Strong performances from tlmNexus sponsored Vulcans Karting Team keep the pressure on

Round 5 of the Armed Forces Karting Championship saw an extended race weekend for the RAF Waddington Vulcans, at our “home” track located at Fulbeck, a circuit located on our own doorstep in Lincolnshire.

Day 1 (Thursday 27^th July)

The race weekend started a day earlier than normal for this round with all the usual set up being carried out on the Wednesday, in advance of the RAF Karting open day on Thursday. Being the local round, it was an ideal opportunity for us to invite some of the important people behind the success of the team to experience what we do over a race weekend. Representatives from the team’s supporters and Waddington personnel who enable us to go racing were invited along to take some of our karts out on the track. The day started off well with our guests enjoying some great weather and conditions for karting during visitor practice sessions. A strong contingent of representatives from station MT arrived to experience the karts as a ‘thank-you’ for the work they put in to help make our racing weekends as painless as possible. However, the ‘motorsport gods’ are a cruel bunch and just as our MT novices were taking to the track, the heavens opened and our guests got to experience karting at its absolute hardest and most raw, driving in the rain on slick tyres. All of our guests emerged at the end soaking wet, but all with big smiles on their faces after having an enjoyable experience on track. After all guests had left from what had been a very successful day for us giving something back, we needed to set to work fixing up some mechanical issues that had arisen from the extra day of track time, with kart 54 needing a whole rear axle rebuild due to a broken brake disc. The team worked into the evening to get the karts ready for the full day of official practice ahead.

Day 2 (Friday 28^th July)

Official practice started with all eyes looking up at the sky, as the wettest July was threatening to turn the race meet into a very difficult rainy weekend. With Fulbeck being a familiar track, minimal setup changes were needed to get all 5 karts up to strong competitive pace. By the end of the day testing all drivers managed to record competitive looking times, within 0.4s across all karts, which gave massive confidence going into race day. Since the station Health & Wellbeing Day we have seen a couple of new faces at the club, who worked with the team learning to fix and set up the karts which was a huge help in getting all karts prepared for race day. All eyes turned to the weather apps overnight to see if all of the hard work setting up in the dry would be in vain for race day.

Day 3 (Saturday 29^th July)

Race day started with the best possible news; a dry day of racing! Qualifying started for race 1 with a new format for this weekend, allowing all 38 teams to have a fairer shot at clean laps for recording qualifying times. All teams across the grid seemed to struggle to find the pace previously seen during Friday practice. The Vulcans had a difficult time, struggling to recapture the times we knew possible. Yellow flags plagued the session and hindered the team overall, with karts 50, 51, 53 & 54 all qualifying slightly lower than hoped, but kart 52 pulled out a great lap at the death to qualify 9^th overall. With the team ready for the start of race 1 we knew there were a lot of places to be gained, with our pace much stronger than the qualifying session suggested. Kart 50 and 51 put in strong performances and showed great race pace to make 8 & 11 positions respectively during the race. Kart 52 put in another really strong round and finished 4^th military narrowly missing out on a podium. Kart 54 struggled with a slight brake issue during the entirety of the race but still managed to make good ground and gain places. Kart 53 put in a consistent strong performance and ended up bringing home a 3^rd place in class trophy, a great drive by the team in the super category.

Race 2 qualifying was head and shoulders above the qualifying results seen for race 1 with all karts qualifying higher up the pecking order and primed for a strong race. The race was going exactly as hoped for the Vulcans, with karts 50, 51 & 52 all in the top 8 military, with 53 and 54 just outside of the top ten. Approximately 25 minutes into the race an incident occurred on track bringing out a red flag, halting proceedings. After a lengthy delay involving the medical team and an injured driver from one of the associate teams, the decision was made for the race to be abandoned. Whilst the team were initially disappointed with a promising race ahead, it soon turned to relief that the injured driver wasn’t as serious as initially first feared.

Premier Class Report:

In the premier category, Flt Lt Ling was after a good result at Waddington’s home race. Friday testing went well, refining gearing setup and tyre pressures to extract maximum pace on race day.

Heat 1 initially started badly, with Ling’s engine bogging down when the lights extinguished and dropping him some 10 metres off the back of the pack. However, when the power kicked back in he was able to catch up and avoid an incident in turn 1, moving up from 10^th to 6^th on the first lap. Places were traded for the remainder of the race, finishing in 4^th.

Heat 2 produced a much better start from 11^th on the grid, moving up to 8^th on the first lap, then 6^th on lap 2 after two karts crashed. Making the most of overtakes on the main straight, Ling gained 3^rd place on lap 7 and held position to the finish.

Heat 3 started from 10^th, with 2 karts coming together into the first turn and Ling moving up to 5^th through the mayhem. 4^th was gained on lap 3, followed by many laps of chasing down the two karts battling for 2^nd and 3^rd. An unsuccessful overtake attempt was made on lap 8, dropping him a few seconds back. However, on the final lap the two karts ahead came together on the hairpin, allowing Ling to nip through and take 2^nd at the finish line.

With strong finishes after starting from the back row in all 3 heats, Ling was rewarded with a front row start in 2^nd place for the final. Unfortunately, he faced another poor start, losing 2^nd place into turn 1. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to catch the leaders but grew a safe margin to the pack behind. After a relatively lonely and uneventful race, he took 3^rd place at the chequered flag.

Fulbeck proved to be Ling’s most successful race so far, with silverware for 3^rd place and Top Novice. With one round remaining in the season, he sits 2^nd in the Premier Championship and 1^st in the Novice competition. The final round at Rowrah will be the most important race yet, with all to play for.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, a pretty good weekend for the Vulcans at our ‘home’ track. Some strong performances help keep the pressure on our competitors for the Station Trophy, kart 53 bringing home some silverware and more experience gained for the team as a whole. A short break in the season now gives us some time to get into the nitty gritty mechanical work ready for a race calendar highlight; Round 6 at Rowrah.

As always, our thanks go out to all those at RAF Waddington who support us with our racing; in particular the Stn PEd Flt, Accounts and MT. In addition, to our supporters tlmNexus, ICS and JP Racing.

Station Standings after round 5:

RN Fleet Air Arm – 409pts

REME Corps      – 360pts

RAF Waddington – 357pts

Cpl Liam Burke

RAF Waddington Vulcans

Distribution:

RAF Waddington Stn Cdr

RAF Waddington Media Officer

RAF Waddington PEd Flt

Text and photos courtesy of John Blondel and the Vulcans Karting Team