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HOW TO "CREATE" PRESSURE
Ahmed on top at Winter Cup MAIDEN INTERNATIONAL VICTORY IN KF3 FOR YOUNG TALENT ENAAM AHMED
PHOTO D. PASTANELLA
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EDITORIAL
PETER CATT CHAIRMAN AND ADMINISTRATOR OF THE BKIA N
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VINTAGE RACE RETRO SHOW 2014
SOS KART
SIMPLE MAINTENANCE TRACK TEST
HOW TO "CREATE" PRESSURE
Ahmed on top at Winter Cup MAIDEN INTERNATIONAL VICTORY IN KF3 FOR YOUNG TALENT ENAAM AHMED
ONE BAD APPLE SPOILS THE BARREL So said the old sage. Old-sayings do often match reality, and it’s time to face a problem very close to the mission of the British Kart Industry Association (BKIA), a problem that has a huge impact on how the Karting Industry as a whole might be perceived by those who are just approaching the sport. One of the services offered by the British Kart Industry Association (BKIA) is arbitration. When a member of the public has a problem with a member he can refer to the BKIA to help resolve the issue. Members of the BKIA sign up to a charter that confirms that they will conduct all business in a professional manner and will agree to arbitration in the event of a dispute. Complaints that are reported are usually resolved fairly quickly to the satisfaction of the member of the public and the member. Recently however there have been an increasing number of complaints about traders who are not members, indeed out of the last three issues raised two have been about a trader who is not in BKIA membership. In my view this particular individual is not doing the Karting Industry any good at all and is quite clearly dissuading people from staying in karting by his actions. I have tried very hard to intervene in these cases without success, resulting in very dissatisfied members of the public. The other area that is causing the respectable traders problems is auction sites such as Ebay where goods are being advertised at prices that are not sustainable by proper businesses who operate out of premises and are properly insured etc. Some even use names that are very close to respectable traders inferring that they are associated with them. It is not in the interest of the karting community that these practices prosper, as the outcome could be that it drives the good people, who are without exception all enthusiasts and are trying to provide a high level of service to everyone, out of business. It only takes one bad trader to give the impression that the whole industry is only out for itself whereas the majority of people involved in the karting industry are there because they are supporters of the sport and want to see it grow and prosper. Membership of the BKIA is a sign of the commitment of a business and the acceptance of its code of practice. The respectable trader should be supported by you, the public, or perhaps you should question the people you deal with if they are not members. Membership of the BKIA offers many benefits to the bona fide trader, including discounts on homologation with the MSA, preferential discounts between members and a bespoke insurance scheme. The BKIA is represented on the important technical committees within the MSA and has a great deal of influence on regulation changes. There are some fifty members in the Association and details can be found on www.bkia.co.uk VROOM UK
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CONTENTS
www.vroomkart.com
MARCH / APRIL 2014 - N. 4
info@vroom.it www.facebook.com/vroomkart twitter.com/vroomkart
ARCHIMEDE EDITORE SRL Via Mozart, 1 - 04011 Aprilia (LT) Tel. + 39 06 92 06 23 56 Fax +39 06 92 58 732 info@vroom.it - www.vroom.it GIULIANO CIUCCI GIULIANI (Editor in chief) cggiuliano@vroom.it FABINA GAVILLUCCI (Executive editor) fgavillucci@vroom.it WALTER GUCCI wgucci@vroom.it SALVATORE MURTAS smurtas@vroom.it MARIA VERRENGIA mverrengia@vroom.it CARLA DILETTI cdiletti@vroom.it SPECIAL CONTENTS Maurizio Voltini CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE BMKC P.O., G.Butterworth, CKRC P.O., T.Deck, E.Di Stefano, B.Kaligis, B.Malin, C.Norwood, D.Pastanella, REV, RGMMC P.O., G.Robinson, SKRC P.O., G.Smith, TVKC P.O., C.Walker SUBSCRIPTIONS info@vroom.it PRINTERS: GMG GRAFICA srl via Anagnina, 361 - 00188 Roma - Italy on behalf of Grafiche Professionali via Sequals, 4 - 00188 Roma - Italy Registered at Law-court in Latina N°714 date: 19.10.2000 © Copyright 2000 – all rights reserved. RESPONSIBILITY: Unauthorized reproduction wholly or in part of texts and graphic material and translations of the same is forbidden unless prior authorisation has been given by publisher. All reports and illustrations received as contributions by the publisher will not be returned even if these are not published, and the magazine assumes no responsibility for their safety, even in case of rare examples. Neither does the magazine assume any responsibility for articles published therein or any errors contained. All articles published are without patent right; furthermore articles bearing a registered trade mark will be used at contributors risk.
