Kyalami - 12/04/2008 - Round 3

Round 3 of the Pro Tour saw yet another visit to Kyalami. I enjoy this circuit, but I'm just too slow for whatever reason hehe. Reasons I have come to see after this weekend....

New tyres were great! Thanks to Symplexity again, the car really felt like a new beast. I could brake so much later (and steadier) than before, and just chuck the car into the corners. I struggled quite a bit with understeer in the slow stuff though, it was costing me a lot of time. Eventually I settled on a decent setup, but still was losing so much time in the slow corners. I felt it was okay since with that balance I was pretty strong in the fast stuff. It looked like a top5 was a realistic goal (especially since the champ leader Alan Holm wasn't around) but it proved to be a mad struggle.

Qualifying went okay. We only got a lap or so of dry running before it started raining :) Oh my word...RAIN IS AWESOME!!! The car has no grip at all....so freakn cooool!! :D It's just so easy to lose the car on the brakes...you try and apply a little more than a feather's pressure on the brake pedal, and its a lockup and aquaplaning for a few seconds!! Crazy...oh the car doesnt turn either, and if you change down to 2nd gear you will probably spin the car. I wish qualifying had been wet from the start; my laptimes in the rain seemed decent enough to be challenge the front pack. I was sitting 5th in those dry laps.

The 1st race went okay, considering the amount of time I was losing down the straights. I was getting so frustrated everytime I came out the last corner...I would be right on someone's tail, and after the pit straight I wouldn't even be close enough for a hint of slipstream. It was awful. I drove through that depressing feeling, lined Trevor Bland up for an overtake on the last lap (since I knew my engine wasn't up for defending) and managed to nail him on the last corner of the last lap. But then he just drove clean past me over the finish line. I was so angry. This engine is costing me laptime and positions, even after I do the hard work.

The 2nd race started off well. Despite the lack of power, I was battling in the pack for 3rd position. I knew it would take some real devious and cunning arts to manage to beat that pack when their engines were so much more powerful...and Kyalami is just made up of superfast stuff. And then God decided to be funny about the situation and my accelerator stuck open. Great. This was only scary at first, since I found out it was stuck when I got to Sunset corner (turn4) which is taken almost flat out on the limit. This "almost flat out" corner means that you can't take it flat, which is what my car decided it was going to try to do hahaha...after I got through that alive, it was just annoying.


Controlling the car was hard, I didn't have the confidence to fight wheel-to-wheel with guys, was very dangerous. Braking and accelerating at the same time isn't very fast, and the mad revs everytime I pushed the clutch in to change gear was worrying for my engine...I should have really been able to adapt much quicker to the situation and probably maintained 5th position. The car was just unpredictable though, towards the end of the race the throttle seemed to behave itself at times, and other times not. Battling hard and heading out the last corner, I managed to miss 3rd gear somehow...and lost 6th position over the finish line. I was ready to drive off a cliff, I was so angry yet again, but my own pathetic newbie mistake!!! That is definitely not happening again.

So it was a very disappointing and frustrating weekend for me. The lack of power is really hurting my chances at good results now, and I'm sad to report back a 6th and 7th. Working on the engine is going to take quite some finance, so the need for sponsors has never felt so great. Here's hoping for a miracle...

Pre-Kyalami

Things are looking okay, heading into Round 3 of 2008. I definitely still need a major sponsor, but hopefully now my new tyres give me a good chunk of pace back. To be honest, it surely cant perform miracles, but I need to really push now to get into the top5. Getting there is going to be really difficult, there are a lot of fast drivers. I'm currently sitting 7th in the championship close behind 2drivers, so I'd better get a move on!

I found out that one of my rims is a bit bent, and that I'll need an engine rebuild pretty soon. Lots of money to fork out, and not much left :P

Looking forward to Kyalami though. Not thinking about it every second, I have so much other stuffs to do, but next week I'm sure I'll settle down and focus on doing a good job.

Breath of Fresh Air

Thanks to Pieter K and Symplexity for helping me out with a much needed new set of tyres for the next round at Kyalami, and additional help for the rest of the season. Their actions will really help motivate me to push on further, and the struggle to keep a dream going has been eased up a bit :) The search still continues for further aid!

http://www.symplexity.co.za/

Thanks a million guys. Symplexity ftw.

Article on FSR website

Article on FSR describing my real racing combined with simracing.

Aldo Scribante - 08/03/2008 - Round 2

And so it was that the 2nd round of the Pro Tour was to be a tale of tyres for me.

