MSOKC Race No. 2 (rescheduled) - September 18, 2005 - Three Deuces

Originally sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 1:44 PM

NEWS - The second of our four races on consecutive weekends was this past Sunday, which was a make-up for a race that was snowed-out on April 24. There was a fairly light turnout for this race, and some participants who have their position in the championship already decided were giving the class in which they will race next year a try.

PRACTICE - For Peter, we decided to try a smaller diameter restrictor plate in the Briggs Intek engine with an even lower gear ratio. In practice, his lap times were off by several seconds. When we put the larger diameter restrictor plate back in, his lap times were still off a bit, so we went back the higher gear ratio too, which put him back in the ball park. Conor, knowing that he had the championship locked up, took a relaxed approach to practice, but still recorded reasonable lap times. We negotiated a deal for Henry that allowed him to have a test drive in the spare kart of Adam Roberts, who has the championship in Henry's class locked up, which is for sale. Even though the track was somewhat damp from the morning fog, he recorded lap times that were nearly as fast as his race laps from the weekend before. He then practiced in he own kart, and while his lap times were reasonable, we decided to extend the deal and have Henry use Adam's kart for the rest of the day. Adam had been invited by another team to give a different class a try on Sunday, which freed up Ed (Adam's dad) to work with Henry.

ROOKIE BOX - Peter's class only had four participants. He started his heat races from the second and third positions, respectively. He led the first heat until about mid-way, his longest stint at the front, and finished second. He also led briefly at the mid-way point in the second heat, after having made one pass and then benefiting from an off-course excursion, but finished second. In the feature, Peter started from the second position. He made another great start and was in the lead by Turn 2. On Lap 2, he fell to second, which is where he finished.

JUNIOR SPORTSMAN II - Conor made very conservative starts in both of his heat races. In the first, starting from third (of six), he dropped to fourth at the start. He worked his way through the field during the first few laps. By the end of Lap 2, he was up to second, but the kart in front of him had established quite a lead. He set out after her recording lap times of 50.25, 50.13, 50.05, and 49.62 seconds, the latter of which was a personal best by over 0.4 sec. This brought him to within a kart-length at the end. He started his second heat in fourth with his main rival, who had started on the pole in the first heat, behind him. He maintained his position at the start and began working his way through the field. He was in the lead and pulling away by the end of Lap 2. He went on to win comfortably, recording another sub-50 second lap in the process. He and his main rival had split heat race wins, but she had drawn a lower number at registration, so she started the feature on the pole with Conor on the outside. At the start, she brought the field around too fast for the flagman's liking twice. On the third attempt, one of the corner workers waived a yellow flag in Tune 10, which caught some of the participants, including Conor, off guard. Even though the field was not lined up, the flagman through the green flag anyway. Conor was able to maintain his position, but had no opportunity to challenge in Turn 1. He was able to catch up and apply pressure by the end of Lap 1, however. He made a great run through Turn 4 on Lap 2 and was able to make the pass at the end of the long straight-away. I suspected that he might be able to pull away, but this was not the case. The two leaders ran nose to tail, although Conor later reported that he did not know that she was so close. He may not have been pushing as hard as he could have, and this eventually caught up with him. In Turn 10 of the last lap, after his engine had sputtered a bit in Turn 9, he took his regular line as opposed to a defensive one. She was able to pull alongside and make the pass. Conor was disappointed, but a good lesson was learned.

JUNIOR UNRESTRICTED - Henry and I both learned a lot by working with the Roberts' on Sunday. Prior to the first heat, and in between every race, Ed put the kart (with Henry in it) on the corner scales and made adjustments. We borrow corner scales a couple of time per season to scale our karts. Between this extra attention to detail and the nature of Adam's spare kart, which seems to be better suited to Henry's class and driving style, he did reasonably well on Sunday. He started the first heat in the back (fifth of five). He decided to line up behind the outside row, which contained the faster karts in the class. At the start, the three on the outside 'freight-trained' (went past nose-to-tail) the two on the inside, which put Henry in third by Turn 3. He made a good run through Turn 4 on Lap 2 and was able to move into second at the end of the long straight-away, which is where he finished. Starting from the pole in Heat 2, he maintained his position at the start and led for a lap before getting passed by the eventual winner on Lap 2. He ran his fastest lap of the day on the next lap, 48.54 seconds, which is still several tenths slower than his personal best in his own kart set earlier in the season. Henry started the feature from outside the from row. There is often an advantage to this, as if you can go through Turns 1 and 2 side-by-side with the pole sitter, this puts you on the inside for the tight Turn 3. At the start, this is exactly what Henry was able to do. The pole sitter refused to concede the position in Turn 3, however. So they went through Turn 3 side-by-side. When they went through Turn 4 side-by side (I was holding my breath by this point), Henry was on the outside, and it was he who had to concede. The top three separated themselves a bit over the next few laps and finished in that order.

NEXT RACE - As a team, we collected more points on Sunday than any other race so far. We did benefit from the light turnout, however. We also learned a bit. Henry did well in Adam's kart, but in terms of results, no better that he might have done in his own kart. The next race is Saturday, September 24, 2005, which is the final night race of the season. Henry's and Conor's karts both seem to handle better in cooler conditions. Maybe we'll finally get some of those on Saturday.

Bill