Superkart Weekends Silverstone Approaching

[bendy]

Hi all, just a heads up if anyone is interested:

April 3-4: European Superkart Championship opening round along with British Division 1 event. This is part of the Superleague Formula weekend round the GP track.

April 17-18: British Superkart Championship opening round at the new layout Stowe circuit. This coincides with a Formula 2 weekend.

Come along and support, you'll see some of the best racing around, and we could certainly do with some support!

[ghinzani]

Good shout - you should put a calender entry on the front page of the forum for it. I bet the Superkarts are quicker than the poor joke that is F2 - certainly safer

[ascarracinguk]

should be a great weekend with dutch supercar aswell

[bendy]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

Good shout - you should put a calender entry on the front page of the forum for it. I bet the Superkarts are quicker than the poor joke that is F2 - certainly safer

How would I go about doing that?! Sorry, I am a forum Novice!

Well, certainly safer (unless upside action occurs!) and about as quick as F3....which is £400,000 a year!

It really is a great series, 40-50 karts on track at once with incredible racing (due to the closeness of it and width of track).

[Steven Humphrey]

Looking forward to it-I'm marshalling & have never seen Superkarts so don't really know what to expect! There's also GP Masters (70's & 80's F1) & World Sportscar Masters (mouthwatering selection of 60's & 70's Le Mans cars). Should be a corking weekend.

[bendy]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

Looking forward to it-I'm marshalling & have never seen Superkarts so don't really know what to expect! There's also GP Masters (70's & 80's F1) & World Sportscar Masters (mouthwatering selection of 60's & 70's Le Mans cars). Should be a corking weekend.

Really?! At which weekend? As I wont be at the European champs on 3/4 April, needed an International C licience, plus I dont race twins.

GP Masters is a great series, saw them at Donington last year, never seen the Sportscar Masters....

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by bendy

Really?! At which weekend?

At the Superleague weekend (3&4th April). Also Caterhams & Speed series. Link to timetable here http://www.themastersseries.com/reso...April_2010.pdf

[bendy]

Looks like a cracking weekend to be honest! I just wish I could enter! It's just so expensive!

[bendy]

I'll be up there on the Thursday though (1st) for a test day round the GP track which will be amazing, so can't complain.

You'll enjoy the Superkart racing....may be quite busy though, engines are somewhat prone to ceasing! It'll also be a massive grid (probably 50-60 karts)!

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

I bet the Superkarts are quicker than the poor joke that is F2 - certainly safer

I'm not trying to be a buzzkill but that's a bit of a misguided statement on both counts.

At Donington last year the twins were a good 8 seconds a lap slower than F2 had been a few weeks earlier, and in the last two seasons of Superkarting I did 3 people were killed at various meetings, and countless others were injured in a huge startline crash in Germany.

Definitely not safe but pretty quick and fun to watch.

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

I'm not trying to be a buzzkill but that's a bit of a misguided statement on both counts.

At Donington last year the twins were a good 8 seconds a lap slower than F2 had been a few weeks earlier, and in the last two seasons of Superkarting I did 3 people were killed at various meetings, and countless others were injured in a huge startline crash in Germany.

Definitely not safe but pretty quick and fun to watch.

Superkarts never purported to be safe though, and werent let down by fundamental design faults which were brushed under the carpet. But thats another discussion and NOT one for here.

Anyone who races a Superkart has my admiration, I think I would sooner be a passeneger in a chair! The skill level required to drive them is immense, its a shame karting has moved away from them so much, woth TAG stuff taking all the limelight.

[bendy]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

I'm not trying to be a buzzkill but that's a bit of a misguided statement on both counts.

At Donington last year the twins were a good 8 seconds a lap slower than F2 had been a few weeks earlier, and in the last two seasons of Superkarting I did 3 people were killed at various meetings, and countless others were injured in a huge startline crash in Germany.

Definitely not safe but pretty quick and fun to watch.

They're certainly not as quick as F2, especially at the relatively big track Donington. Theyre very close to F3 times round most tracks. It's just the incredible brakes and cornering speeds.

[bendy]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

Superkarts never purported to be safe though, and werent let down by fundamental design faults which were brushed under the carpet. But thats another discussion and NOT one for here.

Anyone who races a Superkart has my admiration, I think I would sooner be a passeneger in a chair! The skill level required to drive them is immense, its a shame karting has moved away from them so much, woth TAG stuff taking all the limelight.

Such as..? I am interested to know, I am young and simply get in them and drive!

They are quite tricky, but you get used to it, and yes it is a great shame. To me, they're a great spectacle, i.e. racing at weekends with other classes (often well known e.g. Superleague etc) and they provide some of the most competitive races around.

