MSOKC Race No. 12 – October 2, 2011 – Peter Finishes With a Win

NEWS – The winter has come and gone, and I’m just now getting around to reporting on the final race of the 2011 season. Bruce Brother Racing was back to a two-kart team for Mid State of Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) Race No. 12 on Sunday, October 2, 2011. Conor had just moved into his residence hall at Ohio State and elected to sit the previous race out. Peter’s engine had returned from the engine builder in time for Race No. 11, but his UA Crew rowing team had their first regatta of the season in Toledo that day, so he also missed Race No. 11. Race No. 12 was a reverse-direction (clockwise) event at Circleville Raceway Park that featured qualifying instead of the normal heat race format. We had to pick up Conor from his residence hall on our way to the track, which was a bit weird.

PRACTICE – Both boys practiced on older tires and would race on one-race-old tires. Peter spent a bit of extra practice time breaking in his rebuilt engine. It became apparent that the engine builder did a great job because Peter dipped into the 46 second range during practice. His engine was so strong that we decided to change the gear ratio for his qualifying session. In spite of his older tires, Conor was fast during practice, too.

SPEC 100 PIPE – Peter’s qualifying time was only a tenth of a second slower than the fastest time of the session, but there was another kart in between, so he qualified third. In his heat race, Peter ran in third for the first six laps. He made an excellent pass for second on Lap 7. On the last lap (Lap 8), the leader came to a stop with what I recall was an engine problem, giving the win to Peter. A third and a first earned Peter the pole position for his feature race. He got snookered during the rolling start and settled in to second place. He was stuck to the rear bumper of the leading kart for the first nine laps (of 10). After displaying incredible patients, he finally found his opportunity – an awesome out-braking maneuver entering Turn 4 – on the last lap. Peter finished his season with a feature race win and lowered his personal best lap time to 46.198 – the fastest lap of the season for anyone in this class.

80cc SHIFTER – Conor’s qualifying session ended with him having the second fastest time but only two tenths slower than the fastest qualifier. He got away well from the standing start of his heat race and was able to muscle his way into the lead on the inside of the second corner (Turn 9 in the reverse direction). He went on to lead every lap and won by a comfortable margin. A second and a first earned Conor the pole position for his feature race. He made another great start and led easily for the first five laps or so. The second place kart began to reel Conor in and eventually made a pass on Lap 9. The eventual winner is a relative new-comer to this class who is an accomplished national-level kart racer but is not used to shifting. He is obviously finding his stride.

NEXT RACE – Conor had already clinched the series championship in the 80cc Shifter class and Peter had missed too many races to be in contention for the championship in the Spec 100 Pipe class, so Race No. 12 was a low pressure event for us. Since then, we have attended the MSOKC season-ending banquet, stored the equipment for the winter, and have gotten it back out again. The first race of the 2012 season is this Sunday, April 22, 2012.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=723410.