20/07/2018
"Silver Linings"
“Failure with a Side of Success” Silver Linings?
Coffs Harbour provided a great new location for SEKQLD to host round 4 of the Championship. Back to our standard driver line-up for this round, nobody had visited the 830m track previously.
Kicking off both teams had great warm up’s on Saturday morning, with qualifying directly following. The 7 kart was able to qualify a respectable 6th, with the 73 counterpart directly behind in 7th, with karts 5-7 all covered by 0.05!
Race 1 got underway, and the 73 was able to drive through to 4th, with 7 next on track. Both karts were progressing well and had good race pace, however halfway through some gremlins crept in. Kart 73 had an accelerator cable snap, meaning a full replacement was required after diagnosis. Kart 7 had the exact same issue not to long after, and then also threw a chain later in the race. Both karts were on damage limitation, and carrying good pace right until the end, finishing 7th (7) and 8th (73).
Overnight prep and setup changes were made to start Sunday’s race, from Saturdays finishing position. Both teams got great starts, making their way up a place, in unison. Following this a strong 4 kart battle ensued for 3rd place, where 73 was able to take the advantage and stretch out a small gap, with 7 progressing to a strong 5th. The strategy was again falling into place well, and the karts had great race pace. However similar to Saturday, the demons crept in after the halfway mark. Kart 73 had a hub sheer a stud, meaning the left rear wheel became loose. Pitting from 3rd position, the team lost valuable time, but got back on track. Not much further on, kart 7 had to pit with a spark plug cap failure. Another random issue, losing the team valuable time, and again making for a damage limitation last hour to the race. Bringing the karts home in 8th and 9th.
However challenging the weekend was, we can hold our heads high as both karts had top 3 pace consistently over the weekend. A great feat, and something to take into our Marquee Round at Ipswich for round 5, our longest race of the year being 12 hours, and consisting of a 3 driver line-up – stay tuned for further updates. We enjoyed a great weekend in Coffs, which involved hard, close and clean racing, with lots of on track action from our counterparts. Thanks again to all of our valuable sponsors for making this possible, and bring on 12 hours of Endurance!
Colonial Patios & Carports
Norris Motor Group
HobbsDrive
Photo Credit: Aaron DeLuca