FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[7UpJordan]

Good luck to you mate, your rivals will be running scared when they see your 2010 kart.

[Sam-KK24]

Some photos from today, with some previous karts.. aswell as a new one!

2004 snap


2008 Snap


2008 Snap.


Kart yesterday: In the process of being built


Kart finally ready to go!

[7UpJordan]

Excellent stuff! I bet you can't wait to get her out on track.

[vaptin]

Good luck!

[Sam-KK24]

Time for a mega update I think!

April

Scottish Championships Round 1: Debut on the new kart, new tyres were terrible. New tyres now produced without a chemical now, much slower (0.5 a lap) was running 5th in the final, all over 4th and 3rd. then the Chainguard came off, had to come in to replace it and by the time I rejoined with a lap to go I was in 12th. So that put me 6th in the Championship, 32 points behind the leader and almost out of the championship after only 1 round.

May

Larkhall Club Meeting: Problems all weekend with engine and powervalve. In testing showed shades of good pace, and looked quite confident in the 28 kart strong field.. with a few top 10 British drivers there. Went 6th fastest in the warm up and was very happy, then it all went wrong. Motor started playing up and I lost lots of time with no drive, I finished the Final in 12th, although I was in 7th for a lot of the running until the engine actually died on the straight.. I did well to finish there. Just to note, the leader of the Scottish Championships was there (he won every race at Round 1) and he finished 4th, 2 tenths quicker than anyone else. Hopefully this shows that the Scottish Championship is quite a strong field

Scottish Championship Round 2: Had more motor issues in the morning practice, but eventually got them all sorted and was easily in the top 5 (17 entered) I qualified 4th in Quali, 3 tenths off pole, but only 1 tenth of 2nd. Quite confident with that, I started P4 for Heat 1, and finished 3rd in a troublefree run to the flag.
Heat 2 I started third and moved into second into turn one. I applied some pressure on the championship leader who was leading and we pulled away from the back. I couldnt quite get close enough, but I finished only 0.12 seconds behind him, with 3rd place 3.42 seconds behind. Lots of people were talking about my performance after the race, as it was one of the closest that anyone has got to beating him in a very long time, so was quite pleased with that.

Final: started 2nd, tried to round the outside into turn 1 but didnt work and slotted into 2nd. the Leader (and championship leader) had put on his best motor and pulled away quite a bit from me and cruised to victory, while I was in an easy 2nd and strolled home for my first podium in the Senior class, in only my third race this season

I was pleased with the result in the end, especially with the calibre of driver I'm up against. The leader has yet to lose a race (each event has Quali, Heat 1, Heat 2, Final) and he's yet to score a point (lowest score wins) so its quite incredible really. He's 2x Scottish Champion, once in junior and once in senior (and he's been in snr for 3 years now) and he's been seeded in Britain too. Saying that, I've had to race at my two worst tracks so far, and I think we will only go from strength to strength in the final 2 rounds!

You may also be interested to note that I have just purchased an onboard camera, and all footage will be made available on youtube!

[texasmr2]

Nice update Sam thanks and all things considered it seems your doing quite well, can't wait to see some onboard footage .

tex

[Sam-KK24]

I've not been this annoyed about a race weekend in a long, long time. Last weekend was the third and penultimate round of the Scottish Championships at Larkhall.

Friday testing was woeful, 1 puncture and 2 brake failures and struggling a bit for pace. The whole team were getting on about my "over-agressive" driving style which I've had for 7 years, but the new Senior Rotax class with the new tyres don't like my driving style, so I'm in the process of trying to change it. My style was meaning that I was cooking the tyres within two laps and then the tyres would just drop off and I'd lose chunks of time.

Saturday testing wasn't great in the morning but by the end of the day we were there or there about, and I felt quite confident.

Sunday came and like the other two days it was really warm and the sun was out all day. I qualified 4th out of 21, followed up by 3rd in heat 1, 4th in heat 2 and then a terrible 7th in the Final. I would have taken the results if I had been able to get 4th or even 5th in the final. The problem with 7th, was that I lost every race to my closest Championship rival, and with a round to go the Championship is out of my hands. I was in 5th in two laps to go, but as the kart was bogging on the exit of every corner I was vulnerable, and the attack came, and I lost two positions, and effectively ending my championship challenge.

I'm 20 points behind, so i need the leader to DNF once or maybe even twice, and I need to win all the races. I've almost guaranteed myself 2nd in the Championship, which I would have taken at the start of the season, as this is my first year in the senior class, but the way the season has gone I felt I drove better, but some bad luck has once again come to kill my chances. At Round one I was 22 points back, I brought it back to 14, and now its back at 20.

