17 March 2007 Crash report by K[p] & Heat Beat Rate

Hello...This is my first post!

For the karting on 17th March, I reached the place at around 10am with Edwin and his 2 friends. Before that, we were having Tim Sum at my favourite haunt and they were asking me how much is the 125cc kart. I told them the prices for 125cc (2 stroke) and the 390cc (4 stroke) and they were planning to go for the 125cc as it is more cost effective. I told them to try the 80cc fun kart first to know the course layout and get used to karting and all of them have never karted before.

On reaching the karting ground, they made up their mind to use the 125cc karts, all three of them. I picked out the 390cc kart number 34 which I had used on the 3rd of March and liked the way it handles, I thought I would use the slower kart and see how I do against the 125cc. Don't be mistaken here, the 390cc may have 265cc more but it is definitely slower. For comparison, the 900 meter lap record in a 390cc is 46.43 seconds, while in a 125cc it is 39.56 seconds. Thats a huge gap.

While we were going through our session, I was lapping the 125cc quite easily, and I found they were able to pull away on the straights very easily but I was able to catch up during the corners since I know the course and was braking much later. I did not see any of them spin, which was quite impressive for first timers in such a fast kart, but I guess that means they were not pushing the kart, which is a waste. After just one session, Edwin and his friends decides to leave, and that means I have to wait for Jon....again. Which turned out to be a 1 hour wait. Entertained by F1 grand prix in Melbourne.

When they did arrive, we quickly got to my second session. We did lined up with Des first, me second and the rest behind me. After going off, I overtook Des and lead all the way. 2 sessions and I did not spin even once, which is a record. LoL. In this session, during one of the laps, I was following nEL very closely and around turn 4, he seemed to have understeered and his front left wheel clipped one of the tires in the tyre wall and he sort of got swung around and his kart flew in the air, it was definitely higher than my head, I was concentrating on not spinning out while avoiding him, but the thought of a kart flipping over many times did flash across my eyes. I turned around and saw he was still in the kart, which was a huge relief.

On the third session, this time most of the newcomers decided to take the 390cc with June the only one in the 80cc fun kart. On the first lap after the form up, my kart spinned out at the hairpin, I realised my brakes were not as good as in the first two sessions. Which was confirmed later at turn 1 when my braking distance increased, forcing me to go wide. So for the next few laps, I was braking earlier to get around the brakes problem. On the last lap, I saw that Jon was just in front of me, probably 3 to 4 seconds ahead and I thought I could catch up and overtake as he had traffic in front of him. After turn 4, I saw June had spinned out at turn 5, and Jon went to the left of the track, I step on the brakes and turned right, which made the kart do a 180 degrees drift at a very fast speed. I know my rear tires would hit something, so I braced for the impact. When it came, it was HUGE. Pain shot through the left side of my ribs. After a few seconds, I got out of the kart and went under the tree for some shade as well as to straightened my body while I try to breath in to see if there are any sharp pain. There were none, but afterwards, I decided to go see the doc anyway. And like all GPs in Singapore, they just look and prescribe pain killers! Some advice like lungs may be lacerated and if I want X-ray......sigh, I thought he was the doctor, and he's asking me if i want x-ray. So far, I have only met one GP who will ACTUALLY look at your complaints, but he charges specialists rate. $70 a pop for consultation fees. And I do not take painkillers, I rather know the pain is there and if it is getting worse so that I can visit the A&E (accident & emergency) in the hospital. Any one wants Postan? I have like 40 tablets now.

Cut to the chase, had a difficult night as lying down was painfull in itself. So I lasted till Monday to visit the Polyclinic which was full of my accident records like internally bleeding eyeball, damaged knee ligaments, and I think I remember I had 3 X-rays in a year, on the 3rd occasion, they say I had too many, and referred me to the hospital. LoL. This time, yup, they referred me to the hospital again, they said left side rib injury can damage the heart as the heart is on the left side. Bloody GP on saturday did not tell me that now did he. In the hospital, all checks came out ok, heart ECG was normal, no broken bones spotted, but the doctor says he will send it for a more detailed analysis and call me if they spot any. And yeah, was prescribed Postan again. One funny incident though, while they were checking my blood pressure, the nurse said she needs to give me an ECG as my heart beat rate is on the low side. I saw the rate at 56, and I told her, oh, thats normal, my heart beat is usually at 52 to 56. And she said, oh, you athlete? With my body fats, I don't think so. LoL.

