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[TC] Racing and UCK Motorsport secure 25th in class at the 2017 British 24 Hour kart race at Teesside Autodrome!

Our driver lineup consisted of Adam Rosenberg (Adseybear), Luke Tomlinson (LuckyLukeT), Michael Weddell (.Mikee.), Pete Butcher (MButcher), Dave Storer (Davidos93) and John Smith. Many thanks also to those who came along to support us including Ryan (viper_fifer), Josh (HOWLINmad22), Jack (vRenegade), Marie, Stuart and Zac. We would have really struggled to do it without you!

Here's how things went.

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Friday

We all arrived at the circuit at around midday to the sound of pro and corporate hire karts thundering around the track. The owner teams had been setting up since Wednesday so it was no surprise to see the whole paddock area covered in vans, caravans, marquees, gazebos and tents. From the minute we arrived the atmosphere was electric as everyone was excited for the racing to get going the following lunchtime.

Our first job was to find a suitable spot to pitch our gazebo and tents. We found a nice space on the south bank with suitable visibility of the entirety of the national configuration and all of the south bank corner such that we would be able to clearly see our pit board during the day and the night down the 2nd short back straight and south bank corner. Once the tents and gazebos were pitched, we set up all of our kit and went out for a practice session in the Teesside corporate hire karts (the ones they use for public arrive and drive sessions). The karts we would be using for the race would not be available to us until official practice on Saturday morning. After practice we finished setting up our kit in the gazebo and made sure everything was ok to be left over night before heading to the shops to get food for the weekend and heading for our hotel.

Our view from our gazebo



Jack sat in his tent with our tent and gazebo in the background


The hotel we'd chosen was about 5 miles away from the circuit and involved 2 roundabouts followed by one one short stretch of motorway and another roundabout but for some reason instead of trusting our sat nav, Dave and I opted to follow Luke and Josh in the GT86 on what must've been the most arse-about-face whistle stop tour of Middlesborough. We ended up driving about 10 miles right around the hotel before finally ending up in the right place! This was the start of a long list of hilarious things Luke was going to end up doing this weekend. By the time we arrived, Adam had already checked us all in and had been waiting patiently for 20 minutes for the north east explorers to arrive.

After a couple of hours in the hotel we went to the restaurant for our team meal where an entertaining waiter mocked our meal and drink choices and made Josh order so much food he racked up the biggest bill of anyone even though, going in, he said he didn't want any food! When the meals arrived we very quickly got food envy at the size of Dave's steak... And then Mikee and Marie arrived!

After dinner we headed back to the track to get our final weights sorted on the weigh bridge and to do a track walk. This time, Dave and I travelled with Adam and John and instead of following Luke, Josh, Mike and Marie, Adam decided he knew where to go and took us into a retail park by accident. Needless to say, the navigation jokes quickly shifted to him when we met the others at the track. Compared to last year, the Friday night weigh bridge session was stress free as we were all spot on with our weight. For a 24 hour race, each class has a minimum weight requirement, the requirement for our class was 235kg for the kart and driver. The dry weight of the karts were 152kg + 6kg of fuel which mean to be safe, each driver has to weigh in at roughly 83kg to not be under weight over the weigh bridge during the race. I was the team's lightest driver by a couple of kilos so I needed to use a weighted seat insert, an extra block of lead and some ankle weights to reach the threshold. The rest of the team used various combinations of these things to reach their target weights. Once we knew who needed what, we were able to work out our stint plan such that as little weight changeover needed to happen during pitstops as possible. Our stint order was: Mike, Adam, John, Luke, Pete, Dave repeat... We opted to send Mike, the most experienced driver, out first to keep us out of trouble at the start and to avoid any early accidents. This was Dave's first 24 hour race so we opted to send him out last so that he could watch us doing weigh bridge stops, pit stops and driver changes before it was his turn.

The Trackwalk


After we'd sorted the weights and stint plan out we chatted to a few of the teams that were doing the same and got to know a couple of the drivers from Shy Tall Knights and SG Petch before heading out for our track walk. The international circuit at Teesside is 2.1km (1.3 miles) long and contains every type of corner you can imagine: huge bumps, big kerbs, a mountain section with large gradient changes, a parabolica styled banked 180 degree curve, 4 hairpins, a quick esses section, a bus-stop chicane and a long back straight where our karts would be pushing 60 miles per hour at full chat. Again, since Mike was our most experienced driver having driven the Teesside 24hr 4 times previously, he led the track walk and meticulously described the lines, braking and turn-in points to every corner as we made our way round. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten since last year and being able to refresh our memories with another track walk was extremely useful. Having the knowledge of bumps, sausage kerbs, big dips, parts of the track most likely to fill with rain, what bits to avoid, seeing how wide the track really is was so useful because you just don't get that information when you're driving during a stint with 70+ other karts around you, especially at night.

