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Hi all,

I snatched my brother in law’s, B’mer to bring her for a short spin over to Kiltorcan racetrack while the 944 still awaits my attention/time to resurrect her for this season as I rolled out from our yard.

The weather stood well for the season it is and we were looking forward to a great day of Karting. Our local’s Joe and Shane and Stephan had already arrived and where engaged in conversation with Brian fresh from his hollier’s in Spain as I pulled up at the venue. Bob wasn’t coming for this race as he is still nursing sore ribs from the Charity endurance karting some three weeks ago where he broke some of his and I was a little worried how I would fare with mine as I was also carrying some pain from the same event.

Our Members and friends kept arriving with 911’s old and young and it was breathless to see them all well and polished up for the day by their owners. Dave D. arrived with Wife and Children, while Michael was still making his way as Ted F. arrived and Paul with son fresh from a rugby match. Andy who now is a regular to the Karting scene only had a few miles to travel to the venue while Anthony with Rob and Ben with his Brother Eugene arrived in their red 911 and 911 Targa gleaming in the sun. All in all 14 drivers presented and 13 of them where Porsche Club Members which I am really happy of as more and more of our PCI-Members avail of one of the cheapest and one of the most exciting way of competitive racing.

At two o’clock we where led to the karts not before the drivers briefing where plenty of friendly banter was hurled by the owner and former Irish Karting champion Toni as well as participants just to get us in the right mood. Whereby pore Joe had to suffer most of it, as he doesn’t weigh all that much and foregone conclusion was he would drive away with it and so it was decided to keep an eye on him. (Hehehe)

Phillip the son of the owner was taking photo’s as we hurled ourselves through the corners in the practice and qualifying session. There were no incidents to report as we all were getting used to the speed of the karts the best way to carry ourselves around the track and our race lines. When the chequered flag was dropped at the end of the practice session we were allocated our grit position according to our qualifying times for the final.

David in P1, Brian P2, Joe P3, myself P4, Michael P5, Andy P6, and so on Paul who could only join us late had to take last, but do forgive me as I may not have the correct start positions of the race as I like all of us were looking forward to the race and could not always recognize the face inside the helmet.

With the chequered flag being dropped we all had the pedal to the metal and where juggling for positions strait away as Dave with Brian and Joe took up to the top and myself and Michael trying to get the better of each other with me being lucky to hang on for the time being. I could not see what the situation was behind me as we all came through the first lap without any incident, only for the second lap to cost positions for myself and Rob who had a spin and myself had a slide to the right in turn 11 that almost buried me in the gravel but I could luckily recover quickly and continue the race but losing two positions. I was all attack at that stage as I could see my friend’s right ahead of me and gained on them reasonable well hoping to overtake them easily. I had to stay behind a couple of laps before I could make a move in the last turn coming up to the start/finish line. Luckily I think I took both of them and chased after Michael who was now ahead of me as I was gathering pace.

It was most of it smooth for the next 7 laps only with Joe having a slow lap by his standards in lap 8 for reasons not known to me, as I had another skid myself in turn 9 while I was snapping at Michaels heals and my attack minded driving made contact with him and thereby I put myself in a spin and lost gained positions again. I could not help but laugh at myself as I found Anthony and Stephen I think where passing me by as I pointed in the opposite direction. So the chase was on again as I tried to recover positions, while Brian had to recover his kart from the gravel he just was after lodging himself in lap 11. During lap 13 I had another skid after a tingle tangle from which I could not recover and it was almost a lost cause for me then even by gaining track on Anthony but not being able to pass him as I run out of laps and so we ended an exciting race with the following classifications.

David D. run in 1st with a spectacular solid drive, followed by Joe who scored the fastest lap with 1:00.826, Ben D. with a fantastic drive in 3rd , Eugene with just 1.14 seconds behind in 4th, followed closely again by Rob who recovered well from his 2nd lap incident and playing his Joker in this race finishing 5th, closely followed by Brian about 0.73 seconds in 6th , Michael with a classic continuous solid drive a little behind in 7th, Andy with his best time in the 13th lap time of 1:01.888 in 8th, Stephan finishing with a solid drive in 9th, closely followed by Anthony in 10th, myself with Antony in my sight finishing in 11th, Shane who followed me in close in 12th, Paul who had a spin in lap 16 costing him valuable time in 13th and Ted finishing an honourable 14th.

Who can tell me it isn’t exciting racing with incidents without any harm to anyone and everybody giving their best competitive action in this event. I can only praise my fellow Kart racers and thank them without whom it wouldn’t have been a fantastic race day. After short celebrations a couple of photo’s and a bit of banter we split with some heading back to Dublin and about 10 of us went for a bite to eat in the Hotel of the next village.

Just two changes/inclusions we made to the classifications for round two of the PCI-Championship. One we decided to implement one Joker a season whereby anyone can declare before the race to me that he or she would like to play his on this event which will double his/her point score on the day. Second we have also awarded 2 extra points for the fastest lap of the day. We are hoping it will invite some more anticipation and excitement in the leader board and for now is on a trial period of three race days and is being reviewed after that time.

The Leader board in the PCI-Karting Championship 2011 after 2nd round is as follows:

 

1st Joe Gr. 24 points including 2 points for fastest lap in Round 2

2nd Brian K. 18 points

3rd David D. 17 points

4th Rob 16 points including his Joker in Round 2, so double point score.

5th Bob C. 15 points

6th Anthony S. 10 points

6th Ben D. 10 points

7th Michael D. 9 points

8th Andy L. 7 points

9th Connie 6 points

9th George 6 points

10th Stephan W. 3 points

11th Ciaran Fl. 1 point

It does throw a completely different light on the leader board with the changes in the points system it should make the rest of the season an interesting affair with plenty of tactics and racing to come.

I cannot wait for the next one and hope to see you all again for an action packed session in round 3 at Pallas Karting in Co. Galway on Sunday the 22nd of May.

In the meantime I would like to thank everyone who made considerable efforts to make this a fantastic day out again.

Hope to see you soon

Many thanks, George


10/04/2011