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KCV Round 3 Race Report: Yes, We'd Like to Report a Robbery...

6/16/2022

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​Does the Roller Coaster Ride Ever End?

Skövde Motor Club was host to Round 3 of the Kart Cup West Series (KCV), and was a joint event held together with Round 3 of the Central Swedish Kart Racing Series (MKR). The dual series nature of the weekend meant an extra large starting field with 37 karts registered to line up in our mini-man Deven’s class, Formula Mini. It would be an extra tough challenge then, with some excellent drivers we normally don’t have the pleasure of racing with in the MKR series. On top of that a track that despite being less than 900m long, is super quick, has 3 good overtaking spots, and requires a setup usually reserved for longer tracks.

The weather was also questionable. Forecasts showed rain would spit down sporadically during the day, so it was going to be nervy for the race mechanics and engineers all day long. However, this is a drivers track, with many in the field calling it one of their favorites, our driver Deven included. “It is so fast, almost all the corrners are high speed and I love the super quick changes of direction in the inside part, it’s so fun!”

The event would be run under the MKR series rules, meaning Qualifying, two Sprint Heats, a Pre-Final, and finally the Feature Final for all the beans.
Free Practice | FP1 - No classification FP2 - P7
The two practice sessions were day and night contrasts. FP1 was over almost before it began as Deven came in after one lap reporting engine cut out issues on the exits of the final corner as well as in the infield turn 2-6 complex. In between sessions it was hair pulling time as race mechanics went through everything to find the answer to the question. Eternally grateful for the help received from fellow Intrepid Driver Program and LK Racing reammates, Team Alehall Racing, for their help troube shooting and identifying a fuel line placement issue that was able to be corrected successfully in good time for the second practice session.

Finally able to push, albeit on old tires, Deven went out and was able to set the 7th best time in his group, 15th overall, and now it was time for qualifying.
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​Qualifying | 7 min | P19
It was a large field, it was a short track, and there was very little separating 5th to 20th in the end. The randomly generated start grid in the two qualifying groups saw Deven receive the P1 starting position in group 1. So he was first out and first on the track. Rocketed up to P2 in the first minutes of the 7 minute session, but was unable to find his feet and improve after the first half of the session, and slipped slowly down the rankings to P9 in his group by the time the checkered flag came out to end the session. After group 2 came out directly after and all was said and done, he ended up P19 in total. Not where we wanted to be, but not a complete disaster. Deven has shown he is more of a racer than a qualifier, and he would have to show that grit and determination again today.

​Sprint Heat 1 | 10 Laps | P13 —> P10

Deven would start on the inside line for the first Sprint Heat, which was pretty much the only positive he could take from where he ended up. But, he was determined to move up the field. In the pre-grid he motioned for his race mechanic to come over, and said to him, “Don’t worry, I know what I am going to do, its going to be just like Växjö.” Then he closed up his helmet and had nothing more to say. 
To be able to repeat his rolling start heroics like he did two weeks earlier was a big ask, but apparently our young racing driver knew what he was on about. It was as he said it would be. After somehow reacting faster than anyone else, he slalomed his way through the first sector, finding the room he needed to edge past his rivals, and took 4 places as he snaked through the infield section. Then in the first hairpin before the back straight, a kart clumsily made a late lunge down the inside that had no chance of succeeding, and ran into the left back corner of Deven’s kart, almost spinning him out completely.

Luckily Deven was able to save it with some lightning reactions, but this put a stop to his march up the field and he ended up losing back all the places he had won as they skipped by down the back straight, and so he was still P13 after the first lap. No longer one to get frustrated, Deven pushed calmly back up the field and started picking off those ahead one by one. One position lap 2, another lap 3, so now 11th and 7 laps to go but the 10th place kart was a few seconds ahead and Deven would really have to get on his horse if he was to catch them in time. He did it with 3 laps still to go and made a clean move at the back hairpin to make a top 10 finish in the heat. Good start but more work to be done.
Sprint Heat 2 | 10 Laps | P12 —> P3
This was the team’s best race of the day, the most nail biting, most nerve wracking and most satisfying. About 10 minutes to race time a little light rain shower came in and sprinkled the track.Then the sun came out again. It was not enough to really consider rain tires, but within minutes more clouds rolled in that looked a bit threatening. Race mechanics began wandering back to their pit areas to gather up wheel guns and checked the pressures of their rain tires. Just in case. Deven was lined up in 12th for this race, having to start on the outside line, which was a real disadvantage as turn 1 is a big long wide radius left hander that leads right into another sharp left hand turn 2 before swinging back the other way at turn 3. If you get stuck out there it is hard to hold position. There was also just a hint of drizzle as the karts all left the pre-grid for the formation lap.

