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7th December - Jason had his Annual Christmas Meeting at the
Hamilton Kart Club Raceway over the weekend where he picked up 1st in his class just proving the speed and consistency he
has had all year.
It was a successful day for other members of the MSB Motorsport Team as well with Graeme (Jason and Scott's
Dad) getting behind the wheel for the Annual Fathers Race and after looking very pedestrian 2 years ago he came out this year
and smoked the whole field. Well done Corby!!
Daryl got an invite from Jason to drive the kart as well and thoroughly enjoyed himself, however not a 1st
overall some very small sign of pace was shown. A very big difference from the racing Daryl has currently been doing with
the TQ Midget on the dirt. A great day had by all and thanks to Jason for lending the gear out.
To top off the day was the Hamilton Kart Club Annual Prizegiving and this just showed how dominant Jason has
been all year in that Senior Yamaha Heavy picking up the following Titles.
- 1st Club Champs
- 1st Grand Prix Champion
- 2nd Club Points
- BEST PRESENTED KART & CREW
The last award very special for the team given the team and effort we put in to making the Vehicles and the
Team ultra professional no matter where we go. So well done to the whole MSB Motorsport Team and especially Jason.
29th November - The MSB Motorsport Team have had some very fun
and enjoyable weekends being part of the Speedway Scene but it has been a very steep learning curve as well. For Daryl it
was just getting some pace and getting use to race on the dirt and with a field of cars again. For the whole team it was getting
there heads around the Set ups of Speedway cars and finding one that suited the car and driver.
Labour Weekend feels so long ago but it was 5 meetings ago and just over a month ago. The first meeting at
Napier wasn't to successful with having the new seat in the car and the wrong foot blocks etc. So for Daryl it was just getting
time behind the wheel and finding out what else did not suit him.
Next meeting was Western Springs on November 7th, first time racing at the home of Speedway was exciting learnt
plenty on our first night. Had to start off the back of the heats but managed to make our way forward from grid 21 to 13th
in the Feature which was a great result.
14th November was our 2nd Meeting at Western Springs and again had to start from the back of our heats. This
meant we had to start from grid 22, the track was a lot bumpier and I had never driven on anything like that in my life before.
We still gained places and passed cars but only finished in 18th.
20th November we decided to race at Huntly with Western Springs having a weekend off. This is kind of like
a home track for Daryl and the team being from Hamilton but wasn't going to be a good start to the night. Heat 1 saw Daryl
starting from grid 1 but with just two laps gone and Daryl battling for the lead the 41a car was spinning and caught Daryl
and sent him into a roll where he flipped about 2 or 3 times damaging the car heavily. It took till the Feature Race to sort
out all the issues which had him starting from grid 18, he worked hard to keep with everybody even with badly bruising his
knees on the steering box and got a very credible finish of 8th overall.
Our last meeting to date was at Western Springs run over two nights on the 28th and 29th of November. Didn't
start well again with Daryl being Black Flagged in the first heat after a bolt broke in the exhaust and exceeded the noise
level. The 2nd heat was better but car was still very tight. Finished 10th. Started the Feature in 22nd on the second night
and car was still very tight but got better as the race went on got passed some cars and picked up the pace with a finish
of 16th.
Have to give a huge thanks to the Whole MSB Motorsport Team, Family, Freinds and supporters that turn up and
cheer (even when Daryl roll's), and especially to Jason and Scott for the commitment every week and to Chris Street (Streety)
from CSR Fabrication with all the tips on set up which is helping us slowly get there.
22nd September - The MSB Motorsport Team has had some recent
changes and developments giving the team a different look.
First of is the sale of the MSB Motorsport Nissan Pulsar GTi-R and complete set up with the trailer also
going. This leaving Daryl without a competition car at this present point in time but he is working hard on something and
there could be some developments in the coming weeks.
Second is the upgrade of Jason's MSB Motorsport Azzurro Kart chassis to a later model giving the team
a chassis that should suit more track conditions and a little more forgiving in the extremes. This should give some great
results to the team over the summer months and the few Christmas Meetings.
Last of all is Scott in the MSB Motorsport Mazda and after a gearbox failure in the first time out it
has been a lengthy process in finding the right people to fix it and all the development opportunities at the same time so
that this sort of failure doesn't happen again. As of this weekend the gearbox is back in possession of the MSB
Motorsport and getting put back into the Mazda. This means some exciting times watching Scott on the track and tearing up
some events over the Summer.
Until the next update, take care and be safe out there !!! :-)
15th & 16th August - Expectations were high as the team
headed out to Hamilton Kart Club on the weekend of 15-16 August for the 2009 Club Championships. One of the biggest
concerns was that the field may have been too small for the champs to go ahead for our class. After a phone call from
a club committee member as late as Thursday to say the event was in doubt, the team were very apprehensive. We'd done
all we could to increase numbers, calling other competitors and leasing our spare engine to fellow Azzurro racer Martin Waugh
to make sure he made it to the grid.
