MSOKC Race No. 1 – April 11, 2010 – An Excellent Start to the Season

NEWS – Bruce Brothers Racing had an excellent season debut for Mid State of Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) Race No. 1 at Circleville Raceway Park (CRP) a week ago Sunday. We qualified both karts on the front row, Peter won a heat race, and both boys ended up on the podium.

PRACTICE – We managed to get in two practice days prior to Race No. 1 – one to shake out the cobwebs and the other to do some fine tuning. Off-season changes included a complete engine rebuild on our Yamaha SuperCan kart (Peter) and a significant reconfiguration of our 8Occ shifter kart (Conor). MSOKC also has a new club spec tire for 2010 – MG “Reds” instead of Bridgestone YJCs. We used old tires for our first practice day and scrubbed in and tested the new MG Reds on the second practice day. On Sunday morning, we did a bit of fine tuning and were feeling in pretty good shape.

YAMAHA JUNIOR – Race No. 1 was a qualifying format race, which means that starting positions for the subsequent heat race would be determined by best lap times during a three-lap qualifying session. Peter’s lap times had been good during practice, so we were optimistic for qualifying. There were nine karts in Peter’s class, so they split the session into two groups. Peter went out in the second group and posted the second fastest overall time (46.650 seconds). In his heat race, he timed the start perfectly from outside the front row and lead easily into Turn 1. Just about the time he began to receive pressure from behind, there was an incident involving two karts running towards the end of the field and the race was red flagged. Everyone was okay, but since the leaders had completed half of the laps (four of eight), the race was not restarted, which gave the win to Peter. A second and a first earned Peter pole position for the start of his feature race. As Peter demonstrated in the heat race, the outside starting position on the front row is sometimes a better place to be. At the start of the feature, he had to concede Turn 1 and dropped in behind the new leader. Except for one retirement, the first four ran nose to tail for 10 laps. Peter finished second but did record the fastest lap of the race in the process. The outlook for the season is looking bright for Peter.

8Occ SHIFTER – Our 8Occ shifter kart got front brakes over the winter, a rear axle upgrade, and a top-end engine rebuild. Conor seemed to have liked the changes during our practice days, so we were optimistic on Sunday for him as well. His qualifying session was also split into two groups – five karts in each. Conor also posted the second fastest qualifying time – he and one other kart were the only ones to break into the 44 second range (44.992 for Conor). While he had done well with his standing starts during practice, he muffed the one for his heat race. He got away immediately, but bogged the engine down and dropped to fifth. While the leaders got away, it took Conor seven laps to get around the fourth place kart. A second and a fourth was good enough for a third place start for the feature. He made an excellent start in the feature, but had to back off a bit to avoid the pole-sitter in Turn 1 (see video below). He settled into third and pressured the second place kart all the way to the end for a third place finish. The outlook for the season is also looking bright for Conor. We were particularly pleased with the reliability of his kart in light of all the changes that were made over the winter.

NEXT RACE – MSOKC Race No. 2, which will feature standing starts for all classes (like the 8Occ Shifter class), is Sunday, April 25, 2010 at CRP.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=520354