Geri tests at Rye House
15th April:
Aiden at Rogue Racing asked if Geri would like to go testing at Rye House, even offering to take Geri's kart over for him. As it was half-term holiday we thought it was a good idea and wouldn't cost much more than any other form of entertainment for Geri. First it was a case of getting the kart looked over - it had last been out back in November at Whilton Mill, the weather had been appalling and the kart not touched since.
And it was just as well we did this, the report came back that the steering column bush had all but seized, the chain was all but hanging off, one of the kingpins was very bent (probably from the same incident where Geri bent a steering arm) and the other only a little bent. No wonder Geri was having problems late in the year. With the kart all fixed, we arrived at Rye House to find the track wouldn't open to testing until 11am, it was around 8:30am when we got there. So plenty of time for the kart to be completely checked over and made ready again. One thing we hadn't allowed for was Geri - once we sat him in the kart it was plain that he had grown since November! Back then he was complaining his seat was loose fitting so he felt like he was falling out when leaning around corners, now he was firmly wedged in. His legs have also grown, he was sitting with his knees almost up under his chin - the seat and pedals can be moved but this is not 10 minutes work and will have to wait until next week. Hardly anyone had turned up for testing so rather than divide the karts into sessions, all karts were out on track at once. We took the opportunity to remove all his ballast (5kgs - would have been more if he had not run with his wet weather gear on last time out) and then weighed him and the kart. 98.5kgs, so 1.5kgs underweight. We'll put 2kgs back next time he races, unless his new seat turns out to be significantly different in weight to the current one.
Geri went out and was driving slowly, even lifting off along the straights. We gave him a few laps to get used to driving his kart again and driving outdoors, but he was still lapping around 51-52 seconds, his best lap last year was 44.70! We called him in and I left Mark from Rogue Racing to talk to him. Geri went back out and was straight down into the 47s, then the 46s. By now Mark, Josh and Aidan had all been out on track and thought they were running a couple of seconds off their best pace, the track was green with all the rubber having been washed off, so maybe Geri was doing OK, running at the same level as his best. But he was clocking in lap after lap within a couple of tenths of each other. By around 11:30 it looked like it might rain, there were small drops of rain falling, just spitting here and there. It made enough difference for Josh to run off the track heavily and backwards into the wall damaging his rear bumper. Geri had slowed about a second a lap and came back in complaining his kart was sliding all over the place! We sent him back out and told him to enjoy it. The rain that had threatened soon cleared and all of a sudden it was T-shirt weather as the sun came out. Geri's lap times were coming down, he was now running 45s, a twenty lap session saw a spread from 45.18 to 45.6 with most laps around the midpoint of that. We brought Geri back in again, he was going well but we suggested he try braking a fraction later for each corner and keep trying that until he didn't get round any more!
And back out he went again, he was still lapping with almost metronomic consistency but the midpoint was dropping and he was now posting the occassional high 44. Then disaster - Mark was out in the Easykart which goes about twice as fast down the straights. Coming into Pylon, Mark thought he could get by, Geri took his line going in (karts don't have mirrors and Geri never looks backwards) and they collided taking both karts off the track. Even from the pits we could see Mark's kart was damaged, the rear wheel was a bad angle, but Geri couldn't get moving so we rushed over to find out what was us. Turns out Geri had got off lightly, he was stuck because his chain had come off in the crash. There was about 15 minutes left until lunch break, Mark kindly put Geri's chain back on (the engine mounts need to come undone) and we sent Geri out to see if the steering was bent or not, his front wheel had a knock and it must have been a hard crash to bend the rear axle on the Easykart. The lap times looked unaffected, Geri reckoned he wasn't pushing completely flat but there was little difference in his times compared to just before the crash.
After lunch, the sun was out, it was getting quite warm, turned out to be the UK's warmest day of the year so far. Geri was enjoying driving his kart, his last two or three races had been in miserable conditions, he had been cold and wet and we wondered if his enthusiasm was on the wane. But with no pressure on, and great weather, he was having fun. And still the lap times were coming down, now 44s were becoming the norm, another session and he clocked 44.68, his best ever lap round this circuit. Yet another session and he clocked 44.55 with most laps now in the 44s.
The day ended at 14:30, Geri must have spent more than 2 hours driving in the 3 hours elapsed track time, and probably nearer 2.5 hours. This will do him a world of good - we can see a couple more such sessions will be needed before we can send him out racing again, hopefully he will be competitive then. All we need to do now is book back into Rogue Racing and get his driving position sorted.
