Rotax World Finals – Driver Journal

While Troy was over in Egypt competing in the Rotax World Finals, he took some time to write down his thoughts…  Take a look from the inside out as to how Troy viewed his week at the “Olympics of Karting.”

 

BLOG #1 (December 6th)

So after much anticipation, my mechanic/ tuner, Diego Valverde, and I finally arrived here into Sharm el Sheikh late Friday evening.  We went straight to the hotel and caught up on some much needed rest after the long 25 hour trip. Yesterday was the first day of registration so we made sure to get that done asap. The rest of the day we checked out the track and the facilities. The track is pretty tight in the infield with a couple of medium length straights, but definitely a lot of passing opportunities. Sand with a little bit of grass surrounds the entire track which means that anytime the wind blows, sand covers the track. Both Diego and I are really anxious to get out there and start racing, but we still have a couple days… Tomorrow we will draw from the raffle to choose our kart and then on Tuesday we will have two practice sessions.

When we registered, they gave us the rules as to what we are and are not allowed to do. Basically, we cannot do much at all especially with the carburetor; we can only choose between two main jets and the clip position, nothing else. As far as the chassis goes, we can change almost anything, but can only use what is given to us. Meaning, we cannot change out the axle, spindles, hubs etc… Early today we were taking a look at the karts and noticed that the paddles for shifting looked different than the normal “thumb push” shift. We soon learned that we will be using a new mechanism that you pull with your fingers to shift like a regular paddle shift system would be set up. I’m very excited and can’t wait!!

Anyway, that’s about it for now! I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend!

P.S. Time difference from California is 10 hours ahead…

 

BLOG #2  (December 8th)

So yesterday we got our kart and today we will have our first 2 practice sessions. Yesterday was a pretty long day; we arrived at the track at 8 and ended up leaving a little after 9 in the evening… We had a participants briefing in the morning and then waited to draw our kart. They way we choose is a kart is by pulling a ping pong ball with a number written on it which signifies which kart I will race. They number all the karts and motors from 1 to 72 in each class. This number though does not represent my racing number; it’s just a way to organize the kart draw. My racing number is 220 which is decided by the alphabetical order they organized the class in…

Anyway, once we received the kart, I chose a seat, picked up my spare parts and practice tires. The rest of the day we just worked on double checking everything on the kart, put the seat in and went through tech. Today we will arrive at the track at 8 and head to a drivers meeting at around 10. We will actually go out on track around 1:00. Our first session is 20 minutes and we cannot change anything with the motor meaning everyone will have to run the stock gear with the stock carb settings. After that we can do what we want. Our second practice session will be 15 minutes long. Since the class has 72 drivers, we are separated into an odd and even group depending on our racing number. DD2 is the last group to go out and within DD2, the even number group is the second group which means that we will be the last group to go out at the end of the day.

They are pretty strict when it comes to people being inside the pit area especially later in the evening. After finishing prepping the kart we walked to get some dinner and left some of our bags in our pit area. When we came back to pick everything up to head back to the hotel, 2 security guards immediately came up to us asking for our badges and wouldn’t let us go near our kart. After explaining that we were just there to grab our stuff they let us go, but it was pretty cool actually to experience that because it shows they will have somebody watching the karts all night to ensure fairness during the week.

Well the kart looks fantastic and I can‘t wait to get out there!! A dopo, ciao!

 

BLOG #3 (December 8th)

Ok, so the first day of practice is now over and unfortunately it did not go quite as planned, although for the most part things look positive. We went out for our first session at 1:25 and right away we were quick, but only for the first few laps. We started to have problems with the gear box as it was popping into neutral almost every corner. I pulled into the pits and told the Rotax guys the issue. They couldn’t do anything in the “hot pit” so I was done for the session. We immediately went over to the Rotax tent to get the problem resolved. They checked the gears, the cables, the clutch and everything else associated with the gears. They ended up changing a small piece where the wires connect to the motor. After that we had to wait until 4:45 for our second and final practice session of the day. I went out and right away I had the same problem. I came into the “hot pit” once again and told the same guy I spoke with before that we were having the same issue. He changed a little bit the tension in the cables and off I went. Still, I had the same problem and came back into the pits; second session over after 2 laps.

