MSOKC Race Nos. 1 through 3 – April 21, May 5, and May 19, 2013

NEWS – The 2013 season for Bruce Brothers Racing got underway just over a month ago.  With a fairly extensive travel schedule for me this spring, I had pretty much given up on having enough time to sit down and write race reports.  I wasn’t sure that anyone read them anyway.  After several complaints (including from the boys), I decided that I’d better get caught up and at least post something for each race, even if it’s a bit shorter than in the past.

MSOKC Race No. 1 – As it has been in recent years, Race No. 1 was supposed to be a qualifying format event so that any slower new-comers end up starting at the rear.  Unfortunately, the timing system at Circleville Raceway Park did not cooperate, so we had to revert to a heat race format.  Conor started and finished second (of eight) in his first heat race in our 80cc Shifter kart.  Starting from seventh his second, he gained two positions at the start and then lost one while trying to move up to fourth on Lap 3.  He gained the position back on Lap 6.  A second and a fifth was good enough for the second starting position for the feature.  The top three ran nose-to tail until about mid-distance when they became a bit more spaced out.  Conor made a run at the leader in the last two laps but could not find a way past.  Peter started on pole for his first heat race in our Spec 100 Pipe kart.  He lost a position at the start and then locked his brakes and got sideways in Turn 5.  Peter gained a position from seventh (of eight) at the start of his second heat race.  He gained two more on Lap 4 for a fourth place finish.  Peter also gained a position from sixth at the start of his feature race.  He moved up to fourth on Lap 3 and to third on Lap 5, which is where he finished.  After a disqualification in post-race tech inspection, Peter was promoted to second.

MSOKC Race No. 2 – Race No. 2 was changed to a qualifying format event to make up for the timing system problems during Race No. 1.  In his qualifying session, Conor recorded the second fastest qualifying time (of 11).  He timed the standing start perfectly in his heat race and led flag-to-flag.  He also made a good start from pole in his feature and led for the first four laps.  The second place kart slipped by in Turn 7 on Lap 5, but Conor was able to regain the lead in Turn 5 on the next lap.  He went on to record our first feature race win of the season.  Peter’s qualifying time was third fastest (of seven).  As qualifying format races sometimes are, Peter’s heat race was a follow-the-leader affair – the top three finished where they started.  Peter’s feature was much the same although he dropped a position from third at the start and finished fourth.

MSOKC Race No. 3 – Peter was absent from Race No. 3 – he and his Upper Arlington Crew teammates were competing in the Midwest Junior Rowing Championships at Lake Harsha near Cincinnati.  Race No. 3 was a reverse direction event at CRP.  As we did last season when Peter missed a race, we decided to have Conor run both karts.  In 80cc Shifter, Conor got a great start from fourth and finished second (of 11) in his first heat.  Starting from eighth in his second heat, he made up three places on the first lap after an altercation in Turn 9 (the second turn going in the reverse direction) and then gained another position on Lap 4.  A second and a fourth earned Conor pole position for the feature.  He made a great start, but the kart on the outside of the front row made a better one.  While trying to make an early run on the leader, Conor pushed too hard in Turn 6 on the first lap and spun off in Turn 5.  By the time he was able to give himself a push start, he was a lap down.  There were two retirements, so Conor was credited with a seventh place finish.  The spin in the shifter kart was nothing compared to the day Conor had in our Spec 100 Pipe kart.  He was fast all day but had trouble acclimating to having rear brakes only.  His row was slow to get going at the start (he started from third) and then he locked the brakes going into Turn 7, got sideways, and fell to last.  He caught back up but not in time to make any passes.  I can’t remember where he got sideways on the first lap of the second heat, but he did.  This time he set the fastest lap of the race while catching up.  There was a retirement in each of the heat races, so Conor started the feature from fifth (of six).  He managed to lose a position at the start, but this time he time made it a whole lap without getting locking the brakes.  That happened on Lap 2.  I’m almost glad that he was at the rear all day because there were some ruffled feathers amongst the class regulars at the end of the day.  It would not have been pleasant to have an interloper involved.

