Skip to main content

PCI-Indoor Karting Challenge 2011 – Report

 

The second year it is that we had organised the PCI-Indoor Karting Challenge as a one off Race at the end of the seasons PCI-Calendar combined with a breakfast meeting at the Weston Aerodrome organised by Barney.

From now experience it does get Members out of the house to come along, have a break from the Christmas festivities and mingle with likeminded members along the counter of a cracking breakfast menu with a mouth-watering Kart race to fill in for the afternoon. How better could you spend a day with your old and new PCI-Friends than this? To no surprise we had about 40 Members coming to the Breakfast meeting and another 16 to come along for the Karting that afternoon, kicking tyres, devour our delicious breakfasts and partake in one of the best indoor Karting sessions I have ever been part of.

Ivan guided members who had filled up with a “big fat fry” from the Weston aerodrome over to Kylemore Karting on roads/route I had never know of in Dublin and wouldn’t likely to remember again if asked. On arrival we familiarised/looked at all 3 indoor tracks available at the venue quizzing which one we would be racing, while looking at racers already competing and bantered over their exploitations.

All participants arrived in time for us to start our session around 2 pm not before we were subjected to the safety video. After being suited up everything happened in a flash and I started to perspire from the speed of turnaround in all the races we had to partake of the Grand Prix session. There were a total of 16 heats with 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals and the Final.

If you have ever been there or in an indoor arena you will know that corners are tight as the straits are short and you are in competitive wheel to wheel action all the way unless you have the fortune to just drive away from the rest. In each heat we had 4 drivers as well as the quarterfinals and in the semi’s we had 5 drivers each with 6 drivers in the Final. There was no incident to speak of apart in my case the tingle tangle I had with Ben to my regret as I would like to harm no harm to no one.

As we were racing in the 2nd quarterfinal I was able to keep clear from my fellow compatriots bar Ben who was in the lead and during the laps I was able to keep close to him and even closer towards the end and as we were going through the finish/start line once again I knew I could take him on the inside come the next turn which was turn one to the right which I did barely but successfully squeezing past Ben with wheel to wheel action and we both tried to defend and advance all at the one time. As I was say about a half a Kart ahead of Ben I had to maintain my push to the left in order to get into the sweeping but very tight left turn in order to stay ahead of Ben as I knew if I didn’t, he will get me back at the next turn to the left as this turn would be to his advantage from where he was coming from. As we did all of that Ben did and with my unfortunate help hit the barrier which is built like steel fencing but covered with rubber tyres for protection of the drivers. In this case Ben hit one of the small pillars and I could hear him smacking into it and knew immediately this must have hurt and immediately lifted off the throttle with a glance back if there was anything bad happened to him. From the glance back I could see he was ok and I continued only to be called into the pit and as we discovered later we already where at our warm down lap as this all happened and neither Ben nor myself had seen a chequered flag, hence us going hell for leather. As we both rolled in I would have forfeit my position if it would have cost Ben to partake in the Semi-Final which was one of my immediate thoughts, while I asked Ben if he is hurt. Of course he did get hurt but Ben is hardy and was able to continue on to my relief. I did smack myself into one of the Steel pillars two years ago but it would have been on hairpin-turn 4 to the right when I came in so fast and I think I had one of the lads pressing me on the inside which only left me to go wide and with full throttle I hit an 8 inch steel upright and was as good as catapulted out of the kart, only holding onto the steering wheel and my balance prevented me from smacking into the steel pillar with my helmet real hard, so I do know what it feels like and hence my immediate concern about Ben.

I am sure you would have stories to tell as well while you were there and I can tell you with certainty we discovered two or three dark horses to watch out for this coming season which would be Paul and Willy including Garreth who performed exceptionally and with such competitiveness you know they will be hard to beat in the coming season if you would be in a tingle tangle with them for position.

It brings me to the final which was Glynn, Ted, Ben, Willy, Garreth and Paul on the grit. The Final was one of the closest fought affairs especially from the 3rd place down as Father and Son battled upfront with the Son eventually winning the race ahead of Ted with Willy coming in an incredible 3rd snapping at Ted’s heels. Paul in countless battles came in as an unbeatable 4th and Garreth 5th in battle with Ben 6th who was running in third but hit the barrier another time and with him losing a lap at that point had to battle to come up behind Garreth but couldn’t unlap himself as everybody showed incredible skill on the track in progressing or defending their positions and I thought it was one of the most gripping finals in the indoor Karting I had taken part of since the last four or five years we had this venue on our PCI-Calendar.

Classifications of PCI-Members in the Indoor Challenge 2011

1st Ted G

2nd Willy B

3rd Paul S

4th Garreth C

5th Ben D

6th Connie S

7th George N

8th Ivan Mc

9th Brendan M

Trophies for this event including a small perpetual Trophy will be presented at the Waterford Dinner and Trophy Presentation on the 28th of January 2012 in Waterford.

So don’t miss out on a great night ahead, spin a few yarn’s and have a great laugh with friends while having a meal, keep an eye on the Forum for details: http://forum.porsche-club-ireland.com/index.php?topic=3391.0 and the PCI-Website.

It leaves me only once more to thank everybody for coming to a fantastic afternoon not to forget the brilliantly organised morning by Barney and making it a fantastic day out.

Many thanks George


15/01/2012