Chasin' the Ace..

 

Tuesday 21^st of February

Chase the Ace Round 2 is only a week away, and I’ve just booked in for my first BRKC round down in Bournemouth on the 10^th March. My rival from CTA RD1 Darren Pearce has also entered, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on each others performances in what will be for both of us our first outdoor night race.

I had a pleasant surprise earlier in the month for my birthday when I got a brand new Alpinestars race suit, to replace my well-used red item. My previous suit has seen better days after five years of use, and I'm looking forward to giving the new one plenty of the same over the coming months. It’s actually a slightly higher spec than my last one too, and with its subtle black and grey colour scheme, it should mean I'm a little more under-the-radar than my old ‘Santa’ suit allowed me to be!

Helmets and race wear are things that have always interested me, and I like being able to pick out the differences between each brand (A little geekish I admit, something that goes back to my childhood days of comparing football boots and goalkeeper gloves) and it was interesting to see how a mid-range kart suit has changed over the last five years. Of particular note was the material used in the stretch lumbar panel on the lower back, the degree of movement allowed by the ‘floating’ arms, and the mesh material used on the inner arms and legs, replacing what had been basically cotton in my last suit, something that did a great job of absorbing moisture, exactly what you don't need during a 45 minute race! I was also treated to some new gloves, balaclava and socks, so I’ll be sure to let you know how they perform. Like they say, if you look the part, you feel the part, and I’ve always found there’s a certain psychological aspect to having a decent looking suit and helmet, even if you do get mocked a little by the Arrive and Drive ‘Billy’s’ who cant even work out which way round a race suit goes!

Chase the Ace Round 2 – February 27^th 2012

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. One of the downsides of any rental/hire kart series is that at some point, you will end up with a kart that isn’t the class of the field. Corporate karts get a hard life in general, being used from everything from kid’s birthdays to Stag-do’s, and it’s unreasonable to expect equal performance across a field of ten karts or so. There’s a fair amount of luck involved, but it’s the same for everybody so I can’t really complain. The best way for me to sum it would be to say that if in Round 1 I was driving the equivalent of a Mercedes or Force India, today I was in a Williams.

Ten drivers were entered for Round 2, all familiar faces with the notable absence of young hotshot Chris Woolen. Practice began at 7.45pm after a short drivers briefing and the kart numbers allocation. I’d drawn number 7, which I was happy with as it meant the kart we’d use for the qualifying lap would at least be warmed up, and during the initial practice in my race kart I felt that the handling was pretty good. Looking back over the times, all ten drivers were covered by only a second, with my best time being a reasonable 35.816, despite being stuck behind Andy Frankham for the entire session.

At this point, I really should have seen the writing on the wall. I think I was led into a false sense of security having felt the kart was driving pretty well, and putting down the fact I was behind Andy at the end down to him being a pretty handy defensive driver. That, and Luke ‘The Ace’ John had started behind me in the practice and also hadn’t got past. With the times being so close, I was confident of another good race, but looking back its pretty obvious Luke was probably just taking it easy, and even with Andy’s defensive driving, I should have blown past him at the first opportunity. During the session I noticed Andy Taylor pull into the pits for what turned out to be a kart change, as he wasn’t happy with his allocation. In hindsight, I wish I’d done the same…

Qualifying actually went well for a change, the kart used being ultra-twitchy but again, it was the same for everyone, and I posted a 36.328 lap that put me 5^th on the grid, directly behind Luke who’d qualified third. Again I had reason to be pretty happy because all the ‘odd’ numbers start on the inside of the track, so you’re usually at an advantage going into the first corner.

I made my customary clean start and slotted in behind Luke, but after a couple of laps was passed by a flying Zoltan, who then proceeded to blitz past Luke. I tried in vain to hang onto them, but after about 12 laps they were already a handful of seconds down the road.

A lot of drivers including Andy and Darren made their stops very early on in the race, whereas I chose to stay out longer in a hope of being able to make up some time. However, my kart was already feeling ‘laggy’, especially down the main straight, and by the time Id stopped I went from 5^th to 8^th, where I remained for the rest of what was a fairly uneventful race. As happens sometimes in this type of event, I found myself seemingly at the opposite end of the circuit to almost everyone else, circulating on my own, with a kart that was gradually feeling less and less powerful (it was now really bad on the climb up to the flyover too) with the only moment coming when the top two drivers came through to lap me. This was an indication of my poor performance as I’ve never been lapped during a Chase the Ace round, and as I tried to overcompensate from the karts lack of power, I started to let mistakes creep in, which just lost me more time.

It’s a common mistake to make when you’re underperforming, as you try to outdrive the ability of the kart and yourself, and all you usually do is end up going slower.

A few laps after the 30 minute board had gone out, showing there was only a quarter of an hours racing left, I slowly began to creep up on the fight for 5^th, 6^th and 7^th, but I knew I was only really gaining because they were fighting pretty intensely, and I estimate that I was probably about three seconds down on Darren when the chequered flag fell.

Luke had a late race collision with then-third placed man Lee Morris, which dropped him onto the final step of the podium, and gave winner Dan Morris a massive lead at the end. My misery was further compounded when I saw that I’d only managed the 9^th fastest lap of the race, almost a tenth down on Andy Frankham’s time, and with little by way of positive note, I headed home that evening to dissect my race and pour over the final results printout. To say I was hugely disappointed was an understatement. I was now tied on 20 points with Dan in the championship standings, and knew Id have to raise my game next time if I had any chance of finishing in the top 5 come the final standings.

Here’s a short write-up of Round 2 by series organiser Ben Hershbein…

The hotly anticipated second round of Chase the Ace certainly didn’t disappoint

with the single lap qualifying session setting up a fantastic grid for the 45 minute race.

After a good clean start current Ace Luke John uses his 30 second compulsory pit-stop early on to attempt an overlap by lapping as fast as he could in clear air, however, Dan Morris matched his times and was quick through the back markers. He was followed in by Brother Lee Morris when he made his stop and they both pipped Luke John to re-join in the lead. Luke Managed to pass Lee and they were both catching race leader Dan when they tangled and gave Dan a lead that proved unobtainable.

Round two proved to be the closest in Chase the Ace history, with a great battle between Gergely and Zoltan. A thrilling mid-field scrap between Andy Taylor, Darren Pearce and Ben Churchill with Andy Frankham and Adii Soos close over the line. The race reached a climax with all drivers finishing within six seconds of another driver!! We all look forward to round three.