After the track walk was over, we met up with Ryan, Josh, Jack and Zac and headed back to the hotel and then to the pub for a few drinks before we all got an early night. None of us got much sleep because we were all far too excited for the race.

Saturday

Our alarms went off at 6:30am for a 7am breakfast. We loaded up with food, packed the cars and headed to the track. Upon arriving we signed in our team, collected our nassau panel and got to work on the stickers before we got allocated our kart at 8am.

At 8am we pulled our kart number out of a hat and went over to where they were being stored to attach our steering wheel and tachograph (provided by Stuart) and our nassau panel. This was also the first time we had the opportunity to test our seat inserts in the kart seat. It was a tight squeeze but we eventually moulded them ready for the off. Our kart really looked the part now with it's alcantara steering wheel + tachometer and custom nassau panel. We were ready!!!

#103 UCK Motorsport


The driver briefing started at 8:30am and the excitement was really beginning to mount. Sadly, prior to the event, a young boy of only 2 years of age called Reuben sadly passed away and as a show of respect, the event organisers dedicated all of the number boards to him with a 'Race 4 Reuben' sticker. As well as this there was a 1 minute clap after the briefing which was nice to see. In the end they raised £2,000 for a children's cancer charity from selling wrist bands which we bought in the morning to do our bit.

After the briefing we rushed back to the kart, made sure everything was in order and then got our gear on ahead of practice at 9am. Each driver in the team had to do a minimum of 3 laps of practice and so to make sure we didn't put too many laps on the kart (to save it for the race), we each did 1 out-lap, 3 flying laps and 1 in-lap in practice then parked it ready for qualifying. Our kart felt quick and we had no issues to report.

Michael puts us 10th


Qualifying for the hire class began at 10am and we sent Mikee out to do the honours for us. He set the early pace putting in the fastest lap for the first 5 minutes of qualifying. After a few more minutes we dropped down through the top 10 eventually finishing up P10 with a 1:19.64. The top 10 were covered by around a second. After we were done qualifying the Pro karts went out and there was definitely rain beginning to fall so it was crucial for them to get out early to set laps or else they could risk dropping back behind the hire karts before the race even began. 18 of the 20+ Pro karts qualified ahead of the hires which meant our final grid position was P28 overall with the first hire kart in P18.

Pushing to the grid


Chatting to Simracing Club


Ready


Set


Determination


Once the pro karts came in, we had 30 minutes to chill before pushing our kart on to the grid at 11:30 for the start of the race. We pushed our kart from the pitlane out on to the grid and slotted in to 28th position, just ahead of the Simracing Club team who qualified 29th. They had drivers from Team Vires and Nitor Velox and a couple of others, no one we actually knew was driving for them though. We had our official photo taken, chatted to a few more teams and then wished Mike luck for his first stint and made our way off of the grid. Luke would be in charge of holding the kart in position and making sure the engines stayed on whilst the Le Mans styled start happened. The 10 minute board came out, then the 5, then the 1, then before we knew it, the flag dropped and the race began!

The Start


Mike got a brilliant start getting up to 3rd in class before T1 by making an inspired lunge around the outside at the start then a lunge for the inside at T1, holding station down to T2. A few laps later however, the Northampton Maidens (pole sitters in the hire class) made contact with us which somehow got us the first contact warning of the day! Mike dropped to P8 after this incident but held a top 10 position for the remainder of his excellent opening stint keeping us out of any large incidents.

As the clouds darkened and rain was threatening, just as John was preparing for the changeover, the wind began to pick up and we were considering whether or not to send him out in a rain suit. John opted not to take one which turned out to be our largest mistake of the race. Within 10 minutes of John leaving the pits, the rain was on us and it was very, very heavy. Standing water sending waves 4-5 meters in the air and spray that was blinding drivers caused a lot spins by the time the karts first came round to the esses and multi-kart incidents for every lap after. John on the other hand was passing kart after kart after kart as he masterfully avoided incident by guiding the 103 machine around the soaking track passing at least 10 karts in the first lap of alone. After that point, our focus shifted to our ailing gazebo. It was getting blown around so much that everything was getting wet including our gear, food, chairs and radios. We got it sorted and all huddled underneath and watched John pass kart after kart, avoiding spins lap after lap. We observed the occasional shake of the head in partial disbelief of the situation and regret that he hadn't opted to take a wet suit. For lap after lap we cheered out, clapping and showing our support for him as he put in the stint of the race, before handing the mildly moist kart back to Luke for his wet stint.

