Football, Medals, Karting, Trophies and Paramedics!

Weekends are always busy in our household and the last one was no exception!  Jacob played in a rescheduled football tournament that was postponed at the end of March when we had a lot of snow.  He plays for Junior Gardener Whites Under 7 team and he is the goalie. 

He started the season in defense but wanted a go at being a goalie and despite a rocky start he's really flourished and does quite a decent job!  They played 6 matches and won 2, lost 2 and drew 2.  Jacob actually kept a clean sheet in one of the matches and saved all the goal attempts!

Here he is post match with his medal for taking part! 

Now onto Sunday!  Samuel was testing a new engine all day Saturday but it was not for working so we were lent an engine so he could take part in the first IKR (Independent Kart Racing) Championship at the 3 Sisters race track in Wigan.  He qualified 9th (11 racers in total but 3 different engine categories) and then moved up to 7th place after heat one.

From where we stand as spectators, we can't see the start / finish line so we didn't know what had quite happened at the start of heat 2 until the red flags (race stopped) were waved and Samuel didn't reappear.  The short video below is onboard footage from the grid start and the tangle Samuel got caught up in (watch kart 6)

All this happens at around 50mph and Samuel usually manages to avoid spins and crashes that happen in front of him but this time he didn't as kart number 6 spun into the side of him and took him clean out.  Normally the driver gets out of their kart and stands in a safe spot by the tyre wall.  But Samuel was not anticipating the contact and was rather winded by the crash (plus his sidepod was punctured by kart 6 - it looks like a bullet hole!) so the paramedics who are on standby drove onto the track (lights flashing!)in the ambulance and took Samuel off to be treated.

He was totally fine - more winded than anything but at least his rib protector worked!  We had to get him declared fit to race for the final by the paramedics (who were fantastic!) Because he didn't finish heat 2 he started 9th on the grid but by this time it was raining quite hard and Samuel is rather good in the wet! It was an 8 lap race due to the rain and he managed to finish 5th overall and 2nd in the Honda Class! So he got a trophy!!

So here he is with trophy number 15 in just 16 months of karting at Cadet level!

And in case you are wondering, he is wearing a wetsuit over his normal race suit - but at least we can spot him on track with the bright yellow markings!

So it all ended well and he was fine for school on Monday!

First Place!

Following on from last weeks success at Daytona Manchester and Jacob setting a new lap record the first time he's been in a kart for nearly 4 months, we decided to enter him into the Formula Bambino round 4.  Prior to being goalie extraordinaire for a local under 7's team, Jacob competed in each Formula Bambino rounds but his highest finishing position had been fourth, so not quite making it onto the podium.

There are two heats, each 15 minutes long, and the spectators don't get to see the times so you have to try and guage where your child is in relation to others when they are driving around the track to see if they are gaining or falling back.

Jacob had a really good first heat and lapped the other 3 drivers!  His second heat wasn't as good but he still kept pace.  The times from both heats are added together and then divided by two to get the average.

The hardest bit is waiting for the positions and names to be read out (in reverse order!) and when Tom read out the third place driver, I knew Jacob was on the podium!  So imagine my surprise when he came first!

Here he is on the podium with the other two drivers (apologies for the poor photo - I was shaking!)

And here he is with his trophy

And not only did he win the round and get his first ever karting trophy, he also broke the lap record (the one he set the week before!) again, knocking just over 1.3 seconds off!!

Samuel had a difficult weekend as it was his Championship too.  We ended up coming home early as his brake disc had shattered as the axel had moved.  So he was not a happy camper.  Wheras Jacob was boinging around!

It's My Birthday!

We took Jacob karting this morning to Daytona Manchester - he's not had a session for nearly 4 months and as football season has ended we thought we'd give it a whirl to see how he was after such a long break.

He was in the second of three sessions and set the fastest time in his session.  And for the day.  And it appears that he has set a new lap record too according to his time sheet!

He only managed 20 laps as he got hit quite hard by another driver who it appears (after reviewing the GoPro footage) did not brake when going into the hairpin and slammed into Jacob.  So much so that the chain came off Jacobs kart.  He was fine but rather indignant that he'd been hit!

If you are wondering why his times are a little erratic - he got stuck in traffic and has to wait for two sections on the track where the slower drivers are blue flagged and he can overtake them.  Laps 14 and 15 are almost identical - only 0.002 of a second split!

Quite a nice Birthday present for me!

An Interview With First Place Phil

Today, Dr Digi can reveal that a World Exclusive Interview was conducted in very top secret with Phil Vroom following his highly successful return to racing.  To keep all Phil's fans fully briefed, here follows a snippet from that very World Exclusive Interview.

Dr Digi:  So then Phil, how does it feel to be right at the top of the game once again?

First Place Phil:  Feels mighty fine Dr D.

