Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Bruce Brothers Racing – 2008 Season Preview

The annual Ohio Valley Karting Association Swap Meet was February 2, 2008, at Clark County Fairgrounds near Springfield, Ohio. This event marks the unofficial beginning of the season for many kart racers in central Ohio, including us. Our race schedule for the 2008 season will again include the entire Mid-State of Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) series and the Commercial Point Grand Prix (CPGP). The dates for these events are as follows:

Race No. 1 – Sunday, April 20
Race No. 2 – Sunday, May 4
Race No. 3 – Saturday, May 24
Race No. 4 – Saturday, June 7
Race No. 5 – Sunday, June 22
Race No. 6 – Saturday, July 12
Race No. 7 – Sunday, July 13
Race No. 8 – Saturday, July 26
CPGP – Saturday and Sunday, August 8-9
Race No. 9 – Saturday, August 23
Race No. 10 – Sunday, September 7
Race No. 11 – Sunday, September 21
Race No. 12 – Sunday, October 5
Rain Date – Sunday, October 12

Peter will move up to the Briggs Junior (unrestricted) class for the 2008 season. In January, we purchased a slightly used championship-winning engine for him to use with his existing chassis. His chassis will require a few minor modifications for this new class, but we have quite a bit of set-up data from when Henry ran this class in 2004 and Conor in 2006. I’m sure that Peter will acclimate easily to the additional horsepower. Our biggest concern is that this class may be light on participants in 2008. Hopefully, some new faces will appear.

For the 2008 season, after a one year delay, Conor will get to make use of the highly competitive Yamaha Super Can kart that we acquired for him at the end of the 2006 season. We purchased an appropriately-sized new seat for him at the swap meet, which has since been installed. Other than that, installing weight to meet the class requirement, and continuing to improve his physical condition, Conor should be ready to go.

The last major bit of work that we have to get done is to have the engine on Henry’s 80cc Shifter kart freshened up. It had a top and bottom end rebuild this time last year, and it seemed to get stronger all last season, so we’re hoping that he can get away with just a top end rebuild this time. Henry ran strong and consistently all season last year. By the end of the season, his lap times were some of the fastest in his highly competitive class.

We hope to have all of the required preparations completed in time to undertake several weekend practice sessions prior to MSOKC Race No. 1, which is about a month away. We had a bit of a warm-up session last month during a four-day weekend trip we took to Greensboro, North Carolina. There is an indoor kart racing facility there (http://www.grandprixgreensboro.com/index-main.htm), and all five of us were able to get behind the wheel. Because of their age, Conor and Peter were restricted to the lower-powered junior karts, which I thought was rather ironic…

Watch this space for further updates.

Bill