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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

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Tag Archives: fun

Teamworks Karting Experience, Halesowen

09 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by jamescaterracing in karting, Uncategorized

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Tags

experience, fun, halesowen, helmet cam, joovuu x, kart, karting, review, teamworks

For a racing driver, I have very limited karting experience.

So limited that I can actually sum it up in one sentence: I’ve done about 3 or 4 ‘arrive and drive’ sessions at a track that closed down, and 1 structured race even with a few mates.

Ayrton Senna I am not!

I have been told that karting will improve my racing, and have been meaning to go (for about 4 years!), and finally booked it in at Teamworks Karting in Halesowen.

The advantage here straight away was that you can book into a slot online, and then email or call their excellent staff who will let you add others to your booking without having to pay until they arrive. This saves the nightmare of having to coral payments from friends in advance, and made it all much easier!

We had a voucher which meant each of our group of 6 paid around £24 for 30 minutes of karting.

Unlike the last place I went to, this was split into two 15 minute sessions, so you get a chance for a bit of a breather and to chat in between your sessions. It’s also valuable recovery time if you’re not used to karting, as it does work some unique muscles in your forearms, shoulders, and hands.

Incidentally, it used to feel like someone had tried to rip the muscle off my forearms the day after I’d been karting. Racing Formula Vee seems to have cured this and I didn’t feel that bad at all – I guess I’m more used to it, now!

We all met up and had to book onto the session with name, email address, and nickname. This is automatically put into the session so you get a personalised printout of your lap times, and times also appear on the viewing screens.

We were then taken to the kit room to choose a race suit and helmet. My suit smelt a bit, umm… ripe, but it was late in the day, and if you were doing it often they’re cheap enough to buy (or I could use my own!). I did take my own helmet, but they have loads available – it’s recommended you buy a balaclava (£3) if you’re using theirs, or they can give you a free hairnet thingy to wear under it.

Gloves are also supplied (again, I used my own), and you’ll be fine in any sensible footwear – I again took my race boots, though!

After that we were shown a quick video about how to drive the kart and what the flags meant (red – stop, yellow – slow down, black – pull in for a harsh speaking to), then sent to wait for our session to begin.

We were assigned a kart by the staff, then they gave each of us a quick check to make sure we could use the brakes, and then we blasted out on track.

Now, bearing in mind I’m a racing driver – the night before I’d gone on YouTube and found some onboard laps of the track, so I already had a good idea where it went, and was able to get straight on the pace.

Speaking of which, Teamworks were happy for me to use a JooVuu X helmet cam to film the action – and they also let me stick a Mobius camera on the helmet of a colleague. I’ll put the video at the end of this.

To be honest I wasn’t that impressed with the track from watching the videos, but driving on it myself I have to admit it’s a very good track. It’s a good mix between flat out and technical, with a lot of lines available through some corners, and a lot of fun.

It wasn’t long before I was taking the first two corners on full throttle, blasting down the big long 40mph straight – that ends in a very tricky left hand curve which you have to brake on, immediately into a hairpin right. Then it’s tight around the left hander which leads up steeply over the bridge, trying to keep momentum up the hill, then back down on slippery wooden boards into another tight right hairpin where it’s easy to spin out.

It’s probably around a 30 second lap for most, with the faster drivers hitting low 23 seconds.

There are yellow flashing lights around the circuit so you know when to slow down if you can’t see anyone waving the flag, so it’s all quite safe, and there are tyres all around with smooth rubber bumpers in case you clip the walls trying to use all the track.

We had brilliant fun, with everyone improving their lap times in the second session now we were all settled in. I didn’t have it all my own way, and was pushed very heard by several other quick people in my group, but luckily just scraped the fastest lap – which also put me in the Hall Of Fame for the 4th fastest lap of the day with 23.547secs!

Not bad for an overweight 40 year old against all the young whipper-snappers (unless none of the fast ones had turned up that day)!

Teamworks also send you an email giving your fastest laps from previous sessions and notify you if you’re lucky enough to make the Hall of Fame – so great touch there! We also all got a £10 voucher for completing a few quick questions about your day.

Overall, it was a brilliant and very enjoyable experience! I’ll definitely be going back for another go, and we’re already thinking of entering as an endurance team for one of the proper race events they host.

