09 February 2013-“We only got the racing engine on Thursday night and had to do some modifications to the shifting mechanism to make it fit on the new Formula K kart chassis. So we assembled the engine on Friday morning and at 12:30 I was ready to take on the black stuff.”
“Driving a new Formula K shifter was a new expereince for me alsodriving on Vega Blue tyres which I have never raced on before and a 6 speed shifter where I have only ever raced a 6 speed 125cc kart 2 times prior, I had to get acquainted with the power band of the Parilla X30 engine.”
“None the less, we drove session by session and step by step we made some changes and in the 2nd last session we were already topping the time sheets and were one of the fastest out on track. The handling of the FK is superb. It is very responsive and the smallest changes made to the kart make a difference to the handling.”
“Unfortunately the engine retired on Friday afternoon. Not confirmed as to what caused this as we never changed the carburation setting as this is free. An added task to tune the engine and read where it wants more or less fuel. We stripped the engine off Friday night and Saturday morning the 2nd engine was on the kart and we were ready for the warm up.”
“As the number one engine was now gone, the number 2 was not as good, but we did the best with the situation and we put it 3rd on the grid just 0.1 off pole. An awesome qualifying time for such little almost no time to set up properly. We went into the race and the tyre wear and set up was changing all the time. We set up accordingly, which is difficult in between races as one does not want to gamble too much on race day. Also the overtaking is completely different compared to karts with single gears. The DD2 I raced last year also does not come close to the shifter. The excitement and thrill of the standing start from revving the engine to make it clear and crisp for the start, to the acceleration and racing the other competitors, I had an awesome race day.”
“I want to mention a big thank you to the Formula K team South Africa and my personal crew for their amazing hard work.”
“Im now looking forward to some testing in preparation for the next X30 Shifter race which is scheduled for 09 March 2013 at Vereeniging Kart Circuit. ”