Final Day - Crunch time...

Sunday and the day for the Finals in Italy finally came. This was where our lack of experience with "european style" racing became the most evident. This was "do or die" !

In MiniRok Toby's engine problems persisted and after the final qualifying heat, he could not qualify for the final. Sad really as he had a good chance if only he had been given decent engine. Vortex Rok and its service center was outstanding in their lack of support for their own rental engines ! Young Miss Preawpan managed to get herself into the finals and drove a very good race finishing in 20th place.

In Junior Rok Sandy started the Bridgestone final (B final) from P1, but even before the start he was overtaken by another kart and down the straights his Vortex Rok rental engine could just not keep up with the others and he would finish 4th. Kittitat and Top both made it to the A final (30th and 19th place), but a second corner mayhem saw Kittitat rolling onto the grass with a broken kart, race over. Top got a little further before a competitor lodged into his side allowing the entire field to get past. Top then set out on a blistering overtaking race and worked his way up the grid from virtually last to 12th place. A stunning performance indeed.

In the Rok Senior class confusion reigned, as the finals lists were constantly changed and no-one could understand the calculations presented. In the end Pasin was excluded from the finals and had to watch from the sidelines. He had a heavy crash earlier in the morning qualifier and a damaged hand, so maybe for the best. Jonathan and Guykoh both made it into the B finals and both drove excellent races. Guykoh eventually secured 14th place and Jonathan 17th place.

So, mixed feelings indeed after this event. Clearly most of our drivers did have a good chance to keep up with the fields, but as we all know that is not all that is required. The experience that we bring with us is that the driving style is incredibly much rougher then what we are used to. The other is that you can not expect to come to an event like this and hope to get a competitive rental kart/engine to compete against professionally tuned engines. In the Rok International Final you are allowed to bring and use all your own equipment. There were not even any control of the Junior exhausts... Spectacular !

Day 5 - Things are getting serious...

Well, the honeymoon could not last forever, today reality set - painfully so for some. Over-ambition is unfortunately a not too uncommon trait over here and several of our drivers fell victims to other drivers less then carefully planned moves... (or maybe well planned for all we know).

In MiniRok Toby's struggles continued, but finally we got a little bit of help from Vortex to fix THEIR faulty engine. Though still not good, at least now he can do some 12-15 laps before the engine dies. Hopefully this should see him through the races tomorrow. Miss Preawpan has been improving steadily and is now starting to move up the order.

In Rok Junior, Tanart is in the top 5 group overall, while Kittitat also showed strong performance. He would though in the 2 heats find himself off track once in each and would end up 13th in the first heat and almost last in the second. He will have a hard task to remain in the A final for tomorrow. Sandy was sent spinning off on the first lap of the first heat and could only claw back a few positions. In the second heat he was much luckier and managed to climb a few positions, while setting a new fastest lap. Every time he goes out he now goes faster, but like Kittitat it will take a lot of hard work and a lot of luck to see him through to the A final.

In Rok Senior it was also a hard days work, as Pasin struggled in the first heat, but luckily he regained some ground in the second heat. He will also need a strong push tomorrow to make the final. Guykoh was similar and found himself in the wrong end of the long grid. Jonathan had a very strong 7th place in the first heat and was chasing down the leaders, but unfortunately he would DNF at the start of the second heat with an electrical problem. So..., plenty of hard work left to do for all our drivers tomorrow.

Tomorrow see's the final qualifying heat and then the finals, fingers crossed !

Day 3 & 4 - Finally on track...

We regret the lack of updates yesterday, duties called as we were taken away from Desenzano and off for the Tony Kart and Vortex dealers dinner. A very extravagant affair, at very nice restaurant, the "Cote Francesca". Champagne, canapes, fabulous food, all as a substitute for Khun Kitti of course....

Day 3 was for some of us the first impression of european high grip racing... Wow, what a surprise !!! Even before the races started the track had more rubber down and grip then any other track we have ever seen, then come 272 karts here for this meeting and there are huge lumps of melting rubber piling up around the track.... Well, that must be fun you think, lots of grip and stuff. Actually, quite a horrible experience at first, as the karts come jumping like wild bronco's through the corners ! Sandy's kart was bouncing a good 10 cm off the ground with the front wheels bumping back and forth. Simply undrivable. Day 3 literally became a nightmare, with all sorts of advice being thrown around and not much improvement.

Day 4 saw a new tomorrow and after having been advised overnight (well meaning advice that is), to lower the frame maximum, widen the front and bring down the tire pressure, things were slowly starting to improve. This day was then about trying to get some set up going. Guykoh, Pasin and Jonathan in Rok Senior were all going quite well and were going through their individual set up routines.

Top, Kittitat and Sandy are all in Rok Junior and Top and Kittitat's experience driving on tracks like this showed, as they were both instantly fast. Sandy struggled through set up, but towards the afternoon (there are only four 15 minute practice sessions in a day) he was starting to come to terms with the track.

In MiniRok, Preawpan and Toby both had a rough start as well as repeated engine fuel problems that saw them stranded track side - loosing valuable track time. The problems were eventually traced down to twisted fuel hoses, causing strainage.

Today also saw the arrival of the Thai journalist team and they were busy filming and interviewing the racers. Hopefully there should be some news on True Vision TV to watch from Italy. The temperatures are staring to drop slightly and with some wind this afternoon, it was getting rather chilly...

Tomorrow is qualifying day, with 1 quali session and 2 quali heats to go. Crunch time !

Day 2 - Early preparations

It is still blue sky, sunny and beautiful here in Italy. Day 2 saw teams visiting various locations around northern Italy, some went to CRG, some to Tony Kart, others to Vortex or to various engine tuning shops around. The Pizza Company racing team opted to head down to check out team Scuderia Ferrari in Maranello, one and a half hours drive from Desenzano. With big wide eyes and a shirt front wet with drool, it was back up to the Garda Lake and registration at South Garda Karting. Then we picked up our brand spanking new Tony karts and got our pits, all just in front of Parc Ferme, prime real estate. Even the Somtam was in full production and the Thai team was getting right on with it. Our Tony karts were fully set up and even the seats were a perfect fit - probably as a consequence of all the pasta we had last night...

Teams from all over the world has now congregated on track and the race atmosphere is starting to set in. Tomorrow we will be on track by 07:30, to do final kart preparation and start running in the engines. Apparently the track will be cut in half to allow 2 groups to run in at the same time, not sure though, as there is a lot of rumors going around and so far not much concrete information. Open practice in the afternoon.

More tomorrow after hopefully posting some laps around the circuit for the first time...

Day 1 - Arrival

It was a long flight, 12 hours in fact, from Bangkok to Milan, Italy, but Thai Airways was kind enough to put the majority of the True Vision Team Thailand on Super Economy, with the new and much improved seats. Italy was as beautiful as only Italy can be, nice, sunny and day temperatures in the mid 20's - lovely.

The team collected their rental cars at Malpensa Airport and set out for the hour long drive over to Garda and the picture perfect lake side town of Desenzano. Stunningly beautiful place. After some side walk coffee's and ice creams and pizza slices and Parma Ham sandwiches and.... well you get the drift, it was back in the car and down south for 10 minutes to the South Garda Kart Circuit.

The chicanes were freshly painted and large tents set up in the pit area. Lines of brand new Tony karts were being assembled and checked, but access was not allowed. Tomorrow ! Tomorrow ! ...was all we got. Back on to the track walk for us, and clearly this will be a very fast and grippy track to race on.

Tomorrow we will be at the Ferrari home town of Maranello in the morning and then picking up our karts in the afternoon. Hopefully weather will hold. See you tomorrow...