Testing with Paul Carr in the UK

Posted Jul 5, 2009 ↩
in Features, Race reports, tagged with / /

Matthew departed to the UK earlier this month to undertake some serious testing with the highly regarded Karting Trainer Paul Carr, who runs the UK’s most successful race team based in the Oxfordshire area. The 1st days testing was conducted at Whilton Mills karting Circuit, home of this weekend’s British KF championships’. The track is highly demanding on drivers and follows the undulating contours of the surrounding countryside. The 1st session was run and Paul immediately called Matthew in to make a significant change to his driving style. The past couple of years of racing have formed a style that is not as quick as it should be. By the end of the 1st day, Paul had driven home some changes that saw Matthew shave seconds off his lap times effectively lapping less than a second from the current Euromax champion. Day 2 saw a major change and times came plummeting down. By the completion of the days testing, Matt was running within 2/100th’s of the UK’s fastest max driver.

Day 3 and Matt was put to work in the factory to learn about the engines. He dismantled and put together a Max engine learning and understanding the various components that make up the power plant. The final part of the day was the tedious task of loading the truck to carry the equipment up to the Lincolnshire track, PFI International. With all the gear loaded Matthew and Paul Carr jumped into the artic and set off North early on the Friday morning to have the paddock set up for the weekends racing.

Friday morning came and Matthew was clearly struggling with the conditions, the new track and the high level of competition. He fell back into earlier habits that saw his previous pace fall away significantly. By the end of the day marginal improvement was made but times were up to 2 seconds off the best drivers of the day.

Saturday morning and the paddock had filled with some 200+ Karters all vying for the podium positions of the weekend. Matthew went out in the 1st session determined to improve on the previous day’s performance. The good night’s rest had obviously made some difference and Paul’s coaching had kicked in.  Due to the huge grids, all classes were spit to fields of around 25 drivers thus ensuring some serious competition. Matthew found his speed and with a few mid morning glitches sorted out, was up to pace and gaining ground on the competition.

Race craft was to be the focus of the afternoon and with a few words of encouragement from Paul and Matt’s mechanic for the weekend, Olly, Matt started showing some improvement. The last session of the day was a sterling performance with Matthew showing times 3/10’s off the leader, putting him potentially in 3rd position on speed. Some aggressive passing ensured and the session completed with all parties happy.

The experience was invaluable and the improvement immense and thanks must go out to Paul and Olly for putting in a huge effort in getting Matt to improve to the degree he had.

Finally congratulations to Matthew on listening and following instructions to make the gains that he did.

The next race will be conducted in Sentul Indonesia where all this experience can be out to work.

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