Proud Grandad post

[Whereditgo]

My youngest grandson Theo got into karting in January 2022 aged 9, he had a good year last year racing against kids up to 12, so upgraded to a new class this year with a new Zip Kart. He's carried on in similar vein to last year with excellent results, so much so that last week Zip Kart contacted his dad to offer him a free drive for this last weekend in their new 2 stroke kart which they are trying to promote.

So Theo raced two different Karts over 2 days, practice and qualifying on Saturday, then 3 heats and a final in each class having never driven the 2 stroke kart before.

Several heat wins and 1st place in both finals and won the Driver of the Day award to boot!

Not sure if this will work

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1402532490577956

 

[Whereditgo]

Long post alert!

Last weekend was the Kartmasters event held at PFI in Lincolnshire held from Thursday to Sunday, which is the most prestigious karting event of the year. The winner gets a substantial cash award and a new engine and gets to drive the GP plate for the whole of the following year.

The format is one timed qualifying on Friday which determines the grid positions for the two heats run on Friday, points are allocated based on finishing positions in the heats to determine the grid positions for timed qualifying, then two more heats on Saturday, the Saturday results then determine the grid positions for the pre-final on Sunday and the finishing position in the pre-final race determines the grid positions for the final.

Horrendous weather conditions and a few issues in timed qualifying resulted in Theo only managing 1 timed lap and qualifying 25th.

Friday:
Heat 1 25th to 7th
Heat 2 25th to 12th, then the heavens opened and with all the drivers on slicks Theo got punted off (no blame to anyone imo, just virtually impossible to drive on slicks), dropped back to 20th, made up a few places again before the race was red flagged owing to the conditions. A nose cone penalty of 5 seconds (from when he hit the tyre wall) dropped Theo back to 20th, so overall qualification carried over was 11th.

Saturday:
Theo showed good pace in the wet and qualified 7th
Heat 1 P7 to P6, Theo seemed to struggle for grip, but a solid race.
Heat 2 P7 to P3 until a last lap spin in the wet dropped him back to 13th and another 5 second nose cone (from the spin) dropped him back to 17th.

Sunday
Pre-final P11 to P12 Struggling to get grip in the dry.
Final P11 to P3 to P7 to P5 entering the last lap to P1 in the final sector and a win by 0.02 seconds.

The top 3 drivers are then quickly checked for any nose cone issues and brought back onto the track in front of the grandstand to be interviewed on the live stream and Theo was given the GP plate.

This is just a working class family who are supporting their 9 year old son who clearly has some talent and is racing for a relatively small team (Zip Kart) against kids up to 12 most of whom have been racing since the age of 5, so you can imagine the joy for all, especially Theo and his dad.

Unfortunately the fairytale has a dark ending:

One of the 'bigger' teams lodged an appeal and some 45 minutes later the top 3 were called in to the stewards office, all 3 were given a 5 second penalty! And advised that the 30 minute time limit to lodge a counter appeal had elapsed (well yeah - because they weren't even aware there was an issue to appeal!). The 5 second penalty dropped Theo back to 7th. I've watched that last lap dozens of times, even in slow motion and cannot see any incident involving Theo that would warrant him being under investigation - even when taking off my 'Team Theo' glasses.

Needless to say that Theo was unconsolably upset! How Motorsport UK can think that this meets any safeguarding policy is beyond me! Clearly there is often a possibility of a change in a result, but sort any issues out before the kids are paraded in front of the grandstand etc.!

Of course it doesn't end there. The engine builder for Zip Kart is a comparatively new guy on the karting scene (all karts run the same engine manufactured by Rotax with strict restrictions on the carb, exhaust, ECU, inlet and exhaust port restrictors etc.) but the motor can be prepped and sealed by any licenced engine builder.

Theo's motor was completely stripped down in scrutineering and a DQ awarded on a non-compliance, the scrutineer deciding that the crank had been polished, the engine builder completely denied that and I am very doubtful that the scrutineer would have the capability to measure the crank roughness accurately enough to determine if it was non conforming - we are talking something like 0.00025mm Ra (average deviation).

We always knew that motorsport (as is true with a lot of sports) is about money and the drivers who make it through to the higher echelons are not necessarily the best, but are almost always the richest, but we have been astounded at the depths of underhand tactics the bigger teams (and to be clear even at this level the bigger teams are multi million outfits) will go to. One even tried to object against Theo's helmet, which is the helmet worn by Jake Dennis (the new Formula E Champion) when he raced for Zip.

Sorry to bore anyone who reads this, but it's been a cathartic exercise I needed to do.

If you're interested the link is here, fast forward to 5hrs 11 mins for Theo's final:

 

[AmandaJR]

Short reply - that sucks! Keep going Theo and keeping sticking it to the big guys.

 

[Golfmmad]

Another very proud Grandad here!
My fifteen year old grandaughter loves drama and has been involved in our local amateur dramatic group for a good few years.
Last year she had the opportunity to audition for Shrek at a well known Theater group. She was due to have singing lessons as the part required singers. She was about to start the singing lessons with her friend, but at the last minute said friend pulled out and also decided not to go for the audition as well. So my grandaughter didn't go either.
I was really annoyed about this as were her parents, also they are very good and never push her at all and rather she decided for herself.
Anyway, ever since she has said that she really regrets not auditioning. So a year later and more mature and her passion for drama increases she decided to audition on her own for a part in Oliver.
A guy I play golf with, his son is a regular at the theatre group and said that she would have to be good to get in as they tend to go with actors they've used before.

So after several auditions and practice auditions she gas got a part in the main cast, we're so proud and I had every confidence that she would get in.

Her sister told us that she said to her, "I was OK on my dance, OK in my singing, but blew them away with my drama!
Made us laugh as she would not have said that to her parents or us.
Can't wait for the show early next year!

 

[BiMGuy]

Unfortunately that is motorsport. And it won’t get any better if he progresses up to higher categories.

I’ve a few friends who are heavily involved in various motorsports with their kids racing at very high levels. The best of them is in a world championship.

The stories (an costs) they tell are hilarious and horrifying in equal measure. It makes having to deal with idiots at kids football sound like child’s play.

But if he’s enjoying it. Tell him to ignore everyone else and keep his head down doing his best.