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This time the weather cooperated! As soon as I stepped out of the truck I could tell that the day was going to be blazing hot! All through out practice the kart felt great. Just a few minor hiccups in my own driving.
As qualifying came around I was getting a bit more nervous. I was trying to go out and set the fastest time, just make back to the pits in one piece. The Rotax class was combined with Yamaha heavy, and Easykarts. Six karts in total, two in each class. As qualifying came to an end I qualified fourth. #22 (Easykart) was dialed in, qualifying first, half a second quicker than second place #11 (Yamaha). Third place was another Yamaha, #1, and he was only a tenth of a second slower than #11. I was also one tenth of a second slower than #1. Behind the four of us was the other Rotax, and the second Easykart didn't make the grid for qualifying, He would start last.
Sitting on the grid for the pre-final, I was very anxious but also very very nervous. I knew that it would be difficult starting on the outside of the grid. We took our two hot laps and lined up for the start, I was very cautious going into turn one and didn't want to break anything or crash and hurt my results. I slid back to fifth, and eventually to last by turn four. The next lap I passed #44 (Easykart) to regain fifth. It took me three or four laps to find my way around #78 the other Rotax, but I stuck my nose in going into turn one and made the pass. The next six laps were very fun, I was playing catch-up to #1. I was eating away about two tenths of a second per lap! Coming into lap twelve I almost had him before he pulled off the track right in front of me. I was excited to have moved into third place easily, and I ran out the rest of the pre-final on cruise control. I knew that I didn't have enough laps left to make up 5 seconds on #11. I figured I would save the kart and myself for an awesome main event! After I was back in the pits I realized my starter was hanging up again, just like last week. I was really upset because we had taken the starter off last weekend and thought we had found the problem. We saw that one of the clips kept falling out off of the starter botton. So we looked at the button and sure enough it was broken, luckily we got another one put on to the kart in time for the main event! It also saved me a huge fee of having someone go in there and look through the entire starter.
I sat on the inside of row two for the final. I felt much more confident going into this race. I knew that I had to get a good jump and stick the kart into turn one in order to grab second place. We took our two hot laps and lined up for the start, however #1 pulled off the circuit on the first lap so we took another lap. We lined up again and I shook out all the butterflies in my stomach. I stuck the front of my kart right on the bumper of #22 and kept it there through turn one. It was a clean start with me grabbing second place and holding on to it for three or four laps. I was heading into the final turn when #44 passed me and then #11. I stuck right behind them for a few laps. Once again going into the last turn #11 and I worked up some speed and squeaked by #44 on the inside. Coming out of that turn I pulled to the inside and and passed #11 as well, for second place. I held position for about four more laps, when #11 bumped me going into turn four and passed me. I drove my head off trying to catch #11 again but never could get him where it mattered. I had way more speed than him on the straights, but there was one turn that he ran better. And as I pushed harder and harder, I was making stupid little mistakes. The race finished with #22 taking first, #11 in second, and me finishing in third! A great result for my first race, and something to build on as well! The next race is on August 25, and I am hoping that all the Rotax karts that went to Grand Nationals will be racing on the 25th so I can get a better feel for racing with other Rotax karts. I will write again after the next race.
Jake
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7/29/07
The first day out with the new kart was awesome! During practice I felt very confident with my driving, and knew that the kart was perfect for me. During the second session of practice I spun out going into turn 2. I could here something still running, even though the engine was dead. So I was towed back to the pits and had Peter check over the kart. Upon inspection we found that the starter was hanging up, so we killed the power to the kart and fixed that problem. I went out for session three and the kart felt the best it had all day. Unfortunatley we had the carb jetted too high so I had horrible throttle resonse and could not drive the kart at its full potential. I took the kart back in to the pits and shut it off, only to find out that the starter was hanging up again! We pulled the main jet and set it back down to a 158 from 162. Then we got busy tearing off the starter. The problem was that one of the bolts holding the starter to the engine had sheared, and caused a bad ground, causing the starter to stay on! We put the starter back on and mounted the motor up on the chassis. Just as we finished the rain decided to make its grand entrance, for about an hour! As soon as it let up everyone was putting air in their rain slicks to get ready for a slippery night. Unfortunatley I did not have any rain tires with me. The good part was that the rain decided to flood the track and bring along its friend, lightning...So as the rain poured for another hour and a half, the race was postponed until next saturday night! I lucked out! So next weekend will be the true showing of what the kart can do! I will write next weekend and let you know how the results were.
Jake
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