NEXT RACE – MSOKC Race No. 4 is Sunday, June 2, 2013, at CRP and will feature standing starts for all classes.  Peter may have to miss the feature in order to get to the UA Crew Recognition Night on time, so we may have Conor fill in again.  Hopefully he’s got a better feel for those brakes by now.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results can be found here, here, and here.

Bruce Brothers Racing – 2013 Season Preview

It will be difficult to top the season Bruce Brothers Racing had in 2012.  Between our two drivers, we had 12 Mid State of Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) feature race wins out of 23 starts (52%), two MSOKC season championships, and two clean sweeps at the Commercial Point Karting Classic (CPKC). Both Conor and Peter will contest the same classes again in 2013 - 80cc Shifter for Conor and Spec 100 Pipe for Peter.  Our anticipated schedule for 2013 is as follows:

Race No. 1 - Sunday, April 21 - Normal/Qualifying/20 Bonus Points
Race No. 2 - Sunday, May 5 - Normal
Race No. 3 - Sunday, May 19 - Clockwise
Race No. 4 - Sunday, June 2 - Normal/Standing start
Race No. 5 - Sunday, June 16  - Normal
Race No. 6 - Sunday, June 30 - Clockwise/Qualify
Race No. 7 - Sunday, July 14 - Normal
Race No. 8 - Sunday, July 28 - Normal
CPKC - Sat/Sun, Aug. 3-4 - Non-championship event
Race No. 9 - Sunday, August 18 - Clockwise/Standing Starts
Rain Date 1 - Sunday, August 25
Race No. 10 - Sunday, September 8 - Normal/Qualify/Hog Roast
Race No. 11 - Sunday, Sept. 22 - Normal/20 Bonus Points
Race No. 12 - Sunday, October 6 - Clockwise/Qualify/40 Bonus Points
Rain Date 2 - Sunday, October 13

All MSOKC championships events will take place at Circleville Raceway Park, which is on U.S. Route 23 just north of Circleville (click here for a map).  As always, thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support.

Bill

p.s., Yes, we've already had two races in 2013.  I'll try to get caught up on the race reports, which might be a bit shorter than in previous seasons, before Race No. 3.

MSOKC Race No. 12 – October 7, 2012 –Double Champions!

NEWS – For Mid-State of Ohio Kart Club Race No. 12 a week ago Sunday, all Conor had to do to clinch the championship in his class was to show up.  Peter however, had work to do to win the championship in his class.  Race No. 12 was a reverse-direction (clockwise) event at Circleville Raceway Park that featured qualifying instead of the normal heat race format.  While chilly mornings have become the norm here in Central Ohio, it was downright cold that morning.

PRACTICE – The first practice session for everyone was a bit of a comedy.  There was so little grip from the cold tires/cold track combination that more karts had spins than not – some as they were leaving the grid area.  Peter started on the tires he raced on last time with the intention of switching to a slightly better set that we had in the trailer for his second session.  We had one last set of new tires in the trailer, which Conor would race on after practicing on old tires.  We didn’t learn much in the first session other than nobody was breaking any lap records.  In the second session, Peter pulled into the pits after only one lap with what he reported as a bad vibration.  We checked a few things, including the tire balance, made a few changes, and sent him back out to practice with Conor’s class.   The problem seemed to be fixed, but he was still a bit off the pace, so we decided to make a gear change for the qualifying session,

