[Revvhead]

Yo all!
The Revvhead achived a long cherished dream & went to chennai and participated in the JK FISSME junior cup last weekend.
It was a total blast, and before i proceed to tell you all about it, let me pretend that i have won an Oscar.

A huge thank you to all the folks that helped make this dream a reality, giving assistance and advice, & going out of their way to help, to make the last weekend as absolutye blast.

So, Thanks to 2L8ULoose, R-tech & Sideways.Also to WSRF esp Siva and of course to Karun Chandok, who was very helpful & extremely patient when innundated with questions & comments from Dolts like me.
But more on that later.

Just thought that I'd start off the commentary. will throw in details of the whole shebang in various posts so as not to make it too long and difficult to read!!


Cheerio
Revvhead

[Jay]

Hey congrats Revvhead.... ... details pls, with some pics if any...

[khaadu75]

Hey, CONGRATS !! I'm sure you had an absolute blast and we waiting to hear the details of all ur fantastic overtakes and the spin offs .... lol !!

Cheers

[Rtech]

Good stuff revv! Now, hows about those details. Where did you finish and will you be heading back for some more racing?

[Psycho]

Congrats, awaiting your detailed writeup on the same.

[Revvhead]

Right here goes:
One day on Team BHP , Revvhead like a "Vella" is surfing and finds the offer to race from wsrf. Cant believe it so he, Jumps at it !!

And finds himself on a plane to Chennai on Friday the14th! Also finds his father who is exteremely fond of such stuff, heading to Chennai from Bangalore to be a racing groupie!!! Deapite my prootestations that it will look likw father has come to accompany grown up son on "Sports Day" ha ha and i flat dont want him around!!

Anyway, the dude would have none of it, and headed to chennai

So, landed in chennai,Hooked up with the pater & checked into a nice hotel near the track very kindly arranged by Sideways and headed off to the track.

Once there, met Siva who is the point man for everything at Wallace Sports & Karun Chandok.
They got us into the cars, adjusted seats, pedals . Seat adjustment for fat Old me was a problem i can tell you. It was a squeeze.
Anyway they sorted that out, and i was shoe-horned into the car ( Must have lost weight over the weekend, coz by sunday i was sliding in and out!!)
Also learned that one just cant use normal shoes, have to have somethjing with very thin soles, if not racing shoes ( Later went and bought Bata white PT keds!! The ultimate in racing shoes!! on Karuns advice)

Aftter which Karun took us all around the track, and showed us the
circuit, with all the lines, braking points and how to tackle it. A very good introduction.

Post lunch was time for practice.
Karun gave us tips & advice on how to handle the car, what to do what not to do, gave us limited revs and sent us on our way.

I started and learnt very quickly that the Fissmes arent that tame, and had a reasonable number of spins. Managed the first 3 laps & then spun, and after that wasnt able to string more than 3 laps together without a spin of some sort
Put in 20 laps and while improving from the right start wasnt really getting too much betterin the last 10. Came in had a breather, discussed what i was doing with karun got a few ideas & went and went back out. and slam got my time down by 2 seconds. I was pretty thrilled, till just as i was about to have 5 spin free fast laps, lost it on the loop went into the grass and introduced my car to a concrete gutter. End result was a broken front & rear right suspension and a cracked sump.

The car was pranged badly & it would take the whole day to fix. That was the end of practice for me- a pity coz as the weekend wore on, i was rueing the lost 25 laps pf practice, which would have helped immensely.

So, i hung around, had a look see at what was on, and then headed back to the hotel in the evening.

End of Friday Practice- More follows

[2L8uLoose]

Hey revv.. good going on the loss of weight man...was it the sheer fright of not being able to fit into the fissme that made you loose weight over the weekend??
(Look whose talking abt weight.. haha)
Come on dude.. waiting for part 2 of the 3 part( I presume) saga!!

