Fongy's City of Melb
Anyone who reads the forums at Kartbook.net will know of Fongy. Poster of some things controversial, and most things funny, Peter Edgar, was inspired by the generosity of Colin Edwards and decided to help The Fongster with his quest to become a racing legend.
What started out as an almost tongue-in-cheek thread soon turned serious with various people coming to the party to support Luke's efforts to make the field at the City of Melbourne Titles. Pledges varied from practice tyres and entry fees to chain lube and after-race beers! A whole community got behind the "Widdle Fella" to get him on the grid at Todd Road.
Fongy's CoM diary is below. To read the full build-up behind this amazing story, visit kartbook HERE.
Luke Fong, City of Melbourne Titles Diary:
Hey guys, thought I would write a detailed report for tonight as we are home early from the casino.
Thursday got off to a tyrelicious start one could say. Session one, straight into the tyres and and bent the steering. Whilst removing the kart from the track, I was then t-boned by a bloke, who was looking straight on at me, rather than the track. My mechanic, Ratus, then proceeded to wheel the kart back, cursing and swearing not only at me, but the bloke that toppled me over whilst I was moving my kart. The day went well once we fixed everything in the front end, proceeding to get closer to some times respectable on old tires. We didn't put too much emphasis on getting a time though, we were concentrating on getting some consistency down pat, and we managed to achieve this quite well.
Friday dawned a new day and we had a go kart that could have passed as a speedway car. The kart was so loose that it was like driving in the wet. Ratus my mechanic and I kept talking and talking, and trying things here and there, to see if we could dial a little more grip in to the kart. We made a big change for the last couple of sessions (axle, seat, front and rear track) and it seemed to go a lot better.
Saturday morning dawned and qualifying was a schmozzole to say the least. I could not get a lap that was clear due to the fact that there was traffic that continually did not know how to drive in a straight line. We qualified 15th, which was better than expected. It was encouraging that the kart was much better after a seat position change and a hub change.
Heat one was probably not worth talking about. After being out of the seat for so long I didn't want to get into any trouble, and probably got bullied out of a few positions that I shouldn't have been. I was fast enough to run with the top 10, but I just wasn't being smart enough.
Heat 2, after a head beating from not only Ratus my mechanic and Matthew Hayes, some front end changes were made again to see if we could dial a little bit more grip into the kart. This worked and I was able to pass at will, moving from 15th through to 8th at race end finishing ahead of more fancied rivals Jordan Ford, and Christopher Hays.
We start off 11 for the pre final..., I'll check back in after the prefinal...
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Sunday of the City of Melbourne was set to be a cracker with the weather looking nice, well at least when I woke up. The day got off to a bad start scuffing the old man's ute (we call it Bruce because its looks like the vegetarian shark in “Finding Nemo”) in the car park at the motel on the way out. That happens I thought, get the bad luck out of the way early before a drive in the pre final.
Carby session went well, the carb-e-rat-or in dial, the driver half in dial for a couple of laps, and the billy kart was set. I had a driver tune up again from Matty Hayes, and Ratus J Evans just for the pre-final. The heavens opened up in the morning for the first round of pre-finals for the day, and it was a hard decision as to what tyres to head out with. The track was drying up fast, but we didn't know how much it would dry up.
Ratus made a last minute call and a mad rush had us changing from wets to slicks, with a tyre pressure change to the slicks also. The track had actually dried up so much that we were able to run on the full dry line. The only possible issue was tyre pressure, but having said that we managed to pick up a couple of spots from p11, with the third fastest kart on track!
Ratus J Evans, was quite impressed :-) . I got the big thumbs up from the old man as I came past the pits on the in lap. We had secured the top ten start we were looking for in the final!
The heavens opened before the final, and Ratus J Evans and myself, knew for a fact that we wouldn't have anything near the front guys to get going in this race, due to the fact that I am approximately 8 foot shorter than any other driver.
At the start I got bashed from pillar to post, and all I wanted to do is finish the race, so I just continued to get on track and hope to heck I could make it through the first few corners. We managed to finish the race, somewhere down the back, but hey, we knew that we need more laps in the rain. Too bad I don't have another 3 foot of height on me like D Sera, otherwise I would have been somewhere nearer to the pace, although when was I ever going to get near him?! Next time I'll remember to steal the white pages from the motel and anything I can get my hands on to make me taller in the kart! I must say, we were encouraged with the pace we put together in the dry, the kart was getting much better as the weekend got on.
I was only there at the weekend because I had really good support and help, of all of the people on the track at the weekend I count myself as one of the luckiest.
Some of the people I need to thank (in no particular order, just as they come to my head):
- M.G Engines Bundaberg (Get your motors to him, you won't get passed in a straight line, trust me! If you want, call him on 07 4152 2228)
- Custom Decals for an awesome sticker kit.
- Ratus J Evans, Danton Evans, Roger Evans and Chris Walpoole for all their tender love and care, and I was only anywhere near the pace because of Ratus... His workmanship was second to none.
- Matthew Hayes - The man who told me that I needed to grow testicles... Then ate his words once I grew some for the second heat. Thanks also for looking over the billy kart mate, again without you also we would have been nowhere near the pace.
- Dad - for the use of his truck to tow the trailer down and being there to slap me into line when required.
- KRA and Stevey Johnson for the sponsorship that got me through the gate and on the track in the first place!
- Mitch Wilmot - Thanks for the transponder mate, I promise I won't make it awkward next time I pass you like you're standing still!
- Wally Edwards - Thanks for the use of the pit shade mate, that was just awesome dude especially in the wet.
- Colin Edwards - without your skills of a soldering iron, I would not have been able to use the motor I now call "Grunta-saurus-rex".
- Sean and Jake Morris - Thank you very much for the motor rebuild, your investment was incredibly worth while. Apologies for not getting the wets off Jake, we ran out of time and had to put new ones on :(
- Dean and Dave Foster, for the endless amount of parts that you supplied me this weekend.
This weekend has been unbelievably awesome and my sincere apologies if I have missed anybody off this thank you list.
It's people like you that make karting an awesome sport.
Thanks again, lets see if we can make the next big one happen now, Tassie states... :D
Fongy
Above: Fongy making strange broom broom noises...
