Kartrace at Uitgeest 12-12-2004

This time I was teamed up with Roy.A friend of mine who already has some karting experience and decided to run with me on Uitgeest.We entered the first race of the Winterchampionship,which has four 2hour endurance races,under the name Dutch Sim.Bas and Brian were also there as a team.This time as Simracing.NL though.The weather was nice and it would turn out to be a pretty good day for Roy and me.

Practice was pretty good and we managed to get a good starting position for the race.We had to stay in the kart we ended practice with for the race.But a late driver change in the practice session left us with a kart we didn't know the pace of.Fortunatly there was a kart waiting in the pits that we had driven before this one and managed proper laptimes with.This ment we decided to pit on the 1st lap for a change of kart.Using 1 of the 3 mandetory stops.This would mean we were virtually driving solo till the first stops though and it was hard to see where exactly we were compared to the competition.All we could do was push and hope we would get a proper position after everyone made their 3 stops.

At our 2nd stop,which was a tankstop halfway through the race,I took over and just made sure to keep the pace high and keep out of trouble.Unfortunatly there were 2 minor incidents which ment I had to do some rallying in my stint,but nothing that cost us a lot of time.During this stint a lot of other teams had to do 2 more stops where we now only needed 1.This ment we just kept picking up positions coming from the back of the field.We only had the last stop to go now,and we weren't completely sure who else still needed to do their final stop.But it was getting clear we would at least be somewhere at the top 6 positions,maybe even podium.When we finally did do our last stop with a couple of minutes left on the clock,we came back out and finished a very nice 2nd ^.^ .....Again a very nice result I think.Unfortunatly Bas and Brian had some bad luck going on that day and weren't able to do what they can do.Looking back at my last couple of races,I've had a pole,a victory and a 2nd place ^.^ .I hope I can manage to keep this up...

My 2nd cup ^.^

Karting at Uitgeest

(Okt 2004) Lately I've started karting a little bit,together with Brian and Bas whom I met with Simracing.I met them and raced them at DSZ and we've been karting as a team at Uitgeest for a couple of times now under the name "Dutch Simracing".At Uitgeest they organise various championships.Including some 4 stroke,70kmh rental kart championships and events.Allthough the speeds are not that high,costs are low,and it still gives a nice feel of driving for real.Also a number of the teams are active in more serious championships giving you sort of a picture of your possibilitys as a driver.Uitgeest is a outdoor track so you can expect any weather,and the fact that the field is quite big lets you practice some nice close racing and various situations ^.^ .The two most recent events we entered were the "500 laps at Uitgeest" and a division 1 Summerchampionship race.Both with very decent results.....

The 500 laps kartrace at Uitgeest 19-09-2004

For the 500 I teamed up with Bas and Brian.The weather was nice and there were a total of 30 teams which ment there were quite a lot of drivers there.We started Qualifying ok being in the top part of the field.But at the end I got lucky with a pretty good kart which tipped the odds in our favor.Even though I never had a good clean lap and had the feeling I could take at least 3 tenths off,I took pole with a gap of 4 tenths to the pack behind me ^.^ ...

We decided to split the 6 hour ordeal into 6,1 hour stints.Which ment approximatly 2 hours per person.Rules also said we had to do at least 11 pitstops.Which included 6 mandatory pitstops for fuel/kart/driverchanges in the last quarter of each hour.And 5 kart/driver changes which we could do whenever we wanted.Driver changes didn't have to be a driver change,but ment you at least had to get out of the kart and in again.This ment we had 5 pitstops left in case we got a bad kart.Bas would drive the first stint,I would drive the second and Brian the third.We also did the 4th,5th and 6th stint in the same order.The start was given in the old fashioned Le-Mans style with the drivers having to run about 30/40 meters and jump into their karts.Bas proved he was prepaired and after a death defying leap over the engine and seat directly onto the pedals he left still being in 1st ^.^ .

We were doing ok the first 2+ hours on karts that weren't the quickest ones in the field,and were maintaining very decent trackposition.But unfortunatly we ran into some serious trouble after the kart Brian was driving broke down.We lost about 3 laps,but after we got a replacement kart we were back on the road.Unfortunatly this also dropped us well out of the top 10.And with 3 and a halve hours to go,we were facing a huge make up race.Fortunatly this proved our only serious misfortune of the day.It also looked like it triggered us to make abosuletely sure we had one of the best karts around.And with our next driver change we finally got a cart which was fast enough to get close to the leaders pace.We were making up positions fast and it looked like a podium could be possible.Allthough it was tough to make out who was exactly where,due to all the pitstops.

After 4 hours and the mandatory fuel stop we really started going.We had a good kart and both Brian and myself were flying the last 2 hours.Both being the fastest guys on the track in our last stint.At a certain time I personally had the feeling everybody on the track was a backmarker ^.^ .But unfortunatly due to a rule we violated,stating you could drive not more than exactly 1 hour after your last stop,we got a 1 lap penalty which ended our dream.That combined with the laps we lost from the broken down kart,made it virtually impossible to get back on the podium.Even with all the troubles we ended up a pretty decent 5th out of 30 with 5 laps down......Not bad but we were aiming for a bit more ^.^ .Looking back at what we lost and how much we were behind the leaders,I feel we definelty had a good chance

Final Standings

Superb result at Uitgeest!! 03-10-2004

After the 500 I teamed up with Brain again to give it a go in a 1st division 2 hour race.We entered ourselves under the name "Dutch Simracing" again and were both eager to show what we could do.Especially after the 500 where we could have been on the podium.We had to do at least 3 stops with 1 mandatory fuel stop at the 45 min/1 hour range.Leaving 2 stops for driver/kart changes.It had rained a lot the night before so there were some nice puddles just next to the track,but the track was as good as dry for the race..

Again qualifying was good.I had the chance to get out some good laps which ment we could start from the first row again ^.^ .Brian started the race and was able to take the lead going into T1.The kart was doing ok and Brian managed to keep in the lead for about 25 minutes.We weren't the fastest ones on the track though and after a good fight we had to settle for 2nd for a while.We managed to stay in the top 3 though and after our mandatory 1 hour fuel/kart/driver change,we were ready to take on the fight for the lead.The kart was pretty ok,but again we didn't have one of the fastest karts on the track.Still we managed to get the kart in some very decent track position and we were very driven to make the best out of it.It turned out to be a great fight with the top teams all being very close to eachother.I managed to get into 2nd after falling back to 4th after the fuel stop.And with a little bit of luck with the 1st place team going off the track,we grabbed back 1st.We still had to do 2 stops though with the competition only 2 to 3 seconds behind.Since the karts were going ok up until then we only had done the mandatory stop.But just like us,the other teams also had to do their stops and we managed to stay up front and even win some extra time.That and the fact that the last kart I had,was halve a second a lap faster then the previous one I was on(even if it only was for the last 2 laps :P ),ment we finished 5 seconds ahead of p2 and got our first win in the 1st division ^.^ .

I have to say,standing there as "simracers" on the podium was great.Especially with the reactions you get saying you're normally driving "games" behind your PC ^.^ .These kartraces and a drive I had in a Chenowth Baja Buggy (which I will place some pictures and a review of soon) convinced me a good online simracer should be able to run very competitive in real life racing series too.And it sure makes me feel it's seriously time to go look for a sponsor and do some serious real-life racing.So if you're looking for a way to advertise and want to see what the potential of a simracer is in real life........please give me a mail and maybe we can work out something interesting ^.^

Final Standings

the cup ^.^