We checked everything over and noticed that the axle had shifted a little bit. We believe that this may have caused the problem as the only thing driving the axle from the motor is a “geared hub” that is connected between the two. Without the connection there is no drive. Tomorrow we go out 11 for practice #3, 1 for the 4th and final practice and then at 4:55 for qualifying.

As far as the track goes, it is pretty slick because of all the dust and sand that the win has blown on to it, but the times came down really quickly with all of the karts driving on it. The inside of the track is pretty tight and windy. It’s basically 180 degree corners followed by another 180 degree corner; it makes for smooth and consistent driving essential. You can easily get into a rhythm, but almost just as easily get thrown out of it if you take the corner incorrectly.

Well, tomorrow is another day and even though things didn’t run as smoothly as we had hoped today we still have the rest of the week. I’d rather have issues now than later in the week anyway. Tomorrow we will also get transponders so we will be able to see where we are in our group.  Alright, until tomorrow!  Have a great day!

 

BLOG #4 (December 9th)

Today definitely went a lot better than yesterday. At the driver’s meeting they made an announcement concerning the issue a lot of DD2 drivers; this was the problem with the gears popping out and into neutral. Basically, it was what we figured out yesterday with the axle sliding out. CRG went around helping everybody fix this issue by drilling small “cavity” in the axle where the set screw goes. After getting that taken care of we were off to the first practice of the day. This would be our first real practice since we were really not able to do any laps yesterday. The kart and motor felt pretty good, we made some hot pit changes during the session to help some of the handling issues we were suffering from. At the end of the session we ended up P5 in our group and 12th overall. We were definitely happy with that! So now we are in the ballpark and started to change some set up with the kart. We also decided to make a gear change as well, just to try it out.

So we go out for our 4th and final practice session. After about 6 or 7 laps I came in to try some more quick changes. At the end of this session we ended up P8 in our group and 21st overall. Some of the changes we made went in the wrong direction. but nonetheless we felt that overall we knew what to do for qualifying. We made the necessary changes and headed out. We were the second group of the DD2’s which also meant that we were the last group to go out at the end of the day. Since there are two groups per class, they end up combining the two classes together so even if you qualify on pole your group you may end up 4th overall… It was already getting dark as we rolled out of the “dummy grid” onto the track for our qualifying session and the temperature cooled down a bit as well. I noticed that in the first group of DD2s the fastest times were set within the first few laps. With that in mind I made a gap for myself to ensure that I would be able to have clear track to run. I settled in quickly, but it took longer than expected for the tires to come in; nonetheless I was pushing hard. As soon as I set my fastest lap I ran into traffic. I got around them, but again ran into traffic so I decided to slow down and look for an opening somewhere around the track. I got up to speed and started pushing hard again. I ran pretty much the same time that I had before so for the sake of my tires I pulled into the pits. As I rolled into the scales I was quite surprised to hear my name being called over the speaker. I listened closely and soon learned that I posted the 3rd fastest time in my group; definitely a very happy surprise! The separation between my time and pole time was one half of one tenth! The competition is extremely close. The second group ended up being a little slower than first which I think was because of the colder temperatures and slicker track… That being said after combining the two groups I ended up 8th overall which I am definitely please with!

Each class is separated into four groups for the heat races. This means that I’ll be starting 4th for every heat; outside second row. Two heat races tomorrow with a 10 minute warm up session in the morning which we actually have to use our race tires for; pretty interesting. So most likely we will not be out there for the full 10 minutes. We made a few minor adjustments so we will do just a few laps to feel things out.

Alright, well I’m off to bed!

 

BLOG #5 (December 11th)

I apologize for the delay, but things have been pretty busy!

So the heat races are now complete. In each of the three heat races, I started 4th which means no matter where I would have finished I would end up starting 4th again for the next heat. A lot of drivers here like to play “head games” with you before the start of the race. For example, we have one warm up lap and then on the second lap we grid up for the start; during the warm up lap there was a driver behind me that immediately passed me in the warm up lap and proceed to block me. Then as we were lining up for the start he would pull in front of me again and slide the kart back forth to warm up his tires. Even on the cool down lap we are pretty still going almost full speed and drivers are still passing like it’s the last lap of the final; some pretty intense driving conditions.

