Throughout the coming week we will attempt to update the site with a general overview of the progress and happening here in Italy – Grazie.
After a great Florida Winter Tour, Tristan DeGrand along with his father Todd boarded the long flight from St. Louis, Missouri across the pond to begin his 2009 European Karting campaign. Also making the trek from Orlando, FL was J3 Competition race team manager, Justin Stefani. Everyone departed from the United States on Wednesday March 25 and arrived at the Malpensa airport (just outside Milan) the following day on March 26. Upon arrival there was no time to rest as the team headed directly to the Kosmic Kart Factory to begin preparations for testing.
Arriving just before noon at the Kosmic Kart factory, the team met with lead mechanic Thomas to fit seats. Once the seats were fit it was time to get some lunch. A quick and tasty lunch gave the jetlagged team enough energy to finish the day’s activities. With a full stomach it was off to the Race Department where the chassis were being finalized for the two day test in Castelletto.
While at the Race Department the team was quickly able to understand how the team at Kosmic is so successful in Europe – organization, cleanliness, and technical resources aid in this area. Thomas and Justin worked to finalize the chassis used for testing and a couple hours later it was finally off to the Hotel Nazzionale in Desenzano, Italy. Hotel Nazzionale is a place where J3 Competition usually stays while in Northern Italy. The hotel is contemporary, yet simple and very clean not to mention that the attendants speak good English!
Daily Updates (By Justin Stefani)
Friday March 27 – The morning came early as we had a simple breakfast in the hotel and headed straight to meet Thomas at the Desenzano Toll. At this point we made the drive to Castelletto, which is in Pavia, Italy and roughly one and a half hour drive. Once at the track I did the final fitting of the engine, mounted all the necessary items and it was time to hit the track. The first session on the track was a standard fifteen minute break-in as the engine was brand new from Vortex. With a freshly broken-in motor the team and Tristan got to work. It was hard to believe that Tristan was on-track nearly 24 hours after he arrived in Italy not to mention the six hour time difference. Yet, Tristan performed as if he’d been at the track in Castelletto many times before. The track is very technical with an unusual mix of low-speed and high-speed sectors. A compromise in driving and setup will have to be reached to be successful in Castelletto. As the day progressed Tristan got faster and faster. Of course its still early, but when names like Nick Devries and Marciello are all taking a look to see who this American is……Well, that’s a good start. The team concluded the day positively with the times being a little bit off DeVries, but Marciello’s and Tristan’s times were very similar. Of course these are only for reference as we were testing many different things and keeping to our general plan. Getting sidetracked from the competition can be a huge hindrance; however, it was good see that we have some speed this early on.
Friday Night March 27 – After a good and long day we headed back to Desenzano for dinner. We went out to a Chinese restaurant (Yes Chinese in Italy). If you’ve ever been to Desenzano you will know which restaurant it is as many people enjoy the food there. Dinner consisted of – Tomas, Tristan and his father Todd, John and Stefano Marcello, Marco (Tony Kart Mechanic), and myself. – Also I cannot spell his name for the life of me, but a Japanese mechanic for Tony Kart who it turns out worked for Ward Racing. Therefore, I had a lot to speak with him about and he did a good job ordering food for everyone at the table.
Saturday March 28 – It was back to Castelletto for our final day of testing. After one day in the books we felt good about Saturday. Once again we had to break-in a new motor from Vortex. Once the break-in was complete the team began to test some unusual setups that surprising worked well for the given situations. Throughout the two-day test we were testing on new race team material that is very new, which the entire process interesting and educational. Moving on……Tristan did one fast session and we were relatively pleased and decided to make a change for the next session. On the grid to head out for our second ‘Hot’ session I purposely watched for the faster KF3 drivers (well let’s not be modest – the two best in the world at the moment). As predicted they noticed our tactical move so as they went on the track they attempted to play the usual games. However, Tristan is an experienced driver that didn’t join in. After a few laps everyone settled in and it was full speed.Perfect, Tristan timed the gap between himself and DeVries perfectly about 1.2 seconds. This allowed me to easily to do comparative split times (I have already established 5 key splits, which will be used for the WSK race as well). I started clicking the splits and it looked good, then it looked really good (Our changes worked and our driver was hitting every mark). Tristan proceeded to run down DeVries and dispose of him in the turn 11 hairpin and drove away. We were able to turn a 49.38 (My watch) with some good splits, which were a very good times given the track conditions. During the rest of the day we tried a few things that didn’t’ work as well – mainly because our tires were deteriorated. Once we mounted new Dunlop rubber – it started to rain! Caught out by the weather we changed to wets and Tristan got valuable wet weather testing. Finally the gate shut on the track and it was clean-up time!
Test Conclusion – It’s early (Too Early) and the grip levels have not yet reached the point where they will be next week. However, we learned a lot about the new Dunlop tire which has a similar grip level to the MG FZ, however, the sidewall construction is vastly different. And of course the construction of a tire and its sidewall arguably alter the performance more than anything. We will be heading to the track next Wednesday to finalize our chassis and get our station in the Kosmic tent organized for maximum effectiveness. The materials we have received form Olivier Marachel and the Kosmic Racing Department have been very good. For the upcoming week we will have different carburetors to test, engines, etc. in addition to using the new PI System.
Thanks for Checking In
J3 Competition