[Revvhead]

practice day images:
Ok, i have learnt, that my dear father (Great chap in many aspects, excellent fellow really) is the amongst the worlds worst photgraphers ,m at least with a digicam on a racetrack

He is Most definitely the worlds worst videographer is confirmed, by the fact that instead of zooming cars, or at least MY car, we have trees and pools of water & concrete pillars!!!!!!!!

But here goes with the pics: Oh these are mine after i crashed in practice, i was sitting in the viewing tower, Father's work cant be published!!!



Esteems do battle during practice- one is just peeling off into the pits but it looks like a good Ot manouevere.

[mclaren1885]

Brilliant , so u finally made it to chennai .. Im sure it was fun handling the FISSME's .. And yeah i hope u didnt run off onto the kerbs .. Pretty painful those things are when ur bottom end keeps bouncing off like the needle at the limiter .. Too bad that u lost out on the practise session because of the spin .. The repairs must have cost u a bomb .. Waiting for the rest of the updates and times and loads of crash, where was this at C3 ?? .. Hoping to make it to atleast one of the races this season ..

[Revvhead]

Day 2 - RACEDAY 1!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, The moment i have been waiting for.
I get into the garage & my car is still having bits re-attached to it, wheel aligment and the like is being done.
Someone asks me if i'm nervous. I'm surprisingly not. I guess, i'm just excited at actually going racing on a track with other cars and all that.
However after yesterday, i have realised that i have to keep the car in one piece, through 2 practice sessions & one qualifying if want to be in the race.

I also know that i havent strung five laps together! Now thats worrying!

I also meet other guys who have just come in and one turns out to be a team BHP ian with a handle that takes me 2 days to memorise!!
EPYUPC (i think) has come from coimbatore with his wife & they are a really nice & chilled out couple. We get along immediately.
I think thte bonding is helped by the fact the the he too has to work at getting in the car, and while not my size, is helping in not making me the odd man out, with all the other Narain size drivers around. I give him i deas on how i squezed in, but he fares better than me!

Epyupc & me

You guess who is who


I start first practice cautiously and find that the tract is very slippery, even thru turns where i was getting great grip[ on friday. I start understanding first hand, what real racing drivers mean when that talk about changing tarck conditions ( ok, so i getthat when Karting and all, but that over different weeks, not over different days, and you dont rally risk breaking the Kart and having travelled all the way for nothing!!!!)

I tippy toe through first pratice and come in, discuss the trac with other drivers and find that they have the same experience. anyway, i keep the car on the road and in one piece, so i'm happy. I've done abt 9 laps or so without spinning

2nd practice provides a lot more grip as the esteems have also run their first practice and i go for a couple of hot laps and record my fastest lap yet. I'm thrilled.I'm also having the car bottom out on the left rear at the end of C1. it turns out there's a slight bump at the end of C1. Karun checks if this happens at other corners. I reply in the negative.Its a normal thing sometimes. I park to conserve car & tyres,as the sametyres will be used over both races.

In qualifying, i think i've dome a hot lap & with the fear of crashing just befor the race still haunting me, i come in too early, and actually have an awful lap time. End up 17th out of 19th. ouch , pride is hurt.

The race: As a complete rookie to the series- ( there a some really fast guys out there, incl last years esteem champ, a regular rotax carter, a few who have driven before either in a few races or on track days) i decide, my aim is to finish the race, string 8 good laps together without spinning and make sure the car makes it to the second race

At the start, i make up 2 positions and the race is on. There are a lot of crashes, people seem to want to crash into each other in front of me.
Some of the faster guys have spins and i'm past them.

One green car (damn i've forgotten the name) who was fast but had spun catches me on the straight - this is to become the theme of the weekend - and me with more ***** than brains, decided to push him for the place and drive around the outsideof him on C1 , the fastest corner of the circuit.
That was my most enjoyable moment of the race, the fact that i actually dared to do that and pulled it off. Green Car drives really well, gives me enough room to do this (I gave him enough room into the corner)and it was exhilaratinng. he however manages to keep the place and then moves off .
We chatted about that move later, he was amazed that i had tried it it and i thanked him for the clean driving. and start chasing him

I am now so into the race that i dont realise that the checker has been waved ( Also somehow all the guys were driving at close to race pace on the slow down lap ) . I pull what i think is a brilliant outbraking manouvere ito c2 and pass 2 guys. I'm shouting " F'in A" inside my helmet after that and pass one guy on the last corner in another daring outbreakoing move before i realise that the race is over!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOPS! Thank god i didnt touch anyone in those moves. that would have looked sooo stupid.