Once we arrived at the track for Saturday's
racing it became apparent that Yamaha Heavy wasn't the only class short on numbers, however the club decided to press on,
and as a result Jason dominated the class on day one of the two day meeting. Running the unique format of reverse direction
day one, and normal direction day two, Jason was able to get good starts in all but one of Saturday's five heats and jump
to the lead on the first lap before steadily pulling clear for the win. The only challenge to this dominance came in
heat three where Martin was able to lead from the start and after a brief seesaw battle Jason passed him for good on lap two.
The day one results left Jason in a dominant points position heading in to the second
day. However the team hadn't been entirely happy with the day one performance, considering they had been unable to achieve
the lap times enjoyed on the previous racing in reverse direction earlier in the season.
Day
two proved to be a carbon copy of day one, although if anything even more dominant as Jason was able to get ahead early in
both the final championship heats and the 25 lap grand prix, and then control the racing from the front.
Despite the absence of some of the more recognised competitors in the class, it was still a great weekend
for the team as we win our first title.
The decision was made following the meeting
that this would be our last run in the Azzurro R6 chassis we have run for the last twelve months. Watch this space for
future developments ahead of the next club day on 30 August.
19th July - Sunday July 19th had the kart on track for
the final round of this years Hamilton Kart Club points series. Jason was currently sitting in second on the table,
one point behind Todd Sherley. The weekend started badly with Jason requiring stiches to the back of his head and a
slight concussion after a knock playing rugby on the Saturday, however the team decided to soldier on for Sunday and compete
as much as possible.
As it transpired the first two races followed a very similar theme with Todd jumping out to an
early lead and Jason able to clear the rest of the pack before starting on a vain attempt to run him down. Jason was
making some great passes and showing genuine speed, able to mix it with some of the lights class, but remained unable to foot
it with Todd.
The third race followed the same as the first two until the final lap where a combination of frustration
and poor judgement saw Jason misjudge the breaking point of the Lights class competitor in front of him, and he rode up and
across the back of the other kart before spinning off into the safety barrier. He was able to restart but lost crucial
positions in the process, from what would have been another second place.
Throughout the day the wind had been blowing
severely at the track and as the fourth heat headed to the dummy grid it began to rain heavily. The effect of the now
wet track on the Junior race on track at the time was quite dramatic, and most of the Yamaha field due up in the next heat
changed to wets. The team decided to take a slight gamble, banking on the wind blowing the rain over quickly enough
and the track drying for slicks to still be the best option.
The start was an absolute debacle with Jason being held
up on the formation lap by another competitor who'd elected to go out on slicks and was unable to keep up. The race
started with Jason and two others almost a lap down. However, with some patient driving in the testing conditions early, it
became apparent that the slicks were the right choice after all and as the other competitors began to struggle on their badly
overheating wets Jason got faster and faster. Eventually Jason passed Todd for the heavies lead with 2 laps remaining, and
went on to win by a considerable margin, Todd eventually fell back to finish 3rd. At the end of the race a check of
the lap times showed Jason had set the fastest lap of any competitor in either the Light or Heavy classes, leaving the team
wondering what might have been had they been allowed to start in their correct place on the grid.
Unfortunately a
combination of tiredness and the effect of head knock from the day before took it's toll for the final heat of the day and
Jason, whilst slotting into second early, would eventually succumb to finish 3rd.
Second place for the overall was
a great result for the team from a good days racing. Todd's class shone through in the end and he was a deserving winner
of both the round and the series.
Next meeting for the kart will be club champs on the 8th and 9th of September, where
the team are hoping for another strong result
21st June - Sunday June 21 saw the team
back on track at Hamilton for a club day. Unfortunately as this event was not a round of the points
series numbers were even lighter than normal, in fact we were the only competitor in Yamaha Heavy and there were only 6 in
Yamaha Light.
Needless to say a dominant performance saw us achieve first in each race, although as Daryl pointed
out at prize-giving we also managed last in each race as well.
The lack of numbers did give us an opportunity to try
and further develop our second engine and we’ve made some valuable progress towards trying to even the performance gap
between the two.
As for the actual racing it was all fairly tame really. We tended to be able to get around
the slower competitors in the lights class fairly quickly after the start and the front three lights were all "A" rated competitors
that headed off into the sunset.
A nice quiet day at the track, but at least it didn’t rain. Besides the
worst day at the track is still better than the best day at work.
30 & 31st May - Queens Birthday weekend
was the chance for Daryl to have a drive of the O'Connor Motorsport TQ and to decide whether speedway was something that he
wanted to move into with the Nissan Pulsar GTi-R now up for sale. Never having driven anything on a Speedway Track before
Daryl was nervous after being belted into the car and told there were 5 other TQ's (including ex NZ Champions and Western
Springs Feature Winners) and 4 Minisprints.