When the rain came


John in the wet (background)


Our view from the dry


This is how wet it got




Unsurprisingly, we sent Adam and Luke out in a wet suits and welcomed John back to the gazebo like a soldier returning from war. Next in the kart was Adam who drove a very consistent stint. For an hour and a half, Adam banged in very fast, very consistent laps with very few errors. He wanted to do a double stint but he was so desperate for a piss that he couldn't bring himself to do it! Thanks for not pissing in the seat Adam, we appreciate it. John's stint really was brilliant to watch but ultimately, this stint had drained John's energy and would end up proving costly to the team later on. We tore his soaked gear off and sent him to the tent to change into some dry clothes. Early into Luke's stint, a spin stalled one of his engines and he could not get it started again. For most of a lap we saw him ripping at the starting cord over his shoulder but we suspect he had forgotten to turn the engine off and on again. A quick trip to the pits sorted that and he was on his way again back into the rain. About an hour into his stint, the rain gradually stopped and the track immediately began to drain. There was still a lot of standing water on the track to avoid but the rain held off for the rest of the race. It wouldn't end up fully drying until the sun came out in the morning leaving it greasy for the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday morning. Luke brought the kart in after an hour of his stint complaining of no fuel much to Mike's annoyance. We were able to run the karts for at least 1 hour and 30 minutes which we had managed in the first 3 stints of the race but Luke was sure he couldn't see any fuel left. When he brought it in we had at least a quarter of a tank so we sent him out for another hour and a half stint. Luke should have trusted our timing but when a driver wants to come in, we have to assume it's important so we were forced to box him early. His next hour and a half went smoothly on a drying track then after a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes he tapped his helmet meaning he wanted to pit so we held up our enormous pit board which had '10' on one side which signifies that we'll be ready to switch drivers in 10 minutes and flipped it round and held up the side with 'BOX' written on it bringing him in a few minutes later once I had sprinted down to pit lane ready to hop in.

I too opted to go out with a wet suit just in case another downpour happened and to keep me dry from spray and puddles, luckily it was only spitting so the track was still able to continue drying up. The beginning of my stint was going really well until about 30 minutes in when at turn 2, a violent shudder of the kart nudged my balaclava over my right eye. Down the back straight I managed to open the lid and force it back over the top of my head but the following lap in the same place, the full thing dropped down over my face. Again, I forced it back up into the top of my helmet, shouting to myself in rage. That lap I reluctantly tapped my helmet (the universal signal for 'call me in'). The following lap at turn 2, the balaclava dropped down over my face and instead of messing around with it again, I took the decision to pull over, jump out, move to the side of the track, remove my gloves and helmet, throw the balaclava in a bush in frustration, put everything back on, hop back in a get going again. I believe the commentators thought I'd thrown up, luckily not! After that, I had to somehow explain to the team on the hill that I was ok because they had seen me tap my helmet the lap before and were holding the '10' board out. Obviously I was now ok to carry on so just waved a thumbs up at them and shook my head violently. Cleverly, on my next lap, they had flipped the '10' board upside down and turned the 1 into a K to see whether I was 'OK' to which I kept waving a thumbs up and nodded and was able to complete my first ever full 90 minute stint in a 24 hour race which after breaking 2 ribs after 30 minutes last year was quite literally one of the best feelings of my life, despite the annoying balaclava situation earlier on. What a feeling... Whilst I was on cloud 9, Dave was just about to start his first ever stint in a 24 hour.

