Racereport SKCC Helsingborg

The SKCC series headed for Helsingborg last weekend for our home race. The feeling before was good and we had some distant hope that we could reach our goal of once during the season end up in a top 10 position. The starting field was large with 51 karts. In the end we ended up on P21 after a muffler failure during the superheat that cost us dearly. We were slightly dissapointed afterwards but the speed is decent and with some luck we will be up there in the coming races.

Friday training felt good and we came out on track with a very good speed. It felt like we were one of the faster karts which were probably due to us knowing the track and previous days here. We tried some settings on the first heats, but soon we realized that the tyres where gone and we needed to change. New tyres felt good, the race engine where good and on the last heat for the day we acheived an new PB. Rumors had it we were among the faster ones on track.

Race day and the first training went really good. She headed out on track a bit after the others and got some free space to allow her to feel the kart. Turned out the grip was higher than expected but P7 was great and the temperature was still not that high so we aimed for just switching to new tyres for time trials.

With the previous competitions in mind, we decided to give up the aim of finding a good back to hunt during time trial and just go out in clear space. We waited a while and by pure luck got a great back to hunt when one of the faster drivers decided to do the same as we did. Tuva couldn't keep the same speed but came home P7 after a few clean laps on track. Maybe we could have gained just a little more with a different tyre pressure, but all in all a great result.

Our first heat of the day started well where Tuva was close to the one ahead when the lights turned out. She lost the gap in turn one but defended well into turn two. Three cars wide into turn three but they all stayed on track. We could soon see that Tuva didn't have the pace to stay with the front and on lap two a band of six karts had formed where Tuva was in the middle. She ended up wide in the hairpin, got dirty wheels and lost a few positions. The rest of the heat was just to manage the position and not doing any mistakes. She was P14 over the line but got promoted two positions due to other cars penalties.

Second heat and Tuva makes another good start. She is even up and trying to pass the kart ahead of her when the light is out, but can't get in front. Similarly to the first heat she loses slightly already in the first corner but defends well in turn two. Loses a place in turn three when it is crowded and gets a poor exit out of turn three and looses yet another two positions in turn four. The cars behind her starts to fight over position so she gets a better second lap. Once the tyres are up to temperature she can hold about the same speed as the karts ahead, but she has already lost some ground. A few laps later she has closed the gap to those in front but the speed difference is small and passing is hard. She has to brake harder than anticipated in one turn due to the kart ahead and looses speed out on the long right turn and gets passed instead of the kart behind her. The rest of the race is spent just out of reach from the kart ahead. When looking at the video it is quite clear that we are lacking speed out of the corners. We adjusted slightly to the superheat but in hindsight we should have taken bigger measures to reduce the grip level.

Maybe you have heard the saying "What goes up must come down"? That would describe our Superheat pretty well. Once again a decent start from the outer line this time, defending well in corner two and avoiding an incident in turn three. Soon up to P5 with a small gap down to P7. On lap 2 the car behind braked past her into turn two, but Tuva made a great switchback in turn three and was slightly ahead on the inside into turn 4. The car next to her didn't give up even though it was evident the corner was lost, locked the brakes and spun out without touching us which gave us a good gap down to the next car. A few laps later the kart ahead got some technical issues and Tuva was up at P4. Well, disaster was ahead and with only two laps to go the silencer separated into two parts and she had to retire the kart. Naturally Tuva was devastated and headed directly back to the tent with her helmet on. It took a while for us to get the parts back and to put them back together, but slightly before the finals we were ready to race again. A huge thanks to Erik Magnussen who took his time to talk to Tuva and get her race ready again!

Since we got a DNF in the superheat we are down to P25 in the start grid. Unfortunately for us the start was really poor where the master started to accelerate way too early which gave a lot of gaps in the field. Our line were way after the other line and we lost a few places before we even passed the starting line. A slight touch from behind into turn one and we were down even more. Avoiding some incidents gained us a few places however and maybe, just maybe we could fight about it? Well, it turned out to be hard to pass with the settings we had, too high grip level which cost us out of the corners and hence couldn't be close enough to brake past the others in the end of the straights. She drove well and had the speed to close in on the others but unfortunately on the wrong place of the track. P22 over the line and promoted to P21. Not what we aimed for, but there are plenty of possibilities ahead!

This race we especially want to thank our new sponsor Veidec who have lots of useful products made for motorsport such as brake cleaner, hand cleaners (Johans current favourite with an excellent small size together with an effective cleaning product, perfect on race days!) and lubrication. Keep your eyes open for an article about their products once we have tested them a little bit more.

Also thanks to EKS who makes fantastic karts, Erik Magnussen for super support and TAR for help with engines.