Mike practiced Saturday on the TEC-MEC Banshee chassis and was half a second quicker than the others, so it looked good for a win on Sunday. but then felt iil. His mechanic Danny Allin took the chassis out for the final test session, and then drove it on Sunday to a creditable 9th in Mikes place.
Mike will now have lost the lead in the championship, but will drop this round, so is still effectively leading it after dropped rounds. This week is the next two rounds of the Motors TV Championship at Glan-y-Gorse in North Wales. The last time Mike drove there he won the British Open. so he likes the track.
Monday, 28 May 2007
Monday, 21 May 2007
SUPER 1 ROUND 3 RESULT
Typical Rowrah weather kept the teams guessing all weekend on final settings. During Friday testing, Mike proved he was one of the quickest drivers. Saturday testing on a new set of tyres showed Mike to be almost a second off the pace. A new set were purchased and Mike found the lost time.
Qualifying on the tyres supplied for the meeting showed Mike had another poor set, and struggled. Unfortunately those tyres had to be used on Sunday, so Mike had a real problem to over come. He won heat 4 and gained places in the other two heats, to make the main final, where he was 13th. The benefit of a good set of tyres was that some drivers were lapping in 49.6 seconds, while Mike was 50.1 nearly half a second slower. The advantage was getting less as the day passed so Mike still had high hopes of a podium As the chart shows, Mike quickly moved passed the others to be in 7th after just 4 laps, with 12 to go and the podium beckoning. Despite having a new chain and sprocket and with a chain guard and sprocket protectors, Rowrah is in an old quarry, and a sharp stone managed to find its way between the chain and the sprocket ripping the chain into two and ending Mikes challenge.
A positive to come out of the meeting was that Mike drove the Banshee version of the TEC-MEC for the first time, and it performed very well in the changing conditions and should be excellent for the next round in a months time at Buckmore Park in Kent. Having won his first Super 1 heat at Senior level. Mike now races at Whilton Mill this weekend, where he hopes to retain his championship lead.
Saturday, 19 May 2007
SUPER 1 AT ROWRAH ROUND 3 19TH&20TH MAY
Just a quick update for May, as Mike has been doing some driver coaching since the last meeting at Whilton. It was decided that Kimbolton would now be used as a test meeting and last weekend, until the meeting was washed out, Mike assisted Billy Baxter on his spare TEC-MEC.
The previous weekend, the TEC-MEC chassis were at Rissington being tested by potential customers and they performed well, so hopefully all the good performances Mike has achieved are now paying off in new chassis sales.
All the Klaasson Motorsport team will now be using the TEC-MEC chassis for the rest of 2007, and hopefully beyond, as new developments are on their way. Firstly the Banchee will be tested at Rowrah, as will a different brake system, to offer an alternative feel. The current version is fine for seniors, but junior drivers find it hard work, so this will be attended to as part of the testing planned.
Hopefully a full report of Rowrah will follow once the team returns on Sunday night.
The previous weekend, the TEC-MEC chassis were at Rissington being tested by potential customers and they performed well, so hopefully all the good performances Mike has achieved are now paying off in new chassis sales.
All the Klaasson Motorsport team will now be using the TEC-MEC chassis for the rest of 2007, and hopefully beyond, as new developments are on their way. Firstly the Banchee will be tested at Rowrah, as will a different brake system, to offer an alternative feel. The current version is fine for seniors, but junior drivers find it hard work, so this will be attended to as part of the testing planned.
Hopefully a full report of Rowrah will follow once the team returns on Sunday night.
Monday, 30 April 2007
BRAZILIAN CUP - WHILTON MILL - APRIL 2007
This is a charity event organised by Whilton annually because there are 5 weeks available this April, so the club use the extra week to good effect. The event attracted a smaller than normal field, but most who attended in the TKM classes were front runners in both MotorsTV and the Super 1 National Championship. As current championship leader, Mike was expected to be a leading contender, and didn't let the spectators down.