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news
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MONDOKART - News & Previews
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YOUR TKM GUIDE Check the starter
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ROTAX MAX BEGINNERS TIPS Why buying original is best
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ABKC STEERING GROUP Opening the dialogue
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BIG BROTHER - 2014 TKM S1 SCHOLARSHIP The chance of a lifetime
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CLOSE UP Dakton, the new data acquisition by OTK
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FOCUS Cumbria Kart Club
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VINTAGE Race Retro Show 2014
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APRIL/MAY RACING CALENDAR
race 32
19th LONATO WINTER CUP, ITALY
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5th ROTAX WINTER CUP, SPAIN
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TVKC WINTER SERIES RD.3
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SHENINGTON CLUB MEETING
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BAYFORD MEADOWS WINTER SERIES RD.3
technical side 50
TRACK TEST - TYRE PRESSURE WITH DR
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SOS KART - SIMPLE MAINTENANCE
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ABKC STEERING GROUP MEETING
BY G. SMITH PHOTO C. WALKER
OPENING THE
dialogue One of the largest ever steering group meetings was held in February with guests from a non-MSA circuit (Richard Lock – Ellough Park), a driver (Andrew ReesReynolds), Martin Capenhurst of Kartmania and George Robinson representing JAG. The MSA sent Race, Speed & Kart Executive Cheryl Lynch and Technical Executive John Ryan, for a total of 24 attendees.
T
o start the meeting off, Chairman Colin Wright asked for views from recent club meetings and the responses seemed to indicate quite healthy entry levels. He reported that he and Secretary Graham Smith had a productive liaison meeting with the MSA Acting CEO Rob Jones and his senior staff a week or so earlier although currently the MSA have requested the output remains confidential. After announcing that Nigel Edwards was elected as the ABkC Vice-Chairman, the group spent the morning discussing how to improve and grow our sport as kart competition licence numbers have been dropping 10% year on year - though the MSA pointed out that there has been a drop in all disciplines except Historic Car racing. The issues discussed included: ❑ Too many financial barriers to entering the sport – ARKS Pack, ARKS Test, Medical especially;
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❑ Drivers want a pleasurable experience at a race meeting, treated as adults by officials, not berated at Drivers Briefings; ❑ Some MSA fees and fines are excessive and off-putting; ❑ Clubs should offer an informative experience for spectators by having a lively and informative commentary; ❑ Non-MSA meetings often give more track time for a similar entry fee; ❑ ‘Amateur’ club drivers are forced to race against top ‘professionals’, sometimes World Champion level enhanced by top team support; ❑ Non-MSA circuits are less concerned about regulation upgrades, eg by not requiring the latest airbox yet still scrutineer to MSA safety standards and use MSA regulations; ❑ Especially at major events, team awnings are all closed up and spectators cannot see in; ❑ Revision of the Judicial system to a ‘Referee’
or model on the International system where the Clerk refers a judicial to the Stewards for a decision; ❑ Vastly improve the ABkC publicity by a redesign to a modern website, making much more use of social media outlets; ❑ The operating costs at non-MSA meetings are less, eg no per capita insurance to pay; ❑ MSA meeting permits need be more flexible; ❑ Clubman / Tyro power restrictions to be
Secretary for the application form to go to the next meeting in early June. The British Schools Karting Championship was once again supported with a cheque for £1000 plus vat towards their promotion costs. Clubs are requested to check the BSKC website (www.bskc.co.uk) to see if they can support their local event and publicise MSA karting. The MSA is carrying out a review of the application of the DBS (used to be called CRB) system for checking adults who work with minors. Apparently there have been some changes in the system which could impinge on the necessity or otherwise of officials being checked. The ABkC has concerns about the duty of care that officials and team personnel should have towards children. Apparently, events whereby individuals are in the proximity of minors for a minimum of four consecutive days may well need to have DBS (previously CRB) checks as a legal requirement. At the moment this probably only includes such events as Super One, Kartmasters and CIK. The MSA has asked for members thoughts on whether an Intermediate class should be introduced in the future for 10 – 14 year olds, as the range of Cadet driver weights has such a wide spread. This is something the BKIA have requested and comments are invited.
