Baines Family Motorsport Team March Wrap Up

After a successful February the team was looking forward to competing in March. However, as in February, Mother Nature claimed victory on two out of the three occasions.

On the 16^th,  the team headed out to the Nepean Motorsport Complex to run Round 2 of the NSWSKC 2014 Club Championship.

Jake in Clubman Light was able to place 2^nd in his first heat of the day. Unfortunately the 125 Class did not have the numbers to compete on the day. However the Club did allow Tim and Tim Beattie to run on the program. This was good for Tim as he was able to sort out some issues he was having with the kart and in his first heat the kart looked super fast.

Just as the first round of heats was about to finish the heavens opened and dumped a deluge of rain on the facility that left Officials and the Club no option but to abandon the meeting without any further competition taking part on the day.

The next outing for Jake was Saturday 22^nd. Last year he won, through the NSWSKC and the Speedcar Association of NSW, the option to race a fully prepared race-ready speedcar at a meeting at Sydney Speedway at Parramatta.  Having never driven anything except his go kart, Jake lined up for Heat 1 in the Trevor Malouf owned Podium Trailers sponsored N10 machine. During the 8 lap heat he drove the car sensibly and found out what it could do as well as checking out the characteristics of the car.

In Heat 2, with a little more knowledge of what to expect, Jake was able to drive the car much harder and stayed with the tail of the field.  Our whole team was looking forward to watching him in the 25 lap final however, once again, Mother Nature had other ideas and the rain that fell in the 15minute period was enough for the meeting to be abandoned.

Jake in the Trevor Malouf owned N10                        Photo by Jo Richards Impact Images

Our race team would like to thank the Speedcar Association and Trevor Malouf for the "chance of a lifetime" opportunity they gave Jake. Their generosity is greatly appreciated.

The following day the team headed for the Gosford Showground to compete in Round 2 of the CCSKC 2014 Club Championship.

Jake once again lined up in the KT Modified Light Class and was anxious to see if he could follow up his Round 1 victory in February.  In Heat 1 Jake came home in second place and was a little down on speed.  After making a gear change he came out in Heat 2 and was able to take the win.  Not happy to rest on his laurels, Jake made some slight changes to the kart's set up which paid off because he came out in Heat 3 and showed the field a clean pair of heels to take the win.  After Jake's flag to flag victory in the final event the answers were clear as he took out the overall round championship win making it back to back victories.

Tim was also looking forward to the round to see if what he learnt at Nepean would work on the kart.  In Heat 1 he ran 2^nd to Donald Stevens who has a vast number of years of experience on Tim.  Heat 2 saw Tim run a very close 3^rd place with the top three crossing the finish line, all within a kart length. Following this Tim and the crew made some set up changes to get more out of the kart.  The result of Heat 3 was a repeat of Heat 1 with Tim running 2^nd to Donald.  More changes to the kart proved to be beneficial for Tim in the final as, after running 2^nd for most of the race, a patient drive saw him pass Tim Beattie to take the lead and he went on to win the event.  Tim’s result saw him take home the 2^nd place trophy for his day's efforts.

The team will have a limited program in April as only Tim and Nathan will be competing at Nepean on the 6^th for Round 3 and at Gosford on the 12^th for the annual Autumn twilight meeting which will see the karts running under lights.

Jake heads off to the United States on Tuesday, 25^th March, to work with the Tarlton Racing Team in Clovis California for a five week work experience tour.

The Baines Family Motorsport Team would like to thank their 2014 sponsors for their ongoing valuable support .

Hopping’s Mowers

Rams Race Engines

Sketchy Graphix, Krikke Motorsport, Stillshots

DTO Racewear