DD:  I see you have some new young blood racing alongside you in the highly successful Champion Kart Services team?

FPP:  Indeedy I have.  Young whippersnappers that they are.  Need to watch out for Cunliffe - he's a demon in the wet conditions.

DD:  So he's tipped for the top is he?

FPP:  (Becoming rather hot and bothered) I can out drive him any day of the week.  Any day I tell you.  Just look at all my trophies - look at this one here.  See how the gold shines?  I polish ..........

DD:  (Sheepishly) I must dash. I think I left the iron on........

First Place Phil is available to buy in a flash from Dr Digi.  Just make sure yours is not past it.

And now for the real story behind the card!  Samuel races go-karts for a team - Champion Kart Services (to see more about his karting click here!) and his team boss, Ryan had a Birthday a few weeks ago and I made this card especially for him.  The background is originally from Papercraft Inspirations - I've added the blue text and its all the surnames of Ryan's drivers.

It is no mistake that I've added Samuel's after Schumacher because he is rather nifty in the wet conditions!  I've also added the team name and logo.  Dr Digi was very kind and added the team logo to the front of First Place Phil's racing suit.

Phil has been added to an acetate card front so that the racing names and teams can be clearly seen underneath.

Ryan was rather pleased with the card!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

My Grafico:  Anything Goes
Ooh La La:  Male Themed
Squigglefly:  Anything Goes
Whoopsi Daisy:  Use A Digi
Craft Creations:  Bingo For Men (Sport, Stars (the names of the drivers!), Blue)

Image:  Dr Digi, coloured with Promarkers
Background:  Originally free from Papercraft Inspirations, altered
Everything else:  My stash

Cabinet Is On Order!

Following on from his surprise podium finish a few weeks ago, Samuel, last Sunday, was presented with the second place Cadet Championship trophy from his indoor season at Daytona Manchester at the Festival race.

Basically, there were 11 rounds (each counted) and Samuel had 9 podium finishes and therefore 9 trophies.  He also collected points for each round and following the final race in November, he finished the season in second place overall in the Cadet class.

He also came third in the Festival race (there was a parents race too but we had a substitute - Tom!) and was presented with a trophy for that too!

Here he is after just receiving his second place 2012 Cadet Championship trophy - it is rather large!

 And with Tom (he came second in the 'Parents' race) - three trophies between them!

So yes, the trophy cabinet is on order and will be home to the 12 trophies from 2012! Samuel will be more or less karting exclusively outdoors during 2013 and hopefully, his form will continue!

You can see a video of one of the heats in the Festival race and read in more detail on the boys' karting blog HERE!

And I Wasn't There To See It.......!!

Samuel took part in his fourth outdoor race of the year on Sunday - he wasn't originally going to be there as the Daytona Manchester Inkart Festival should have been on the same day but its now this coming Sunday, so it meant Samuel could race at Hooton Park.

He had a really good test day the day before (so I was told - wasn't there either as Jacob had a football match but it was cancelled last minute due to illness!) and was feeling confident going into the qualifying round on Sunday.

He qualified with the third fastest time from 18 drivers so that placed him 3rd on the grid for heat 1.  He finished that in second place, so he was 2nd on the grid for the second and final heat.  And finished second in that too.  So he was second on the grid for the final race!

If you want to see some short videos of his three grid starts (heat 1, heat 2 and final) then click here to go to the boys' karting blog.

Anyway, I was kept upto date on his progress during the afternoon as Jacob had a Birthday party to attend and I decided to brave Asda and then popped to Staples as they were having a closing down sale.  I was in the middle of Staples when I got the call to say where he'd finished in the final race and must have looked like a right nutter!

So here he is on the podium - he took third place and his first ever outdoor trophy (he has 9 from indoors plus on Sunday he gets the second place Championship trophy too!)  The 4th and 5th placed drivers also got trophies too and first and second stood on the same step!  Samuel is the one in all black in the centre of the three stood together:

And here he is with Ryan who runs CKSUK team of which Samuel is part of with Samuel in second place on the grid.

I think it's sunk in now with Samuel that he's won a trophy for outdoor karting after collecting so many indoors as its not an easy transition; its cold and wet most of the time!!

Number 9

I know that this is not a card so strictly I shouldn't be adding it to A Card A Day blog list, but it is something I've created!!  And I'm determined to blog every day in November and December, just so I know that I CAN do it!!!

Samuel won his 9th trophy of the year on Sunday at Daytona Manchester in the Cadet Inkart Championship.  He finished 3rd in the final race and therefore ended up on the podium and got a trophy!  There are 11 rounds across the Championship and November was the final round.  And he's come 2nd overall in the Championship too and he will be presented with the 2nd place trophy just before Christmas!

So here he is with his trophy - second from the right (the bigger boys are the Juniors!) 

