Round Three - Weston Park 27th June 1998
Practise :- The craft after a few weeks available for preparation was very smart with a new skirt and I had flow coated the earlier repairs to give a pretty good finish. On the first lap of practise I destroyed this, when the engine sagged just when I needed full power into the transition. The craft just dug into the bank and smashed the GRP on the right front corner and ripping several new segments. The rest of the practise was spent in the paddock doing temporary repairs. About an hour before the first race we had time to look at the engine. Not finding anything obvious and being very nervous about another piston going we decided to change the engine for the standard spare engine.
We just failed to get to the grid but we all (Dad me and Mum as well as additional help from Eric Scotney, Tim Shaw and Mr Shaw Snr) got the craft going as they went past after the first lap. The paddock marshall (Roy) takes no prisoners - as I was blasting out of the paddock at full power - I got stopped for a lanyard check. To Dad's embarrassment he did not tighten the power valve cam bolt in the engine change and I spent a lap and a half trying to race and do up with my fingers the allen bolt behind me on an engine doing 10,000 rpm. Half a lap before before the end of the race and qualifying points the power valve was completely out of adjustment and it would hardly run at all, so I had to stop.
A test sesssion that evening had me running flat out at 10,000rpm constantly for more than 5 minutes without a hitch. We did no more than put a cover on the machine overnight and refuel it the following day to find it hopelessly down on power and cutting out - Frustrating Season!
Race 1 :(Written by Luke Sedzikowski)
We lined up on the grid, I was in pole, Simon Kearle was in second, Eddie was meant to be in third (but was still in the paddock) and Mark Coles fourth.
The lights went green, and we were off, Mark and I were fighting for first position with Simon Kearle following closely behind. I got the lead and went up round the buoys and towards the land. Mark and Simon were now fighting, but Mark had the edge on power so he pulled away on the straight. I passed the start line and I saw Eddie joining the race late, he over took Simon Oakley and then on the next lap stopped.
I had quite a lead at this point so I eased off a bit, then I saw the last lap board and with Simon Kearle gaining on me I sped up to take the chequered flag.
The results for this race were:
Luke Sedzikowski 1st
Simon Kearle 2nd
Mark Coles 3rd
Simon Oakley 4th
Race 2 :- I made the grid for this - whoopee. Actually it was good fun as we ended up playing musical chairs as the grid layout had excluded Simon Kearle on the front row. When the marshalls sorted this out on the "2 minute hold" board we had a raz around the starting grid shuffling positions - nice seeing the start marshalls get blown away!
Luke took off first from the grid Mark Coles second and me doing my now usual trick of barging through from the back of the grid. That is how the race continued with me making no headway from third as the engine was terrible, down on power and cutting out. On the last lap but one Luke lost a whole load of segments from the rear of his craft. I don't know how that happened but it meant he could hardly steer straight and was down on speed. Mark Coles caught him and went on to win his first race I think.
The final race results I am not too sure about. I know that Mark was first, Luke second, me third then Simon Kearle. The remainder of the field including a new team (Wilson) I will get more info on at the next meeting
This is Team Wilson having the same sort of landing that I had which destroyed a corner of the craft
Similar picture but here Luke is virtually off the racing line to the left to get the smoother transition
There are more Junior entries and closer racing than for a while.
Mark Coles has one of the few craft to use Joystick steering.
