It was a high summer racing exhibition as our driver’s home club, Uddevalla Karting Club, put on a racing extravaganza over the weekend, and we were there to take part!

The 2021 Uddevalla Summer Race attracted drivers from all over the country in a slew of different karting classes. It was not unexpected, as the Glimmingen Motorstadion, just outside of Uddevalla, is one of the more beloved karting tracks in Sweden, and also boasts being the host of a round of the Motocross World Championships each year.

Our up and coming driver was looking forward to this one, being at his home track where he has shown blistering pace during testing. The team had decided to swap out engines leading up to the weekend, to try and maximize this familiarity, but this ended up proving to be a fatefully unlucky decision.

​During Saturday testing, the engineers discovered an engine mapping problem, which was causing havoc with the air/fuel mixture on both low and high RPM’s. They thought they could get it under control overnight going into the race day, but this turned out not to be the case.

Several issues conspired to hamper Deven’s progress. During the 2 free practice sessions in the morning, the team could only manage low 59s times where the top of the field was ticking at just under the 58s mark.

​Deven summed it up after the two sessions. “The engine had no power on the low end, and then wouldn’t rev up at all on the high end. I felt like I was just crawling around helpless out there.”

Mechanics and engineers swarmed around the racing machine and trying to find the issue, adjusting mapping and fuel mixture settings back and forth, but just exacerbated the problem.

During Qualifying, the engine stalled pulling out of the pre-grid pit lane. A quick adjustment by the pit-side mechanics got Deven out running on the track, and the engine seemed to be getting into the higher rev range, as Deven went mid 58s and an 8th best time on his 1st flying lap. Then disaster struck as on the second flying lap, coming down the start/finish straight, the engine just died and Deven was forced to pull over to the side. So only one flying lap, and still in the end qualifying 10th, a strong result in the face of adversity by the fledgling racer.

​So Deven would line up 10th on the grid for the two Sprint Races, which would decide the starting grid for the Semifinal. Engine woes continued in the first race, as the engine survived the formation lap and the start, where Deven made a good start, but then after 2 corners the engine again died, leaving the frustrated pilot stranded and forced to watch the rest of the race from the 2nd steward posting in the infield, and classified dead last.

in ​So back to the drawing board again going into the Final. The team were understandably not in high spirits going into the Feature Race, as head mechanic and engineers just couldn’t get to grips with either of the engines’ behavior. Never before had they had this much trouble finding the engine’s sweet spot. The atmosphere was tense in the pit tent, apprehensive to see if the final adjustments would be enough to get the engine to sing as it had done before.

As Deven took his place in the pre-grid lining up dead last, his race engineer gave him a hug and wished his luck, asking him to just make sure he got a good start and did his best out there.

And he did. You could almost sense the determination oozing out from behind the helmet visor as Deven vigorously warmed up his tires during the formation lap. The little boy racer figuratively flew off the line at the rolling start and made up 3 places through the first 4 corner section of the track. Then the motor showed it was running decently as he bore down on his next target going down the back straight. One by one, karts fell by the wayside as our young man carved his way through the field lap after lap.

Unfortunately there were only 16 laps in the Feature Final, and in the end Deven crossed the line an impressive 8th spot, having passed half the field on his way to the finish line.

It was the team’s first top ten finish of the year, and Deven was buoyant after his drive up through the field in the Final. “That was awesome, it was so fun to be able to pass all those guys and make my way through towards the front. Finally we had a good motor that allowed me to race - finishing in the top half and getting my first top 10 finish feels great.”

​Team Principal, Dan, was reflective. “It was probably the most frustrating race weekend I’ve had as head of this team. Mostly because this is our home test track. 
We’ve run hundreds and hundreds of laps here, know it inside and out, and had real potential to get into the hardware paying positions today, and our driver deserved better from us as a team. With a properly tuned motor, we should have been fighting for top 5 today. That Deven was able to drive such a fine Final and make the top 8 was impressive, though, and we have to build on that. He basically single handedly saved the day for the team, turning a really frustrating race weekend into a positive, never-say-die outlook going forward. The determination and resolve he showed us today really is a credit to his character. He was really supportive and never cast blame. He was angry and frustrated, but asked if he could help in any way to make it better and made productive contributions throughout the day in the tent as well as on track. Extremely good showing in tough conditions. Now we have a nice long summer break, and will take the time to get back to the factory and figure these engines out for the 2nd half of the season!”