Everything was sorted out before the final corner so it wasn’t a big deal. Once we came around the last corner onto the front straight, all eyes were on the starting lights. Once they went out, off we went! In the first race I had a really good start and found myself in 3rd right away. My kart was feeling really good and stayed with the leaders. At about half way through the race I made a move to take 2nd and now I was onto the leader. We were turning almost identical lap times. With a few laps to go, my kart started to fall off and the driver’s behind, began to catch me. With two laps left I was passed in the tight hairpin and I was forced to the outside onto a very slick surface. Once the first driver went through the guy behind him just followed and I had nowhere to go. I now found myself in 4th. With the kart really starting to slide around I was falling off pace. In the final lap the driver behind me threw it in, in the third corner and once again the driver behind him was stuck directly to his rear bumper and I had nowhere to go. I was now in 7th and held that position until the checkered flag.

Heat #1, 7th.

The second heat was just around the corner so I quickly put the first race behind me and looked to get back out there. We made a few adjustments with the kart and tire pressure to elongate the handling of the chassis. The lights went out and I was able to get another good start. Coming out of turn 1 I was in 4th. Within the first lap I was passed for the position. I immediately fought back and passed going into turn 3. The rest of the race was more or less un-eventful until the last couple laps. Behind me was the driver setting the fastest laps of the race; almost 3 tenths faster than all of us. I defended my position in the final lap as he was charging hard. As we came across the finish line I remain in 4th.

Heat #2, 4th

With only two heats on Thursday we cleaned up the kart, put it on the charger and went back to the hotel to get some rest for the third and final heat race on Friday. When we arrived at the track, we uncovered the kart, did a quick once over and then got ready for the morning warm up session. Being that we have to use our race tires to warm up on, we decided to only do 3 laps. The kart felt fantastic. When we looked at the results, I was 3rd on the time sheet and again the lap times were extremely close. My fastest lap time was a 59.119 and the second place fastest time was a 59.118.

Feeling confident going into the third heat we were looking for a top 3 finish. After several false starts we were finally got under way and headed into turn one. I was hoping to repeat my previous race start, but unfortunately that did not happen. A couple drivers on the inside row were hit and spun out directly into my line. I was able avoid them initially, but one of them ended up tapping my right rear spun me around. At the point when I was hit we traveling probably less than 10 mph so it was such a slow spin. Fortunately, there was no damage, but I was now in the back. I started to make my way through the field. About half way through the race as I was directly behind another driver setting up for a pass. He suddenly slowed on the exit of the second to last corner, I swerved to the right to avoid, but my left front tire got caught in his rear bumper. The result was a severely bent tire rod. Fortunately I only lost two positions at that point. I was still able to continue, but now with A LOT of toe out… I figured out how to drive the kart as is and was lapping within half of a second of the leaders. I was still able to make my way through the field. At the end of the race I ended up 19th.

Heat #3, 19th.

A bit disappointed of course we came back to our pit, cleaned and fixed the kart and began focusing on the pre-final and final. After all of the calculations were made, we will be starting the pre-final in 16th. One bad result after two good finishes really brought us down. Nonetheless, we feel that we still have one of the fastest karts in the field. Our focus now is to make it through the first corner cleanly and work our way up from there. 15 laps for the pre-final and 24 laps for the main.

 

BLOG #6 (December 12th)

Wow, what an emotionally and physically exhausting day!