You know, if your heart beat is normal at 76, your heart would need to work harder, it needs to beat 10.3 millions times more than me in a year, imagine that, time to get on the threadmill y'all. LoL.

Still in pain. No more go karts for at least 8 weeks. Will be buying a rib protector though, had too many bruised ribs, better take care of em as they are protecting your lungs, heart...

F1 in Singapore? Yes, PLEASE!

having the F1 race in singapore will be great!
beside, having a boost for the economy in terms
of tourism, F&B, Retailing..etc
this might also show the world that Singapore is
not Boring, ok?? =)

so, Please!, give us something to talk about.
showcase the isle, this isle, to the world!
=)

race might start at midnite singapore time.
this is to capture as much viewership as possible
from europe. so that advertiser are more willing to
pour money into the event.

----------------------------------------------
Story from Aussie F1 GP....
(story from grandprix.com, 19 March 2007)

Singapore goes to Melbourne

There was a sizeable contingent of officials from the
Singaporean government in the paddock in Melbourne
although they received rather less coverage than the
Minogue Sisters. Among the group was the government
minister in charge of tourism and several heads of
department. The delegation was not saying much but
it is clear that the purpose of the visit was not to
sign a contract as some stories suggested but rather
to see how Melbourne hosted its event and to learn
from that. Bernie Ecclestone spent two days in Singapore
on his way to Australia and while there is still no
contract in place all the signs are that a deal will be
struck within the next four weeks. If that is not the
case it will be too late for Singapore to grab a place
on the calendar for 2008.

Officially the government is not willing to get involved
in the project and is waiting for the private sector to
come up with a proposal but the reality is that the
government is strongly behind the race and will support
a bid that is being finalised by magnate Ong Beng Seng,
who owns Hotel Properties Ltd and controls a number of
important hotel franchises around the world in addition
to being heavily involved in retail and the restaurant
trade in Singapore. He has much to gain from boosting
Singapore's tourist industry.

In the middle of the negotiations is a Singapore-based
German businessman called Rainer Buchmann, who has been
working with Bernie Ecclestone for some years to make the
event happen but it is not yet clear what role he will
have in the final event.

The plan is for the race to take place at night,
probably on September 21 2008. This would be after
the last European race (at Monza) and would be "twinned"
with the events in China and Japan to make the movement
of F1 equipment from place to place as efficient and
cost-effective as possible.

This will mean that Malaysia will be able to retain its
race at the start of the year, linked to Australia and
Bahrain. We hear that the arrival of Singapore on the F1
scene has given the Malaysians a lot more vigour to keep
their race alive, despite the fact that it does not seem
to have done a huge amount for the local economy. A little
more investment will probably not go amiss.

There may in the longer term be a third Asian foray for
Formula 1 involving a second Japanese race at Suzuka, Korea
and possibly Abu Dhabi.

The only way that this will all fit into the calendar is if
the current start and finish dates for the F1 season are moved,
creating races earlier in the year as used to happen back in
the 1960s and 1970s when there were regularly events in January
and February. The teams will gripe and moan about that but with
teams testing cars for most of January and February it makes
sense to switch tests for races to maximise the income being
generated.
------------

pic from: http://backoftheenvelope.blogspot.com/2006/03/formula-1-in-singapore.html

Pic of Mass Destruction

well, our blog has so popular that we had received a threat!!!
SCARY!

this is the threat message: nic, dun u dare put my kartin pics on!! will get auntie n uncle jon to hammer u.. then will ask tock to sit on u!!

actually in our possession we had an all time famous pic... and that's what have our life 'threatened'! hahaha so since we cannot show u the famous pic in fear of our life, i thot i show our 4 faces to u instead

=)

Karting Event on 17 March 2007

The Meetup

17th March 2007

We got newcomers joining us other than the usual 4 of us on this eventful day. Welcoming June, Jonathan Sim, Marcus, valerie aka Ms Overturn (I can't remember her name actually, will update it when I get some info - thanks to jonathan sim for the prompt reply, name updated.), Daniel (joined us the 2nd time), Bernard (joined us on the 3rd of march) and Weiloon (joined us on the 3rd of march).

As the usual day started, kp always the earliest to reach Permas Jaya, while the others only started to meet up at 0930 hours. And of course, as usual, jon and nEL being the usual late comers (this time is due to nEL - cause of the delay).