SPEC 100 PIPE – There were again only four karts in Peter’s class.  During his qualifying session, Peter’s first lap was again off the pace.  His second lap (of three) was almost a second and a half faster.  He must have dug deep for the third lap, because it was another half second faster and good enough for pole position.  Everyone else had improvements during their three laps, but none as dramatic as Peter’s.  Peter knew that the start of the heat race would be important.  He got a bit of a jump on the kart on the outside of the front row (his main rival in the championship), but the flagman waived off the start.  On the second attempt, it was Peter’s rival who got the jump and the start was waived off again.  There is a little-used rule that says, if the start is waived off twice, the front two rows are inverted for the next attempt.  For whatever reason, the race director decided to invoke this rule.  The green flag waived the next time around and, after qualifying on pole, Peter ended up going around the first turn (Turn 10 in the reverse direction) in fourth place.  His main rival tried unsuccessfully to make a pass in Turn 9, which let Peter slip by into third.  Peter got a good run out of Turn 5 and made a pass for second going into Turn 4 on the first lap.  He duplicated that maneuver on Lap 3 to move into the lead.  On the same lap, Peter’s main rival tangled with the third place kart while attempting a pass and lost five seconds or so in the process.   They ran in that order to the finish.  The results up to that point meant that all Peter had to do to win the championship was to not finish last in the feature.  At the start, Peter held the lead and his rival made a pass into second (after starting third).  The first three were nose to tail for the first few laps before Peter began to edge away.  Peter set the fastest lap on Lap 9 on his way to his sixth feature race win of the season in this class and clinching the season championship.

80cc SHIFTER – While it would have been nice to send Conor out with a win to go with his second consecutive season championship in this class, one of the younger guys did not cooperate.  He also had a new set of tires, which he used to out-qualify Conor by several tenths of a second (45.133 to 45.506).  Conor responded in his heat race by turning his fastest lap of the season (44.895), only to be outdone by the younger guy (44.807).  These two were in a class of their own and finished first and second (out of nine).  Conor was once again in the 44s during his feature race, but the young guy lowered the bar once again with a 44.694 – easily the fastest lap of the year in this class – in spite of the conditions.  These two once again finished first and second.  Like Peter, Conor also finished the season with six feature race wins – five of those in his class and one in Peter’s class when he doubled up for MSOKC Race No. 3.

NEXT RACE – That’s it for the 2012 season for Bruce Brothers Racing.  Twelve wins, two championships, and a clean sweep at the Commercial Point Karting Classic – you can’t ask for a whole lot more than that.  Thanks to everyone who has supported us this season.  Conor is beavering away at his second year in the Mechanical Engineering program at The Ohio State University and continues to be involved as a member of the Buckeye Bullet electric-powered land speed record vehicle team.  Peter is focusing on his studies as a Junior at Upper Arlington High School and is a key member of the Varsity Crew team.  His boat will race in the Head of the Charles in Boston this weekend, which is largest two-day regatta in the world.  Laura and I will meet there to watch Peter row and spend some time with Henry, who lives and works downtown just minutes from the Charles River.  Life is good...

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results from Race No. 11 can be found here.

MSOKC Race No. 11 – September 23, 2012 – Another Double Win

NEWS – Although we had a few difficulties a week ago Sunday for Mid-State of Ohio Kart Club Race No. 11 at Circleville Raceway Park, the end result could not have been a whole lot better.  One of the difficulties was, of all things, a tire that would not hold air.  All had gone well during the previous race, so the only major preparation for this event was a partial clutch rebuild for Peter.

PRACTICE – Race No. 11 was the penultimate event of the year.  Peter had two decent sets of used tires to choose from and Conor had a set of one-race-old tires that had been flipped around on the rims to race on.  Peter split his two practice sessions deciding on which set to use and fine tuning his clutch.  Conor practiced on a well-used set of tires initially and then switched to the better set.  During his second session, he slowed on his second lap and then crept around to the pit entrance with a flat right rear tire.  Submerging it in a bucket of water resulted in no bubbles, so we assumed the leak was the result of the tire spinning on the rim under acceleration.  It seemed to be holding air after we re-inflated it, so we decided to use it.