increased so more classes can have licence issued on the day The measures taken were: It was decided to send a questionnaire out to clubs to find out their views following grave concern that more circuits will turn to non-MSA racing, with the possibility of the loss of more clubs to the MSA and ABkC following Beccles (Ellough), Kent (Lydd), Warden Law and Durham & Yorkshire (Teesside). The items identified will be passed to the MSA Kart Committee to start the change process and the ABkC has set a target of reversing the trend over the next 1 – 2 years. The MSA have added a new strand to their Club Development grants called Club Support and encourage applications. Only one club applied for a 2014 Club Development Grant so Llandow was awarded £500 towards their new Orbit timing system. Other clubs should ask the
A proposal to limit direct drive karts and CIK classes including KZ1 but not KZ UK, 125 Open, 210 and 250 to a maximum of 107cm wheelbase will be put to the next MSA committee meetings to bring it in line with the CIK. Also, there was some discussion on the application of the 2014 Honda engine technical regulations and the changes allowed to restrictors. The ABkC has called for the senior X30 number plates to be changed to white plates with black numbers as currently they conflict with the ABkC’s Rotax Max 177 class. The MSA have re-issued the Karting Table of Penalty sheet and Clerk’s Decision Sheet as there was an incorrect reference. Clubs should put in the fine they plan to use for non-attendance at Drivers Briefing (£50 recommended) and add to their 2014 regulations and display on their notice boards. There has been some confusion about whether Kart Circuits have to use the new double waved
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CLOSE UP
TELEMETRIA OTK
DAKTON THE NEW ACQUISITION 28
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The Dakton system provides three progressive levels of data acquisition: XEL, XTRA and XPERT. To switch from one to the other, it’s not necessary to change the instrument, but only to update the software and add additional sensors, such as those for the rpm and temperature (also for tires) as shown in the pictures
ON SYSTEM BY OTK
Created jointly by OTK Kart Group and RKS - a company specialized in the design of specific software for data acquisition and analysis – Dakton is the last generation data acquisition system recently launched on the market.
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19th WINTER CUP
RACE
SOUTH GARDA CIRCUIT, LONATO, BRESCIA (I) - 21-23 FEBRUARY
FIRST TITLE FOR AHMED
Enaam Ahmed (KF3), rising star of British Karting, joined Paolo De Conto (KZ2) and Alessio Lorandi (KF2) in the list of winners of the 19th edition of the Lonato Winter Cup. And the on-track action has never been as explosive, with two more Brits – Fewtrell and Ticktum – at the top 4 of the Junior category with Ben Hanley (KZ2) just missing the podium.
After days of uncertainty, a beautiful sunny day welcomed the 19th edition of the opening race of this new international season, the Winter Cup held at Lonato, northern Italy. Two hundred and eight drivers entered for the event, 14 of them from the UK, making it the third biggest nationality represented at the classic race.