 
He's the youngest on the photo by at least 2 years (he's only just turned 9) and he's the highest placed rookie in the Cadet Championship - 18 months ago he'd never even sat in a kart let alone competed!!

If you want to know a bit more about what he's doing and how he's doing along with Jacob, have a look at their karting blog! 

I promised him when he got his first trophy back in February that if he got 10 I'd buy a cabinet......... guess who's eating her words now?!!  Me and my big mouth!

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Happy Birthday to my little racing car driver!  Who would have thought 9 years ago that you'd have no fear whilst travelling with your rear a few inches from the tarmac at almost 60 miles an hour!  Perhaps I should have known because you arrived without much warning and at speed!

He has his first ever outdoor race on Sunday (in his own kart too!) so I'm rather hoping its not raining as I don't fancy being wet for 7 hours!  The boys have their own karting blog if you fancy seeing what almost 60 miles per hour looks like a few inches from the tarmac - the link is in my right hand side sidebar!

Dude Time Doodles - Travel

The weeks are flying by! And its time for another Dude Time Doodles challenge!  The theme this week is

Travel

So, tenuous link time with my creation!  Although I'm basing mine on travelling FAST!  I've used Dale Isenhardt and carefully cut around him after colouring with Promarkers.  He's been added with a double layer of foam pads so he really does stand out!

The background text was a freebie download from Papercraft Inspirations and I've taken off the Happy Birthday bit at the bottom and added the gold flecks and a bit of inking around the edges.

This is a rather apt card as Samuel had a rather good weekend again - he came second in round 7 of the Cadet Inkart Championship at Daytona Manchester and he now moves up to be second overall in the Championship too!  So another trophy for me to polish (actually as long as you don't touch them you can't tell they need polishing - its the finger prints in the dust that give it away!)

Good luck with the challenge!  Pop over to the challenge blog to see the rest of the Design Team's inspiration and to view the rules!

I'd like to enter the following:

Hooked on Crafts:  Lets Celebrate
Kaboodle Doodles:  Special Day
Simon Says Stamp and Show:  What Do You Say?
Totally Stampalicious:  Sport
The Squirrel and The Fox:  Make It Sporty

• Image:  Dude Time Doodles, coloured with Promarkers
• Backing image:  Freebie from Papercraft Inspirations
• Everything else:  My stash

Twitter

Just a little post to announce that the boys have been tweeted by Daytona Motorsport!!  Samuel and Jacob have their own karting blog (able assisted by me!) and Nick the General Manager at Daytona Manchester asked if he could tweet their blog address!

Here is the tweet link if you do tweeting - http://twitter.com/#!/DaytonaMSport

One rather proud Mum!

Oh, and the boys blog is http://samuelandjacobkartracing.blogspot.com there is a permanent link to what they are upto in my sidebar.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!!

It was round 5 of the Inkart Championship at Daytona Manchester earlier today and Samuel won the Cadet class!!

Out of the three heats, he had two first places and a fifth place so he was placed first on the grid for the grand final.  And won!!

Here he is getting his trophy

And alongside the other winners Cadets and Juniors:

And with his trophy - its even bigger than the others he got from previous rounds!

Will add the photos to the boys karting blog along with the video of the final (once I manage to get it on youtube!

It's Happened Again!

It's the last Sunday of the month so its another round of the Inkart Championships at Daytona Manchester!  Three rather exciting qualifying rounds and Samuel again had a bit of bad luck in one of the rounds however he started again in the A final with a 4th place grid position and just like last month, he whipped round the second and third grid starters and straight into second place on the first corner!

He held his position for the full 20 laps and finished in second place!  He also broke his personal best time which previously was 26.01 seconds, so now he has a 25.90 second lap!

Here he is getting his second place trophy:

And on the podium with the other cadet drivers (they are the smaller ones!) and the junior drivers.  Samuel is second in the black suit on the left of the picture:

 And here he is with his trophy!  It is actually slightly different to the March race and also a bit bigger too!

And not to be outdone, Jacob has made it onto the Formula Bambino Power Lap standings with a 30.636 lap in the recent Formula Bambino round!  It's not his personal best time but still a cracking good time!

I think I'll sleep well tonight as it was a rather early start due to the Manchester Marathon and the roads being closed around Daytona Manchester!  Plus all the excitement!!

How Proud Am I?! (Again!)

Earlier today was the third round in the Daytona Manchester Inkart Championship - Samuel finished third in round two. He was 7th on the grid for the first qualifying session and unfortunately took a black flag so he ended up loosing the places he gained during the 10 lap race and finished eighth.

Second session he was first on the grid (all random placings to ensure all competitors have same advantage) and he kept the place throughout so maximum points.