​It was squeaky bum time as the Swedish flag waved and started the race as they all rolled up to the line. Deven timed it perfectly and looked like he had afterburners fitted to his race machine compared to the rest of the field. He deftly dove in to the inside, catching the kart starting beside him by surprise and then shot through a gap that formed into the first corner as the drizzle started coming down slightly more and there was less grip than most had anticipated. He took turn 3 smoothly as though the rain wasn’t there, and took a couple more spots. Then through the tight infield complex of turns 4-6 he took another, and then at the turn 7 hairpin one more before the short back straight. Suddenly he looked up and was right on the back of 3 karts ahead of him through the fast twisty final section of the track and as he crossed the line for the first time he was P6! Then by the time he had completed turn 2 in the 2nd lap he was 3rd! He took one going down the inside of turn 1 and then was right on the back of the two karts ahead, as the drizzly rain continued to come down and they both misjudged their speed and he went right through. Deven didn’t even realize he was 3rd. He kept looking ahead and trying to find the next group of karts, but could only see 2 a few seconds further along, and finally realized how far up through the field he had come.

Thing was, there was still 7 laps to go! Deven’s skill at the start had gotten him this far, but now he wanted to take home his hard fought 3rd place, and was being heavily pressured from behind. In the tricky conditions, he didn’t really dare to go completely flat out and as a result was put on the defensive. He covered the inside lines at the three big overtaking spots on the track - the long turn 1, the turn 7 hairpin, and the turn 8 hairpin that came right after the back straight. He defended so resolutely that he was almost at the inside white line at these key sections of the track and as a result was compromised on the exits of these turns. He somehow kept his speed and momentum though, and the kart behind could find no way through. Deven made it through the trickiest conditions of the day and fought off hard pressure from behind to cross the line in P3. What a performance!
Pre-Final | 12 Laps | P8 —> P6
Our little fighter pilot’s reward for his performances in the sprint heats was an 8th position on the starting grid for the Pre-Final, up 11 spots overall from where he qualified at the beginning of the day. Normally this would have been time for the Final, but the MKR series format in which they were competing included a Pre-Final race as well. Could be both a blessing or a curse, depending on how the races went. On the one hand you got to have an extra race to try ad move yourself up the field for the Final if you had qualified badly or had gotten unlucky in a sprint heat. On the other, it was an additional race where everything had to go your way to achieve a result.

The track had rubbered in so much during the day at this point that grip levels were sky high. The team consulted with the driver and both agreed to go lower in both gearing and tire pressure to free up the motor for the short and twisty but very high speed track. It paid off as well, as Deven got off to another great start, even after again having to start on the outside line, he was able to find a gap immediately before turn 1 and get himself on the inside and follow the kart ahead through. One spot up right at the start, and then another at the turn 7 hairpin. He was P6 after the first lap and was showing strong pace. As the race settled in, it was clear it was going to be a fight for 6th spot between two good friends and teammates. Alve Alehall of Team Alehall Racing, was not only friend and a fellow Uddevalla Karting Club member, but also part of the Intrepid Driver Development Program together with Deven. He had been right up there alongside our man the whole day as well, vying for a top spot, and this was the first real instance this season they had gotten a chance to race directly against each other for position.