SPEC 100 PIPE – The field in Peter’s class has thinned out toward the end of the season – only four karts for Race No. 11.  Peter started his heat races from the third and second positions, respectively.  At the start of his first heat, the two karts on the front row banged wheels going through Turn 10, which caused Peter to have to back off a bit.  He lost a position as the result, but gained it back on Lap 3 (of eight).  He caught the leaders but was not able to make any further progress.  In his second heat, he timed the start perfectly and went through Turns 1 and 2 side-by-side with the pole sitter, which put him on the inside for Turn 3.  He took the lead and held on for a heat race win.  A third and a first earned Peter pole position for his feature race.  Peter put on another display of how to perfectly time a rolling start at CRP, even though pole position is not necessarily the best place to start.  Videos of Peter grabbing the lead from both the second position and pole position can be found here and here.  With Peter setting the pace, the first three ran in lock step for 10 long laps.  Peter prevailed in the end for his fifth feature race win of the season.  The gap between the top three was less than 0.6 seconds.

80cc SHIFTER – There were 11 karts in Conor’s class for Race No. 11, including one new competitor.  Conor started his heat races from the second and eighth positions, respectively.  The start of his first heat race went well for Conor – he was in the lead by nearly three kart lengths by the exit of Turn1 – but didn’t go so well for several karts towards the rear.  A mid-pack kart spun/got turned around and was hit by the new guy, which caused him to go briefly up-side down – see video here.  Five karts were involved in some way, so the race was red flagged.  After a brief delay, engines were restarted for the second attempt, which didn’t go very well for Conor.  When he dropped the clutch as the green flag fell, he discovered he was in neutral!  He somehow managed to get going without causing a melee or loosing too many positions.  If he would have sat there for another split second, he would have been engulfed by the entire field (see video here).  What could have been a disaster turned out to be third position by Turn 3 on the first lap.  Conor made a pass for second on the second on Lap 2 and another for the lead on 5.  One of the non-regular competitors, who was on brand new, super-sticky, non-spec tires and would be disqualified at the end of the day, reeled Conor in on the last lap and piped him at the line by 0.001 seconds.  In the pits, we noticed that his right rear tire was nearly flat again, so we replaced it with a well-used one.  With championship points in mind, Conor took it easy at the start of his second heat.  He finished Lap 1 in eighth place.  He worked his way to fifth on Lap 2, gained another position on Lap 4, and stayed there to the end.  A second and a fourth was good enough for the second starting position for the feature.  The first two got away well and Conor settled in behind the leader.  On Lap 4, the leader made a mistake in Turn 6 and Conor was able to get by for the lead.  He went on to win – also his fifth feature race win of the season in this class – by 2.3 seconds.

NEXT RACE – For the third time in 2012, Bruce Brothers Racing scored feature race wins in both of our karts.  Conor’s win consolidated his firm lead in the season championship and Peter’s win took him from two points behind to three points ahead with one event remaining.  The final event of the season is MSOKC Race No. 12 on Sunday, October 7, 2012.  Both boys are looking forward to this, as it’s another reverse-direction (clockwise) event at CRP that will feature qualifying instead of the normal heat race format.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results from Race No. 11 can be found here.

MSOKC Race No. 10 – September 9, 2012 – Peter’s Record-Setting Day

NEWS – We finally had a race day go just about as planned a week ago Sunday for Mid-State of Ohio Kart Club Race No. 10 at Circleville Raceway Park.  This was a qualifying format event, which avoids the need for faster karts to make their way past slower karts in the heat races, which tends to minimize damage.  Except for one gear change and a planned tire change, I didn’t have to dig a single spare part out of the trailer all day.  To make things even better, the weather was awesome as the result of high pressure that had followed a cold front into the region the day before.

PRACTICE – A race day such as the one described above begins with an appropriate amount of preparation.  In the break leading up to this race, Peter’s carburetor was rebuilt and his ignition unit was replaced, and Conor got a new exhaust gas temperature probe and a new set of tires for the qualifying format event.  Peter used his lightly used race tires in both of his practice sessions.  In the second, he followed his main rival in this class and they ran together in lock step and a very brisk pace – right around 46 seconds flat.  With the ideal weather conditions, I could tell that there was the potential for something special to happen.  Conor used lightly used practice tires in both of his practice sessions and was easily the fastest kart in his class.

