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| Driver Diary: Andrick Zeen - GPO Karting Series |
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 | Andrick Zeen
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
This past year, American Andrick Zeen contested the five-round GPO Karting Series based in France. The program came to a close over the October 24-26 weekend with the finale taking place at the Circuit Actua Lyon Kart Metropole in Western France. Zeen, who currently sits ninth in the EKN TaG Driver Rankings, contested the KF2 division with the Sodi Racing Team. Zeen is a member for the G-Phactory squad based in Southern California, the official Sodi Racing USA team. Andrick was able to pen down his final journey to France for the year and give some insight as to his performance at the series finale.
Wednesday, October 21
I arrived in Lyon, France for the final round of the GPO karting series. Up until this point, my Dad, Glenn Zeen, and I had a very long trip. We left early Tuesday morning for LAX airport. We then boarded our first plane headed to Chicago. Luckily on this trip we had been upgraded to business class which definitely makes the trip go by much faster, and much more comfortably. Once in Chicago, we waited a few hours for our next plane headed to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In Paris, we still had our final leg of the journey, a two and a half hour train ride to the city of Lyon. After what feels like a week of travelling, we reached our hotel room in Lyon at about noon (local). For me, the hardest part of travelling is staying up for that first day, especially if you arrive in the early morning! After struggling to stay awake for a few hours, it was finally time to get ready to head to dinner. Tonight we had dinner plans with Sodi Kart driver Alexandre Humbert and his mother and father, Christian and Francis. We met had met Alex and his family last year in Essay. My brother and I were the only Americans racing in the series, and unfortunately non one else spoke English. Fortunately for us, Alex introduced himself to us and volunteered to translate at the driver’s briefings. We became great friends with Alex and his parents, and always look forward to seeing them at the races.
That night, my Dad and I learned that we would be having dinner at the famous Brasserie St. George’s, which is considered to be one of the best restaurants in Lyon. Brasserie St. George’s first opened in 1836, and is known for its in-house brewed beer and classic French food. We had a great dinner, and soon headed back to the hotel for some well-deserved rest. That night it rained very hard, but luckily it cleared up in the morning and had dried completely out by 2 p.m. for the start of practice.
 | A stop by the Eiffel Tower before heading to Lyon for the final round of the GPO Series
(Photo: A. Zeen) |
Thursday, October 22
We met the Sodi Racing Team at the track the next morning, along with my mechanic Jean-Marie Chauvel. On Thursday, each category - KF2, KF3, and KZ2 - each have four sessions beginning at 2pm. Each category has two ten-minute sessions, followed by two fifteen-minute sessions. While this is not an official GPO practice, all of the teams use it to for motor break-in or to help the drivers get to know the track. Before long I was busy helping Jean-Marie prep my karts. I learned that Braun Racing, my engine builder, had brought three motors for me to break-in, so Thursday was going to be a break-in day, with a couple of fast laps thrown in at the end. Lucky for me, I had already been to the Lyon-Metropole Kart Circuit prior to this race so I knew the configuration and didn’t have to worry about learning a new track. The rest of the day went smoothly as I refreshed myself on the specifics of the track and made sure that I broke each engine-in correctly. That night it started raining again, and continued raining all the way into Friday morning.
Friday, October 23
I had never driven this circuit in wet conditions before, but luckily, I have the opportunity to race with the factory Sodikart team. Obviously, the advantage to this is that the racing team has a lot of experience in every kind of condition, so they have a ton of resources at their disposal as far as how to tune the chassis for any given condition. This creates a very open atmosphere, and encourages the mechanics and drivers to help each other in terms of set-up ideas and how the track changes in different conditions. After talking with Jean-Marie and Loic Reguillon, the other Sodikart KF2 drivers, I had some information on driving, and Jean-Marie had a great idea of what kind of set-up to put on my kart.
I went out for the first session with what we though was a decent set-up and tried to get a feel for how much grip the track had and learn any specific details about the track surface and how it changed in the wet. To my surprise, I ended the session third quickest overall! Typically I do well in the rain, but to end the first session in third was great for me, and I got a big confidence boost going into the next round. The second official timed sessions started very well. I was comfortable with my kart and put down fast lap after fast lap. The track was drying fast, and I held the fastest lap until the very end when I was edged out by another driver, classifying me with the second fastest lap of the entire field.
