RedIce Racing used the weekend of the 9th and 10th of February as the final test days in preparation for Round 1 of the Australian Superkart Championships, taking place at Sydney Motorsport Park from 22nd to the 24th of March.

Ilya Harpas was at the helm of the #28 Zip Eagle - BRC 250cc FE machine for the two days. "The main purpose of the weekend was to firstly iron out any little bugs in the kart. The second objective was to consolidate recent gains in performance, particularly in terms of straight line speed. Finally, it was really important for me to get my eye back in, after the better part of 2 years out of the race seat", said Ilya.

It was not the smoothest of weekends to begin with, with simple problems such as worn clutch plates preventing Ilya from running in the motor as planned on the Saturday. Most of the running and testing had to be shifted to the Sunday, during the race heats.

Again, the team was struck with a number of small problems - firstly a broken exhaust spring, resulting in the front pipe falling off whilst leading the second heat of the day. In the next heat, the rear exhaust pipe cracked, forcing another retirement.

Once clear of the small issues, the team was encouraged by the performance of the package, with Ilya commenting, "I was really happy with the straight line speed at the end of the day. We constantly tweaked the jetting, trending closer to the optimal tuning level - to which the engine responded nicely. I was also happy with the chassis tweaks."

One area that needs to be worked on, however, was Ilya's race fitness. He had to pull in early during the last two heats due to fatigue. He commented, "My fitness is quite poor at the moment to say the least. I'm pretty disappointed that I had to pull in early. I'm simply not race fit, and need to train heavily before the nationals."

He has since embarked on a rigorous training regime, targeting the strengthening of the shoulders, neck, core and lower arms.

RedIce Racing enters the final phase of preparations before the first round of the Australian Superkart Championships with everything shaping up nicely.