[Alex Hodgkinson]

I always found them simple to drive once they were sorted out. Having way more grip than power always reminded me of racing Cadets, although the speeds had increased three fold! All of the stuff I learnt as a 10 year old about being as smooth and precise as possible really paid dividends on the big tracks.

In the end I raced 125's, finishing off with 3 seasons (2005-2007) on the big circuits. One of by best memores was setting a 1:31 at Cadwell Park, at an 87mph average. Not only was it quick, but I got airbourne three times each lap I did there - in the middle of the Gooseneck, The Mountain and over the final hump in Hall Bends. Those were fantastic times!

I quit because I felt things stagnate - yes it was immense fun but at 20 and with ambition you want to keep moving forwards. The introduction of all this TAG/ICC rubbish really turned me off. Since I stopped racing karts I've tried my hand at a lot of different forms of car racing, but hand on heart I can honestly say that nothing thus far has put a big grin across my face in the same way long circuit karting did.

Just to give you an idea of what in my mind it's going to take to top, or at least match my karting buzz I'm building a GT3-spec Mazda RX7. Anything less I feel wouldn't cut it..

[ascarracinguk]

try driving a legend...trust me that wil put a grin on you face!...well it did it for me!

[bendy]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

I always found them simple to drive once they were sorted out. Having way more grip than power always reminded me of racing Cadets, although the speeds had increased three fold! All of the stuff I learnt as a 10 year old about being as smooth and precise as possible really paid dividends on the big tracks.

In the end I raced 125's, finishing off with 3 seasons (2005-2007) on the big circuits. One of by best memores was setting a 1:31 at Cadwell Park, at an 87mph average. Not only was it quick, but I got airbourne three times each lap I did there - in the middle of the Gooseneck, The Mountain and over the final hump in Hall Bends. Those were fantastic times!

I quit because I felt things stagnate - yes it was immense fun but at 20 and with ambition you want to keep moving forwards. The introduction of all this TAG/ICC rubbish really turned me off. Since I stopped racing karts I've tried my hand at a lot of different forms of car racing, but hand on heart I can honestly say that nothing thus far has put a big grin across my face in the same way long circuit karting did.

Just to give you an idea of what in my mind it's going to take to top, or at least match my karting buzz I'm building a GT3-spec Mazda RX7. Anything less I feel wouldn't cut it..

To be honest, nothing is as raw as a kart, with slick tyres and areo grip (in 250s). We are not much quicker round Cadwell than 125s, only a few seconds. It'd be nice to see more 125s really, there really arent that many racing for some reason. 250N seems the favourite.

You should return to karts, honestly, give 250s a try!

[Alex Hodgkinson]

If I'd of known the timescale it'd take to build a proper racing car I would've held on to all my karting paraphernalia! I can't believe it's been 5 years since I first went to Darley Moor, how time flys.

If I was offered the chance I'd be out there again this year as well as everything else I have planned. Sadly though everyone I used to race with seems to have moved on to other things and there aren't many people who offer decent kit on a cheap pay-to-drive basis.

I'll certainly return to karting one day, but probably not any time soon.

[bendy]

Originally Posted by bendy

I'll be up there on the Thursday though (1st) for a test day round the GP track which will be amazing, so can't complain.

You'll enjoy the Superkart racing....may be quite busy though, engines are somewhat prone to ceasing! It'll also be a massive grid (probably 50-60 karts)!

Well guys, here's what happened to me on that thursday....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UeVEj6TKfY

[ascarracinguk]

poor bendy....define irony, telling us that the engines are prone to ceasing, and then proving your point!

hope the damage aint too bad!

[bendy]

I know :@

No, it wasn't too bad, piston didn't do too much damage to the inside of the barrel. It probably happened because it was so cold and we didnt warm the engines up properly meaning that the piston was hot (and expanded) whilst the barrel was kept cool (i.e. not expanded). Same happened to my brother on the same lap! Quite a busy day followed....

[S.Moss]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

telling us that the engines are prone to ceasing

They don't always cease I ran 3 laps on this until it decided it didn't have enough power to get out of 2nd gear.

Some footage from last weekend at a bike track called Darley Moor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q6a2a_xTGg . Next will be silverstone

p.s how do you link images on here?

[ascarracinguk]

poor you!!!...its the one thing i dont like about karting, ok i hav to rebuild my tkm every 8 hours...even thats a pain LOL

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by S.Moss

They don't always cease I ran 3 laps on this until it decided it didn't have enough power to get out of 2nd gear.

Some footage from last weekend at a bike track called Darley Moor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q6a2a_xTGg . Next will be silverstone

p.s how do you link images on here?

I love Darley Moor - you can touch the bikealists on the head almost as they wheelie past from that back hairpin.