We were all very happy with how the first two sessions had gone in the wet, but the track was drying out, and looked as if we would need to run slicks for the third round of practice. Jean-Marie and I worked on a set-up that we though would be appropriate for the conditions and hit the track, hoping to continue our streak of being inside the top three. Unfortunately, the kart just wasn’t responding to the changes, and we had a very rough third sessions, ending up tenth overall. As the day progressed, we continued to struggle with the set-up of the kart. It proved to be a very difficult day as we struggles to make the correct changes to the kart.
 | Zeen ran under the Sodi Racing Team throughout the year
(Photo: A. Zeen) |
Saturday, October 24
I woke up Saturday morning confident, and knowing that whatever happened I had to finish the race in order to give myself a chance of getting inside the top ten in the final championship standings. The Lyon-Metropole Kart Circuit is technical with one very long downhill straight that leads into a fast double-right hand corner, then onto another downhill straight into a very tight hairpin. The track is full of elevation changes and diversified mix of corners with several passing opportunities.
We struggled throughout the morning, qualifying fifteenth. Considering the fact that we still had not found the right set-up, this wasn’t too bad, but we knew that we had to improve. For the pre-final we made some big changes, but they didn’t seem to help much as I was only able to advance to thirteenth. Frustrated, we put on a risky set-up just to try something different. Amazingly, it ended up working, but now we were facing another problem. My motor had suffered some sort of damage, and as soon as I hit the track I knew something was wrong as we were way down on power. I tried unsuccessfully to correct the issue that we were having by trying different settings with the carburetor and power valve, but it was of no use, and I finished right where I had qualified, fifteenth.
After the race was finished, the guys at Braun Racing checked my motor. They found that for some reason my piston had somehow gotten a big chip taken out, and a piece of the piston had then forced its way through the motor, causing damage along the way. Obviously, this is a serious performance issue, so I was glad that we had found out what was wrong, and could hopefully move forward for tomorrow.
Sunday, October 25
I could not believe that I had finally come to the last day of the last race of the season. It seemed like the season would never end, and now that the last day was here I couldn’t actually believe it. I was determined to go for it today, no matter what happened I wanted to have a good final race. We woke up to some light rain on Sunday morning, and I was very happy, knowing that I had done well in the rain on Friday, I was sure that if my engine and kart were working I would do well. Unfortunately, as soon as I hit the track for morning practice I knew right away that we were still down on power! I was very frustrated because all year my engines have been strong, so to have problems at the last round was disappointing.
 | The Lyon circuit has great viewing areas that allow you to see the action up close
(Photo: A. Zeen) |
Qualifying was again a struggle as I was still down on power. It seemed that my engine had suffered some irreparable damage from the piston the day before, and nothing I could do was going to help it. I ended up finishing the pre-final in seventeenth position. However, I was not the only driver experiencing motor issues, as all of the other Braun Racing drivers were having problems with their engines running correctly, and we felt that this problem could have stemmed from a bad batch of oil that we had all used to mix our fuel with in parc ferme. Gabriel Braun, the engine builder at Braun Racing worked incredibly hard to correct the problem, but there is not much that can be done to overcome bad oil. I struggled through the pre-final, making some surprise passes and capitalizing on other driver’s errors to finish in thirteenth.
After a long talk with Jean-Marie and my Dad, we decided to change our engine for the final and try one of the other motors that Braun had prepared for me. This last effort had no effect, and I could tell that it was still way down on power from what I am used to. The engine continued to get slower and slower each lap until a problem with one of my front brake discs forced me to stop just four laps from the finish.
This ended a very difficult season. I had not gathered enough points to boost me inside the top ten, and I learned that I had finished the championship in thirteenth place. This was the end to what was very difficult season. However, I have learned to look at the positives, and know that I grew a ton as a driver this year. I have gotten miles better in the rain, and have really improved my race-craft.
I would like to thank the entire Sodi Racing Team for all of the help and support, especially Gildas Merian, the owner of Sodikart, and Nicola de Cola, the team manager. Furthermore, Thierry Germanovitch, the president of the GPO Karting Series did a great job this season, and always made us feel welcome. He even hired an announcer to translate for me at the driver’s meetings and during the race so that my Dad can understand what’s going on! My mechanic, Jean-Marie Chauvel did a great job and will be coming to the SuperNationals to work with me in the KF2 category. I would also like to thank Gerard and Gabriel Braun, as well as every other member of the Braun Racing Team, including the Humbert family. Every one on that team was a pleasure to race with this season, and worked very hard to provide me with the best possible engine package. Another big thank-you has to go out to all of the guys at G-Phactory, as well as my Mom and Dad for supporting me throughout the entire racing season. I hope to have another opportunity to race in Europe and continue to hone my skills. |
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