MSOKC Race No. 8 - July 23, 2006

Originally sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 10:35 PM

NEWS – Race No. 8 of the 2006 Mid State of Ohio Kart Club season was another one with a bit of a twist – timed qualifying as opposed to heat races. The format involved two practice sessions, then a five lap qualifying session (40 points available), followed by a six lap heat race (40 points available), and then a 10 lap feature (80 points available). The results of qualifying set the starting order for the heat race and the finishing order from the heat race set the order for the feature. We left well enough alone again with Peter's kart, Conor had a larger diameter restrictor plate to try in the Briggs Animal engine, and Henry had new rear tires and (another) new nose. Henry also got new brake pads during the course of the day.

PRACTICE – Peter was in the low 58 second range from the get-go, which was a good place for him to start the day. With the larger diameter restrictor plate, Conor dropped about a second from his lap times from the previous race, which we hoped would be enough to have him compete where he usually does. With his new rear tires, Henry got into the 44 second range for the first time ( 44.92). He missed his second practice, however, when it took us longer than anticipated to replace the four pads in his dual caliper rear brake setup.

ROOKIE BOX – Peter's class was the first to take to the track for the qualifying session. We had positioned his kart near the front of the grid so that he would go out early in hopes of not getting stuck behind a slower kart. Peter ended up going out second. The race director did his best to space the karts out on the track, but after the first full lap, the kart that had gone out first caught up with the last kart and got only one clean lap. Peter got two clean laps. When the session was over, Peter had qualified on the front row – second out of the eight karts in his class that day – with a 57.27, which is 0.1 from his personal best. In his heat race, he tucked in behind the pole sitter through Turn 1. He ran second until Lap 3, when he was passed going into Turn 1. He recorded a personal best lap time of 57.12 on Lap 5 and finished third. Starting third in the feature, he followed the pole sitter into second in Turn 1. In Turn 3, the pole sitter had a lazy spin, which put Peter in the lead. He led for two laps before succumbing to the pressure from behind at the end of the back straightaway. Peter was able keep pressure on the new leader, and two laps later, he had a lazy spin in Turn 4. This put Peter in the lead by a significant margin. The two spinners got going again, but Peter cruised to an easy first feature race win with a string of laps in the low 57 second range. Way to go Peter!!

JR. UNRESTRICTED – With only five karts in Conor's class, I wasn't concerned about him getting clean laps, so I also had him line up second. He qualified second with a lap of 49.05, which is still a bit slower that he has gone with his unrestricted Raptor. But second is probably where he would have qualified with his Raptor, so we were pleased. In the heat race, starting second, Conor made the most of the better torque of the Animal and ran side-by-side with the pole sitter through Turns 1 and 2. He settled into second, but soon came under pressure from the third place kart. While the Animal engine with this restrictor plate seems to run about the same lap times as the unrestricted Raptor, the terminal speed of the Raptor is a bit better. The kart behind Conor almost got the best of him at the end of the back straightaway on several occasions, but Conor managed to hold on to finish second. If the Raptor is faster in a straight line, the additional torque of the Animal makes it quicker coming out of the corners, which was the theme in Conor's feature race. The first few laps were a carbon copy of the heat race – side-by-side with the pole sitter through Turns 1 and 2 again and then pressure from behind. This time, the kart behind Conor managed to get around him at the end of the back straightaway on Lap 6. Through the next few corners, Conor was all over the kart in front of him. He got a good run through Turn 9 and made an outside-in move in Turn 10. And it almost worked. About mid-way through, Conor ran out of room and made contact when the other kart closed the door. Both spent a brief moment on two wheels. Both kept going but Conor got the better end of the deal. Conor received a warning the next time around (a rolled black flag) and went on to finish second. After the race, Conor apologized to the other driver, who agreed that it was nothing more than a racing incident ("…just one of them racin' deals" as they would say in NASCAR).

80cc SHIFTER – Of the karts in his class, Henry's lap times are at the sharp end of the spectrum when he's running well. Based on this, we had high hopes for his ability to do well under the timed qualifying format. His class, which consisted of 14 karts again on Sunday, was divided into two groups for qualifying – a faster and a slower group. We lined Henry up so that he would go out in the second half of the faster group. Based on what I was measuring on my stopwatch, his lap time were good but not quite as good as in his single practice session. This turned out to be a moot point, however. When Henry came through the scale house after exiting the track, we noticed that I had forgotten to move the single transponder that we own from Conor's kart to Henry's kart – Duh! Henry was not pleased, as this resulted in him qualifying last – behind the eight ball again. Starting 14th out of 14 in his heat race, he finally made a good start. We had worked on this in our driveway the day before (much to the chagrin of our neighbors, I'm sure). He made two passes at the start and a couple more along the way, and finished 10th. His new brakes must not have been seated in yet, because his lap times were still not as good as his practice times. In the feature, starting from 10th he made another great start, getting around two karts by Turn 1. There was a pile-up in Turn 4 of the first lap and Henry got caught up in it, damaging his new nose and stalling his engine. Since there was nobody behind him, he was able to give himself a push start and got going again. He seemed to be running better, as he caught and passed several karts and recorded several laps in the high 44 second range again. This included another personal best of 44.70. We vowed to never again to forget the transponder.

NEXT RACE – Peter again provided the highlight of our day with his first win. There was a professional photographer at the track on Sunday, and we ponied-up the cash for an 8 by 10 of him in action to commemorate the occasion. Our next race is a non-championship event – the Commercial Point Grand Prix – which is August 5-6, 2006. This is a street race through the town of Commercial Point, Ohio, which benefits the Jackson Township Fireman's Association. There are classes for Conor and Henry, but not for Peter. Qualifying races are on Saturday beginning at 3:30 PM. The results set the starting order for the feature races on Sunday, which get underway at 1:00 PM.

Bill