Yesterday was spent setting up two Tony Kart EVXX.
We are sharing tent with Tony Kart KF1 drivers, Marco Ardigo, Gay Catt and Oliver Rowland.
Next door is a long line of OTK chassis brands, Kosmic Team, Tony Junior Team, Alonso Team, Marsicani (Alonso) and Japanese Tony Kart Team.
About 40% of the paddock seems to be OTK chassis of one colour or another.
The track looks very fast and drivers with previous experience say it is one of the fastest they race on.
Arie’s mechanic, Marco, is on his fourth visit to Macau. His English is good and he has had Arie running back & forth to the OTK containers for parts all day. Both chassis are new, fitted with latest PI data logging. The KF1 chassis are covered in sensors, including track & tyre temperature sensors. The PI technician is monitoring all 8 karts in our tent.
The Tony kart Junior Team member we thought was Swedish, turned out to be American with a Swedish License. He raced at SKUSA Las Vegas last weekend. The Russian speaks very little English so communication is difficult.
Great talking to Oliver Rowland, who is now managed by McLaren. He has already experienced the McLaren F1 simulator.
Last night we had dinner with the TK Team, but it took 30 mins to navigate our way out of the Venetian Hotel.
Today we have two engines to run in and non-qualifying practice.
Baptism of fire in first session, running in first engine. Simply put the Europeans run in at almost race pace. Eventually Arie received a major punt (deliberate) in the rear from Kvyat who did not appreciate the slow down speed up style of running in we have been brought up on. However second session ran in other engine Euro style with no problems.
Next few sessions on very old “blue” tyres which had no grip and Arie struggled with kart after a few laps in each session. All part of the training said Marco as by the end of the Final on Sunday the race tyres will be lacking grip. We are on Dunlop DDH, hard compound with 7” rears and 1360mm max rear track.
Long sessions including pit stops for adjustments and swap of chassis. Another learning curve was understanding and seeing mechanic’s hand signals each lap (just at exit of full noise sweeper on to the S/F straight. Also getting Parc Ferme tyres and fuel organised.
For the last 30 minute session we got new tyres. Three pit stops for adjustments. Fastest lap on L27. Although it is hard to know what tyres the others were on our best lap was good for 3rd in the session.
Gustavo Menezes TK Junior Team 49.344
Danil Kyat Morsicani Racing 49.378
Arie Hutton Hutton Racing 49.411
Carlos Sainz Jr Genikart-LTP 49.433
First 10 karts covered by 0.2 second
However it will tougher tomorrow as everyone moves to new tyres. Every session is a huge learning curve.
Last night we had dinner with the Tony Kart Team at the Venetian Hotel. Great meal however we got lost for 30mins finding our way out as it is a huge complex. To make matters worse fire alarm went off and all the escalators stopped. We didn’t know what to do, couldn’t see an exit sign. However it was apparently just some guy in the casino setting off the alarm.
Tonight we had drivers briefing at our hotel. Ian Love is here plus Malcolm Macleod who is enjoying his VIP pass which enables him to go all over the complex.
Great to hear the guys in Italy are going well, although so far we have got the best weather!
Three more practice sessions today. Cool wind in the morning but once the sun comes up it gets hot, around 25-27C. Rubber is starting to go down, but the hard compound Dunlop tyres we are using seem to work best for us the more laps we do on them.
Still back to backing both chassis and engines. Arie is getting more comfortable and the team have analysed data over night. Mr Robazzi tells Arie he is locking the brakes up to much. The Pi speed sensor is on the rear axle so no hiding from the data!
Session 1
1 Sainz 49.242
2 Hutton 49.263
3 Ghirelli 49.465
Session 2
1 Kvyat 49.235
2 Takahashi 49.288
3 Grenhagen 49.430
6 Hutton 49.457
Session 3
1 Sainz 48.662 (this turns out to be the fastest lap of the event)
2 Kvyat 48.988
3 Grenhagen 48.999
5 Hutton 49.082
At end of session all drivers get to practice start speed from the red line to the start line. Speed is displayed on panel next to lights. It has to be between 30-50 kph.
61 laps completed today. We found a great Italian restaurant near the hotel and retired for an early night. The engines have been back to the Vortex container for adjustments during the day. Arie reasonably happy to be close to the top Europeans and consistently faster than the two Tony Kart Junior Team drivers. For most sessions sector times are published. The track has three sectors with sector one being the fast sector with two full noise straights and only one real corner. Arie is strong through sector 2 which is the twistiest sector. Very little difference for all karts in sector one proving that the various engines brands are very equal, tuning being the key issue. Arie gets given Tony Kart t-shirts.