KF3
(87 entries) - The Junior class is the one with 32
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most entries. Italy’s Lorenzo Colombo is the fastest in qualifiers. Daniel Ticktum (8th in time practice) dominates heats leading on Max Fewtrell, Enaam Ahmed and Leonardo Lorandi. The latter is victim of a crash and ruins his prefinal race, where Ticktum is unable to old back Enaam. In the group following them, Lorenzo Travisanutto and Alexander Vartanyan are outstanding. However with the first two pressing hard at final start, it is once more Ticktum and
REPORT M. VOLTINI / PHOTOS D. PASTANELLA
Giuliano Raucci who storm off to lead. Enaam is in great shape, it doesn’t take him long to get back to the lead and stays there till the end. Fewtrell is fast, he works his way up to second place, Travisanutto does the same, and he is third after displacing Ticktum back to 4th. Difficult weekend for ART Grand Prix Josh Smith, who closed 19th after starting 25th on grid, and Archie Tillett (Crg), unable to make it through to the prefinal.
ENAAM AHMED (KF3): «I didn’t start off well, so I really couldn’t do much better in the early laps, but I made up and then led without thinking about anything else».
KZ2
(72 entries) Sometimes being the fastest isn’t enough, and Andrea Dalé proved this in the gear class: he stopped best time in free practice, leading on Flavio Camponeschi and
Right, KF2 podium with Lorandi (top), Tiene and Hiltbrand. Left, Hanley (116) on KZ2 grid ends the final just 3 tenths off the podium. Below, KF3 start with Ticktum (349) leading the field. Opposite page, Ahmed on top of the KF3 podium sided by fellow Brit Max Fewtrell and Italy’s Travisanutto.
Marco Zanchetta; then he dominated in heats too. Behind him, Marco Ardigò is outstanding, but he suffers mechanical problems during the prefinal, where Dalé shows his weak point: the start. In fact, he is off to a bad start allowing Camponeschi and Zanchetta through, before pressing hard to take over the lead again. Unfortunately he is unable to do the same in the final: Dalè starts with some hesitation and Paolo de Conto and
Bas Lammers wait for the right chance, and make the most of the situation. But this time, despite the high speed there was no chance of catching them: De Conto didn’t leave anything for his rivals not even Lammers, he pressed hard to grab a win, while Dalé fights for 3rd against Zanchetta. A controversial episode that has, besides the contact that almost sent Zanchetta into a spin (and dropped several places), then later in
the parc fermè we see him have a go at Dalé grabbing him by his helmet and then getting an exclusion. With a spectacular drive, Ben Hanley came only few tenths short of the podium after fighting till the very last turn, plagued by tires issues throughout all the weekend. The other Brit on final starting grid, Jordon Lennox-Lamb on Crg, had to race in comeback-mode after a disappointing 15th place in prefinal, closing 8th with a set of very fast laptimes,
while Jamie Rush failed to go through to the prefinal despite a very 9th in the last heat.
KF2
(49 entries) - Lando Norris’ first official race in the Senior ranks proved quite hard. A bad qualifying (23rd fastest time) forced him to start the heats from mid grid. Italy’s Alessio Lorandi stopped best time in qualifiers despite it being his debuting run in the class, while Felice Tiene (5th in qualifying) tops the overall
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5th ROTAX WINTER CUP
RACE
CAMPILLOS (E) 16th FEBRUARY 2014
The prestigious Rotax Winter Cup, which welcomed a recordbreaking international Rotax community on the Spanish circuit of Campillos, saw Babington (DD2) and Reilly (Senior) claim the coveted trophy. With 35 Brits out of the record-breaking 140 total entries in the three categories, the UK put a decisive claim on Rotax events across Europe nailing 2 wins, 1 podium place and 12 Top 10 finishes in Spain. REPORT RGMMC P.O. / PHOTOS B.KALIGIS & T.DECK
Breaking Records in Campillos Close to 140 drivers from more than 25 countries (and even from Israel, Morocco and Oman) entered the meeting in the three categories - Junior, Senior and DD2 – to make the
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5th Rotax Winter Cup the most successful to date. Making the trip to Campillos, also the Factory teams of Crg, ART Grand Prix, Sodi Kart, PDB, Praga and Intrepid, with their
official drivers trying to leave a mark.