It was pretty damn hot in Port Elizabeth. The Friday practice sessions really took it out of me, and my poor race fitness was showing as by the time we came to quali, I hardly had any energy left. The car handled poorly from the start. The track surface was incredibly abrasive, and I had a really difficult time keeping the slides to a minimum. There was no way to eliminate it or avoid it without being slow. I had to slide around every single corner basically to not be last. At least the brakes seemed to be behaving, so the broken chassis member was indeed the culprit!

I experimented with car setup quite a bit to try get rid of the horrible corner entry understeer, and horrific corner exit oversteer. This was inbetween running around the town for parts and working really hard on my car...the clutch packed up twice and the starter motor once. Anyway, I eventually gave up on car setup near the end after visibly noticing the degredation of my rear tyres. I had found the best balance of the worst handling, there was no miracle fix. I was eventually fighting with drivers whom I never really see on track...luckily race day was a bit cooler than the practice day.

I started from 9th, and the grip was crap. I battled the 1st race, and bumped 2 guys into a spin :/ I really felt bad. The 1st one was on Ben Pienaar, he just braked really early into the chicane, and there was no way I could stop in time. I had a great battle with Gareth Jackson, and after maintaining my slides around the outside of him for 2 corners (and thus the inside line for the next corner) he just turned in on me and I had nowhere to go...I clipped his back wheel and he spun as well. They're good friends of mine, but they didn't seem very happy after the race. Ended up 9th.

The 2nd race was awesome. I was really having fun sliding the car everywhere, I was drifiting into corners, sliding around them, and then having power slides out of them. It was really an incredible experience, but I really did tame the beast. I had awesome fights with Courtney Steenveld and Ben, and some guys with new tyres started feeling the heat as their rear tyres also lost grip towards the end of the race. Some battles were like ballet, everyone just sliding in unison, it was so cool hehehe. I managed to control the car when others could not, and I ended up in 7th place after the race. That was really the best I could do, it was serious damage limitation.

I can throw my tyres away now. My rears have no tread left, and my fronts look shocking. Kyalami is next, and hopefully I can land a couple of sponsors so I can really push towards the front end. It was interesting watching some drivers practicing on old tyres, and then gaining 1.5-2sec by just putting on new rubber....

Bring on Kyalami!

Preparation for Round 2, Port Elizabeth

Well the next race is upon me, and I have not really prepared that much mentally for it. I have been extremely busy in life, and it looks like the next few months will be quite intense. Racing will have to take a back seat? Hope not.

I phoned Dean, and chatted to him about my car. Seeing as I have no sponsors on board yet, even after some intensive searching, I will not have new tyres on my car. I am using the set that I purchased at the beginning of last season....the regulations have changed to a softer compound twice since then, so let's just say it's a disadvantage.

Dean found my chassis was a bit broken on the right side...one of the members was sheared straight off. I have no idea how that happened, I hadn't crashed or anything....who knows if my violent brake shuddering was the result of that, or if it caused it! We'll see at PE. There were no issues with my front suspension, so it could be my front shocks as well. So basically I'm heading to PE with a car thats gonna shake the living crap outa me under braking yet again. I really hope I don't lose too much time for this again, I already lose too much with the tyres.

Hey! I finally got a new rear shock, yay! That's one cool upgrade at least hehe.

PE will be a new circuit for me. It looks pretty decent, and I've heard good things from other drivers. Looks like it may not need 2nd gear, wouldn't that be awesome hahaha....I sooo hate that gear. I'm pretty keen on the weekend, and see what I can do under the very difficult circumstances. I feel that I'm slowly getting mentally prepared, I should get it peaked by Friday! I really have to concentrate on learning the track and being on the limit within 3 x 15min practice sessions, amidst sorting out the brake issues and setting up my rear shock. It's going to be difficult but I really want to continue my top5 finishes.

I shall keep pushing on in life, searching for sponsors (which is taking its toll), and concentrating on rocking the race weekend. Sigh, life is awesome ;)

The Essence

I keep losing it, it seems. Until I realise I am off the path.

Getting caught up in life is so easy. Getting caught up in the difficulties of racing....there is no money. Thinking of the sacrifices made, priorities and what could be saved if you choose to not risk everything just for something like a set of new tyres, or a chance at improving the condition of the car. What's it all for anyway? Is it causing that much extra pressure, to deliver the expectations of family and friends in life whilst still trying to play a game?

It's my game. It's my sport. It's my escape. It's my dream and it's what makes me.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible."

Get on with it, Zaahir.