From all of us at Grabko GP, have a great summer and we will see you soon!

​Only a couple of days back home separated the team from the highlights of the 3rd round of the Southern Swedish Karting Championship Cup at the Åsum Ring in Kristianstad, and the 4th round, held in the historic city of Kalmar, the medieval capital of Scandinavia.

Still fresh off the success of earning the team’s first championship points of the season, Deven was in a good groove going into the weekend. Even though he would again be trying to tackle a track he had never seen before, he took confidence from last week’s performance, and had the goal of improving on that result.

The Skogstorp Ring was a shorter track layout and reminded more of the curvy technical tracks at Borås and Växjö more than the long sweeping turns at Kristianstad. Deven has had a bit more trouble on these track types, so full focus would be required to achieve a competitive qualifying lap.

Unfortunately, luck was not on the side of the team today. After a decent first free practice session which saw Deven set a decent target time for further development, disaster struck as the right rear axle hub bolt sheared right off whilst making a width adjustment. With only 40 minutes before the next practice session, the clock was ticking to get the broken bolt free of the hub.

Exactly 41 minutes later, with a lot of panic, a hack saw, a bunch of WD40, and a nice dollop of help from an Alexander Persson Racing mechanic (THANK YOU!) - the bolt was free and a new one fixed in its place. Frantic refitting complete, Deven got out for the last 5 minutes of the session, but was only able to complete 3 timed laps to get just a bit more experience exploring the track. He was nonetheless able to improve his time, but the team was now on the back foot going into a critical qualifying session.

​But tragically, Deven wasn’t able to set a single timed lap in the qualifying session. Rounding the final corner on his out lap, just getting on the gas to start his first timed hot lap, he heard the horrifying whir of the chain flying off the drive gear. It was discovered after the session, when the team got the kart back to the pit area, that the  quick release gear mechanism had not been fastened properly, and come loose, ruining Deven’s session. So it was right at the back for both Sprint Races, which would determine the starting grid position for the Semifinal.

​Even with extremely limited track time, Deven fought as hard as he could, trying to make up for his disadvantage as he went. He drove two very clean Sprint Races, making a few decent overtakes and moving up 3 positions in the first Sprint to finish 28th, and a whole 7 places up to 24th in the 2nd Sprint, after showing a decent turn of speed, and benefitting from a couple of crashes.

​So lining up 26th in the Semifinal had to be seen as a small triumph given how the first half of the day had gone for the team.  Deven wasn’t quite able to capitalize on this though, as his starts had been too passive all day, and he dropped 3 places during the first lap, giving him a lot to do to claw them back during the 12 lap race. He was just able to do so, posting his best lap time of the day, a 55.519s lap that saw him on par with the mid-pack, but too much time was lost fighting at the back to latch on to them when he did finally get free, and a 26th place finish meant starting there again in the Final.

Another poor start combined with a loss of overall grip and pace in the Final saw Deven lapping all by himself - slowly losing the pack of karts fighting for 20th position while driving away from those behind as well. It ended in a lonely 27th place finish. Disappointing in one way, but on the other hand, the best finish of the season and more championship points on the board.

Team Principal Dan was philosophical in his summary of the weekend, “Yeah, I mean statiscally, it was our best finish of the season, and from a purely objective standpoint I guess we have to be satisfied enough with that alone, especially given the mechanical troubles and limited running we had in the morning and our bad luck in qualifying. But the whole team, including our rookie driver, just felt there was more in it today, and from that perspective we are disappointed. If we can improve our starts we will be way more competitive at the end. Given the quality in the field, you can’t just be giving away places at the start. It's actually very good for us to feel this way, because it means we are striving for more all the time, and aren’t going to settle. Now we have a big summer break from the series, with a couple of nice one off races to look forward to, and can come out fighting again at the end of August with all guns blazing.”

