2020 British 24 Hour

Our first ever race together

The all famous British 24 Hour is held at Teesside Karting in Middlesbrough. We suffered a plethora of mechanical issues all weekend so could only qualify 29th and finish 33rd despite our incredible pace.

First Practice

Kallum was the first driver to go out and practice and get a feel of the kart for us. He found the kart was lacking top-end power only after a couple of laps so brought it into the mechanics. There was already a long queue so he had to wait about 20 minutes before they were able to see our kart.

Once Kallum was finally able to see the mechanics, they tinkered with it a little and sent Kallum on his way. He was running 2 seconds a lap slower than what he was doing previously so he brought it into the mechanics again to wait another long period of time.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t fix the problem at that point. So they told us to continue driving but they’ll replace one engine early in the morning before the second practice session and qualifying. Sam got in the kart and finished the session for us.

Second Practice and Qualifying

The next morning we got down to the track early to make sure the engine was replaced on the kart. Once all replaced and ready to go into practice, we decided it’d be best to use both the practice and qualifying to allow each driver to at least get a few minutes of practice, With the last 15 minutes being used to attempt a good qualifying lap.

The kart felt more powerful after the engine swap and continued to pick up more power as the engine broke in. Sam and Dante qualified for us and managed to qualify us in 29th place.

Race

Sam started the race for us. He got a fantastic start and got us up into 11th place by the end of his first stint.

This started to bring hope to us and the team… oh how wrong we were to have hope. Our kart issues didn’t end at practice. We had to stop 26 times (normally 17 with maintenance stop) due to more mechanical issues (Listed at the bottom*).

So our luck was pretty bad. Despite this though, all of the driver’s did amazing jobs driving phenomenally when our kart was working and nobody came off the track or spun on their own accord. The only time was when Kallum was punted off by an owner-driver who made a very ambitious attempt at an overtake.

Kallum got food poisoning, unfortunately, during the race so after his second stint, he had to pull out. He did amazingly helping out on the sidelines though when he started feeling a little better.

Robin also got a fairly bad blister after his second stint and braved going out for another 2 more stints with it. He still managed to put out competitive lap times despite this

Both Sam and Dante bossed it by both doing double stints for the team. Sam also pulled out a fifth stint for us.

Jonny did the final venture and finished the race for us crossing the line in 33rd place. Finishing a 24-hour race is an achievement in itself. Especially the British 24 Hour which is very bumpy and taxing for the drivers. So despite all of the problems we’re proud to be able to cross the line.

Given credit where credit is due though, based on our performance, consistency and fast lap times we believe we had the potential to have finished within the top 5 if we didn’t have any problems.

*List of mechanical issues:

• Left engine spark plug problems, Loss of power and needed to pit to fix. Spark plug was replaced but the issue wasn’t fixed. Spark plug lead was replaced next lap and the issue was fixed.
• Left engine carburetor issues caused loss of power. Carburetor replaced.
• Ran out of fuel on track during stint after 1 hr 13 mins (Normal stint 1 hr 30 mins). Next few stints had to be reduced to 1 hr 10 mins to prevent running out of fuel again.
• Maintenance stop revealed the left engine carburetor was leaking fuel, causing the excessive fuel consumption. Problem fixed during maintenance stop.
• Left engine wouldn’t start properly without the engine continuously revving once started. Engine was not on when the driver left pits 3 stints in a row. Drivers (Sam, Robin and Jonny) came in after 1 lap to restart the engine.

We’re incredibly proud of all the drivers and helpers for continuously pushing on despite all of the problems and just keeping their heads down. Even more so of the attitude. Nobody threw their toys out of the pram and continued to have fun and accept the situation for what it is. This is only the first of many races to come for Adrenoco Racing so there’s no need to worry.

A big thank you to the Teesside staff as well for hosting a great event. Despite all of our kart issues, we all had an amazing time and we’ll be back next year at the 2021 British 24 Hour where we will get our revenge!

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