SENIOR MAX
With over 50 entries (and a whopping 13 Brits), the senior category was
in for a great show. Among many rookies, all eyes were on the reigning European junior champion racing for the UK Guan Yu Zhou. Joseph Reilly from the UK was the
Some of the protagonists of the 5th Rotax Winter Cup. Above, the podium winners in Campillos. Right, Guan Zhou made a spectacular debut in Senior Max coming only 0”153 short of victory behind teammate Josh Reilly (250). The win in DD2 went to another Brit, Sean Babington (602) of Strawberry.
only driver to go below 65” in qualifying (1:04.919). Behind him Dries Vanthoor from the Netherlands stopped second fastest time ahead of Zhou and Jai Nijjar. After six heat races and five different winners only Reilly celebrated twice defending first place in the overall ranking. Zhou, Michael Cool, Philip Hamprecht and Tom Grice completed the Top 5. A massive crash opened the Senior prefinal but Reilly and his teammate Zhou were untouched by the action and concentrated on their leading roles. When it came to the final spurt, positions began to change as Zhou took the lead
and stood his ground until the finish line over Reilly. The final went off without a hitch, but proved less exciting upfront. Zhou established himself in 1st while Reilly followed his slipstream. The leading duo soon had a comfortable lead and kept a sort of ceasefire until the end of the race. With two laps to go, Reilly overtook Zhou successfully leaving no chances to his teammate to strike back. In 3rd place Jessica Backman drove a solid race. A few seconds behind the leaders she completed a triple success for British team Strawberry Racing grabbing
her best international result ever. The British fans could also be pleased with Connor Jupp (4th), Jack Constable (7th) and Ed Brand’s (10th) performances.
DD2
Protagonist of the 2013 season, and twice winner at the Rotax Winter Cup in 2012 and 2013, Belgium’s Xen de Ruwe - now racing for ART Grand Prix Factory team started as top candidate for the victory. But stopping a laptime of 1:03.487, British star Sean Babington was quickest in qualifying, just beating de Ruwe and local hero Oriol Dalmau, with Brits Josh
Collings on Crg and Henry Easthope on Sodi 6th and 10th fastest respectively. Babington dominated also in the heats, grabbing pole position for the prefinal on Sunday. Behind the front-runner, de Ruwe took 2nd place overall just ahead of Dalmau, as Easthope moved up to 6th and Collings 7th. In the prefinal the polesitter had a perfect start quickly moving away from the chasing group. From there on Babington easily controlled his lead up to the finish line. Behind the winner, Dalmau was in 2nd position for a few laps until he had to give way to de Ruwe. At the start of the final,
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CUMBRIA KRC
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LET’S GO ROWRAH!
Cumbria Kart Club, based at the exciting Rowrah circuit, was the first one in the country to introduce the highly popular Let’s Go Karting scheme, the program aimed at introducing young kids to the sport. This and other activities, as well as its 50 years history, have made Cumbria KC a reference in British Karting. REPORT S.MURTAS / PHOTOS CUMBRIA K.C., C.WALKER
Counting a membership of up to 150 drivers, Cumbria Kart Club is one of the most active in the country in attracting a good number of young newcomers every week to its facility thanks to the Let’s Go Karting scheme. “About 15 years ago we were the first club to start the Let’s Go Karting scheme for the kids which the MSA took on board later on, – says Cumbria KRC Director Malcolm Fell
- and the program, which we still continue to do it to this day, has been going from strength to strength. The program runs from Easter all the way to October; we organize it every Monday, and we get between 40 and 60 children per session making use of our fleet of corporate karts – about 14 cadet karts and 3 Bambino karts.” Past and present. A brilliant aerial shot of Rowrah, with the lake next to it. In black and white, the aerial shot of Rowrah first international event, England vs France back in 1964.
The collaboration with the local schools has been particularly successful. “We are very active in talking to local schools. In March we’ll be hosting also the British School Karting Championship, which is run by the BSKC organization, and this helps strengthening our ties with the schools.”