This weekend the team was off to the internationally acclaimed karting circuit, Åsum Ring, in Skåne, Sweden. The track is the home of #Kristianstadkartingklubb and also the host of the 2021 FIA/CIK Karting World Championships. It’s reputation as a premier venue in Sweden and Europe as a whole preceded it as the team caravan rolled up into the pit area.

​The positive feeling of anticipation in the team was palpable during registration and technical inspections. Our racing driver was showing real pace improvements, and the disappointment of the semifinal crash in the previous round seemed a distant memory.

At the same time, everyone knew it was going to be a really tough race weekend. It was the first time at this track for all involved in the team, and due to the large entry list, there would be only one free practice session before qualifying. This meant ultra focus for our driver and his racing engineer, to try and learn the track and get up to speed at the same time, in one session, before the times started to count.

​The format would be similar to the previous two rounds. Due to the high number of entries, there would only be one practice session before a qualifying session where the best lap time determines your starting grid position for the two sprint races. The field is then split up into 3 groups, and each group races against each other. Sprint race results determine the starting grid for two semifinals, where the field is recombined into 2 groups. The combined top 34 places in the semifinals qualify for the feature race. Points are awarded for the top 19 places in the semifinals, and all positions in the feature final receive points.

A 1:05.781 lap time in practice was the best we could muster. It wasn’t the worst time in the field, but it wasn’t where we needed to be to fight for a place in the feature race at the end, and get those coveted first point of the season. So it was back to the tent and an intense data debrief with the pilot. Deven was giving the most mature feedback of the year to date and this allowed the race engineers to make a myriad of chassis adjustments on the racing machine as well as find time on the track in the 60 minutes between practice and qualifying.

​Then it was out again for the qualifying session, where Deven showed his form, and found almost eight tenths of a second on track to dip down into the 1:04s range, just cracking into the top 34. If this session had been to qualify for the feature final, he would have just made it. Encouraging, but still about a second off the pace we needed to be for the upcoming two sprint races.

Deven lined up 25th in his first sprint race, got a clean but not very quick start through the first corners, and then fought his way up 4 positions to 21st half way through the race. He then caught the next kart up and had an epic 4 lap battle for 20th, making a last lap pass down the main start/finish straight after getting a better exit from the final corner and using that and the draft nicely to get up alongside and beat his man to the apex of turn 1. However, it wasn’t meant to be and that same kart took advantage a a small misstep in the second to last corner by our man, and dove down the inside of the final corner recklessly, making contact with Deven and half spinning him. This allowed a kart from behind to get through, but Deven smartly managed to get going again and salvage 21st spot in any case in a race to the finish line with another back marker who was trying to take advantage of our misfortune.

​So a hard fought first sprint finishing 21st from a 25th starting position, and always moving forward as the day went along, clocking a best time of 1:04.259s, yet another eight tenths of a second faster than qualifying right on pace with the midfield battle. Encouraging, but at the same time we hoped that the little incident and the single lost position would come back to haunt us later.

​The second sprint race was saw another steely display from our young driver. The track was getting hot and sticky now in the midday heat, and times were improving slightly. Starting 24th, we got another shaky start, clean but losing a couple of positions which we then had to fight back during the race. We did, with Deven making some nice passing maneuvers and always looking forward, with no real threats at all from behind. He pushed hard for another 21st place finish, but couldn’t quite get close enough to make a move on the final laps. There had been a scary incident earlier on though. He tried to make a move on the outside of the turn 8 hairpin, ended up putting his outside wheels on the grass and barely kept control, but kind of miraculously saved it and was able to continue on without even losing position. So we finished 22nd in the second sprint, but another new best lap time of the day, breaking into the 1:03s range with a 1:03.958s lap was a positive going into the semifinal round.