It was an entertaining battle for sure. Alve seemed to have the pace to close up on Deven, and did so, then took him a little bit by surprise, getting by him on that same turn 7 hairpin. But Deven wasn’t giving up, and the position change lasted less than a lap. As they crossed the start finish line down the front straight, Deven had drafted right up onto the back of him and won the late braking challenge between them, thus able to get up alongside into the sweeping turn one, and complete the pass back into the sharp left hand turn two. He was then able to close the door through the infield section and then maintain just enough gap to keep the fast driver at bay behind him for the remaining laps and was fairly comfortable in the end crossing the line in 6th. Could this day get any better for our man? There was one race left to find out.
Final | 16 Łaps | P6 —> P5 —> P12 +3s
Deven was on a high and full of confidence. The team could see it in his little face that he knew he was on for a real achievement today. There was just one race left to go. Repeat what he did in all the races before this one, and he would be coming home with at least a top 6 result overall and another podium in the Kart Cup West. It felt like an inevitability. The weather had cleared. The sun came out. The karts lined up. They went out for their formation lap. 30 racing machines rumbled down the final corner and into their start corridors as the neared the start/finish line. The race director waved the Swedish flag and the race was on! Deven had started on the outside of row three and completed a carbon copy of his Pre-final start, somehow reacting faster than everyone else and finding a gap immediately, slotting into the inside line ahead of his club and chassis teammate Alve. He made up one spot at the entry to turn two, winning the inside line and getting his nose in front and was 5th. But now the man behind went on a counterattack and forced Deven to cover off the inside line into one of only three real overtaking opportunities on the track. This compromised Deven’s exit to the corner onto the back straight so he again was forced to defend the inside line at the next turn 8 hairpin. He completed this successfully and somehow got a decent enough exit out onto the final twisty section of track that before the final turn 11 he had been able to make a kart length gap when they came to the front straight for the first time.
​But the pressure was not off. Forced again into defense on the inside line for turn one, he was never able to stretch his legs and drive the optimal racing line, and so couldn’t get a gap to those behind. There was too much pressure being put on him and he knew that if he left a gap at the inside there would be a dive down there to get him. So lap after lap he covered the inside at turns 7, 8, and 1, never giving even a whisper of a gap in those places on the track. He defended for his life to put it plainly. It was a nail biting 16 laps with a couple of close calls, where Deven got some worse exits onto the back straight and almost got passed around the outside. But every lap he made his corner exits at those three turns and then moved over almost to the inside white line, looking behind to make sure he had room to do it. On several occasions in the latter stages, the kart behind realized this and tried to beat him there, but Deven was having none of it, and he would have to weave back to the outside again and lost his momentum in doing so. With only a two laps to go this caught the man behind out and Alve Alehall was there to take advantage, making a pass of his own that alleviated the pressure from Deven considerably. At that point, with less than two full laps left, Deven was able to push on the last lap and avoided any danger from Alve behind. He crossed the line in 5th position! He had done it! 5th place overall and 3rd of the Kart Cup West entrants, it was going to be another podium!
Aftermath
Or was it? In the afterglow of the euphoria in the team and our driver, having gone through technical inspection, weighing in, and leaving the kart in Parc fermé for the protest period as a top 5 finisher, it only then was communicated that at some point during the race, Deven had received a 3s time penalty for weaving on the back straight. It was a shock. Discussions with race officials revealed no concrete or solid explanation. Deven had defended stoutly, but always only covered the inside, he had never weaved or attempted to block. Our man was devastated. Having driven probably the best race weekend of his young career, he couldn’t understand what had happened. Neither could the team. Neither could the rest of the paddock. Throughout the pit area, teams came over left and right to console the team and the driver. Both those that had finished ahead and those that had finished behind expressed their confusion at the decision. They hadn’t seen anything wrong or unfair with Deven’s driving. It was a very hard pill to swallow, and understandably the team was extremely frustrated.

The result of this seemly phantom weaving and the 3s penalty applied was that Deven fell down the results list a whole 7 places overall and 2 places down in the Kart Cup West results to finish P12 and P5 respectively. It was a hard one to take, but sometimes the bitter pill can’t be avoided. Despite the mysterious penalty, there were some good takeaways from the weekend. Deven showed the fighting spirit needed in every racing drivers heart, and an absolute killer instinct and race intelligence that will take him far as he develops in his career. The team also consolidated their position in the Kart Cup West series, moving up to 2nd spot in the standings with only 2 rounds to go. A very good position to be in as the series takes a break for the summer and comes back in August with round 4 in Gothenburg. Now for the team there is one more big race weekend to go before we too take a well deserved summer break, and that is Round 4 of the Southern Swedish Karting Championship Cup. We will be heading down to Ängelholm, Sweden and the Klippan Karting Circuit to do battle again.
​The Team would like to thank its sponsors and partners, without whom we wouldn’t be able to compete at all:
Improx Customs | Profil #461 | The Techno Creatives | Dumpling X Sweden | Elevate: Bespoke IoT Platforms | Weret: Surf Watches from Sweden

#karting #grabkogp #racing #motorsport #intrepid #lkracing #skcc #kcv #usac #sbf #teamzamp #minus273 #freemsweden #kartinglife #kartingemotionandpassion #uddevallakartingklubb
Really having very mixed feeling right now. I am fuming that we can’t get a proper real explanation for the penalty out of the race officials, and I am really sad for our driver’s sake. He drove an amazing race weekend and deserved to claim his just rewards for his performance. He didn’t even make contact with anyone. To define his driving as weaving or changing lines or blocking is crazy and ridiculous. Up and down the paddock I couldn’t find one team or driver that thought Deven was driving unfairly. On the other hand when Deven got clattered into during the first sprint and had his race result compromised, then there was no penalty issued for unnecessary contact or recklessness. Nope. Deven didn’t do anything different than he did in the sprint races or the Pre-Final when he defended the inside line, and he didn’t get penalties in those races, did he? Where is the consistency in that?? 10 year old race driver having to deal with that is a travesty. We’ll get them next time, but we don’t concede anything was wrong with our driver’s driving today.
​
​~ Dan Grabko, Team Principal
I have no idea what just happened out there. I drove my face off and defended well on the inside, but I never weaved back and forth to block anyone. I can't believe this. I know there was some dad complaining after every race about a different driver changing lines more than once, but I never saw it on track. It's not fair. I earned that podium!! Nobody got a penalty for crashing into me and ruining my race in the first heat, but I got one for being too good, I guess?? Super sad and angry right now, no more words..."

~ Deven Grabko, Race Driver
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