SILVERSTONE - RACE DAY 18/10/2010
This time the Team raced with a different championship called Monoposto. The largest single seater race club in the uk. We raced at the Silverstone circuit, Northamptonshire's home of motorsport . This was a bigger and different challenge for Karl, having previously raced in a smaller class of equally matched cars. Karl entered the mono 1000 class, which has a range of different manufactures cars, only categorised by engine capacity and weight not divided by age of the engine, but still in accordance with normal MSA racing regulations. Mono's regulations are much more flexible than the Formula Jedi Factory Championship for which Karl built his car when he raced last time in club class which is determined by the engines age. The Newer types of engines with twice as many injectors, rev higher and produce far more horse power and torque than Karl's engine that is just one year outside that specification. They are more powerful even before any extensive tuning work is carried out that is also permitted in Monoposto but not in Formula Jedi. This means in Monoposto, Karl's car with it's standard engine was possibly less tuned and less powerful than any other car in his class. This time the MONO Grid was made up of 3 classes... - 1800cc Car engine class - 1000cc Bike engined Class - 1400cc Class has a bigger cc version of the similar hi - reeving bike engines, but with an extra 300 or 400 cc even with a 40 kg heavier weight limit - those cars are very quick in a straight line. The team entered knowing Karl would struggle against superior machinery, to add the lack of Karl's race experience, also having never even tested at Silverstone before. DAY 1 - Qualifying We went out on slicks like most did.. The tarmac was damp, greasy and cold which stops the slicks heating up enough which have no way to disperse any puddles of water. So with very low down force (lower than we had ever run before) and stiff suspension. The car was to agile and very difficult to control running on a dry set up. These cars only weigh about 310kg and our car will rev to almost 12'000 rpm which will power us.. - 0 - 60 mph under 3 sec's and - 0 -100 in approximately 5 sec's - with a Top speed of up to 150 mph Hence the challenge with limited traction in bad weather. The quickest guys in qualifying were on the wet tyres but that could have been the wrong choice as there was not a lot of water to keep the wets at the correct temperature and just towards the end of qualifying it started to dry out a bit but the wet obviously worked . DAY 1 - Race We put on some more 'main' rear wing down force similar to what we had always run before. However we were all praying the rain would not start while we were waiting to get on the grid for the race to start. It did rain, although this time we were all running on slick tyres in Mono 1000, some of the 1800 cars were running wets. Karl wished we had softened his suspension settings. The car did feel much better but the conditions were so tricky for a new driver on the wrong tyres. To much risk of damaging the car whilst racing wheel to wheel. Karl said " the car was less planted than driving with wets in heavy rain 1st time out at Rockingham." Karl was not very happy with his results on day 1, as the much more experienced drivers took more risks and pushed harder. Karl knows when the cars is not right and also how to make it better. When the weather conditions change so the set up is not suitable it is very tricky, that's when the experience of the other drivers really starts to show. Every time something new like this happens Karl and his team learn a lot and take note. The main thing is we got some time in the seat and the car ran with out a problem. DAY 2 - Qualifying Dry Track, We took off some down force, results show Karl was 15 sec's a lap quicker - karl was confident with the set up of the car. DAY 2 - Race FIRST DRY RACE EVER! Wheel spin at the start, Karl soon made up the positions he lost at the start into the first corner. Over taking 2 more cars, he battled with a very similar MK6 R1 JEDI that had a tuned engine right up until the last couple of laps where Karl gained that postion too. RESULTS Qualified Day 1 - 20th overall out of 28 cars Race DAY 1 - finished 22nd out of 28 cars Qualified Day 2 - 16th overall out of 29 cars - 11th postion in Mono 1000 class Race DAY 2 - finished 13th overall out of 29 cars - 9th position in Mono 1000 class Karl and the team were very pleased with the car and the result, taking away some new experience too. This is actually a better result than finishing 3rd in Jedi club class 1st time out at Rockingham. If you can get you head around how the results read. Karl hopes to keep improving and if he does fingers crossed, we might see some trophies at a level of what can be the fastest pace form of circuit racing at national club level, before race budgets reach epic professional levels. We are already limited by our present engines performance, although we know we can still find some more sec's with practice, We would like to progress with a new engine in a more competitive fashion rather than just battling at our own personal bests but not having enough power to challenge for race podium positions. Karl will now look to possibly install an un-tuned more recent engine to be more competitive in MONO 1000 and hopes to still be eligible for the Factory Jedi Championship in it's bigger championship class moving out of the Jedi club class. Racing in a larger class is where Karl feels he is achieving more, even if it's more difficult to reach podium positions. The progress he is making suggests he might be competitive with more practice and the right machinery.. We would Like to thank WILCO MOTOR SPARES (consumables) and Fast Fit Tyres in Kettering for fitting our slicks tyres. Congratulations to the formula Jedi Championship which is run by the manufactures in Wellingborough in which a driver broke the out right fastest recorded lap time at Cadwell Park for the second time recently. All statistics based on information provided not our own data. Comments Your comment will be posted after it is approved. Leave a Reply | Click for Comments Above Topics!Please
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