SKCC Round 4 Race Report: Bumper Cars In The Wet

​It Really Is A Team Sport

The team made the 3 hour trip south from our headquarters in Trollhättan, Sweden down to The Klippan Karting Ring, in Klippan, Sweden, which would host the 4th Round of the Southern Swedish Karting Championship Cup. After a fine top 10 finish in the first round, the double race weekend in Växjö did not go as planned through no fault of our racing driver, Deven, who put on some powerful performances in the heat races, but was hampered by motor problems and team decisions that let him down on the track. Here in Klippan it was hoped that the team could get it right and allow Deven to achieve to his potential. However, it just wasn’t meant to be this weekend.

Free Practice | 2x 10min | P15 & P25
The weather on Friday Practice had been warm and sunny, with high grip levels, and Deven had shown top 10 pace in the latter stages of the day. Race Day was completely the opposite. Cool and wet, with medium to heavy levels of rain. The two early morning sessions had the team scratching their heads. It was later discovered, later on after the 2 Sprint races, that the team had prepared the front axle in the opposite direction, lowering it instead of raising it, giving the kart less grip in the back and more oversteer. So again, the team was already compromising the performance of the kart nad making life harder for our racing driver. Did nothing for his confidence or his trust in the racing machine.

Qualifying | 10min | P35
This got even worse for him when it came time for qualifying. The team had problems with the qualifying set of wet tires as they were not sitting correctly on the wheel rims. Finally solving the problem just minutes from the session start, refueling the tank was completely missed. Unfortunately there was not enough fuel in the tank for the high levels of g-forces experienced in the turn 3 and 5 hairpins that exited out onto the two back straights that featured on this circuit. The result was engine cut out on the exits of these two critical places on the track. Deven had no chance. He was helpless in the kart as he waited for the engine to come back to him when the fuel settled back into the bottom of the tank. This was a 2.5s second per lap deficit that was unsurmountable. No matter how good he drove, he couldn’t better his first lap’s time because the fuel was getting lower and lower, and the engine cut out was getting worse and worse. He was driving better and better but getting worse and worse times. It ended up 2nd from last in the 36 strong field. The team had let him down crucially twice now on the day.
How could he possibly come back from this?

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Sprint Heat 1 | 9 Laps | P35—>P25
After a good cry, some very tough and hard discussions over the lunch break within the team, the kart was prepped for the first sprint race. It would be a very wet track again, and the incorrect front chassis setting still had not yet been discovered… Despite the unknown crutch he was having to deal with, Deven somehow was able to shake off his bitter disappointment and anger, and made what might soon be a trademark of his race craft, a great start. He carved his way through the pack during the first lap, and managed to move up 6 places in the first lap. He then took another two during the race and and a couple of retirements saw him up 10 places. He ran out of laps to catch the next group of karts, as due to the wet race conditions, the races were shortened to 75% length, meaning 3 laps shorter. It was a good clean run, but due to his kart setup was still lacking the pace to the front of the pack.

Sprint Heat 2 | 9 Laps | P35—>P25
In almost an identical race development as the first sprint heat, Deven again made a good start, taking 7 positions on the first lap this time, 1 more during the rest of the race, and again finished 25th due to a couple of retirements. You really couldn't ask for anything more from him than what you were getting. He was a very frustrated racing driver, but he was doing his best to make the most out of a bad situation, and still lacked any real pace in the wet due to the still undiscovered mistake in setup that was about to be found.

Final | 12 Laps | P26—>P28
The clouds broke soon after the 2nd sprint race and the sun even came out and showed itself. This had a very immediate effect on the track, and it was a fully dry track by the time the karts were to be prepped for the final. In the switch back to the dry chassis setup, it was finally discovered that the chassis had bee wrong for the wet the entire day and the mystery of Deven’s lack of wet weather pace was discovered. Notch it up to yet another team failure compromising Deven. These are the things that cannot happen, yet they have far too often this season.

Now corrected, and everything on the kart double and triple checked, it was time to get out there and see what could be done in the final. Having moved up 9 spots on the grid due to the sprint heat results, it was possible, with another exceptional start, to get inside the top 20 and salvage something from the weekend. It was an exceptional start, for 3/4 of a lap. Deven shot off the line and took 2 positions through the long looping right hand turn 1, then he took 2 more with a brave move into the fast left hand turn two before the important turn 3 hairpin that leads onto the longest of the two back straights. He got a decent exit and then was able to outbrake 3 more karts into turn 5, which is another hairpin that leads onto the second back straight. He then dove down and took 2 more on the turns 7 & 8 chicane. All of the sudden he was 17th and had only to survive the last tight complex at turns 9-11 to complete the first lap. But he wanted more and continued his charge. Again at turn 9 he dove in, but this time was not able to get the full inside line and got caught in the middle of the 3 wide kart sandwich. He had no chance to avoid the kart directly in front of him and clipped into their rear right tire, sending them spinning right in front of him and he came to a complete stop, and couldn’t maneuver around the kart he had spun, who had lost engine and couldn’t move. Deven’s was still running, but he had to use his hands to manually roll back his kart to get enough room to steer around and get moving again. This took what seemed like an eternity, and by the time he could get going again, he was half a lap behind the rest of the field. With his race effectively over, Deven bravely raced on, and showed good pace throughout the rest of the race, and even caught up to another backmarker and passed them, but had no chance to catch up to the rest of the pack. He finished the race last of those that did take the checkered flag. In the end he was classified 28th after 7 other DNF’s and a disqualification, but it wa equivalent to either of those outcomes. He would only collect a single point from the weekend, and it would seriously hurt his standings in the Driver’s championship.

Summary
After a good and promising Friday practice, it all fell apart for Deven mostly due to the team failing to provide him with the equipment and setup necessary to show his potential. Critical mistakes cost the team and the driver this weekend. These will have to be critically investigated and measures need to be taken to ensure that this doesn't happen to him again in the future. Now comes the summer break with the next race being SKCC Round 5 in Jönköping on August 14th followed closely by Round 4 of the Kart Cup West in Gothenburg the week after.

Grabko GP 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

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Just not good enough. There are going to be some tough discussions within the team after today about what is what. These mistakes are unacceptable. We can’t be letting our race driver down like this and asking him to heroically save us from our blushes every single race weekend. It is too much to ask. He needs us to give him a fighting chance, and we need to be better.”

~Sara Grabko, Head of Logistics

Really sad today. Qualifying destroyed our chances but even then I thought I was on for another great start there in the final, but I went for one to many positions there in the infield section at turn 9 and then had nowhere to go, and crashed into the kart ahead of me. I’m really sorry about that but my race was pretty much done from
there as well. Did my best to get going again and catch back up, but it was a hopeless cause. Was really hoping to get revenge from Skövde this time out. Wish Jönköping was sooner, now I have to wait the whole summer before getting back in the driver’s seat in anger again.”

~ Deven Grabko, Race Driver