Club 100 general chat

[r84achey]

I'm looking for some general advice for my partner. He currently works at an indoor circuit and holds the lap record there. He is very quick and this has been confirmed at various kart races. He has just taken part in the Teesside 24hr ans they finished 4th. They held 1st place for 12 hours and through a couple of errors (they're all amateurs) they lost a lot of time/places. First being the service team got the kart stuck on the ramp loosing them 2 laps bringing them into 2nd they also had 2 chains snap and a pull start snap during the night. They also recieved a ten lap penalty due to one of the drivers being 2kg underweight! As you can see these are silly mistakes due to them all being amateurs and having no manager/race experience. He is consitent in his lap timings and won the title of fastest lap, which again he has done consistently in the SG Petch Abarth Championship where again he has always finished at the top of the pack and has lost out due to silly errors, last race he qualified pole and pulled away at the start giving himself a good gap and then on his 2nd lap one of the tyres came off. Whilst it was being repaired he dropped into last however he pulled himself back into 6th in a 1 hour race!!! He qualified for Red Bull Kart Fight last year and made it into the final I think he came 7th however he was 2nd at regionals, would have been first however he didn't want to put his or a friends 1st position at risk so sat back and guarded these spots, at this point he had no race experience apart from an indoor circuit and had never driven twin engine karts before oh and it was raining he set the fastest lap again on one stint. I guess my point is how do we get him noticed what races do we need to be entering. He's currently racing the SG Petch Abarth, EKL (however the lad who was supposed to be guiding him through the EKL has just dumped all the team responsibility on my partner who hasn't got a clue what he's doing persay all because the lad didn't win and went in a strop). Really all i want to know is how do we get him noticed, which races should he be in etc. He's currently no1 at his track for lap record etc and has set the fastest lap ready for the red bull qaulifiers. He really is a pleasure to watch and a lot of people have started to ask who he is, how long he's been karting etc as he really is fast and very consistent. He gets to grips with a track so quickly and just has the ability and knack to know what his kart is doing beneath him. Any advice would be greatly appreciatted.

[Peat]

To be blunt, the long and short of it is, he won't get 'noticed'. If motorsport progression ran soley on talent, the Formula One grid would look very different than it does.....

There is several options for racing karts at various venues against good competition on a modest budget. Club100, DMax, BRKC, EKL all offer very competitive racing at the sharp end. Try a bit of all of them and you are sure to find out where you/he 'stand' in the mix.

The best you can hope for is that he garner's respect as being a fast and dependable guy among peers so that other opportunities open themselves up to try other karts/cars. Then you get to meet some handy people who can learn from and gain experience.

Unless he is 10yrs old with bottomless pockets, don't waste time thinking of it as a career path. Just focus on it for what it is (weekend fun), do as much as you can afford and see where it takes you.

[r84achey]

Hi Peat, Thank you very much for your reply. When I refer to getting noticed I don't mean in the respect of he wants to be famous, get into f1 etc as we all know that if you do not have an endless supply of income then you've got no chance. He's also 33 which makes him old in the world of motorsport (apologies not meaning to offend anyone). He absolutely loves karting and we have many trophies now. We are very much aware that this is not a career option however being a circuit manager then I believe his dream is very much fufilled. We've met some fantastic people whilst racing, who I can honestly say have become very good friends. What he wants is to test his racecraft against the best of the best. A few people have mentioned Club 100 etc. Is this a hire kart championship? We are on a limited budget with a couple of family members/friends who pay for his current championships. Any costing info would be greatly appreciatted.

[Peat]

Yeah, Club100 is regarded as the highest level of 'arrive and drive'. Very well run, excellent kart preparation etc, but is quite expensive. I run in thier team endurance series and do the odd sprint race.

But, if Teesside is local to you, then Club100 isn't! It's a southern based chanmpionship mainly. We did go to Teesside last year, but i don't think there are plans to go back.

It has several tiers of skill level, each is extremely competitive.

I think that Dmax goes a bit further north, as does BRKC & EKL. Also, there is Covkartsport that is more Midlands based. They have some very handy drivers at the sharp end of that.

[JAC]

the entry fee for a Club 100 sprint is £166, so if you were going to do the whole season it would work out like this:

membership (one off): £45
race entry (11 races): £166 x 11 = £1826

Total (excluding travel, hotel etc): £1871

So yes it's more expensive than say the SG Petch series but having done abit of both this year including the 24 hours (all at the sharp end of the grid too) I can say that the extra money you would spend at Club 100, if you can afford it, is worth every penny.

The kart preparation is miles better (qualifying at the last enduro saw 24 karts within 0.5 seconds of pole), the driving standard is the same as a MSA owner driver grid, there are weight limits, the engines are better and the paddock atmosphere is unmatched. I travel down from Blackpool every month to do it!

Find out more at www.club100.co.uk