The format was different, with a timed qualifying where Mike was last, as his spark plug failed on his second lap, follwed by a 30 lap pre-final and the proper Final. Starting from the back of the grid in the Pre-Final, Mike managed to get to 5th place, which was as good as we wanted. At Whilton you don't want places 2 or 4 as you always get pushed out onto the grass. It's a weakness of the circuit and something that should be addressed.
As anticipate in the final, Karts in positions 2 & 4 didn't make the first bend, and Mike was soon into second place. Karts in positions 4 & 6 made a chain of 5 Karts for the first 10 laps, with places changing on a regular basis. The final lasted over 30 laps, which is twice the normal race distance and over 20 minutes of driving at or near lap record pace.
With such close racing, it was all down to mechanical reliability and driver fitness. The first 'package' to fail was a chain guard on Luke Caudles Kart. He received the mechanical flag and after a few laps came into the pits. We believe this is the first time Luke has been beaten at the circuit this year. By then Mike was back in front and looking to gain a well earned victory, but unfortunately he sucummed to a late braking move by Will Reed with about 10 laps to go, which snapped a bumper bolt.
The bumper was secured to the chassis by a tie wire, so couldn't fall off, but it did affect the handling, and he dropped to forth. With 3 laps to go and no change to the bumper, Mike was then given a mechanical warning. According to the rules he had 3 laps in which to come in and get it checked. The final flag was produced, and Mike checked by the scrutineers and passed. By this stage Mike had dropped back to forth, so was off the podium, so no pictures I am affraid.
Then to his suprise and that of his manager David Klaassen he was called to the Clerks office!
After 20 minutes of a debate where the Clerk made several wrong assumptions and conclusions, he fabricated a reason for Mike to be excluded and given 4 points. This was in the opinion of the team and his fellow competitors totally out of order, particularly at a Charity event. I would have been worth protesting at a National level, but as the appeal money would have gone to the MSA rather than the Charity, Mike just accepted it as fate.
We do find it strange that in the 5 years of Karting, Mike has only ever received points at Whilton, and never for bad driving, while he has been removed from races a number of times and no one has ever been called up to account for their poor driving.
It's silly actions like this that make you wonder why you do it, and when you see clubs struggling for entrants. More to the point actions like this don't help to encourace new blood. Spectators were bemused why Mike was excluded as at no time was the bumper dangerous and he came in after seeing the flag twice. Any more poor decisions like this and Karting will be one driver less in 2008, or possibly even sooner if luck like this continues!
We now have a two week break before the next round of Super 1, as Mike has decided to drop doing the club rounds at Kimbolton and probably at Whilton in future as the risk of gaining more silly points out weighs the benefits of winning a club championship.
The format was different, with a timed qualifying where Mike was last, as his spark plug failed on his second lap, follwed by a 30 lap pre-final and the proper Final. Starting from the back of the grid in the Pre-Final, Mike managed to get to 5th place, which was as good as we wanted. At Whilton you don't want places 2 or 4 as you always get pushed out onto the grass. It's a weakness of the circuit and something that should be addressed.
As anticipate in the final, Karts in positions 2 & 4 didn't make the first bend, and Mike was soon into second place. Karts in positions 4 & 6 made a chain of 5 Karts for the first 10 laps, with places changing on a regular basis. The final lasted over 30 laps, which is twice the normal race distance and over 20 minutes of driving at or near lap record pace.
With such close racing, it was all down to mechanical reliability and driver fitness. The first 'package' to fail was a chain guard on Luke Caudles Kart. He received the mechanical flag and after a few laps came into the pits. We believe this is the first time Luke has been beaten at the circuit this year. By then Mike was back in front and looking to gain a well earned victory, but unfortunately he sucummed to a late braking move by Will Reed with about 10 laps to go, which snapped a bumper bolt.