After a week of heat races the finals day was finally here. Everybody is allocated one brand new set of tires to use for the morning warm up, pre final and final. Since we felt that we already had a fast kart we decided to skip the morning warm up session in order to save our kart and tires for the races. When it was our time to go to parc ferme Diego and I noticed that we were the only team to do so. In our minds, a definite advantage as we did not burn through a heat cycle. I was starting in 16th place, the lowest that I had ever started and it seemed to be a fairly notorious position to start in for some of my teammates who were unfortunately taken out in turn one by some extremely desperate drivers trying to make up too many positions in one corner. Nonetheless, that’s where I was and my goal was just to get through turn one. The lights went out and the field spread out probably almost five wide. I moved to the inside as fast as I could almost getting squeezed between to karts. I made it through turn one without a scratch and now my focus was to start moving up the field to finish in a good position to start the main. We entered turn two side by side. On the exit of the corner I was right on the bumper of the driver in front of me as I was setting up for a pass on the next corner. The next thing I knew a kart hit me in my upper back and I spun out into the sand. I quickly tried to get going, but the kart didn’t move; I figured the sand was holding the kart back. I got out and pulled the kart onto the track, hopped in, fired it up, but still I didn’t move. I got out of the kart again to check the rear axle, it was at that moment I noticed that my radiator was actually underneath the tire; my charge to the front was done on lap 1 turn 2. I was the first and only kart out of the race at that point. I had to stand on the sidelines watch everybody else for the next 15 laps. I figured while I was over there I could probably learn how the front runners are driving and possibly learn a few things. So that’s exactly what I did. I watch the top 3 and learned how each of them drove in, through and out of the corners. I had a prime viewing spot so I took advantage of it.

After the race was completed the track marshals and I loaded the kart on to the track and headed to the scales. When I got back we took the tires off, took out the gas tank, handed them in to parc ferme and started really assessing the damage. It really wasn’t too much – one side of the rear bumpers, the radiator, top and bottom hose, a couple of grommet pieces and a couple of hose clamps. There was a driver’s parade during lunch which was right after our pre final so I was off to that as Diego worked on getting the kart ready for the main. When I got back to our pit spot, the kart was already to go for the new parts. Diego had already gone to pick up the new parts, but they wouldn’t take his credit card. They wanted cash. He told me how much they wanted for everything, I checked my wallet and I had nowhere near what they were selling for; all of the parts that they had, were being sold for double the retail value. I tried to ask them if I could pick up the parts now so I can be ready for our race as I didn’t have the money and would pay them back later. They did not agree. They wanted all of the money before I could take the parts. At that point I started looking around for people I knew who worked at the track to see if they could help me. I befriended the manager of Ghibli Raceway so as soon as I saw him I ran over to him. We only had 1 hour after I got back from the drivers parade so I was running around in my driver suit and shoes. He told me that they could charge my credit card for the amount that I needed then just give me the cash. We went over to one of the buildings, he talked to one of the guys in there and told him what to do. Now this other guy and I went over to the main office to charge my card. He picked up the machine to swipe my card, but the machine was locked. Saying that it had been tampered with. He took out the battery and then put it back in, but that didn’t work. So I ran around looking for someone else that could help me. Mike Daniel saw me running around and asked if he could help. I explained to him my situation and he told me that he could have his wife drive somewhere to get the money for me. I told that would be awesome! Still though I kept looking around to see if I could get some money as well. I found one of the other managers of the track that I knew. He said that I could go to the hotel across the street and use their “atm machine.” So I ran over to the hotel, which wasn’t exactly that close, in my driving suit. You can see from the pictures; the white building is where I started… Anyway, when I arrived at the hotel, I swiped my card, entered the pin and the money I need. “Transaction Denied.” This process was repeated 3 times before I called over one of the employees working at the counter. He told me there was nothing he could do to help, but he did tell me there was another hotel down the street, about a 5-10 minute walk, that had another machine that I could try. I ran out of the hotel, down the street and up into another driveway. Along this whole “journey” that I was on, I was stopped 3 times by security guards asking me what I was doing and where I was going… Finally I made it to the other hotel, but it ended in the same result; “transaction denied.” I had no idea what else to do so I ran back to the track to see how much time I had left; my phone shut off early in the morning so I could not even use that. When I got back, we had 15 minutes to get to parc ferme. Mike’s wife was also there, but was also unable to get any money… Thank you to her and Mike for helping me out anyway! I really appreciate their help! THANK YOU!!

