Friday, May 13, 2011

Another Friday Night in the Kart...Better Results

Took a break again from warhammer and went go-kart racing again tonight. One less racer in my class tonight but 9 karts on a 1/8 mile high banked asphalt track is quite a few karts. A few more tweaks this weekend, more tire pressure, a different clutch, and different sprocket.

We drew for starting position in the first Heat Race, I drew pretty high and started inside of row 3, behind my old man. When the checkered flag was thrown I finished 4th, as the Animal engined #14 spun out in front of me, damn near a bad collision, but I got around dirt track style. You should have seen how big his eyes were inside his helmet as I missed him.

2nd Heat Race I started inside of row 2 this time, a really fun race lots of back and forth racing. This time the 14 got out front and stayed there. The animal engine makes a lot more power than my wee Clone engine. But in the end I managed to keep everyone behind me and I finished 2nd. Was very pumped about that.

The Feature. Started alongside the 73 Clone engined kart and points leader in the class. He is running a different clutch and getting a lot of pull and definitely can take off faster than me, he is also running a different sprocket. This time I'm on the outside of the front row, not really where I want to be. My old man is right behind me. The two Animal engined 17 and 14 are inside row 2 and 3. In order for me to hang on to the position I'm going to have to get going fast and get to the inside. We line up 2 wide run to start the 17 jumped the start inside pushing the 73 past me so I let off the gas and didn't go so they threw the yellow and waived it off. So now I know what he is going to do. Next time around I was on the gas but the kart sputtered a bit, he still got a jump and pushed the 73 down the track. By the time we left turn two I was in fourth and that is where I stayed. The track cooled down and I felt like I was holding on for dear life. Got to the half way point and I was spent. Then a late yellow for a spin slow us all down and my kart sputtered and quit. We were in esssentially a red stopped condition to clear the spins. Got out started it back up, it ran pretty rough, clutch was just hammering on the slow speed of the yellow. Got back to green I had nothing for them, end up racing the old man for a few laps then pulled away from him.

Not bad. My second week of racing karts on asphalt and I moved up one spot in the feature compared to last week. I had a couple people in crowd putting a stop watch to me and was pulling high 11 second laps in the heat races, but dropped off into the 12s in the feature. The track was quite green with all of the rain the last few days and 50 degree temps did not help either. Lots of fun, will be tearing the clutch apart tomorrow. We'll see if I get emailed some photos.

No comments:

Post a Comment