MSOKC Race No. 11 – August 28, 2004

Originally sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 11:57 AM

After a three week layoff, Bruce Brothers Racing was back in action last Saturday evening. We were told that the race we missed (Race No. 10) was an uncomfortably hot and sweaty affair, and the weather again played a part on Saturday. During the layoff, we concentrated on getting Conor back up to the front of the pack in his class. We Originally sent his engine back to the engine builder for a freshen up and installed an early birthday present - new tires! During the first practice session, it became apparent that we were headed in the right direction with laps in the mid 52 second range. After implementing some suggestions for fine tuning that were provided by the dad of the points leader in Conor's class (how's that for sportsmanship!), Conor was lapping in the mid 51 second range during the second practice session. Henry had recorded a near-personal-best lap of 48.96 seconds his last time out, so we were fairly content to leave well enough alone on his kart. His practice times were in the mid to upper 49 second range.

Conor started the first heat from pole position with his main competitors lined up in 6th and 7th. He made a great start and began to pull away by just less than a second a lap. By mid distance (Lap 3 of 6), the points leader in Conor's class, who just keeps getting faster and faster as the result of experience gained recently in regional and national level races, had worked his way from last to second. He caught and passed Conor with about a lap to go. Conor held on to finish a comfortable second. In the second heat, it was Conor's turn to start from the rear. He made a good start, gaining several positions on the first lap. He caught up with two karts that were battling for the third position by Lap 3. The kart in 4th tried to go through Turn 5 (end of the long straight-away) side-by-side with the kart in 3rd. They came together and both went into the grass. It's normally advantageous when two karts in front of you go into the grass, but this time they took Conor with them. By the time he got going again, everyone else had gotten by. He pushed hard for the remainder of the heat, recording another mid 51 second lap, but ended up finishing last (7th). Before all of the heat races were concluded, the skies finally decided to open up. The club decided to award points for the day based on heat race finishes and the order in which you would have started the feature. A 2nd and a 7th might have earned Conor a feature race starting position as low as 5th, but there were four karts whose heat race finishes equaled 9 (2nd and 7th, 3rd and 6th, 4th and 5th, and 5th and 4th). Because Conor drew the second starting position for the first heat, which is the tie-breaker in these cases, he was awarded points for 3rd place in the feature. That was a reasonable result for what was generally a disappointing day. The best aspect of the day for Conor, however, was that, except for the points leader in his class, who set the fastest lap time in the WKA National race on the previous weekend, he was the fastest kart in his class. He remains third in championship points and has just a glimmer of hope for catching the kart in second with three races remaining.

Henry started both of his heat races from the third position (out of five karts in his class). In the first heat, he made a great start and followed the pole-sitter through Turn 1 into 2nd. On Lap 3, he got a good run coming out of Turn 4 and made a pass for the lead at the end of the long straight-away. He held a comfortable lead to the checkered flag, adding another heat race win to the list of accomplishments for his short racing career. In the second heat race, one of the slower karts in Henry's class started from the pole. Henry made another great start, which was a carbon-copy of the first heat and was in 2nd by Turn 3. The kart that started on the pole drives a very defensive line that borders on blocking. It was very frustrating to see Henry and several others bottled up behind him, unable to get past. Henry made an attempt on Lap 3 that didn't quite work. To make matters worse, Henry's attempt allowed the kart in 3rd to get past. On the last lap while running in 3rd (which would have earned him the pole position/1st place points for the feature), he made a lunge up the inside going into Turn 9 in an attempt to gain back a position. The gap that he thought was there wasn't, contact was made, and all three of the front runners went into the grass. Frustration is a powerful thing, and I'm sure he wouldn't have attempted such a move under different circumstances. By the time he got going again - you guessed it - he was last (5th). After the rain began, Henry was also awarded 3rd place points for the feature. He remains second in championship points with a narrow gap to third and no real hope of catching the points leader, who ended up winning the second heat race because of the incident in Turn 9! Henry was mighty disappointed with himself, but he did learn a valuable lesson.

The next race is Saturday evening, September 11. Henry is on the Upper Arlington High School Junior Varsity soccer team, which has a game that day. The club rules allow for a substitute driver as long as the primary driver participates in at least one of the races (either of the heat races or the feature). We have recruited the points leader in Conor's class, who is about the same size as Henry, to fill in until Henry arrives. It will be an interesting day. I hope that the weather decided to participate, but it looks as if we might be under the influence of Hurricane Frances by then...

Bill