I’d recommend them – so go find your local track and get booked on! As for me, we’ll see how it helps with my racing…

 

 

A ride in a Seabreacher

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by jamescaterracing in Uncategorized

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Tags

black sea, bulgaria, experience, extreme, fun, JetSkiBG, jump, passenger ride, seabreacher, shark, watersports

A ride in a Seabreacher

A few months ago I saw a pretty cool video doing the rounds on Facebook of some enclosed jet-ski-type thing that blasted through the water like a shark.

It was one of those things that you watch in awe, and then just forget about, as you know you’ll never actually see one in real life.

So as I strutted my blue-skinned self along the beach front of Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, I found myself doing a huge double-take as my eyes spotted this:

wp_20160916_18_49_13_pro_zpsrlw0yem4

I made a bee-line straight for it to get a closer look.

It’s called a Seabreacher – this model I believe is the X-spec one and the most powerful. Here are the specs as standard:

Two seat (Pilot: 6′ 4″, Passenger: 6′ 2″)

Rotax 1500cc 4 stroke engine

260 hp supercharged, intercooled

High output, low emissions

Fuel capacity: 14 gallons (52L)

Length: 17′ (5.18m)

Width: 3′ (0.9m)

Wingspan: 7’10” (1.9m)

Approximate weight: 1350lb (612.35kg)

wp_20160916_18_49_01_pro_zps8qhxo1cg

The deal was a 7km passenger ride for 110 Lev (about £45) – which is quite expensive in Bulgarian terms, but could I really pass up this opportunity?

Hell no!

I paid up and had to sit on the beach waiting to catch my first glimpse of the Seabreacher in action, as it headed over from another part of the coast, my heart rate already showing an excited 120bpm on my FitBit.

Now, I don’t really like the water. That said, I’ve always fancied a bit of powerboating – probably because of my racers mindset that nothing can possibly go wrong for me, so I’d never actually end up in the water.

As I saw the Seabreacher bobbing towards me, I was told to wade out into the Black Sea as the driver/pilot climbed out and pulled his seat forward to make room.

img_7835_zpstv5te4ae

I deftly scrambled into the cockpit and they strapped me into a 4 point harness.

Once the driver was back on board, the revs rose as he pootled out into deeper water with the canopy still open. Once there, he pulled it shut over our heads, and it was down to business.

It didn’t feel too claustrophobic to me, as it’s a big old canopy – but you are quite enclosed by the sides and the back of the pilots seat, and your legs have to go around his seat down the sides.

The whole craft vibrated as he spiked the revs up to 9000rpm, and we danced over the waves surprisingly gently. There was none fo the slap you get in boats and jet skis as it crests a wave and slams back into the water.

He swung hard right, the Seabreacher tipping right over on its side like a motorcycle or plane banking into a turn – the canopy turning a deep green as the sea covered us.

Then the sea started coming in over me! Reading the website, there is supposed to be some kind of seal that the driver inflates to seal the cockpit – but that was either broken or not used here. That meant that every time we went under the water, the water came in and absolutely soaked me! The Black Sea is very cold – but in 30 degree sunshine I wasn’t going to worry about this. You never feel like it’s going to fill up and drown you or anything – in fact I never even felt water pooling around my feet, so it must pump it out again pretty fast.

img_7861_zpsbpeqk0rx

Not that I had too much time to worry about this, as we came out of the banked turn by breaching out of the sea (hence the name – just like sharks, wales and dolphins do!), jumping out over the waves briefly before diving back in, full on the throttle.

He then killed the revs, bringing us almost to a stop, before suddenly opening the throttle fully, and the nose dipped down below the waves as we ploughed downwards into the green depths.

A few seconds passed in the green gloom before we were headed straight up, breaking through the waves at a 90 degree angle into the blue sky, even the tail fins launching clear of the water, before tilting and coming down belly first.

seabreacher20thumb_zpsydtp0ifw

Experienced drivers can get the craft airborne and do a barrel roll in mid-air, too!

It was a great and very unique experience, and a lot of fun!

However, it wasn’t as extreme as I thought it might be. that’s probably more to do with the fact I’m used to racing cars, or scraping my knees on the tarmac at 100mph+ – and I can see how it would blow most people’s minds. I think with an extra few hundred horsepower it would be an absolute beast – and I’d love to have a play around in even a standard one!

It was good seeing something I never thought I’d lay eyes on, and actually getting to experience it. If you ever see one, then do everything you can for a go, because it is worth it.

I guess I’ve already pushed the bar up so high it takes more to really get me going!

img_7911_zps9ffezvqf

And a short video I made from the footage:

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