August 2012 - GGC BMW CCA

BIG KIDS GO KART RACING
GGC finishes eighth in first annual Bay Area Car
Club Challenge at Le Mans Karting.
By David Killion
Photos by Richard Jamin
Le Mans Karting invited the Bay Area car clubs
to compete against each other in a wheel-towheel
team-enduro race in June. Which car
club has the fastest drivers?
The format pitted thirteen teams against each other—
five drivers per team—in a two-and-a-half hour continuous
race, with nine required hot-pit driver changes per
team. There was a random draw for kart choice, with
one replacement kart allowed for each team, in case of
mechanical failure during the race. The track was an
extended configuration, which combined the indoor surface
(slick) and outside asphalt surface (high grip), making
it somewhat technical by indoor-karting standards.
The Golden Gate Chapter showed up with ten competitors.
This enabled us to field two teams: the ///M team, consisting
of those of us with a
competitive streak (Brock
Parsons, Canyon Chan,
David Killion, David Kirjassof,
and Jerry Wilkins);
and a GT team, grouping
the less-experienced kart
racers (Brent Crowder, Gage
Killion, Jeff Cowan, Ricardo
Jamin, and Tyler Parsons).
A practice session
gave us the opportunity
to streamline our driverchange
procedures. Once
the practice and qualifying
sessions were over, it was time to get in race mode. The
F1-style standing start of race saw the green flag drop at
10:30 a.m.. Having thirteen karts all starting at the same
time made for a crowded track, and everyone did a great
job just to keep from getting spun out by the scrum.
Nearly every team had a problem at some point in the
race, and the ///M team was no exception; a complete kart
change was required due to a flat tire, which unfortunately
resulted in losing two laps to the leaders. Hopping into the
new kart, the first driver realized that it had a different
style harness. So all of our driver-change practice and
experience went out the window, and we had to learn a
new system in the heat of the race. Ultimately, the belt
situation stung us: We were black-flagged when the harness
came loose, and we lost another lap.
16
Die Flüsternde Bombe
August 2012