For the final qualifying he was placed fourth on the grid and managed to retain the place. So then it just depended if he was in the A or B final. Luckily he'd scored enough points from the three rounds to be placed fourth on the grid for the A Final. So he was in with a good chance of a podium finish.

Samuel had a fantastic grid start and managed to get past the second and third placed drivers on the first corner after the grid as they had a bit of a tangle and Samuel neatly sidestepped them and was behind Saul (the eventual winner) to the point that he gave him a little nudge to let him know he was there around lap 3 or 4.

Saul normally races away and no-one catches him so he was rather surprised to see Samuel right up his rear and couldn't shake him off for the remainder of the 20 lap race!

Samuel finished in second place behind Saul with only 2 seconds difference (and he pulled a few faster laps than Saul too!) and he set his fastest lap time of 26.010 seconds - just over the magical 25 second barrier!

So we are more than pleased and Samuel has been bouncing off the walls since we got home! We think he has now moved up to third place in the overall points for the Cadet Championships and if he keeps this up, well, who knows?!

Here he is shaking Kevin's hand (who afterwards told me that Samuel had raced a perfect race - and he's only 8!)
The Cadet and Junior first, second and third place finishers - Samuel is nearest camera

And here he is with his trophy!! It actually comes upto just under his chin - you can't see it too well in the photo!
We thought he would be getting a kart trophy again like last time so we were really surprised when he was presented this huge cup!!

And the sun is shining - the boys have new super soaker water pistols so they've had a water fight and now they are watching the F1 Grand Prix...... who knows - it could be Samuel in 10 years!!

How Proud Am I??!!

Well, hope its worth waiting for!! The wonderful news I have is that Samuel, in his second ever championship came third!! He competed in the Inkart Championship at Daytona Manchester this morning and the age category is 8 to 11 (he is 8) and he came third in a field of 9 drivers!

Here he is receiving his trophy:

And on the podium

And here at home (he was shattered!)


And a close up of the trophy! His name was engraved on it before it was presented to him.

He had three 10 lap heats with random grid starts (like an Formula 1 race) where he had to either keep his position or gain places as this determined the number of points he got from the three heats. He was placed second overall going into the final race so started second on the grid.

He managed to loose two places with a bad racing line and then got one place back after he managed to get going quickly before the race was stopped after a rather nasty crash (one driver came off).

We think he is (after this round and the previous one in January) placed either 3rd or 4th in the Inkart Championship on points but won't know until the race report is published!

Not bad to say that he is probably the youngest driver in the class (cadets) and one of the least experienced!

Jacob is now fired up to do just as well in the Formula Bambino Championship in two weeks, and with his amazing time yesterday, he could do just as well as his bigger brother!

Have You Ever Seen A Cuter Penguin In A Hat?!

Isn't this a wonderful image?! Its one of the new release digi stamps from Jellypark - Cute Penguin In A Woolly Hat, and I've coloured it with Promarkers.

The printed papers are from Cosmo Cricket - Circa 1934 digi paper pack and I've layered it onto some black card I had lying around. The 'brads' are fake - sharpie marker and glossy accents over the top. And the ribbon is from my stash.


I'm quite shattered and how I'll drag myself to work in the morning I don't know! Both boys have been karting this weekend - Jacob had a double practice session on Saturday ahead of Round 2 Formula Bambino next weekend. Samuel competed in his first InKart Competition this morning and despite being the youngest at just 8 and the least experienced, he came 6th out of a field of 8 and really enjoyed himself.

He did well in the two qualifying rounds pacing himself to gain the best advantage for time as this determined his place in the final and on the grid. Roll on end of February for round 2!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Christmas Card Challenges: Favourite Technique (fake brads!)
Dream Valley Challenges: Animals
Sweet Stampin': Animals
Alphabet Challenge: Z is for Zoo Animals
Delicious Doodles: Winter Wonderland

• Image: Jellypark, coloured with Promarkers
• Printed paper: Cosmo Cricket - Circa 1934 digi papers
• Everything else: My stash
  

32 Eddies and 2 Episodes of...

.. will leave that to your imagination! That was the journey to our holiday this year - Watermouth Castle (5th year running!) Here are a few pictures of the holiday


My brother, his girlfriend and her little girl joined us for a few days at the start. Whilst we stayed at Watermouth Castle, they stayed in one of the Lodges which was a minute walk away.

The Water Wars was a new installment and was great fun launching water balloons at your opponents! The big boys had to help the little ones as you needed muscles to pull back the bungie ropes!

The boys and Niamh

Samuel swimming underwater - he did 4 widths like this and last year wouldn't even get his face wet!


And a rainbow from our window.

On the Friday we took the boys carting which Jacob didn't quite have long enough legs for so he went in a two seater with Simon. Samuel was big enough!


I took a video of him driving around a hairpin bend and not braking but its struggling to upload - I think its too big!

PS Eddies is Eddie Stobart lorries!