PF Libre Winter Series Round 3
Phil was raring to go on Saturday morning as he put the kart on the grid at PF, trying to gain experience of the other drivers for when he races in Formula A this year. All day Saturday Phil had been quite quick, although his motors were lacking in bottom end out of the hairpins, testing revealed that a different reed valve block caught back a lot of time. Phil’s fastest time was only a tenth of Litchfield and everyone was hoping that this would be a good omen for Sunday’s racing. Sunday morning came and the 1st heat saw Phil draw grid 26. On the first lap Phil made a couple of places due to spinners and slower drivers, but then started to slow down. 3 laps from the end Phil’s engine seized and he spun off the track just after turn 1. Good start. In the second heat Phil started from grid 4 and was in 2nd around the 1st bend, but this time he slowed much quicker and fell back to 14th places within 6 laps. On the last lap Phil’s engine seized again, in the same place on the track. Great. After looking at the Alfano, the seize in the 1st heat could only have been caused by too low a temperature, however no explanation could be found for the 2nd heat as Phil had got the engine to it’s optimum temperature. With a starting position of 26th Phil was just going to use this final as experience for getting in amongst the action in the first couple of corners. This seemed to pay off as Phil gained quite a few places and held it until the end of the race, just missing out on snatching another over the line. He finished 13th. Not bad considering the engine trouble!!