Besides the current success of Rowrah in attracting new up and coming drivers, the circuit and its club holds a brilliant heritage. Built by a group of entrepreneurs / racers / kart enthusiasts in 1962 inside an old stone quarry, Rowrah kart circuit soon became a hotspot for circuit racing in the region, which traditionally hosts a large Rally community. The following year, the circuit - back then only 450m long – organized its first club racing meeting, and in 1964 it hosted the first international event, England vs France. It was the heyday of Karting, the early ‘60s were truly an exciting time for the sport, so much so that the first international meeting counted as many as 6,000 spectators and about 20 karts racing. “Following the great success of the sport, in the ‘70s the circuit was extended to 600 meters and in 1989 it saw its last extension to the actual length of 1,030 meters. And we are in the process of making some renovations as we speak. We are completing the new dummy grid, which is 60 foot by 30 foot (20m by 10m) and that’s been covered by a roof. We are also building a new training and education centre for kids coming into karting in conjunction with some of the schools, and it should be ready by middle of March.” A classic hotspot for MSA racing, hosting two rounds of the Super One championship and one ABkC meeting in 2014, a very active club racing scene of 12 rounds with 10 to count,
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UNDER PRESS Tyre pressure is an important element when tuning your kart. But, how can you tell if the pressure is wrong? We looked into the matter for you with the DR team.
TRACK TEST WITH DR In our study to see (and show) how practically speaking you can get an ideal set up for your kart, we certainly couldn’t overlook this very important parameter for a vehicle without suspension like a kart: tyre pressure. This is however, no time to explain why tyres play such an important role for getting best performance. But it is for this very reason that we must try to get the best from them, independently whether it is a kart for an international event or for just a day out on the track, for a bit of fun. To look into this issue we went to Valle del Liri circuit in Italy, together with the DR team, Danilo Rossi’s team. We must add that the track we went to is very interesting with lots of braking points, but it also has a characteristic of its own: here, it’s better to keep tyre pressure slightly higher than you would on other tracks. This is because the numerous straights allow the tyres to cool down a bit, more than on other circuits, and so also working pressure of the tyres tends to be slightly lower; so it is compensated for keeping it just that little bit higher when cold.
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SSURE BY MAURIZIO VOLTINI – PHOTOS: E. DI STEFANO
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v
S.O.S. KART INSTRUCTIONS FO HERE WE ARE AT OUR FIRST EPISODE TO TALK ABOUT INEXPENSIVE MAINTENANCE, SIMPLE BUT FUNDAMENTAL... This month, after the various cries for help that you have sent, we are going to explain how to control and then register toe-in and camber on your kart. Let’s start by removing the front wheels and fixing tracking discs (you can get them for a reasonable cost from any shop that sells accessories for karts) to hubs, or to spindles if you have a chassis with no front hubs (something that you should check before buying the tracking discs). Fix tracking discs in a stable manner and if fixing onto hubs always use all three nuts so as to be sure that the tracking discs are effectively perpendicular to spindle axle. Make sure that the pills are correctly positioned and in a symmetric way: it may happen that there is no punching on the cams that make them have a right and left, so it is easy to be taken in and positioned symmetrically. (pics. 1 and 2) Using two spanners to help you, loosen all four locking nuts on the track rod ends to the track rods, noting one end is clockwise and one end is counter-clockwise (left hand thread). On each track rod there is a track rod end with 56
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right hand thread and one with a left hand thread. Before you go further make sure each track rod end is screwed into the track rod the same number of turns. Use a number 10 spanner coupled on the body between the thread and the sphere. (pic. 3) Turn the steering wheel until you find maximum steering point (“turn outside the corner”), measure the distance between the “front” part of the tracking disc and a fixed point on the chassis, then measure again also from the opposite side: if the size or values are different, turn one of the arms and re-measure until it is symmetric. (pic. 4)
NOW LEFT AND RIGHT STEERING IS THE SAME.