SPEC 100 PIPE – Having his rival in front of him in the second practice session seemed to work well for Peter, so that’s how we sent him out for the qualifying session.  Both were hoping to break into the 45 second range for the first time.  Peter’s lap times were 46.521, 46.214, and 45.979.  His rival’s first two laps were faster than Peter’s, but his third was a 45.981 – just 0.002 seconds slower than Peter’s best.  Peter’s pole position winning time was a new personal best for him and the new fastest lap of the season so far for this class.  The outside of the front row is sometimes the better place to be for a rolling start at CRP and that turned out to be the case in Peter’s heat race.  After taking the lead at the start, his rival made a small mistake on the exit of Turn 4 on Lap 2, which is all it took for Peter to regain the lead.  The front two stayed close together but Peter went on to win by less than half a second.  Peter timed the start a little better in the feature race and made pole position work for him.  With his rival pursuing him closely on Lap 2, Peter went a bit too deep into Turn 5 and got a bit crossed up on the exit.  He was able to catch it, but his rival had to take evasive action and lost a position.  It’s not often that you benefit from your own mistake, but that’s what happened to Peter.  It took his rival a lap and a half to regain second place, but by that time, Peter had amassed a several second advantage.  Peter held on to win by just over a second.  This was Peter’s fourth feature race win of the season.

80cc SHIFTER – With new tires, Conor was hoping to break into the 44 second range in his qualifying session.  He didn’t quite make it (no one in this class has this season), but his 45.190 was fastest by almost three tenths of a second.  Conor made a good standing start from pole position in his heat race, but not a great start.  The second place starter made a great start.  These two went side-by-side through Turns 1 and 2, which left Conor on the outside for the right-hand Turn 3.  Conor settled into second and was never less than a kart-length or two off the rear bumper of the leading kart.  Conor pulled alongside the other kart at the end of the long straightaway several times but could not make the pass cleanly.  This late in the season, Conor has his mind on his position in the championship and settled for second.  A first and a second earned Conor the second starting position for his feature race.  Conor made another good start, but this time both the pole sitter and the third place starter made great starts.  Conor settled into third and spent the next few laps working on getting past the second place kart while the leader put distance between himself and these two.  Conor got a good run through Turn 4 on Lap 5, made the pass in Turn 5, and set out after the leader.  The gap was just over two seconds at that point and it took Conor just three laps to reduce that to less than a kart length.  He set the fastest lap of the race (45.268) in the process.  Conor once again pulled alongside the other kart at the end of the long straightaway on Lap 9.  He decided that discretion was the better part of valor and settled for second.  A full-length on-board video of Conor’s feature race can be found here.  This was the first win in this class for the other kart, which was nice to see.

NEXT RACE – Conor had the biggest gap on the field in his class for Race No. 10, but it was Peter who managed to pull off the perfect result for the day – including a record-setting lap.  Conor has a fairly comfortable lead in the season championship and just needs to have some reasonable results in the last two races to repeat as champion in this class.  With Peter’s recent mechanical problems, he had fallen behind in the championship, but this win brought him back to within just two points of his rival.  Peter’s chassis works well in cooler weather conditions, which is what we hope to have for MCOKC Race No. 11, which is Sunday, September 23, 2012, at CRP.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results from Race No. 10 can be found here.

Video from MSOKC Race No. 10

A video of Conor's feature race in the 80cc Shifter kart can be found here.

Bill

MSOKC Race No. 9 – August 19, 2012 – Back on the Top Step

NEWS – After a very enjoyable and rewarding one-off Commercial Point Karting Classic, Bruce Brothers Racing managed to regain some of the form we showed in club racing during the beginning of the 2012 Mid-State of Ohio Kart Club season.  Both boys had some difficulties during MSOKC Race No. 9, which was a reverse direction event at Circleville Raceway Park, but the end result was much more satisfying than other recent club racing results.

