The Deepings 1090 Round Table

Pround to be Part of Area 30 Lincolnshire

12 Hr Karting Charity Rules

Grand Prix teams spend millions of pounds on their racing. Yet despite this, they sometimes don’t even get off the start line. That’s Racing!

Although the budgets are slightly less, your racing at Daytona International follows the same principles. To help you get the most from your racing, here is some information that will help you throughout the race.

In a change from the previous events to be eligible for the corporate challenge winning money you must attend the charity auction on the Friday night at the Holiday Inn, Milton Keynes.

Communication

An efficient Team Manager is one who communicates with both team members and race officials. It is important to remember that if a problem is not communicated, it cannot be dealt with. The Team Manager should deal with all issues. In their absence, a Deputy Team captain should liase with the correct official.

Any kart issues should be communicated to the Duty Engineer, who will act as liaison between his team and the Team Managers.

Any other issues should be communicated to the Race Director, who will deal with them.

It is important that ONLY the team manager communicates with the race officials, as it is much easier to deal with an issue on a one to one basis.

Practice

Practice takes place from 17:00 to 19.45 on Friday night. This is the time to get to know both the circuit and your kart. There is a trade off, however, between the amount of practice time you take, and the wear and tear on your kart.

All Daytona karts are prepared to the highest possible standards. There is not time, however, for the karts to be serviced between the practice and the race. With a friday practice and 12 hour race, your kart will be effected by the amount of practice you do.

The kart will last for approximately 2 hours on a full tank of fuel. The fuel bay will not be  for practice The front tyres fitted to your kart will be new at the start of practice. In the hottest of conditions with a quick driver, these tyres will last 16 hours, so practicing for the whole of practice session will take you to the limit of the life of your tyres.

Kart Set Up

Whilst Grands Prix teams can set their cars up for an individual drivers, and have almost infinite set up on them, Daytona’s karts are different. All karts are set up for “Mr Average”. The set up is based on the ideal set up for the circuit, and changes cannot be made for any reason. Tyre pressures are set to suit the circuit and must not be altered. No item may be added to the kart except for foam cushioning that may be attached to the seat. It will be the Team Managers responsibility to ensure that the kart is left in the condition it was at the start of the race. Any team found trying to adjust their kart will be disqualified.

Repair Procedure

Despite the highest level of preparation, karts can break down. Also, karts do break if they crash into each other. That’s Racing! In the event of a mechanical failure, a set procedure should be followed.

Team captains’ only. - One of the hardest issues to work out is conflicting reports from different team members. Ask all your team their views, especially if it is a general issue rather than race damage.

Report the issue as soon as possible. – In any race time is of the essence. A few extra seconds for the engineers to prepare will save you time.

Use practice time. – This is not just the time to accustom yourself with the kart and the circuit but also the best time to highlight any kart issues as while the checks are being carried out you are not loosing laps.

Give the mechanics space to work. – NO drivers or team captain are allowed past the outside wall of engineering. Do not cluster around the kart when it comes in. The more space we have the easier and so faster it is to work.

1st come first served. – The mechanics will start work on the first kart presented to them, regardless of how the issue occurred or what happened on circuit.

Accident Damage

The team will have to wait while repairs are made to the kart for any accident damage, whether it is your fault or the fault of another team.

Kart issues

All the karts operated at Daytona International are manufactured by the same company to the same design. They use the same engines and all are run to their maximum power, regulated by the gearing on the kart. The karts in the fleet are rotated to ensure that each kart has run for similar hours to the next. During the course of a week every kart will be serviced by each mechanic to the same standard. Every effort is made to ensure all the karts are as similar as possible.

During the course of a week the kart will be driven differently by many different drivers. If you feel your kart is not performing to the same standard as the rest of the fleet please talk to the duty mechanic.

If you present the kart to the duty engineer the team captain will be asked if your team feels if the problem lies with the power (engine) or the handling (chassis) of the kart. It can be very hard to be able to be sure, which is causing your problem so please ask your whole team before bringing the karts to engineering.

Power

If your team feel the issue is with the power of the kart it will be taken into engineering where the following tests will be performed.

1. The throttle pedal operation will be checked to ensure it is opening the carburettor fully, all karts are set to reach full throttle, no karts are run restricted.

2. The spark plug will be removed to check that the mixture is correct on the kart.

3. The clutch will be checked to ensure it is engaging at the correct rpm.

4. The air filter and exhaust system will be checked and to ensure there are no restrictions.

5. The rear axle will be checked to ensure it is rotating correctly, free from any binding, which could cause a loss of power.

In most cases both the checking of these points and the correction of any points will take about 10 minutes depending on what is found.

Handling

If your team feel the issue is with the handling of the kart it will be taken into engineering where the following tests will be performed.

1. All tyre pressures will be checked and set to the correct setting in accordance with the fleet pressure. All karts are run on the same pressures to ensure the fleet is equal.

2. The tracking and front steering will be checked to ensure the tracking is parallel and that the steering column has not been bent in contact.

3. The straightness of the chassis will be checked. Contact or continuos over use of the kerbs can bend the chassis.

4. The straightness of the rear axle will be checked. The rear axle is solid 35mm EN8 steel but will still bend under heavy contact. If this can not be straightened an axle replacement can take 45- 60 minutes.

5. Tyre wear and rim condition will be checked.

In most cases both the checking of these points and the correction of any points will take about 10 minutes depending on what is found.

It the team does not feel there is an improvement after the first check, whether it is power or handling, the next step will be to carry out the check not completed last time.

If the above procedure has been followed, and there is still an issue with the kart, the kart will be swapped. Once the cause is identified, and rectified, you will then be called back to the pits to swap back to your original kart

PLEASE NOTE THAT DURING PRACTICE, THE ABOVE PROCEDURE MUST BE ADHERED TO IN FULL. DURING THE RACE, ONCE WE HAVE CHECKED EITHER THE POWER OR THE HANDLING, WE WILL THEN SWAP THE KART. ONCE THE ISSUE HAS BEEN RECTIFIED, YOU WILL BE CALLED BACK TO THE PITS TO RETURN TO YOUR ORIGINAL KART.

Brake Riding

The most important part of your kart is its brake system. For safety reasons, you must make sure that if you have any concerns over the braking of your kart, you must coast to a halt on the circuit, where a marshal will come to your assistance.

The biggest cause of brake failure is brake riding. This is when you use both the brake and accelerator pedal at the same time. If you do this, your brake system will overheat, which could lead to failure. This could be down to something as simple as the slightest pressure from resting your foot on the brake pedal.

Oil Stops

During the race, each team will have to make one visit to the engineering bay for an oil check. These will start at 14:00. An announcement will be made via the PA that they are about to commence. You may do a driver change at this point, but may not go to the fuel bay. The order in which teams are called in will be based on your team number, with kart 1 being called in first, and so on.

Wet Weather Tyres

Although both Deepings Round Table and Daytona International have ordered sunny weather for race day, please note that it cannot be guaranteed. In the event of wet weather, all karts will remain on slick tyres.

Wets are not offered. This is because if the conditions change, with a ten minutes allowance per kart to change tyres it will take approximately 5 hours to change all of the karts from one type of tyre to another. With wets lasting as little as 8 laps in the dry, this would be both unfair, and more importantly, unsafe

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