2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was yet another dismal day for IMSD Racing as they limped home nearly dead last at Rye House today. This is the fourth consecutive race that the team have failed to finish inside the top 20.
Aside from a small mixture adjustment in practice, the kart was set up well and all hopes were for an improvement in their recent poor run of form.
Eddie qualified down in 20th in the 31 kart field, again failing to get the maximum out of the kart on any of his flying laps.
“I had to abort my first two flying laps because of traffic but I had two fairly clear runs for my second two but just couldn’t quite get the speed out of it.”
Eddie was also elected to start the race and made a good start to pick off a few places off the line. He then made up a handful of places in the remaining part of his stint, also benefiting from being one of the last of the midfielders to pit.
There was a slight confusion at the first driver change.
“I gave the signal that I was running low on fuel and was signalled to come in straight away. As I came into the pit entrance, I saw Seth legging it over with the ‘Don’t come in’ board. This meant that I had to push Ian out on my own, which I think cost us a couple of seconds.”
Ian kept up the pace and rejoined the track in 16th place. He seemed to be driving quickly and consistently and making up steady ground, pitting from just outside the top 10 before handing over to Seth.
There was more pit lane drama as Eddie had to run and retrieve Seth’s immense 10 tonnes of lead, which again cost them several seconds in the pits.
Despite this delay, the team were now knocking on the door of the top 10 and had high hopes of coming away with a half decent result. Alas, this is where their luck changed. Seth seemed to be struggling out on track and lost several places. He then made an unscheduled pit stop after only 13 minutes complaining of fuel surge.
“It took us a little by surprise because he came past the pits signalling that he wanted to come in. I had to quickly throw my helmet and gloves on and leg it down the pits. We lost a lot of time here because I didn’t have my overalls done up properly, we got a 30 second stop-go penalty because Seth drove into the fuel rig and, of course, it put us completely out of sync with our pit stops and we had to run the last half of the race virtually running the tanks dry.”
Eddie’s second stint was uneventful, driving on the limit to make up for lost time. Ian’s second stint was mired by two spins and ending with a communications breakdown on the pit wall and mechanical failure entering the pits, which prompted a change into a spare kart.
The trio then had to carry the kart over to the fuel bay before sending Seth out for the last, much subdued, stint. To rub salt into the wound, the new kart wouldn’t fire and stalled at the pit lane exit!
Seth struggled badly in his last stint, complaining that the engine was cutting out at low revs. He had to endure a nightmare final few laps before finally crossing the line nearly last. The team were helped by the fact that 3 teams were disqualified for being underweight, which promoted IMSD Racing up to 27th.
“It was just another awful day – nothing more to say about it. It wasn’t so much bad luck today as poor team work I think. There were a few mistakes made – especially in the pits – and our communication on the pit wall was suspect to say the least. It is a real shame because the kart felt really good and had some great speed in it.”
As always, the team is putting on a brave face and is determined to get things right before the end of the season.
“All we need to do is have one good race and I think that will turn our season around. I think everyone has lost motivation because of the poor run of results and that is just heightening the problems. We usually go well at Buckmore so we’ve just got to give it our best shot.”