Finally, we got to meet up at 1000 hours instead of the stated time. There we had a total of 5 cars creating the heh heh symptoms (which is heh heh, up to you to imagine). We only get to reach the track at 1130 hours. Well, changing of ringgit and some quick breakfast bites (alright, jon commented, it wasn't really quick) causes the journey to be 1½ hours.

The race begins at about 1200 hours, where the unexpected of the expected happens (expected there will be crashes, spins and all sorts of stupid things).

nEL's crash log

Firstly, nEL's accident then follow by kp's accident. nEL was the first to crash, but fortunately, the human is alright except for the kart's steering (which was later replaced).


The crash happened at point 4 (look at the map). When nEL was about to exited from point 4, the kart sway to the left (too much speed) and went out of the racing track. As on the side of the track there's still some allowance, but the surface was uneven. As the kart enters to the uneven area, nEL lost control of the kart as it is not able to get any traction and rammed into the tire wall. The kart flew up into the sky and landed 1 to 2 metres (it's not that far actually) infront of the impact spot, fortunately, it landed on the wheels and didn't overturn. At that point of time, kp was the nearest to me (was right behind me actually). He saw my kart flew right up to his head level. Fortunately, he missed my kart. Well, that's the accident for nEL (still in 1 piece).


kp's crash log

It happened at point 5. 3 karts was involved in the event.

place of the impactful incident accident = turn 5 (see pic attached, good map! =) ). the turn where i hit Lau HARD too a fortnight ago. talking about this, my 1st 10mins in the kart, i kept thinking about it and overtaking becomes quite a chore to me, more so than normal. the 'fear' was conquered on 2nd / 3rd set of 10mins.

now back to the crash. yes, it was a quite a Crash too, in the 2nd set of 10mins. was it the last lap that it happened? i cannot really recalled, i think it is. but wat i recalled was these:

i was following Nic down the straight downslope.. turn 1, 2 ,3 was fine.. at abt turn 4, Nic overtook June and perhaps Daniel before turn 4 for the upslope. well, to be frank, the fear i said that was eradicated is not entirely true! i was quite hastened to overtake both June and Daniel then mainly because the turn was approaching pretty fast for the uphill. lesson learnt previously was that, this turn for us who had kart more often is 'easy right' and full throttle all the way UP up UP.

however for 'beginner' (using the term loosely here, and being there myself too) they tend to struggle a bit. cos of the long straight before that will means one had to brake or slow down before the turn. after which, very quickly, plough down the accel to get as much power for the uphill run as possible quickly. sound easy, it is. BUT the timing of do all these is the real tricky bit.

likelihood, if one brake too hard, too long AND try to turn at the same time will result in a spin. sometimes if one power up the throttle too early while counter steering at it might also have u the honor of being a spinner.

by not overtaking June implies i will have to wait for my chance when the uphill present itself After we all make our turn safely. i had a feeling somewat she will spin. dunno why. which makes me actually somewat prepared and not following closely at all. thankfully, i did wat i did. as she did really spun... just as she was going up... to her right. she braked harder. she stopped. while i tried to move to the left and see if i cld actually continue without hitting her or stopping with her. NAH. i had to stop. my kart do not have enuff space to move forward. and when i stopped the front bumper just merely touches her rear bumper.

at this point both of our karts are still running. so, all she had to do was to steer left and she will be on her way and i will be on mine as well since i'm already facing toward the slope. hence, i just turned to my right and told June to just slowly steer as i mentioned. and when we spoke i can see that there was no 'immediate danger' of any kind. i.e. i dun recalled anyone coming at this turn.

then, it happened... i turned front and then back to June and see how she's doing with the steering. i saw KP coming at the turn at a fast speed..... so fast that i hardly had time to react to tell him to slow down.. the very next thing to me see KP approaching the turn is the he hit right into June!!!! Slam Bang! the impact is HUGE. i guess as huge as the one i crashed two weeks back..

darn.... wat happened next is that i think i saw/ heard June sorta scream... and KP hitting slightly on the steering wheel.

June was ok. since her kart's engine had died, and seeing no one around the tack any longer, i told June to get back to the shelter. while i go over and check on KP, who at this moment took off his helmet and was kneeling under the shade of the tree.. look bad. seems bad. his right rib is hurting him, but there visible bruise then.

i drove my kart back to the pit upon seeing Nic and Des going over to KP. later on, after resting for awhile, he and his niece&fren returned to singapore. and while at jusco, i called him and he told me that his check up with the doc turned out ok and monitoring is required.