The livestream caught my balaclava incident


Dave jumped in the kart just as it was beginning to go dark which meant his first ever 24 hour stint was going to be on a wet track during sunset and into the night when the track would be floodlit. We were all watching intensely hoping that he would be on pace and seem confident with what was going on and sure enough he was clearly loving it giving us thumbs up on his way past. But... 30 minutes in, he started pointing at what seemed to be his left engine until we noticed something flapping around behind him. For some reason he had decided to put his rib protector on the outside of his suit and one of the straps had fallen off and his rib protector was completely loose. Instead of throwing a £120 piece of Luke's kit onto the side of the track, he opted to pit and drop it by the side for us to collect. This cost him valuable time and meant he had to push the kart out of the fuel bay, round to the opposite side of pits, round onto pit road, start both engines on his own and get going again because none of us knew he was coming in and therefore weren't waiting at pits. Luke had sprinted down as soon as we'd noticed he'd got into pits but arrived too late to help, he did find his rib protector though! Good thinking Dave! Anyway, Dave managed to finish his stint with no issues and was gleaming when he came back to the gazebo with a hint of frustration at his early issue. Safe to say he learned his lesson and put his rib protector on the inside of his suit from that point.

Michael's second stint


Mike's second stint was interesting to say the least. Around 50 minutes in, a full course yellow was called and we didn't see Mike come round for at least a couple of minutes. Moments later, the race got red flagged, which only happens when there has been a major accident or if there is something on the track (debris, rain etc.) which makes it unsafe for the race to continue. Since the torrential downpour we'd had earlier didn't bring out a red flag, we were worried for how Mike was. When he did finally emerge from the first sector, he was tapping his helmet. It was a relief to see that he was still in the kart but something had clearly happened to him because he was asking to be called in after just 50 minutes. The rules say that we can't change drivers during a red flag period but if that driver is physically injured then we argue whether that rule should be allowed to be bent in that situation. Either way, the drivers were made to sit in their karts line astern just before the start-finish line. We got Adam ready to take over and made our way down to pits as we did not know when the red flag period would end. As we got to pits we noticed the drivers had been allowed to get out of their karts and had moved into a huddle. It later transpired that the red flag had been called because some lighting had failed in two places around the course. A lighting rig had failed at turn 1 and at turn 4 in the mountain section. A smash had occurred between a hire and a pro kart (we later learned Mike was the hire kart, both drivers were able to drive on) but the rest of the field simply would not slow down for the yellow flags (they would have been visible even though the lights were off). The drivers in the huddle were given a very strong warning for yellow flags and 4 teams were also reprimanded for not maintaining a gap during the full course yellow before the red flag was called. Mike was a good boy and maintained a gap to the kart in front!

Sunday

John got back from his nap just as Adam went out for his stint. We got the full story of what happened to Mike when he jumped out of the kart, clearly emotional that he was in pain and was sure he couldn't go out again. He had damaged is left side ribs somehow but wasn't sure how badly at this point, he just knew that he couldn't do a lap without pain. Mike and Marie booked a hotel and told us they'd be back in the morning. It was sad to see Mike leaving the track in that state. He'd been brilliant at the start and had been a fantastic help so far during the weekend but no matter how experienced you are, problems can strike at any point.

Adam and John's next stint went as smoothly as could have been expected, I was spotting for Adam's and desperately needed some rest before my next stint so chose to get a couple of hours in the tent just as John was getting ready to take over from Adam. According to Josh, when John limbered back to the gazebo they knew he wasn't in a good way, he looked bleak apparently. It was clear that his wet stint and his night stint had wiped him out and it's not surprising. John essentially called it a day there and then and fair play to him, he did a mega job. Getting back into that damp suit, shoes, gloves and helmet must have been grim, let alone having to drive in them for 90 minutes in the cold again.

At this point my memory goes blurry as we were well in to the night, so much had happened and at some point I went to grab 2 hours sleep before my night stint. At this point, Luke went out and during his stint he served our only mandatory maintenance stop in which the brakes and front two tyres were replaced (every hire team gets called in once between midnight and 3am for their mandatory maintenance stop), then they left me to get a bit more sleep whilst Dave went out again so he could have his sleep when he got back in. I slept for about 2 hours before being abruptly awoken because Dave had tapped his helmet. That meant I had less than 10 minutes to get from my sleeping bag to pits. I've never dressed faster in my life. We made it to pits just as Dave was called in. So after 10 minutes I went from being in deep sleep to being bounced around in turn 2! I had such a rush of adrenaline going through me that I felt unstoppable! Besides someone dive bombing me and sending me off at turn 2 around half way through my stint meaning I had to get out and drag a 150kg kart out of a water filled ditch back onto the track, it felt like a great stint. After about an hour and 15 minutes my ankle started to give me real pain as I'd smashed it against the brake fluid bottle when I went off so they gave me the 10 minute board and I came in a few laps later.