PRACTICE – After the CPKC, the setup on both karts had to be changed back to suit CRP – mainly gear ratio changes, a return to club-spec tires, and an axle change for Peter’s kart.  The intermittent ignition problem on Peter’s kart seemed to have been resolved during the CPKC by using a borrowed, used ignition unit.  I was subsequently told that these units either work or they don’t, and since Peter’s old one still worked, we elected to stick with it instead of buying a new one.  During practice, it worked just fine.  Both boys enjoy reverse direction events at CRP and both recorded competitive lap times during their practice sessions.

SPEC 100 PIPE – There were only four karts in Peter’s class for Race No. 9, and only three of those were regular competitors.  The random draw for starting positions had Peter starting from fourth in the first heat and first in the second heat.  In his first heat, Peter made a pass for third on Lap 2 and a pass for second on Lap 6.  He was not quite as fast as the eventual winner and finished second.  In his second heat, Peter maintained his position at the start and drove a very smart race for a heat race win.  He was not quite as fast as the second place kart (the winner of the first heat) but managed to keep the lead without blocking.  A second and a first earned Peter pole position for his feature race.  During the break, we made a few changes to the rear axle to improve on what Peter described as “binding up” in the corners.  Peter maintained the lead at the start of his feature, but it became immediately apparent that the problem was not resolved.  He managed to hang on to the lead for the first few laps, but then had to surrender it on Lap 4.  The other two karts passed Peter as the problem continued to worsen, and Peter pulled into the pits before the checkered flag.  The non-regular competitor waived post-race tech inspection, so Peter was credited with a third place finish.

80cc SHIFTER – Similar to Peter, Conor started from the rear in the first heat and towards the front in the second, but there were 12 karts in his class for Race No. 9.  A lot can go wrong during a standing start with 12 karts, so Conor took it easy at the start of his first heat.  He dropped a position at the start (from 10th to 11th) in the first corner (Turn 10 for reverse direction events), but was able to gain three in the next corner when three karts tangled.  He made a good run onto the back straightaway on the first lap and picked off another kart in Turn 4 for seventh.  In the same corner on the next lap, two other karts tangled in front of him.  This time, Conor had no place to go and had to come to a complete stop and get out and push before he could continue.  This dropped him to 11th.  It took him five laps, but he caught up and passed one kart on Lap 7 and another on Lap 8 for a ninth place finish.  He set the fastest lap of the race (45.281 seconds) in the process.  From the third starting position in his second heat race, Conor maintained his position at the start, made a pass for second on Lap3, and another for the lead on Lap 6.  A ninth and a first somehow managed to be good enough for pole position for the feature.  Conor made a great start, led every lap, and recorded the fastest lap in the process.  This was our first MSOKC feature race win since Race No. 5 on June 17, 2012.

NEXT RACE – It sure was refreshing to get at least one kart back on the top step of the podium (see picture in an earlier post here).  After the feature races were over for the day, we reverted to the previous rear axle set-up we had on Peter’s kart and sent him out for a few test laps.  From the sound of the engine, you could tell that the problem was still there.  We then changed the ignition unit to the one we used for the CPKC and sent him out again – and it worked just fine.  What Peter thought was the rear axle binding up in the corners was a slight misfire when the engine was under heavy load.  Unfortunately, the information I got about the ignition unit was apparently incorrect.   We will be buying a new one for MCOKC Race No. 10, which is Sunday, September 9, 2012, at CRP.  This event will feature qualifying instead of the normal heat race format to allow time in the afternoon/evening for the annual MSOKC Hog Roast.  There will be plenty of food for everyone, a variety of games, and a Powder Puff race in the rental karts for wives, girlfriends, and mothers of the regular racers.

Bill

p.s., Lap times, lap charts, and results from Race No. 9 can be found here.