2005/2007  ( go to 2008)

April 2005

Looks like I am never going to get into this . I could have sworn I just had Xmas. My diary is clearly too full!

2006

Nothing going on in 2006.

2007

04 March 2007  YES!  YES!  YES, racing again!

OK, I am back after a break and am racing again.  Feels good to be in the seat again. I bought the 200cc 4 stroke kart that does not require all the licensing stuff that I needed for the 2 stroke kart. Had our first enduro race this weekend 4th March and we won our class. Came 11th overhaul. Not bad for our first outing. Motor clearly under performing but we kept the kart together. That is, till 5 minutes to the end of a 6 hour enduro. Clipped the tyres coming out of the fast sweeper and damaged the rear axle on impact. Hurt my ribs once again. X-ray indicates cracks on the 8th and 9th. 

The endurance racing is much better having a team of 4 participating with the same Kart. I find this form of racing much more relaxed and really enjoyable. Good team spirit and fun event. Our team consists of Myself, Clive Baldwin, Peter Taljard and Dyle Taljard. We also invite others to join us as a reserve so that they can also have a nice day. This class is also cheap on the pocket. see some pics

24 March 2007

Raced at Vereeniging. I was more familiar with this track. My ribs were still saw but still managed to race a good race. The team did well and once again we won our class. We had a much improved motor thanks to Roelf for helping us out. Kart had much better acceleration out the corners giving us a better chance. see some pics

22 April 2007

Racing back at Kayalami. I took the motor that Roelf sold to us and did further development on it. Must say we have improved our times from 56 second on our race in March to 45 seconds on this race. A remarkable improvement and a great booster for the team. Went out in new team colours Black and Yellow winning the days racing in our class as well as team of the day. Great days racing and eager to go to Bloem for our next event on the 19th of May. See some pictures. Changed our team name to "Baldwin racing Team." We have now won all our races in this season so far and the team is really looking professional with great team spirit.

19 May 2007

We decided to go down to Bloem the day before the race as I had built up another Kart. This was my 2000 Birel Kart I used in the 2 stroke class previously. We wanted to test them out and at the same time have a second Kart to drive with while practicing. Well, after many laps and various changes including swapping motors we found that the Birel Kart was clearly the best kart for us. Our times were also very good. The team all had a fairly early night eagerly awaiting the next days challenges.

I must say that we really had a fantastic weekend and could not ask for any more. We ended up getting the fastest time of the day and started 1st on the grid of all classes for the day. Wow! from being at the bottom to right on top in just 4 races is incredible. The Kart really performed well. We won our class and at this moment are unbeaten for the season. We have now turned heads as we beat the top drivers of the day in some of the races. The team seas this as a mile stone and history in the making. I feel proud being part of this team. see some pics

17 June 2007

The morning started early and cold....... The organizers changed the way the teams obtain  their qualifier times to determine grid positions at this race. Each team had to go out and and get a time on only one practice laps and directly after that come through with a qualifier lap and then leave the track. No place for error. I went out and got the team 5th on the grid. We did not have a chance to practice properly the previous day and raced the kart as it was from Bloem. Just a gear change but the Kart was quite good. Needed a bit more rear end grip though but we were able to put down the second fastest times on the day of all the classes which was once again a great achievement. 

Winning our class giving us full score for this entire year so far. Unfortunately there is no competition in this class and really need to try and get more competitors into it. Not sure what's happening as it really is a cheap class to run? Take a look at some pics from this race day.

15 July 2007

Back at Kayalami and the kart was geared down for this track. Doing much better times now on this track. All of us experienced faster times and was creating quite a load of excitement as we drove through the corners faster than we ever did before. Had a little bit of action as we crashed the Kart unfortunately breaking the intake manifold of the Carburetor and bending the rear shaft. We fixed this in lightning speed and still managed to win our class. Next race on the 26th of August we were all looking forward to racing at Swartkops. Would be the first time for most of our team. Clive had raced on the track previously with another teams kart.

26th Aug 2007

OK so they changed the venue as Swartkops kindly arranged another event on our race day. Not nice, but we moved the event to Vereeniging again. The committee decided to run this event backwards. That was quite some fun. Got a little getting use to and soon the team was putting down some good times but we could clearly see that the motor or the new rear shaft was hampering our times as we were clearly a second off pace now. Also were troubles again with our brake caliper leaking fluid again. Loosing your brakes on this fast track becomes a little hairy at stages. The Birel team had some unfortunate action in the event and possibly broke one of the drivers ribs in a high speed collision. We asked if I could drive in the drivers place and they said it was fine. This is the World formula class which has the better motor etc... So I kitted up and got ready and as we did the driver change all in record time I suddenly found that I could not fit in the seat. What a disaster and I had to race the last 40 minutes like this. Could not make the times they were running in the Kart and was 2 seconds off their pace. When I ended the race not only did I know I could not fit in the Kart now but also realized that we were 10 kg overweight! Not a good idea! 

30 Sept 2007

Back at Vereeniging with only 3 drivers in our team for the day due to Peter having a car accident in the month and hurt his neck. The team was expecting some long rides for the day. The Kart was clearly not on pace and now we knew the engine was at its end and desperately needs an overhaul. Our times were again off pace by more than a second now and it was quite remarkable how that 1 second makes for much easier driving and even though we were only 3 in the team we were not at all tired at the end of the days racing. Winning the event in our class we knew that we had a lot of work ahead of us as even though we had sent the brakes in for repair we again had brake failure on the day. The kart needs an overhaul badly. The team will miss the next race planned for the 28th of October at Kayalami. Hopefully we can get the Kart together and ready for the 10th of November at Vereeniging again to end off the season

10 Nov  2007

Great racing but ended up blowing our first motor. The exhaust valve shaft snapped and kindly sent the valve head through the motor at about 7000 rpm. Total destruction but we soon got back in the race as we swapped motors in record time. Our spare motor however was not performing as well. Results can be seen on mylaps here!  Must say that our laps times were quite good. driving right there with the top 4. The track gave some interesting results later in the day as it was breaking up[ creating marbles if you went off the driving line. Basically all the karts smelt the dust on some of the corners due to this. Racing was stopped a few times to just get most of the stones off the track. Some Pics

This was the last race for the 2007 Series. 

Back to 2002 or 2003 or 2004 or 2008

ENJOY !

Webmaster: Gary Baldwin Last Updated: 21 Apr 2008