Then lock the steering there in the central position, use elastic bands for luggage (bungee straps) to do this: attach them to the spokes of the steering wheel and then pass them behind the seat. (pic. 5) Measure the distance between the upper part and the lower part of the tracking discs: the difference between the two measurements
Pic. 1 and 2. As you can see, here the cam is the same both on the left and on the right, but it is placed symmetrically: if place by following just the punching we would have the pins parallel and not converging as they should be. Pic. 3 Loosen the four uniball counter-nuts on the arms.
FOR USE ... AND MUCH MORE!
Pic. 4. Rest the end of the tape at a fixed point on the chassis: The joint of the upper bumper is fine as a reference point. Make sure the tape remains still at the same point, so that the measurement is more credible.
Pic. 6, 7, 9 and 10. When you take measurements, be careful and measure always from the same side of the disc as a reference, otherwise you will end up with measurements that do not correspond to the truth because you will have added, r subtracted, the same thickness of the disc‌
BY REV
Pic. 5. 100% do it yourself: the elastic for tying baggage is fine also for keeping the steering wheel still while you are working on the arms and taking the measurements.
Pic. 8. Keep the Allen wrench still and only use number 13: this way you will stop the cam from moving from the position it is in.
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RACE RETRO SHOW 2014
The three-day Race Retro show held on 21-23rd February at the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh
A UNIQUE GATHERING of Karting history
REPORT B.MALIN / PICS C.NORWOOD
(Coventry) is billed as the premier winter historic motor sport show. Some say that the format each year is similar, and yet it continues to find enormous support by the huge number of visitors – close to 30,000 over the weekend making it a winning format. here were small changes to keep it fresh, this year featuring the awesome display of one of James Hunt’s McLaren F1 cars next to Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1974 double championship winning M23, and the start of the Race Retro to Monaco historic rally. This of course did not detract from 60
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our historic karts, Ed Thurston was interviewed on the live stage each day and outside the position of our live action marquee and the pit lane to the circuit gave more vantage points for the spectators. It is a meeting early in the year, which also serves as a social get together before the historic kart season really
gets underway. With the tree-filled country park setting of the venue it is very easy to interact with public and over the 12 years of the show, the live action demos have become very popular and one of the features with the public. One thing that has not changed was the location of BHKC inside stand in Hall 2. The number of visitors that keep returning is amazing, also thanks to the number of people who visited BHKC at Autosport show. Of the well-known motorsport personalities, Whizzo Williams was among those who visited.
To keep the interest, this time Ed Thurston’s Deavinson Sprint/Parilla, Ian Pittaway’s 1964 Buckler/Bultaco joined the ever popular Fox/twin McCullochs of Peter Brinkworth’s and Paul Wilkes’ Zip/Komet K77. BHKC kept its Bahamas Speed Week video and photographic display as the Bahamas Speed Week organisation had its own stand and it provided very good co-promotion. The next Bahamas speed week will be in January 2015 and feature an all-new circuit. The static show did spill over into the live action marquee as some of the more unusual karts were there
to interest the public, like Peter Miles 1960 Studio Suspension Kart and Malcolm Sharp’s Aerokite along with Robert Bassett’s 1961 Getkart/Sundapp Bella 197cc. The Get kart became one of the karts to see, completely surpassing the intricacies of the studio suspension kart and unusual chassis of the Aerokite. Robert Bassett, one of BHKC latest members, found it in a shed, having been unused for forty years, thus proving that there are interesting karts to be found. He expects it to be restored and on track later this year. However, live action is about track action. Over the weekend more than forty karts provided track action on Saturday and Sunday, the sessions integrated between the rally car sessions.
Over the weekend more than forty karts provided track action on Saturday and Sunday
The circuit is over the narrow internal roads of Stoneleigh, which
see more of agricultural vehicles than karts or rally cars. Despite one corner passing the construction of a new building, the picturesque setting and the spectators having good vantage points, the atmosphere was extremely pleasant. The road surface makes sideways drifting easy but as usual it was “Sideways” Eric Atkinson (Fastakart/Montessa) down VROOM UK
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