Anyway, its uneventful after that and i finsh in 10th!!
I'm very pleased .Its mostly due to attrition and spin offs etc, but i have finished my first race, and finished it in the in the top 10~!

I make sure that i get a better look at the marshals post before the second race starts and where the checker is waved!!!


Race 2- Sees me have a very ordinary start and get passed by two cars.
On the start of lap 3 i feel that something is wrong,the beahvious has completely changed and the car is misehaving. I'm taking the fast sweeping
C1 righthander with opposite steering after the corner entry and my car is bottoming out at only 1/3rd into the turn. the acr starts handling like a dog. I have to work hard just to keep it straight on the straights.
I'm powersliding or whatver- at any rate definitely sliding through almost every turn now.I'm passed by a couple of guys, there's no way i can keep them behind.
Howver i again keep my nose clean as various people crash into each other or spin. A couple do it right in front of me and i somewho manage avoiding all the spinners.
There's a lap to go and i desperately want to finish, a car looms up in my rearview.Its Reetinder, i decide to try and somehow stay ahead, the car is sliding everwhere. i know he will get me in the loop if i dont have enough distence, so i try and get the power down on the exit of turn 3.
. the car tells me i'm stupid. I spin., He passes and so does another red car. Hoever i have managed keeping the motor going and the car on the tarmac heading the right way and i chase them immediately. Red and reetinder clash into the loop. red spins reetinder gets into the grass but luckily keeps going, i pass red car car make it to the finish line in 7th!!!!!
I have actually picked up points in my second race & achieved my aim of finishing both races. Its too good to be true.

We inspect the car and find that the left rear suspension is completely bent and hanging way lower than the right.

On seeing that i now feel extra thrilled and inwardly very prud that i mananged dragging a broken car home - and shall continue boasting about it till someone tells me to shut up!!!!!

Prizes are distributed.
Ajay kini has won both fissme races &had the fastest lap in both! he makes a clean sweep.
Ajit Narasimhan pickups up second in Both races as well.
1st race 3rd place i picked up by Rana, a kid who won the overdrive design Karun's helmet competition, and got a race day as his prize. he wasnt doing that well at the start, similar times to me in practice, but he's pulled it off in the race. what an amazing story. His mother is too thrilled the saturday is over and she doesnt have to see her son in a racecar again!!!

Phew that was long, i better take a break. apologies for all the typos

[mail4ajo]

The Esteem Saloon Class was good watching too. But sadly there were only 5 cars. Ayub Khan's car was there too, so was KE Kumar's (A to Z Engineering, chennai - NO 100). I guess in the last round,it broke down. I just returned from his shop now to check on some bodykits for my car, and I saw his mechanic working on the shaft.

I dont know who drove it in the race, but it ran amazing fast. There was so much distance between the next car and his. Ayub's car was ridden by a guy from Vizag called Shylesh. I guess he took overall third.

[2L8uLoose]

Nice report Revv..
(ps.. shut up and stop boasting about nursing a broken car home.. as requested by you!)

[Revvhead]

esteem was good watching, i shall post on that one i finish this saga!! phew.
#100 was super fast, PV Bararth was the driver i think, he swept 3 of 4 wins.

[Revvhead]

One more thing. was late on the edit of the first post,
But thanks also to N Aditya for Chennai info.
You were right, the Auto's totally rip you off.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by Revvhead

You guess who is who

Revvhead, so you happen to be the 1st tbhp-ian I saw in the flesh (actually lots of it. ). I was there on Saturday for the post-noon races till the prize giving ceremony.
I do remember wondering aloud to my wife as to how someone built like that would get into that puny FISSME. Well, you did manage.