Daryl decided he would start right off the back of
the field for the 1st heat, meaning over half a lap down. After getting the nerves out of the system and passing a couple
of Minisprints and being caught and passed by ex NZ TQ Champ Paul Le Cren he was very happy with the effort. Over the weekend
Daryl got quicker and showed he can nearly keep pace with some regular drivers. However the biggest factor stopping greater
speed at this time was Daryl not being 100% comfortable in the car as it was built for a 16 year old jockey sized Ryan
O'Connor. Now the tough decisions will have to be made of what the next step is.
17th May - With Scott in Australia sampling the local nightlife it was a slightly depleted team that headed
out to Hamilton Kart Club for the 2nd round of the club's points series.
We had discovered mid week that the club
had taken the rare step of running this event in the reverse direction, so the track was going to be a leveller for all. Once
again the Yamaha Heavies field was fairly small with 5 entrants but within that the standard was high with Leyton Kendall
and Todd Sherley being "A" rated drivers who were competitive at the recent nationals, and another couple of visitors from
Auckland.
After two brief tuning runs being unremarkable
Jason headed out off the very back of the grid for heat 1. With a fairly large gap since any recent competitive racing
it was hard to gauge how much we could expect from the day, but with fresh(er) rubber and the newly rebuilt preferred engine
Jason pulled out one of his best drives to finish a competitive third behind Leyton & Todd, and effectively keeping pace
with them as he cleared the other drivers and back markers from the Lights class.
Heat 2 was a similar result, this
time finishing second behind Leyton after Todd was caught out by a spinning Light. Heat three similar to heat one, although
with Todd heading home Leyton and Jason on a track that was starting to become pretty treacherous as the rain came in.
Heat
4 had the team tossing up whether to run wets or slicks, but had the decision made for them as the heavens opened just prior
to race start. Jason drove a well measured race in the most atrocious conditions of our time in karting, and was as
high as second before slipping back behind Todd on the last lap and coming home third. The meeting was then put on hold
for 30 minutes as the stewards considered whether or not to continue with a track that was now flooded in places.
The
resumption of racing left Jason off three for the final, and after an average start he was able to clear the back marker Lights
yet again and set off after Leyton and Todd as the rain continued to fall. We were by far and away as competitive as
we've ever been in the wet and Jason appeared to be gaining on Leyton before the engine died suddenly and refused to restart.
It appears Jase may have got a bit too much of a puddle in the sweeper and the engine's ingested a bit of water. He
was able to restart after the flag and return to the pits under power with apparently no permanent damage.
Overall
a great day for the MSB Motorsport team. Jason showed serious improvement in his driving and the set-ups worked well
for the team despite the change from dry to very wet in a short space of time. Although we're not sure whether or not
out of town drivers are eligible for club points at this stage Jason sits second on the points table behind Todd, so the team
will be hoping to carry on that form at home into the final two rounds of the point’s series
14th -15th February - The team had planned a full weekend of karting at Hamilton Kart Club. Following last meeting's
brake dramas some thorough maintenance had gone into the brake system on the kart and pedal feel was much improved. Jason
& Daryl hit the track Saturday for some testing in the hope of finally getting to the bottom of the tuning issues that
were plaguing the new engine and carb combination. However they had little joy with this and returned to the workshop Saturday
night to fit the team's older carburettor onto the new engine. They also checked the cross weights on the kart for the
first time and had to dial 9 kilos into the right front, a significant change for a vehicle that's racing weight (including
driver) is only 165kg.
Race day dawned dry and clear, and soon became very hot. Once again the Yamaha Heavy
field was small in numbers, but this time high in quality with up to 4 "A" rated Drivers, 1 B Rated Drivers
and Jason the only C. The racing was fast and furious, and occasionally a little physical. As usual the decision
to run the heavies off the back of the light class resulted in slower lights having a significant impact on the race for the
heavies (despite their 22kg weight advantage). In the tuning run and race one the team thought they may have licked
their tuning gremlins with the carb change as the kart was back up to full revs, but the new engine was also running very
hot and the performance was tailing off dramatically later in the race. Heat 1 result was 4th, Ht 2 5th and Ht 3 5th. By
this point the engine was beginning to feel progressively worse and Jase made the call to change to the older engine - that
was long overdue for a rebuild. Ht 4 saw another 4th, but a much more competitive one to give us 3rd place on points
leading in to the final, a reward for consistency as opposed to outright speed. Unfortunately the final was effectively
over before it begun with the pole sitter’s engine dying before the start and Jase having nowhere to go the rest of
the field shot away and Jase was left to play catch up. Whilst having genuine pace the gap was too much to bridge and
the final points for the day show the team 3rd equal.