Asia Pacific Champs Day 4
Warm up session before qualifying begins. Arie is on tyres with about 50 laps on them. All karts fitted with CIK loggers to monitor clutch slip.
1 Sainz 49.069
2 Kyvat 49.158
3 Hutton 49.295
Qualifying 1 (new tyres for all)
1 Mehta 48.954 (where did that come from? Bryan has been “slow” all through testing)
2 Wolf 48.957
3 Sirotkin 49.075
7 Hutton 49.224 (struggling on new tyres. Most do best lap on last lap 9 or 10)
(Two karts DQ for clutch slip)
Qualifying 2
1 Sainz 48.816
2 Kvyat 48.874
3 Wolf 49.033
4 Hutton 49.131
Overall Arie is on grid 7 for the two 9 lap heats.
Heat 1
Kvyat wins but gets 10 sec penalty for starting infringement (ahead of pole kart). Arie makes two good passes on Grenhagen and Sirotkin respectively to be 5th over the line and moving to 4th with Kvyat’s penalty.
Heat 2
Sainz wins but gets penalty for speeding at start (4 seconds = 4 kph over 50). Mehta inherits win. Arie moves up to 5th again with a couple of good moves. Sainz’s penalty drops him to 4th just ahead of Arie.
Intermediate Classification
1 Mehta 2 points
2 Sainz 4
3 Grenhagen 8
4 Hutton 9
5 Wolf 12
Arie’s kart is now getting a lot of attention from the Tony Kart engineers. He gets given a Tony Kart polo to wear to dinner. Formal Drivers Briefing (sign in both driver and entrant, Powerpoint presentation and written notes distributed) at hotel early evening followed by banquet/formal opening provided by the organizers. (Macau government supports this event very strongly). Support classes are contesting the last round of the Asian Karting Open Series. From Cadet through to KF2. A lot of interest in possible visits to NZ to race in the future. Malcolm has been handing out leaflets regarding 2009 CIK Trophy. The Philippines has only 70 Licence holders, but 20 of them are here. A number from Thailand have been delayed due to trouble at Bangkok airport
We went to bed in a fairly positive frame of mind about finals day!
Asia Pacific Champs Day 5
Arie gets given Tony Kart wind breaker. Discussion whether to scrub new tyres in the Tuning Run or not (good idea we think) however we end up on yesterday’s race tyres for some reason.
Tuning Run
1 Sainz 48.999
2 Hutton 49.180 (gap mostly in last sector where Arie’s right side ribs are feeling it. (Fixed for racing with more padding)
3 Kvyat 49.191
Drivers parade with Arie proudly carrying the NZ banner. “Dragon dance” and official ceremonies on track.
Pre Final 13 laps
15 karts charge into turn 2 on unscrubbed tyres.
Good start from grid 4 holding position to turn 2 however Arie gets a tap and is turned around in front of most of the pack. Karts flying everywhere. Arie restarts in last and recovers to 11th however handling not good and tune off a bit. Team mates Menezes (grid 12) and Sirotkin (grid 7) miss the crash to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively behind Sainz. Kvyat (grid 9) is out as a result of the crash.
Final 21 laps
Arie thinks the kart might be a bit bent as it did not handle well in the PF, however Marco can not find anything obvious. Turn two another big crash which Arie avoids to emerge in 6th but kart not handling and tune not right and over the next few laps Arie gets knocked around/off the track as he is slow. Eventually finishing 15th and last runner. Lap times a good 0.4 secs off previous.
A bit dissapointing considering his performance prior to the Pre Final but that’s motor racing for you?the highs and the lows come with the sport.
Sainz walks the final with Kvyat putting in a great performance from the rear of the grid, to miss the turn 2 crash, and drive through to 2nd. Ghirelli 3rd.
Arie has made some new friends from a number of countries and it has been a wonderful experience. The European drivers and a few of the Team managers were asking when he is coming to Europe to race. The Tony Kart engineers were complimentary but say more experience at this level necessary.
We would thoroughly recommend this event as a taste of true international karting. Sure the field was not large but the quality of drivers and equipment was good. Expect to see Kvyat and Sainz on top in KF3 next year.
The Tony Kart Team were fantastic. We said farewell following a team dinner at the Macau Sky Tower on Sunday night.
Till next year??
Hutton Racing
