Super 1 Round 2 - PF International
After the first round of the national series, a few things had been decided. 1, the kart we were using wasn’t up to scratch anymore and 2, we needed some more power from our engines. So, Zip offered Phil a kart to race, as Zip wanted one of their karts in Formula A. after testing the kart Phil felt quite happy with it, and put in some fast times during Friday practice. Also some Parilla engines from Simon Wright had been organised for the weekend, which were much, much better than the Maxter’s that had been used at 3 sisters. Friday testing went well as Phil ran in the motors and worked with the kart setup, until his fastest time was about 3 tenths off the quickest in the last session. However, one problem that had arisen in practice about the Zip kart was that it didn’t have front brakes, and Zip didn’t have any brake systems. Phil was losing about 2 tenths under breaking into the hairpins every lap, because he just couldn’t brake as late as other people with front brakes, so everyone was slightly sceptical about problems this could highlight in racing.
On Saturday practice again went well as Phil did some proper testing on his motors that were run in, and shaved a tenth off his quickest time. In timed qualifying Phil wasn’t quick at all, a problem in set up meant the kart didn’t handle the same on the new rubber that had to be put on the kart.
Sunday morning brought the heats and 2 finals, in the first heat Phil finished 15th from 19th which wasn’t bad, and in the 2nd heat an 18th from 19th wasn’t too good, putting Phil on 18th for final 1. Phil seemed to be on a mission to make up for the heats, as he slashed through the karts on the opening laps of the race, getting up to 12th before dropping down to 14th when he had gotten the tyres too hot, but a good result still from 18th. In final 2 Phil started 14th after finishing final 1 in that position. Phil was again straight to it taking places at a steady rate and worked his way up to 8th. A collision with another kart caused Phil to drop down to 10th, but on the closing laps the two in front of Phil started to battle and Phil almost had 9th over the line, but 10th was a pretty respectable finish. This put Phil up to 10th in the Super 1 series championship.