Whilst a there was the obvious lack of race wins this meeting
the overall result, in a competitive field, was still promising. Also only one of the drivers who finished ahead of
us for the round is a Hamilton club member (and likely to
complete the points series) so this looks to be a good start as the first round of the series. However possibly the
biggest success for the team came after the meeting when Leyton was finally able to diagnose the problem the team had been
having with the newer engine - related to the depth of the needles in the carb. Hopefully now we can put the engine
frustrations behind us and make another step forward.
1st February - MSB team was trackside for their first event of the New Year - a club day for the kart at Hamilton
Kart Club. Despite some very light misty rain looking ominous at the start of the day the racing was held in the dry
and by lunchtime very sunny conditions. A very small field of Yamaha Heavies had them running off the back of the Lights
field (as usual) and with the new weight rules this season there is now a 22kg difference between the two classes.
Jason's
idea of an off season rebuild wasn't exactly as extensive as it needed to be and as all expected the Tuning Run raised a couple
of issues, primarily a lack of brakes and the underperformance of our 'new' engine. A thrash in the pits had the kart
on track with some changes before the first heat with Jase off pole, although he led for some of the race and the lead changed
hands a few times 2nd was the end result, although with a comfortable gap back to 3rd, 4th and so on. It was apparent
that Jason was struggling a little adjusting to the braking changes and still not getting the most out of tuning the new engine.
Race two went better for the team with some early dicing then Jason being able to consolidate his lead by mid-race
and pull away for a strong win. However just into turn one on the warm down lap the chain broke on the kart, so Jase
had to walk it back to the pits. At this point the team thought it was their lucky day having had the chain fail 50m
after winning the race.
However the luck turned for heat 3, with another prime grid the team had replaced the broken
chain and tightened a few things on the engine only to break another chain, this time on the warm up lap - a DNS suddenly
had our strong points position eroding very quickly. Back in the pits the problem was diagnosed as a bent sprocket carrier,
and a after a bit massage from a mallet we were out for a flag to flag win in the final heat.
Unfortunately we weren't
the only ones to have see-sawing luck for the day and with some of our competitors falling by the wayside in an already depleted
field our 2 wins, 1 second and the DNS were still enough to put us off the front for the final. This race, over twice
the distance at 15 laps, was a bit of a blow out with Jason quickly establishing a comfortable lead over the other Heavies
and running with a few of the Lights. The longer race distance appeared to hamper the engine, kart and driver performance
by the end but a comfortable win was the result.
This was enough for our first overall win - even considering the
depleted field a satisfying result for the team and our sponsors, next kart meeting is scheduled for the 15th of February
with the first round of the Hamilton Kart Club Points Series.
22nd
January - Since the last update late last year
we've had two kart meetings and the debut of Scott's new Mazda.
The first of the kart meetings was the Hamilton Kart
Club Christmas meeting in early December. Jason drove well, and again we showed more improvement with an overall 3rd
place finish for the day, just getting pipped for second by a solitary point. Analysis of the electronic lap data shows
the kart has the speed, just not the consistency as yet, and Jason is not aggressive enough at the starts, something we'll
need to rectify this year.
The following weekend the team headed to Bay
of Plenty Kart Club for their Christmas meeting. This time Jason
finished mid pack in a very competitive and large (by our usual standards) field, and once again we were competitive. Whilst
not exactly winning races at times we were as fast as all but the top 2 or 3 karts and this definitely bodes well for the
future. The bigger field of 12 and the overall quality of the competitors was great experience for Jason, particularly
on a less than familiar track.
This meeting also saw Daryl's annual return to karting, in the mechanics class for
the day. Despite dubious levels of preparation during the week and a set of tyres of unknown virtue he managed scrape
together yet another top 3 result. In reality his lap times would have put him mid pack in the Rotax Heavy class, so
you could argue allowing him to run a mechanics race is a little rude.
The following Monday (Wouldn't it be great
if we could race every day rather than working) a slightly depleted team (i.e. no Daryl) trekked down to Taupo to unleash
Scott and his new Mazda onto the track for the first time. Both were an unknown quantity. Scott's prior experience
consisted of a singular event in the old yellow MSB Mazda, and the car had only recently been purchased and detuned to as
little boost as we could run through the turbo with the current wastegate set-up.
In action it proved about two laps
before any nervousness at either element of the combination was totally dispelled. Even at its reduced boost the little
Mazda is still remarkably fast, and appears to handle as well as it goes. Scott to his credit didn't put a foot wrong
all day, and with the sound of his heel-toeing under brakes belied his inexperience on track. The satisfaction of seeing
the little Mazda, purchased for much less than $10,000 passing $100,000 cars with ease brought a tear to the eye. Unfortunately
it wasn't to last, with a minor oil leek early in the day becoming a major gearbox/diff failure at the end of the day the
team headed home, but very much eager for more.
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