COMMERCIAL POINT GRAND PRIX – The CPGP is a street race through the town of Commercial Point, Ohio, that benefits the Jackson Township Fireman's Association. As in previous years, qualifying and merchandise races were on Saturday and trophy and a 'pro' race for Henry were on Sunday.
80cc SHIFTER – Henry’s class consisted of 10 karts. Prior to the first practice session, we switched to the gear ratio that Henry used last year and narrowed the rear track to cope with a racing surface with very little rubber laid down. Henry was pleased with his setup and we made very few additional changes during the remainder of the weekend. Lap times from the second
practice session set the starting order for the 15 lap merchandise races on Saturday. Henry’s best lap (32.411 seconds) was fourth fastest in his class but only 0.002 seconds faster than the fifth place kart. Henry got a good start in his merchandise race and ran in fourth for the first two laps. Two karts muscled their way past on Lap 3. On Lap 12, the second place kart became confused during a local yellow flag incident and assumed the checked flag had flown. He pulled off on the next lap, which promoted Henry to fifth, which is where he finished. Starting from fifth in his trophy race on Sunday, Henry got away a little bit slowly but was back up to fifth by Lap 2. He gained another position when one of the karts in front of him pushed too hard and ended up in the hay bales. He ran in fourth to the finish. Finishing positions from the trophy races set the starting order for the 20 lap pro race. 
Henry got away well again and ran in fourth for the first six laps. The two leaders pulled away and Henry was the meat in a three kart sandwich. On Lap 7 Henry made a good run through Turn 6 and was able to make a pass at the end of the long front straightaway, where speeds approach 75 mph in this class. Henry’s engine had developed a slight misfire at high rpm on Saturday. We made some changes that seemed to correct the problem early on Sunday, but the misfire returned late in Henry’s pro race. He adjusted by short-shifting a bit, but he was not able to pull away from is two closest pursuers. He was fast enough to hold on to third position, however, which earned him a cool $100 in prize money.YAMAHA JR. SUPERCAN – Conor raced in the CPGP in 2006 before the track layout was shortened from a 0.6 mile nine turn circuit to a very fast 0.5 mile six-turn circuit. The karts in his class this year are much faster than his previous class and there are a lot more of them – 10 for the CPGP. Conor tends to acclimate quickly however, which was evident in practice and
qualifying. His qualifying time (34.151) earned him the pole position for his merchandise race by nearly half a second. Unlike our club races where this class uses a rolling start, the CPGP uses a Le Mans style start there the karts line up at an angle along the side of the track and start from a dead stop. Conor’s kart did not get away well and the second place starter was the first to reach Turn 1. Conor was right on his tail for the first eight lap and was finally able to make a pass for the lead at the end of the long front straightaway on Lap 9. These two had established quite a lead by that point. Conor pulled out a bit of a lead over the second place kart and held on for a comfortable victory. In spite of strategy discussions and a clutch adjustment, the start of Conor’s trophy race on Sunday was a carbon copy of his start on Saturday. It only took him two laps to make a move at the end of the long front straightaway this time, however. From where I stood for the races all weekend, you can’t see the karts again until they re-appear in Turn 6. I was surprised to see Conor still in second the next time around, but even more surprised to see a different leader! I later learned that the previous leader had tried to re-pass Conor in Turn 3 and ended up in the hay bales. This slowed Conor a bit, which let the other kart get by. There was a red flag incident on Lap 5 for another kart that went into the hay bales hard. This bunched everyone back up at the re-start. Two laps after the re-start, Conor again rounded Turn 6 in second, but again there was a different leader! I’m still not sure how this happened, and it doesn’t really matter, because the next time around, Conor was in the lead. The previous leader had dropped to third, which allowed Conor to open up a gap over the next few laps. The second and third place karts switched places on lap 12, but Conor managed the gap to perfection, pushing just hard enough to claim a clean sweep for the 
weekend. A local video journalist for WBNS 10TV News followed Conor around all day on Sunday. The 90 second segment aired Sunday evening. In addition to some nice coverage of Conor's trophy race, it focused on the family-based nature of kart racing. The segment can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iby9mrGS6Z8.ZOOM ZOOM NATIONALS – We had decided prior to the CPGP that we would enter Conor in the final WKA Manufacturer’s Cup Series event of the season. NCMP is a beautiful kart racing facility located about 30 miles east of Indianapolis. Our primary objective was to learn as much as we could and to have Conor experience racing with the fastest guys in the country in his class.
Conor and I left Friday morning at 6:00 AM for the Friday practice day and Peter and Laura joined us on Saturday. Saturday’s line up included the ‘Heavy’ version of Conor’s class (320 lbs minimum) and Sunday included the ‘Lite’ version (305 lbs). There were 47 karts entered in Conor’s class each day. The top 25 from the timed qualifying session transfer to the main and the remainder go to the ‘last chance qualifier”, which is a six lap consolation race. The top five from the LCQ transfer to the main, making up the 30 kart field. Our goal for both days was to make it into the main. When we arrived on Friday, we were assigned a factory technician from Margay (Conor’s chassis manufacturer) to help us with setup and anything else we needed. Conor did well acclimating to the new track and our setup wasn’t too bad. On Saturday, Conor posted the 24th fastest 
qualifying time, which put him into the main event. In his pre-final, which would set the starting positions for the main, he advanced to 19th on Lap 1 and to 14th on Lap 2. Most of this was due to attrition, but he seemed to be finding his groove. He lost a position on the next lap and then fell to 28th when he dropped a wheel into the dirt in the corner leading onto the very long back straightaway. The ‘draft’ is big at New Castle, and if you don’t get a good run leading up to the long straightaway, you get passed like you are standing still. He wasn’t able to recover from this and ended up finishing 29th. In the main, he made up a few positions before becoming involved in an incident that resulted in a bent steering spindle, after which he had to drop out. We thought we had made some positive changes for Sunday, but in qualifying, the best Conor could do was 36th. This put him into LCQ, which 
turned out to be a good thing. Starting 7th, he made his way up to as high as 2nd before finishing 4th, which again put him into the main. This was a big confidence boost for Conor, who is not used to finishing in the back of the pack. He made up several places in the pre-final, which still put him near the back for the start of the main. The first few laps of the main again went well, but he again found himself involved in an incident. This time, the nose of his kart was deranged. We had talked beforehand about just completing all 12 laps, which he did, albeit at the rear with no one to draft with. So, we met our goal of qualifying for the main both days, and learned a lot in the process which was our objective. Hopefully, some of what we learned will benefit us during the final four Mid Start of Ohio Kart Club races of the season.NEXT RACE – MSOKC Race No. 9 was this past weekend (details to follow). Both Peter and Conor entered Race No. 9 leading the championship in their classes, but a lot can happen in four races. In the mean time, Peter and Conor have started back to school (7th and 10th grade, respectively). Race No. 9 was the last race of the season for Henry, who is getting prepared to head off to college at the end of the month.
Bill
p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=341467 and http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=346565
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