Concluding the race
















nEL's crash occurs at the first round of the game.
kp's crash occurs at the second round of the game.

Miracle happens on the third round, none of us crashed. Maybe it's due the 2 crashes in the previous round, all drivers started to notice the importance of safety.

Lesson learnt from the picture above... Never dump your helmets in this manner.


The aftermath
















Heh, the same old place that we will go to, and your guess might be correct. It's Secret Recipe once again, with the same old dishes to be served. (better pictures coming up soon)

After meal, same old procedures, same old stuffs.

Well... the next karting event... to be updated again...

still blogging...

post created by nEL...
post edited by nEL again with Jon's comments added.

wat's the thrill? - jon

it seems no one is writing leh.. dun fret tho... let me continue to spurt out some 'nonsense'

=P

but wat shld i go abt in writing here? how abt writing wat's the thrill in karting ?as it must be seemingly insane to some that we go karting as often as we can. and if they can understand the thrill of it, they might go 'I WANT TO KART too!!!!!!'

;)

the excitement of karting comes from the fact that you will be driving something that is going relatively fast on the straight as well as in the corners too. to me, it is the corners that provide the most thrill.. some might argue that the straight does that too but it's just full throttle and feeling the gush of wind onto your skin (which is really shiok too, i have to agree but...)

for karting, tackling corners should be the most exciting. as you need to react the several elements and if it is in a race situation it is where overtaking opportunities/ crashes will comes up.

let me try to put across wat it might entails in going into , at, then through the corner while karting... most often than not we will have to Brake before going into any corners while karting.

Note: it's braking BEFORE turning, else i'm 99% sure you will get a spin if u try to brake and turn as if you are driving your daily car. you have to decide when and where to brake, and that is determined by the speed you are at when reaching the corner Braking Point(BP). braking beyond the BP, you will find yourselves in trouble as you will find yourselves with lesser & lesser track to move you and the kart through the corner. braking way before the corner will lose you too much speed and that you will ask after the session 'Where's my Medal for Safety Driving?' and/or 'Did I come to a Road Safety Park?' =P

so the trick or technique is to get the balance of knowing where to brake, SLOW to a speed you are comfortable in bringing you through the corners as QUICKLY as possible..

it take some time to 'master' that and normally it also include getting used to the kart we use that particular day/session. beside braking, i reckon another impt factor is to decide/know wat's the best or quickest line across it. THE line is normally known as the Apex. it's supposedly the shortest quickest line. in normal situation, i reckon that will be about in the middle of the track. however, a more technical person will have to read the track, reviewing whether if it's a fast corner or a slow one. any turning point after this corner? and wat was before this corner? personally, the lesser the steering input, the faster the kart will be as it will not be 'swaying' from side to side.

so... karting or racing in F1 or WRC or Indy is not merely sitting comfortably in the car and 'drive around' it's also a thinking sports, and this has to happen fairly very quickly taking into account wat's in front / beside / behind of u.. one bad reading of the situation, with one bad decision can be really costly (read my 1st post)

;)

3rd March 2007 Accident Report - Jon

ok, my bad.... both the crashes was mine!
=\ =|

one minor crash at the 1st round was because of late late braking to overtake bernard, lock up and drifted into Bernard's path.. he hit me on the rear.. luckily that was nothing serious at all... as it was at a relatively slow turning point (final turn before the start finish)

now, the 2nd BANG, all in 390cc. to me it was totally unexpected and the most serious i encountered so far. worse than the one i knock into KP's. yup, that was a knock and the one with Liau last sat is definitely a Crash! =

wat happened was that i was behind Nic... Nic went past Sham at the 1st/2nd turn and pull away in the str.. on the str i think he went past Liau too without fuss me, i had to be more careful before i overtook Sham, as he was weaving a bit on the turn. no prob tho.. after which, i was right behind Liau nearing the Turn 3 for the uphill. i believed he was at full throttle. so to be safe, i tucked behind him so that maybe i can attack him on the uphill run. this when it happened...

Brake, turn into the uphill run... (me: accel full for the uphill, Liau: sort of brake or simply slOOw...)

one moment i was about half a kart behind him, the very next sec i was into him at full impact.. it was rather scary, to be honest. luckily only my kart suffered damages along with my right thumb. shell shocked.... for me