MSOKC Race No. 6 – July 17, 2010 – Three Deuces

NEWS – There can be no delay in these next few race reports as Mid State of Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) Race No. 6 on Saturday, July 17, 2010, was the first of three races on consecutive weekends for Bruce Brothers Racing and the first of five races in a six week span. Peter was still in Italy, so once again had only one kart to look after during Race No. 6, which was a night race that followed the qualifying event format.

PRACTICE – We had made a few changes to Conor’s kart for Race No. 6, so he tried these out during practice but saved his new set of tires for the qualifying session. New tires seem to have a “golden lap” in them on about the third lap. The first two laps scrub off the mold release and scuff them in, and then after the golden lap, the performance begins to fall off a bit.

80cc SHIFTER – There were 10 karts in Conor’s class for Race No. 6, so the class was split into two groups for the three-lap qualifying session. Conor went out first in his group and took his time coming up to speed on new tires. The kart that went out behind Conor didn’t maintain a proper gap during the warm-up lap. Conor got one clean lap in before the kart behind passed him in Turn 5 on the second lap. This spoiled Conor’s second lap, and because of a misunderstanding in the tower, the checkered flag was given after the end of the second lap. So much for our planning around the golden lap! Needless to say, I was not happy, but the circumstances were the same for everyone. It didn’t make much difference either, because Conor was 0.4 seconds (i.e., a significant amount) behind the eventual pole sitter (the kart that passed Conor, which was also on new tires) and nearly 2 seconds (i.e., an eternity) faster than the next fastest kart. After qualifying second, Conor made an excellent start in his first heat race, nearly jumping the pole sitter but settling into second in the first turn. He ran within sight of the eventual winner for a comfortable second place finish. Starting from second in his feature, he did jump the pole sitter at the start. His lead was short lived, however. Much to his own dismay, he had neglected to mind his brake bias, which was not far enough forward, and locked the rears going into Turn 5 on the first lap. After the pass, he again settled into second and ran within sight of the eventual winner for another comfortable second place finish.

NEXT RACE – Qualifying format events do tend to be processional affairs, which was certainly the case for MSOKC Race No. 6. I’m not sure what else we can do to get Conor a feature race win it 2010. We seem to have squeezed every bit of speed out of the equipment that we have. We are content to be ahead of the rest of the field, however. Peter will be back in action for MSOKC Race No. 7 on Sunday, July 24, 2010, which is a regular direction event at Circleville Raceway Park. It’s good to have him home.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=567152.