Since John had called it a day and Mike was out too, Adam went out for his final stint as the sun came out. Adam seemed to have the least eventful stints of anyone, credit to his consistent, fast and safe driving. He looked really solid in the kart all weekend and managed a third full hour and a half stint as if it was nothing.

Next out was Luke again who we really struggled to wake up. It took 3 of us with increasing levels of shaking before Josh picked him up with his laser beams and shook him like a doll. His final stint was his most consistent, despite him being sleep deprived. Luke drove for 5 and a half hours in total, more than anyone else in the team. Such a great effort.

Changing conditions


With 3 hours to go and only Dave and I left to go out, we had to each put in 1 and a half hours worth. My arms did not have another hour and a half left in them and Dave wasn't looking up for that long either but luckily, our knight in Scottish armour arrived back from his sleep at the hotel ready to rumble again! Dave, Mike and I agreed to do 1 hour each but that's not how it transpired...

Luke came in to pits, broken and knackered from everything to well deserved fist bumps and hugs as Mike jumped in. Luke was surprised to see Mike back at the track! After 21 hours of driving, through incidents and rain we were sat solidly inside the top 20 when everything (literally everything) went wrong. Around 50 minutes in to Mike's stint, whilst I was waiting in the pits to jump in, the front left wheel came off. Mike had to get the car back to pits and into the garage for the wheel to be replaced. Mike was accused of riding kerbs but it wasn't the stub axel that failed, it was a bearing that had failed so they soon hushed after that. That lost us around 5 laps. 10 minutes later, whilst I was still waiting in pits, he lost his front right wheel and had to bring it in to the garage again, this time he refueled on his way in. This stop cost us another 5 laps. So 2 unlucky incidents in 1 stint had to be it right? Nope! About 10 minutes later, the exhaust came off. At this point, Mike was pretty fed up of coming in for repairs so he just stayed out until he got black flagged and called in for our fourth maintenance stop of the race. The exhaust took another few minutes to change by which time we'd dropped into the mid twenties having lost at least 15 laps due to repair stops. This was a frustrating time for the team but ultimately, we did our best to look after the kart and you can't help reliability. In the end, Mikee's 1 hour stint turned into 1 hour and 40 minutes leaving Dave and I to fill a 1 hour 10 minute gap. I drove for 25 minutes, tapped my helmet, got called in after 35 minutes, didn't refuel, handed the kart quickly to dave who drove for the final 35 minutes and took the flag for us and did the parade lap bringing it home 25th out of 45 classified finishers in our class. We were all up on the hill under our gazebo cheering and clapping him and the rest of the field round after an exhausting but entertaining 24 hours. We quickly ran down to the pits to greet Dave back and to talk as a team for the first time since the start.

After that it was a case of replacing the steering wheel, packing all of our stuff up and making our way to the presentation area for the prize giving ceremony. After congratulating all of the winners we said farewell to John 'Rainmaster' Smith who unfortunately could not stay with us for the evening. The rest of us headed back to the hotel only to realise check in wasn't open until 2pm!!! Luckily the receptionist got a rush on our rooms and within a few minutes of arriving we'd crashed out in our beds. In the evening we drove to TGIs. Luke got lost again on his way there (not even joking). Dave and Luke ordered deserts before their mains because #YOLO and we chatted, laughed and reminisced about the weekend. After that we headed back to the hotel to reconvene with Josh and Ryan who had been sleeping whilst we were out. We had a few drinks and a few more laughs, said our thanks then called it a night.

The team before the race [L-R: Pete, Luke, Dave, Mike, John, Adam]




On a personal note I want to thank Luke for putting up with me chatting shit in the hotel room on Friday and Sunday, to Dave for agreeing to take part in this mental event and for giving me a lift to and from Teesside, to John for taking one for the team and being superb in the wet, to Adam for inviting me back for another year despite my miserable attempt in 2016, to Mike for being a sport and joining our team despite us not being up to his level, to Marie for sandwiches and moral support throughout the whole weekend, to Jack, Josh and Ryan for helping with pitstops and carrying heavy bits and bobs back and forth all weekend and finally to Stuart for travelling down for the Saturday to give us a few laughs and more importantly expert driving tips (plus a steering wheel and tacho!) and gazebo support when the clouds decided to piss on everything.

Thank you for a weekend I will never forget. Roll on 2018!