I again started running around the paddock looking for people I knew. I was able to find one of the guys I was talking with before and he told me that there was a bank down the street which was probably about a mile away. I had about 10 minutes at this point. Fortunately I saw the manager’s son and asked him if he could help me. He spoke perfect English and perfect Arabic. He ran with me to the edge of the “drive way” where all of the taxi’s were. All of the taxi drivers try and rip off any foreigner so it was good that he was with me to help negotiate the proper price. Once that was settled, I hopped in the car and we were off to the bank. When I got there I told the bank teller my situation and gave him my card. He told me to have a seat and wait… After a few minutes, the transaction went through and I had the money. I ran out of the bank and jumped into the taxi. It was almost like I robbed the place because I ran out and when the taxi driver saw me he started the car. As soon as I hopped in we took off! By this time we were supposed to be in parc ferme and when we got to the track the taxi driver started telling me that I owed him more money! I gave him what we agreed on, got out of the car and sprinted to pick up the parts that I needed. As I was paying for the parts, Diego picked them up and started assembling them on the kart. We put everything together and as we were walking to parc ferme, I noticed water leaking out of a small hole in the bottom hose. We ran back to our pit spot and changed the hose. I ended up putting on the wrong one as we were in a rush. We took it off, put the new one on and filled the radiator with water. When we arrived in parc ferme and there was nobody else in there of course; they were all already in the “dummy grid” area. We put on our tires and put in the fuel tank. We made it just in time. We started the kart to make sure everything was in order and it was. For the Final we set our karts down in order on the front straight which was actually pretty cool. Our spot was all the way in the back, 34th position.

I remember sitting there thinking, “Wow, that’s a long way to the front…” We started our karts and set out for the warm up lap. I got through two corners and then the motor just died. I tried to restart it but nothing happened. I couldn’t believe this was happening. The motor was still turning over so I checked the carb and spark plug; everything seemed in order. I then checked the fuel line and saw that somehow, the hose got disconnected from the tank. I put it back on, pulled the choke and just waited until the motor started. At this point the entire field had already taken the full lap and passed me. Finally I was able to get it started and quickly caught up to the group and filed into my spot on the last row. As we came around onto the front straight and the lights went out. The race was on! I didn’t really get a great start, but I made it through turn one with no problem. The race was 24 laps, so my thought process was just to pass as many karts as possible without making contact and just being able to finish the race. I remember just pushing the entire race. There was no point that I was taking it easy. Whenever I caught up to a kart, I would pass him at the first possible opportunity. During the last couple laps I was catching up to a couple of guys from Holland and I remember thinking about what Kris Shaw told me from his World Finals experience. He told me that two guys from the same country took each other out on the last lap during his race. I specifically remember thinking that as these two guys were battling. I caught up to them, but I knew that something would happen so I waited patiently. Half a lap to go at turn 6, it happened. The teammate in the back dove in to make the pass and made contact; I just drove right through and with that took the checkered flag. I had no idea though where I finished. During the “cool down” lap I was looking around trying to count the karts in front of me, but I couldn’t do it. As I pulled into the pits I saw a lot of people cheering and people were actually giving me high fives as I drove thought the pit lane. On the way to the scales I saw Diego and stopped next to him, he was shouting 5th place! I couldn’t even believe it myself! I drove to the scales and jumped out of my kart with fists pumping; such an amazing feeling! From dead last, 34th place to the top 5 at the Rotax World Finals! Walking back to our pit spot I had such a grin on my face. People I didn’t even know were walking over to congratulate me. I still couldn’t believe it. What an incredible experience. My lap times during the race were consistently about 2 tenths faster than the leaders, which only leaves the mind wondering, “what if…” Nonetheless, both Diego and I are satisfied with our result. This was a fantastic way to end the year! I’m really, really glad that we were able to make it to the grid on time. I learned so much and made many new friends. I can’t wait until next year.

I have to give a big thanks to all of my sponsors who helped make this trip possible; Bariani Olive Oil, April Phillips Design Works, De Anza Services, The Studios, Motorsport Services and Marin Karting. Thank you so much! Without your support this event, let alone this year would not have been possible!! Thank you!!

Also, a big, big thank you to my mechanic/ super tuner Diego Valverde. He works very hard all the time and always gives 110%. Without him, my results would not have been possible. Muchas gracias amigo!

I hope you all had a nice weekend! Salam!