the session and couldn't chat.

We had a great night and were pretty happy with how our practice times were looking - i got in last for the session on the long track so only got 6 or 7 laps to look at it before they put me back in for qualifying, but managed to put it 5th in our division and 26th overall with only 2 clear laps at the end (we were in the slowest of the 3 divisions - 37 karts total). I'd dropped 2 secs off my practice time but that had been one spot up (4th/25th) - everybody cut their time heaps moving to quali, as everyone went to the brand new tyres for the race.

I then got to start the race but as i'm on P licence i had to start back of grid with the rest of the noobs. There was one P in front of me so i was 33rd or something. Cooked the clutch a bit waiting ages for green so got jumped by 3 off the line but got them back first 2 corners, stayed out of a few tangles and also picked up 4 more 1st lap then another couple 2nd lap. Chasing a train of 30-ish karts around that 1700m lap was FREAKING AWESOME.

With a few more spins and a passes i knew i'd climbed back up to about my quali position or a bit better and got on the back of a train of 4 that i was working hard to stay with, challenged a couple but started battling oversteer so couldn't hold them through the fast runs and settled into some clear space.

The oversteer got kinda bad as we had a pretty stiff setup that started to battle as the temp dropped and the dew settled, it was manageable (with plenty of oppy lock at times) but just meant you couldn't drive through the fast stuff - had some great fast drifts down the hire circuit hill and onto the main straight.

Got out after a ~50 min session to find i'd got us into 20th and bettered my quali time by another second! Mick jumped in and ran well but the temp dropped a fair bit more and the times backed off as expected, we consolidated our position well and had a good buffer on either side so was looking like settling in when a fast guy clipped him coming past and took the nosecone off. We lost a couple of laps replacing it and were in 25th/26th for the next two drivers sessions, but had 2-3 laps in front and behind us.

By this stage the fog had rolled in and was getting pretty heavy and the temp had dropped a lot, looked pretty challenging out there and at about 2am i was getting ready to go in for my second session and they yellowed and safety karted it. Was standing in pitlane waiting to driver change and they redflagged it. It was fair enough, you could barely see the corners at the end of the start/finish straight from the hill above the pits, and couldn't see the track behind it at all. Turns out the last guy in was battling pretty bad with visibility and had driven clean over the corner coming out of the turns 1-4 complex as he couldn't see a thing.

They decided to wait until 3:30am to give it a chance to clear but we all knew we weren't getting back out there. They ended up declaring it at 3:30am even though we'd only done just shy of 3hrs (out of 8) when they stopped at 2:20 or so. Packed up, put the track back to normal and got home and into bed about 6am. Had an awesome night and was glad we'd all got 1 full session in the event, but would've been nice to get all the way through. Ended up finishing 26th - had been hopeful of improving that a bit through the night as we'd also fueled first driver change (needed to every 2nd) so we were out of sync with almost everybody else (there was only 2 fuel bays with a timer on the process) and my change was when the rest were due to refuel so i should've picked a lap or two back up as we had done one more at the point they stopped it but still would've been 1 down on the next couple of guys in our division (finished 6th in the division).

Had an awesome event though, and have still pulled up pretty sore (3 practice sessions, 1 quali, 1 race stint) so not sure how i'd've been if we'd gone the full 8hrs. Already keen for the next one though.

Will post a couple of pics up when i get them.

[Cuzzo]

Why didnt they start the race at a sensible time? Say 12:00pm (but then we couldnt have went out )

[-GT-]

Yeah pretty much - meant we could use the full track and the hire stuff was still open all weekend.

[TheStitt]

HAd an awsome time, surprised myself as to how quick I was, had a few epic battles with Tim and another little dude (whose name escape me). I'm still sore now around the legs and back just from rubbing on the seat.


great fun,

how bout white water rafting next

[wagonist]

I'd be in for the white water rafting.

Not sure how I'd go with those kind of karts again. This old body took til at least Mon night to recover.

I was going to come back out latero n to see the enduro, but crashed on the couch with the TV on (about 11pm I reckon) & woke up at 8 to realise I couldn't see the house across the road because of the fog, so I was wondering about the karts.

Funny, the fog is really random at the mo. Clear as on Fri & Sun nights, but thick as on Sat...

[Roundy]

Bah you guys are all soft re. the soreness

Would've liked to have made it, but paying more than it costs me to run my sprint kart for a weekend seemed a bit daft, plus the travel time.

Next time

[-GT-]

Right, all you lot still pumped up from an awesome day's karting, come along to wakefield and have a crack at the bigger version! Cheaper than what you just paid for karting too!

Numbers are low this time around...

[simmosideways]

Haha.. You should have seen the bruises I had yesterday on my hips.. full on looked like i have been hit with a baseball bat at full pelt..

About Wakefield - If we are REALLY down on numbers, I could possibly get a couple of toyotas in there depending on whether or not they can get the money to us on time. I will suss them out. I will be there regardless to watch or possibly run around the track with race chrono in my pocket.

[Cuzzo]

Dont know what you guys are whinging about brusies etc....im was good to go again on sun

[MR22ZZ]

I'm not sure about Sunday, but yesterday I was fine, just a little soreness in the leg that rested on the fuel tank. The bruises on my sides didn't hurt so bad.

[Cuzzo]

Oh and white water rafting effing keen!

Can we also do another karting session but everyone buy a clubman kart and come racing?