The last round is in September, so we've got a lot of testing planned over Summer, with the aim of finishing the season on a winning high.

Quite funny that some people were noting that I was far up in the heats, so it was nice to see some people note the improvement we're making.

ALSO, for those interested in some on-board footage. [youtube]cXTnW9wbljU[/youtube] [youtube]H28gVBQ5bwg[/youtube] Just some testing footage, but enjoy.

[texasmr2]

[Jabberwocky]

cool

[Hexagram]

I like the on-board stuff.

[Sam-KK24]

Hey guys,

Just a bit of an update, not been racing much, but I'm out this weekend some very fast guys It's the Larkhall club meeting, but the British Championship is there next weekend, so most of them will be up testing this weekend. Should be good to get these guys on a track I know, and hopefully I'll have a trouble free weekend and we can get a good result!

Hopefully will have some video up too

[Sam-KK24]

Poor Weekend. It's a lottery with getting good tyres just now (Massive time difference between good set of slicks and bad - upto 1 second).

I got a pretty poor set, finished the Final in 8th after starting 6th on the outside. I was back in 10th, made some good moves and got upto 7th, but was deposed by one of the English guys midway through the race who held me up a bit, and I made a mistake on the last lap so couldnt go for him again.

It's poor, we've pulled out of the Scottish Open since it's pointess. It's not controlled Tyres, and the Northerners have saved a set of older tyres (much much faster) for the event, so I have no chance. It's a shame, I was really looking forward to it, but thats life.

I only have one more race left this season, the Scottish Championship finale at Crail in September, which is likely to be my final ever race behind the wheel of a kart. Unless I can get some good backing for next year then I can't afford to continue, so it's going to be a tough weekend knowing it will probably be my last.

It's a shame, I've only had 5 races (and I think 3 practice days) this year which is absolutely no seat time, and as of March 2009 I've only had 49 HOURS of seat time. Thats nothing, most of the British Championship guys have done more RACE MEETINGS than I have done HOURS, how can I be expected to compete with them?

So yeah, if anyone is a Millionaire and hasn't told me, now might be a good time? I'm in a pretty shitty position just now

[Sam-KK24]

I just wrote a massive long report from the weekend's Scottish Open, but it just seemed to go missing.

I finished third, despite using what we think may be a twisted chassis.

Very pleased with the weekend, also checked the Scottish Championship standings, cant finish any worse than 2nd now!

Some pics from the weekend (click to enlarge):

[vaptin]

Congratulations, 2nd considering the problems you've and its your Rookie season is quality. Start emailing f3 teams or something, you never know. They might have useful advice, could put you in touch with someone whoes moved on and doesn't need their cart anymore.

[Sam-KK24]

Crail for last round of the championship, I was 20 behind going into it, I needed a miracle

Qualifyed only 11 HUNDREDTHS off pole, but that was 6th place! first time since 2008 I had not grabbed pole at Crail.

Heat 1: Team orders were in force between two brothers, one let the other through then blocked everyone, and even braketested them. He took my mate out, then attempted to take me out when he ran wide, bending my kart in the process so it couldnt turn right. On the 3rd last corner I passed him, then on the penultimate corner he blatently took me out RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OFFICIAL, so I went from 2nd to 4th. This meant that I was now only 17 points behind the championship leader, but it could have been 15 if the right thing had been done. Nothing was done about it, except from a little slap on the wrists, and we were told "if anybody did antything in the following races, we would be going home".

Heat 2: Started P4, Finished P5. I saw red mist at the start and went for a crazy move round the outside that didnt work so fell back to 5th, and then on the next lap the championship leader hit me, I ran wide and lost a place but he got a puncture and retired. My best lap was only 3 tenths off the fastest on a twisted kart, and I finished 5th, which I thought was pretty good considering the cirumstances. In terms of the championship, 5th was not enough and the championship was over. I was only 12 behind going into the last race, but here was only 10 points up for grabs.

Final: I started P5, but by lap 1 I was into 3rd. The front two (who were battling themselves for 3rd in the championship) collided and I took the lead. I was in the lead until 8 laps to go when the Championship leader (and winner in waiting) took the lead. I stayed with him, and I knew my kart was getting better and better, and I took the lead on the penultimate lap. On the final lap he had a go, but it was only a half move that didnt work for him, and he retired.

I won, but was booed coming into the pits, booed when i collected my race trophy and booed when I collected my championship trophy, because of what happened with the championship winner in the final, and what happened in the first heat. I am still furious nothing was done in Heat 1, and I am planning on making a formal complaint to the ASKC and MSA about this, its shocking.

Anyway, here are some pics from the weekend - more to follow, hopefully one of my signature winning celebration















Video of kart being bent - http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=474718875766

Video of podium - http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 4728630766