PRACTICE – The weather forecast for Sunday called for cloudy skies and a 70% chance of rain. While the track was damp when we arrived, and it did sprinkle towards the end of the day, it turned out to be a nice day for racing. Our first practice sessions were used as shakedown runs to try out all the reconfiguration that was done. Our tire budget is getting a bit thin, so we elected to go with used tires on both karts for Race No. 8. To make the best use of used tires, we flip them around on the rims so that what was the outboard side becomes the inboard side. Both boys spent their second practice session breaking in their flipped tires.
SPEC 100 PIPE – As the season has progressed, there are five karts that have consistently shown up for almost all of the events in this class. This was the case again on Sunday. Peter drew the fifth starting position for his first heat race and improved one position at the start. He spent the next eight laps nipping at the heels of the pack in front of him, who were fighting it out amongst themselves, but was unable to improve further. Starting on the pole in his second heat, Peter got snookered at the start and settled in to second position. He dropped two wheels into the grass on the exit of Turn 4 on the first lap, which cost him another two positions. He gained one back on Lap 2 and another on Lap 4. He caught up with the leader towards the end, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process (46.397 seconds), but finished second. The leader had lost a lead weight off of his kart on the last lap and was disqualified at the scales for being underweight, which gave the win to Peter. A fourth and a first earned Peter pole position for the feature. An excellent on-board video of Peter’s feature race from the perspective of the second place starter can be found here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycxOEEMLylc. Determined to avoid getting snookered again, Peter drove deep into Turn 1 at the start – a little too deep. The second place starter was able to get by on the inside, which dropped Peter to second. He got a good run through Turn 4 on Lap 2 and was able to regain the lead in Turn 5. From there he just took off and never looked back. His fastest lap was on Lap 3 (46.226) and was the fastest lap recorded by anyone in this class this season. This was Peter’s first feature race win in an adult class – way to go Peter!
80cc SHIFTER – The number of karts in Conor’s class has varied widely this season – from a high of 10 to a low of six. There were eight on Sunday, and since more championship points are awarded for well-attended races, there were a decent number of championship points on the line. Conor’s first heat race was a lot like Peter’s. He started fifth, made one pass early, and then got bottled up behind two karts that were fighting among themselves. Conor made a great start from fourth in his second heat race and finished the first lap in second. He was passed by the eventual winner on Lap 2 but passed another kart on Lap 3 to regain second, even though his lap times were a bit off. A fourth and a second were good enough for the second starting position for the feature. He maintained his position at the start, but in Turn 10 on the first lap, the leader pulled off with a broken transmission. Conor was able to pull out a bit on the second place kart over the next few laps only to get reeled back in again. On Lap 9 (of 10), the second place kart slid down the inside in Turn 7 only to have Conor muscle his way back to the lead in Turn 8. Conor held on for the win, which was his third feature race win in a row – way to go Conor!
NEXT RACE – This event was the first double feature race win for Bruce Brother’s Racing since Conor and Peter did it at MSOKC Race No. 12 on October 5, 2008. Our next race is MSOKC Race No. 9 on August 20, 2011, which is another Saturday night race at CRP. Gates open at 1:00 PM and racing gets underway at 5:00 PM. This will make four race weekends in a row for us, one of which was a double-header. We’re all looking forward to the two-week break that follows.
Bill
p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=700431.
(click to enlarge)
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