September 13, 2005

9/11/2005 Points Race #15


(Dad's filling in on this one)

With the start of the school year, and the amount of homework already being sent home with our kids, the last thing I wanted to do was make Sam sit down and do a paper on this last race weekend. To be honest, he's been fighting me every Sunday night when we return home on this one. This website originated out of two ideas that I had. The first and foremost reason was to have a conduit for Sam to tell his story on all of our experiences in this first year of karting. The second reason was to help him understand the PR end of things. I know he's only a kid but you've got to start somewhere right? It would also help him hone his writing skills. His mother and I have been trying to work with him on that for some time now and I thought if he had something pretty cool to write about he'd enjoy doing it. Not exactly. Well enjoy the vacation son, you get a hall pass this week. I've got it covered for now but I expect you'll be back behind the pen next time.

It figures with my luck that the last two weeks we were off the weather would be just beautiful. Seventies, no humidity, just perfect. But the day we would return to the track it would be in the nineties, and humid! Our day started out fantastic. No real additions or demon tweaks were performed, so to go out in the first practice session and rattle off a 47.40 lap amazed us all. And when I say all, I mean not only us but the father of our class points leader. See we don't spend a lot of time up front running with the guys who consistently finish first through third. But with Sam beating one of our faster guys two weeks ago at Road America, and him nipping at the heels of Pete in this session, those days may not be very far away. He is definitely showing that he's much more in control and comfortable with kart. Now if we can work on our starts and our consistency, we'll have it made.

All practice sessions and heat races went well. Consistently in the 47 second range and ahead of who he needs to beat to stay in 6th place in points and possibly take 5th. He was gridded 5th for the feature and had just a lousy start. By the time they all got through the first turn Sam was in last place. He tells me that everyone just chops you off, bumps and pushes you, and pretty much man handles you once that flag drops. I'd tell him to start dealing it back to them but with our class being under probation and certain individuals who whine for just about every minor infraction that one could commit, I think we'll take the passive route. At least for this season. Once back in his stride again he regained 6th position and pretty much stayed there for the whole race. The driver in 5th made it a point to make himself as wide as possible, and the 4th place driver was so erratic all over the course that he had his work cut out to try and pass them. The 5th place driver was also the one that we are chasing in the points. To get past him was our objective but when the checkered fell, we were inches short. Sam was dissapointed to say the least. He worked so hard all day at staying ahead of this kid that to finish so close behind him was heartbreaking. I reassured him that the race looked pretty exciting from where I was standing and there was no shame in 6th place. He drove the wheels off that thing to make up from his start and he broadend his lead on the 7th place driver in the process.

Back to the drawing board. We have a new carb that's going on this week and alot of testing to follow. With two weeks off until our next points race we need to get out there and get some seat time so we can jump right back in the 47's and give them all a run for their money. Some of our best weekends were preceeded by test days at the track so we're going to fully take advantage of this down time.

In closing, it's obvious to all that today is the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that happened four years ago right here on our home soil. Although it almost felt sacrilegious to be at a race track enjoying ourselves on a day like today, the realization hit me that not a single person that died on that day would want us to do anything other than that. We must never forget, nor will we ever forget what happened to our country on that day. We also have to keep in our hearts and prayers the victims and families that were affected by this cowardly attack, and be thankful to the men and women who are off defending this great country and who allow us these freedoms. What we do not need to do is alter our lifestyles and eventually live in fear. Once we do that, they've won. I'm an ultra competitive person in alot of things I do but in no way will any of them ever defeat me in this. God Bless America.