The bumper was secured to the chassis by a tie wire, so couldn't fall off, but it did affect the handling, and he dropped to forth. With 3 laps to go and no change to the bumper, Mike was then given a mechanical warning. According to the rules he had 3 laps in which to come in and get it checked. The final flag was produced, and Mike checked by the scrutineers and passed. By this stage Mike had dropped back to forth, so was off the podium, so no pictures I am affraid.
Then to his suprise and that of his manager David Klaassen he was called to the Clerks office!
After 20 minutes of a debate where the Clerk made several wrong assumptions and conclusions, he fabricated a reason for Mike to be excluded and given 4 points. This was in the opinion of the team and his fellow competitors totally out of order, particularly at a Charity event. I would have been worth protesting at a National level, but as the appeal money would have gone to the MSA rather than the Charity, Mike just accepted it as fate.
We do find it strange that in the 5 years of Karting, Mike has only ever received points at Whilton, and never for bad driving, while he has been removed from races a number of times and no one has ever been called up to account for their poor driving.
It's silly actions like this that make you wonder why you do it, and when you see clubs struggling for entrants. More to the point actions like this don't help to encourace new blood. Spectators were bemused why Mike was excluded as at no time was the bumper dangerous and he came in after seeing the flag twice. Any more poor decisions like this and Karting will be one driver less in 2008, or possibly even sooner if luck like this continues!
We now have a two week break before the next round of Super 1, as Mike has decided to drop doing the club rounds at Kimbolton and probably at Whilton in future as the risk of gaining more silly points out weighs the benefits of winning a club championship.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
WHILTON MILL APRIL TABLE AND FINAL RESULTS
Please find here the link to the Whilton Mill site. Rather than copy and paste it, its much more accurate to use their file. Interesting to note the lap times in the Final, which were very similar to Super 1 times, so Whilton Mill is was obviously attracting a very good field of drivers.
Monday, 23 April 2007
WHILTON MILL ROUND 4 APRIL 2007
Sadly a familiar sight on Sunday was Mike pushing his Kart! Once again, Mike was the quickest in practice on Saturday and although he was using it as a test session for next weeks Brazilian Cup, he was pleased to be going so quickly on tyres he had used in the last two rounds of Motors TV. The lap record is 39 seconds, and Mike was consistently doing laps of 39.2 all day.With his main rivals Luke Caudle and Martyn Lyall not at the meeting, Mike was just focussed on getting more points than Lewis Scouthern in order to stay on top of the championship table. In the first heat Mike started last and had overtaken half the field, when he was driven off the track. The picture above shows him starting again, but at the back. In heat two he led from the flag and pulled out a large lead and set the fastest time of the day. In the final heat he started towards the back, but came through to 4th within the 8 laps, so was placed 10th for the final. Lewis had ended up in the B final. but drove well to win that and be placed in the A final with Mike.
At the start there was the usual TKM pushing from the back, and while Lewis came through from 30th to 13th, Mike dropped down to 12th to avoid the carnage about him. He then proceeded to work his way through the field, slowly dropping Lewis as he and fellow Super 1 driver Lloyd Ellison worked together cutting back the leaders. Mike said that the plan was to assist Lloyd to get to the front and then to challenge him if time allowed. Sadly with half the race to go, and the leaders just a few kart lengths ahead, the ignition failed and left him stranded. A podium was a certainty and victory probable. Without Mikes support Lloyd then came under attack and an overtaking move took him out. Lewis took advantage of the two places he gained and now it will be a close decision as to who officially leads the championship. The table will be posted as soon as it becomes available.
Let us hope that Mikes luck will return next week.
Thanks go to Dave Klaassen, who acted as mechanic for him at short notice. Best wishes to Danny Allin, who is recovering in hospital following an accident at work and to Jeff for keeping the team organised and on task. Once again the TEC-MEC was the chassis to be on, with young Billy Baxter also driving one very quickly this weekend. Mikes dad has now recovered so he can now drive, so hopefully his return to the circuit next weekend will bring Mike the luck he needs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)