Road America: Aug. 27th & 28th

I thought this time at Road America was much better than the first time we visited the track in May. My dad kept pretty good notes from the last time here and we knew what to do and what not to do. It saved us a lot of time.

The first practice that we had went well. The second time that I went out I got sideways in a real scary part of the track and got hit by another kart. It through me off the track and my kart got stuck. It seems that the guy who crashed into me bent my side bar so bad that it stuck in the ground and would not let my kart roll. My dad had run all the way from the pits and up the hill to help me. He had a lot of work to do to repair the kart so I missed a few practice sessions waiting for him. While I waited I hung out with another driver from my class, Alex. We rode bikes and just horsed around for a while until it was time to go back out on the track again. When we finally got the kart fixed I went back out and found another kid from my class was on the track. Eliott doesn't come to a lot of our races but when he does he's usually pretty fast. My kart must have been working right because I was sticking right with him. I actually got in front of him and stayed there for an entire practice session too. This changed when Sunday came.

Sunday morning we went out and practiced and found ourselves running pretty strong. I was clearly ahead of both of the drivers that I'm battling with for 5th, 6th, and 7th place. Going into this race I was 1 point ahead of my friend Kathya, and about 70 points behind the 5th place driver, Taylor. I finished in 5th spot in both morning heat races. The second heat race I actually finished in front of my friend Alex! This doesn't happen very often as Alex is one of the fastest drivers in our class. I was really happy and very excited to get to the Feature. While we all waited for the Feature I played baseball with a bunch of the other drivers that I race with. My dad got a little angry at me for not changing first. I got my driver suit all full of grass and mud, and this was after I got my pant leg stuck in my bike's sprocket.

Finally the Feature Race! I was really excited to start this race. I was gridded 6th and I knew that we could do good. For the first couple of laps I was following Taylor and couldn't find a way to get around him. I tried on the outside of the last turn and he moved over and we touched. I finally got close enough on the next lap to race him up the straight and got in front of him before turn one. With him behind me I set my sights on Kodiak. He's another quick driver in my class that I was giving a run for his money and this weekend I was pretty close to him in my lap times. I almost caught him before the checkered flag fell. If there was another lap or two I might have passed him, but I was happy with a 6th place finish. (and ahead of Kathya and Taylor). Kathya finished 7th and Taylor finished 8th. This now puts me into 6th place in the points. I'm ahead of Kathya by 21 points and behind Taylor by 49 points. If we all finish this way for the next 4 races left in the season, I can catch him for 5th!

It was a pretty good weekend for us. The new bodywork is working fine, and my dad just installed an aluminum axle that he says helped my engine spin up faster and also lighten the kart a little more. He wasn't kidding. I went from 229lbs to 225lbs (my class minimum). We have to be very careful now so we do not come in under weight. If he doesn't put enough fuel in my tank I could actually weigh in too light and be disqualified. I think we're putting a couple of pounds of lead in it just to be safe. Luck was on our side this weekend too. After I crossed the finish line my kart sputtered and died. I rolled to the side of the track and had to get picked up by the tow truck. When my dad got the kart back he noticed that my gas tank was falling off the kart and it had spilled all of my fuel out. He said that a bolt had worked it's way out and caused this to happen. I hope we can get it fixed and not have this problem again when we return to our home track at Dousman in two weeks.

Aug. 21st: Things are changing!

New Bodywork! We were told that it was only going to make a difference on the larger tracks but something good came from using it at Dousman. I'm chasing down the 5th place guy in the point standings now that I am ahead of my friend Kathya who is in 7th place.

We came to the track on Sunday after practicing on Friday night. My dad wanted to make sure all of the new bodywork was in place and not going anywhere. I must have done 40 laps and my hands were killing me but it helped get me ready for Sunday.

In the morning practice we got off to a good start. I was comfortable with the track and got up to speed real quick. The day pretty much worked out in my favor. I had finished ahead of the two people that I'm battling in points and now took over the 6th place spot with 5th place in my sights. With only 5 points races to go it will be tough. The three of us have to finish the same way in every race for me to have a shot and it is not going to come easy.

Blackhawk Farms August 7th

Friday: When we got to the track on Friday we had 4 practice sessions. In the first session I was braking on alot of the turns, but by the second time out I was doing O.K. Now I was able to go flat out in all of the turns except for turn 4, that one I had to lift a little when I would go into it. The third and fourth sessions were fun, but nothing special. I had no one from my class there to practice with. Our dog Liz came to the track with us. She had a very hard time relaxing at the track with all of the noise going on. It was only her second time to a race track and she was upset with all of the excitement. At the end of the day we all went back to our hotel. This was liz's first time sleeping in a hotel and she slept all night. This was my first time on that track and I really enjoyed this day.

Saturday: That morning when we got to the track we were told there was only one practice session and then a race. This race by the way, was not under Badger rules, it was under CES rules and we were told that we could use a blue restrictor plate in place of our purple plate. The blue plate is much faster and I was excited to see how it would feel. When it came time to race I was running twelve seconds faster than my average time with the purple plate, Boy was I going fast! The acceleration and speed was much better. I was right up there with our club's point leader but on the last lap of the race we were side by side and our karts came together on the last turn. My kart hit the rumble strips and I spun across the track, through the grass, and came to rest near a field that had alot of bugs that were bothering me while I waited for the tow truck to pick me up. I ended up in 5th place out of 7 people in my class.

Sunday: Today we had two practice sessions and one race scheduled for us. It was a bummer knowing that I had to change back to the purple plate that I run, since today's race was under Badger's rules. Blue plates are not allowed in my class. The first time out I was back to my two minute lap times. In the second practice session I finally broke the two minute mark and got all 1.59's. During my race the times were pretty much the same. Even though we went out on the track at about 10am it was very hot already. This made the track a little slower than the past two days but I still managed to drive fast and safe, and I got my first 3rd place finish. I was still a long way away from the first and second place guys but I had alot of fun anyway. This was a good weekend for us. We learned that with the right equipment I CAN drive as quick as the front runners. I look forward to coming back here again.