Ash Hand - Formula Kart Stars Round 5 - PF International

Following the disappointment of Ash's weekend at Larkhall his outing at PF International in round 5 of the Formula Kart Stars Championship continued to beset with problems.

The pre final was delayed by several hours due to an ongoing racing incident. During the delay the weather closed in and rain hit the circuit. The kart was changed over to wet tyres, however because of a ruptured tyre bag he ended up having  to go out on a set of unscrubbed rubber. The grip just wasn't there ans Ash struggled with the kart to simply keep it between the white lines. Despite going off on P2 by lap 5 he had lost 9 places, eventually crossing the finish line in 12th.

The Final started with Ash on P10 by the end of lap 1 he had made 5 places into 5th position where he remained for the majority of the race. Lap 14 and a cat and mouse tussle with Will Hunter eventually pushed Ash across the finish line in 6th place.

On the back of last weekend it wasn't the result that we had hoped for. But as it's only about halfway through Ash is still hopeful for a good finish in the Championship come October.

Ash Hand - Super 1 - Larkhall - Round 4

Following the long haul up to Larkhall for round 4 of the Mobil Super 1 championship, the return journey was tainted by the bitter taste of a penalty being imposed during the first of the two finals.

The team has always advocated the use of the Unilogger to help level out the playing field and prevent infringement of the rules. The Unilogger is a device which basically monitors the axle speed over the engine speed, and is therefore able to collect data in respect of clutch slip. Should a clutch slip past the prescribed limit it is signified by displaying a red light.

Ash had good qualifying rounds and was well on the pace recording the fastest lap in heat 2 , as a result he went into the the first of the two finals from fifth on the grid. All was going well and he took the chequered flag set for a convincing second place. That is until he came off the track and the Unilogger was showing a red light. This rightly resulted with the intervention of the Clerk of the Course. Early indications from the collected data showed the clutch had started to slip some eleven minutes into the fifteen minute race,  the clutch slip was occurring right at the top end of the rev range, this was further supported by the Alfano which showed Ash's pace to be dropping away. The decision of the Clerk of the Course was to give Ash zero points for the first of the finals and resulting in him going off in the final right from the very back of the thirty strong grid for the second final.

The officials had the clutch stripped and cleaned, and the kart held in parc ferme until the final. Despite all the whispers and inevitable finger pointing that went on around the paddock, Ash showed a maturity well beyond his years and unbowed started the second of the finals from rear most on the grid and determination to prove a point. It has to be said he drove like a man possessed to make up eighteen positions to take 12th, and again record the fastest lap. Having come off the track one of the officials commented "Well I think that has just proven a point".

Brendan reflected " It's a bitter pill to swallow, and realistically it's cost Ash a shot at winning the championship, I think the best we can look at now is third place. I know Ash is bitterly disappointed. The points he would have picked up would have put him third in the championship table. The data showed the clutch starting to slip well into the race is something that the team or Ash couldn't have any influence over, more than that it also showed a disadvantage us. This could have happened to any of the drivers out there and is likely to happen again at some point in the future. Uniloggers are good but the rules say it's an infringement regardless of the data. I think the Clerk of the Course used as much latitude as he could by zero pointing Ash and putting him at the back of the grid for the second final. I'm sure if it had been shown that we had gained any advantage Ash would have been excluded from the meeting. I feel the rule needs to be looked at and the Clerk of the Course allowed to view each instance on the available data and if considered appropriate to let the actual race result stand despite Uniloggers red light. I know this is a serious concern as a number of other teams and engine builders have already beein touch to find out what happened; they now realise, it could quite easily have been themselves affected. I'm proud of the way Ash dealt with this. His drive in the second final was outstanding and had he started from where he should have, he could have quite easily won. The kart having been in parc ferme between the two finals, it's performance in the final demonstrating you do not have to bend the rules to be quick. You just need the kart set up to be spot on and the driver to be focused and we had both in spades".

Ash was upbeat about the whole thing saying "Of course I'm disappointed to see the top step of the podium slipping away because of this. Come the end of the championship I will be up there; maybe not the top step this year though. Look what's happened to Lewis Hamilton this season; I've taken a lesson from him - I might be down but I'm certainly not out yet, it's not over until that last chequered flag drops in the last race of the championship - anything could happen yet"

There were no indications during the 10 minute test sessions that there was likely to be a problem, however we believe that the longer duration of the race it'self may have a had bearing on the tempreature / viscosity of the chain lube used, and that it's this, that's could be at the root of the problem. P1 Racing will continue to work with the officials to ensure that we all get to the root cause as we don't want for ourselves or anyone else to fall foul of this issue again.

In conclusion the Unilogger data MUST be used or what is the point of having Unilogger in the first place and then to compound it further with the rules; because the Unilogger is showing  RED it must be an infringement, never mind what the collected data says. We all understand the officials have a difficult job to do, so the sooner the data is correctly analysed to determine if there was a benefit/advantage gain or not the sooner we will all see the real benefit of the Unilogger

As we predicted the action would be taking place at Rowrah in round 2 of the Mobil Super 1 series, and what an action packed weekend's racing it turned out to be.

Click here to see what the Formula Kart Stars Website has to say

As was out at the weekend in Round 4 of the Shenington Championship. His driving and the setup of the kart was spot on throughout Saturday's practice, he proved to awsomely quick.

Sunday's heats was a repeat of Saturday's practice - quick. Ash took a 4th, 3rd and 1st and recorded the fastest lap time in all three heats.  It was enough for him to qualify on P1 in the final. Ash had a good start pulling some 5 or 6 kart lengths clear of the chasing pack. The decision to run on used rubber was to cost Ash the win, the tyres went off and Ash had difficulty getting the kart to handle in the corners. By lap 10 he was running in third place and by the time of the chequered flag went out Ash had managed to get past James Hassall coming across the line second to Lewis Seville.

Brendan Ash's dad said "We had scrubbed a new set of tyres for the Rowrah meet next weekend, but decided to race on the tyres he had been on in practice as he was going so quick on them. It's surprising how quick they can go off, which they did around lap 9. You could just see the performance dropping away. Ash pushed as hard as he could and did well to take second but it was our questionable decision that cost him. One thing's for sure we won't be making the same mistake next week.

The newlook and newly named Formula Kart Stars saw it's opening two rounds at Kimbolton (11-12/04/09) in this double headed meeting. (Also See Ash's report at FormulaKartStars.com)

Saturday saw a miserably wet day, with persistant light rain for most of the day. Round 1 was a bit of learning curve for all the drivers concerned. In main the qualifying heats were gone, replaced by a qualifying session more in keeping with that of F1 in so much as it was against the clock. Parc Ferme was another concept which all the teams had to come to terms with, fuel and tyres not being available until the karts were on the dummy grid.