Club 100 Test - by Andy and Dan East

New boys always have to complete an initiation and Thrashed is no exception. We sent Mudflap and Dan off to join Club100 and report back on the costs and commitments of racing at this level.

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What exactly is Club100?

In short it's an organization that runs it's own championship series travelling to many top kart tracks across the UK. It's run on an arrive and drive basis in a similar format to your normal corporate event: you turn up, have a drivers briefing, struggle into your race suit, and then get into your allocated kart and race it. The difference is that instead of getting into a well battered Pro-kart wrapped in a thick plastic bumper owned by the circuit, you get into one of Club100's own 100cc 2-stroke direct drive race prepped karts. These karts do 0-60mph in under 4 seconds, and a top speed of 75mph making them considerably faster round a track than your average 4-stroke.

All of this for a yearly membership fee of £45 and an all inclusive race fee of £145 per meeting. It really is value-for-money motor racing and if the standard of competition is as high as we've been lead to believe we're going to have our work cut out for us.

Couple of Lightweights

2 types of championship are run - sprint and endurance, and we're both competing in the sprint series this year. The sprint series is split into 4 classes designed to even out the opposition - "lightweight" for drivers up to 80kg, "heavyweight" for drivers between 80kg and 90kg, and "super heavyweight" for drivers over 90kg. In addition to these there is also a "premier" class, which is contested by the cream of the drivers from the sprint series giving the rest of the field a chance at success.

Having only driven 4-stroke Pro-karts before, we both thought it would be very wise to go for a Rye House test day in two Club100 2-strokes before actually entering a race, just to get used to the machinery if nothing else.

We booked in for a mid-week test at Rye House and hoped against hope for good weather. It snowed!

We rescheduled for a couple of weeks later and this time it rained, but we couldn't wait any longer so we went anyway. The track was pretty much water-logged with not just puddles but full blown rapids across some parts, and Club100 don't use wets! We knew this was going to be tricky but at least we would have some prior experience for the inevitable wet race(s) later in the year. Club100 supplied us with good (and clean) Sparco race suits and helmets and took us to our karts which were waiting by the track entrance.

Getting to grips

Before we ventured onto the track it was time to shake hands with the Club100 chief mechanic Carson. We picked his brain about the differences between 4-stroke and 2-stroke karts, how to start a direct drive 2-stroke and generally what we were to expect when we were on the track. Carson got into the pusher kart and bump started us (direct drive means the wheels have to be turning for the engine to even run) and we were off.

Tip toeing round for the first couple of laps in what could only be described as terrible conditions it became quite obvious that these were very different machines to anything we had driven before. We learnt very quickly that the direct drive punished even the most momentary of brake lock-ups, taking you on the most embarrassing and pathetically graceful of spins that any observer can see coming from a mile away. With no low down torque but masses of power available at mid to high revs, keeping the engine in its power band will be vital to a good lap. Handling wise it's hard to say how they compare to Pro-karts. In these conditions they felt very similar but we'll reserve our final judgement till I've driven one in the dry.

Due to the lack of grip the corner speeds brought the revs down below the power band, however, when the revs did rise enough to use the sweet spot, the power delivery was instantly more aggressive than that of your normal 4-stroke arrive and drive kart. Even in these conditions the more aggressive delivery of power while in the sweet spot was still manageable and easy to control.

Braking in the first kart had a progressive beginning but soon sharpened up if you pressed it that little bit firmer. Although you could still use this sharper braking in these conditions the feedback from the kart was not great, resulting in a lack of confidence with grip levels as they were.

The second kart had totally different brake characteristics. The pedal itself felt much freer and was more consistent throughout the pedal movement. The braking force on the rear axle stayed more progressive throughout the movement, without any sudden increase in stopping power or loss of feedback. Because we were able to brake using both our track knowledge and the feedback from the kart, it gave more confidence and it felt more comfortable in the braking areas.

We had both done a bit of research into how best to drive this circuit but as we expected it was completely useless in these conditions. The racing line felt like an oil slick with absolutely no grip no matter how slow you took it, so the only option was to drive around on one of the weirdest lines imaginable, avoiding the heavily rubbered racing line in braking areas and corners in an attempt to stay pointing in roughly the right direction. Spins were frequent and often quite pathetic. In our 1 hour session we managed to spin at least 10 times each, requiring a bump start every time.

A dry day would have been great, but that's not to say that we had a wasted day in the wet. We both learnt a massive amount about how to drive one of these karts in the wet and how to approach a wet race, not to mention how the karts feel to drive. We still have much to learn, but at least we've made a start.

We are hoping to have another test at Rye House prior to our first race, hopefully next time it will dry so we can take a more accurate look at the chassis balance and tyre behaviour of the Club100 karts. The first Club100 race we are competing in is on April 22nd at Rye House. Let's hope it's a dry one!

Keep an eye out for more reports as we go through the season. You can find out more at the Club100 website.