July 24, 2005

Today was very hot! Over 105 degrees. The Race Director said "if the wind dies down today, we will cancel the race" I was hoping the wind would die down. It was too hot to race and I really wanted to go home.

Practice started and I did pretty good. Times were a little slow, but consistent. The track was very greasy and slippery. I had to work hard each session. My dad and I got talked to by one of the race officials because someone complained that I cut him off in a corner. He was very nice and explained the rules of passing, but I felt I did nothing wrong. The driver of the other kart said that he was along side of me going into a turn, but I did not see or hear him. I dont think he was that far up on me but it does'nt matter what I think. What happened is over. I learned my lesson. The next time he needs room to pass me, I will give him 3 kart spaces so he has plenty of room.

After my second heat I needed some rest. I was tired and had to lay down so I slept for about an hour in my dad's truck. I woke up with 2 minutes till my race, and wasn't even totally awake when we left the grid. I didn't race as good as I could have. I finished 7th and felt horrible at the end. My dad said I may of had heat exhaustion. I was hot, dizzy and my stomach hurt. I was glad this day was over and I hope my luck changes at Blackhawk in 2 weeks. Until then.

Dad's Perspective, by Mike Marmurowicz

When we started out on this little adventure of ours my family had already gone through Cub Scouts, Brownies, 4-H, Soccer, and a few other activities that you can involve your child in. All of them lasting much shorter than my memory these days. We still have to juggle the occasional 4-H meeting, Tae Kwon Do, and Gymnastics practice so combine that with your average work week and you run into a major time crisis real fast.

Enter karting. Yet another thing on our plate was not easily welcomed by my wife and I didn't blame her. First off it wasn't my son who wished to start doing this, it was me. I did take him out to Sugar River Raceway to test one afternoon in a rented kart and he did quite well and showed some enthusiasm. But we're still talking about a 10-year old child and we all know the attention spans that we're dealing with here. Still many things fed this decision to press on. Mainly the fact that I myself raced Formula Fords for years and truly wanted my son (or daughter) to be involved in motorsports. After all, we parents sit on the sidelines and watch other people coach our kids in just about everything and are relegated to spectators most of the time. We have no working knowledge of the sport or activity that they're part of so we must entrust them to others who do. What other sport could I get my family involved in where I could be the coach, and where I would have the experience to help them? Ice Hockey was the other choice but aside from equipment being spendy, teeth and stitches are pretty expensive too.

So karting it was! After all, the company that I work for just began carrying racing kart parts and was in need of someone to handle the new line and any technical questions that would come about. And what better way to become that person than to have frontline experience in racing them. I tried to sell this idea to my wife and she wasn't buyin' it. But that was my story and I was stickin' to it.

November 2004, the search begins. Just a week before Thanksgiving. We found a 6-year old CRG chassis with a Briggs & Stratton flat head engine on it. It was by far the best looking kart out of the three that the owner had for sale. The kart had a pretty decent history, looked well maintained, and came with a small assortment of spares, so home with us it went.

With winter comes the rebuilding season. One thing about being an ex-racer is that nobody else's work is ever as good as yours. Regardless of how much more experience or knowledge the previous owner had, no one can do it better than you. In addition to the brakes which needed help, I had to tear into just about everything I could, and replace alot of things that most people would have left alone. A few hundred dollars later and now my wife is having serious doubts about this. We now have another thing to take up our time and it appears it's going to take all of our money to boot.

Spring 2005, our first season. The season is almost on us and the frivolous spending is almost over. Or is it? The kart is finished but wait! no safety equipment! We need a helmet, suit, shoes, gloves, and this thing they call a rib protector. It not only helps reduce the strain imposed on one's torso from the amazing G forces that these things can generate, it also helps to protect my son from being snapped in half should he run into something and strike his steering wheel. Pretty much mandatory for junior drivers, not so much for larger soft-in the-middle guys like myself. We have nature's built-in rib protector, it's called fat!

The rubber meets the road. His first time out on the track with the new kart was a nail biter. Mixed classes for practice led to several occasions when he would pull into the pits because he was mortified of the faster traffic around him. This was unlike Sugar River where he had the track to himself. Up until now the only time he had other karts around him was at a concession track in the Wisconsin Dells and they were moving alot slower! Not more than 2 weeks later it didn't phase him anymore. His first couple of races were tough too. He didn't like the starts when everyone was bunched up, nor did he care for the amount of contact between karts on the track. Now he rubs and bumps along with the best of them. Obviously being a beginner, his times were a little erratic. It didn't matter if he was in traffic or not, he still needed to work on consistency. In just one half season he's within tenths of a second on every lap.

I can't say enough about how proud I am at his progress. He sure shows the focus and determination of someone that you would think had much more time in the seat. Just a little more polishing is all he needs right now, but I can honestly say he has already outperformed my expectations for him. I will still say it to this day that our main goal should not be the point standings or who we can beat. We're still too new to expect anything like that and I think it just leads to dissapointment. Our goal should be to go as fast as we can and maintain consistency. He's already pretty smooth. I can't recall a single race where he's spun from over driving a corner or any other self inflicted mistake for that matter. Some may say he's not going fast enough. Maybe so, maybe not. All that I expect from him is that he betters himself every time he sets foot on a track. So far he's doing just that.

The change of attitude: All bets are off! At the time of this writing I can tell you that I'm truly amazed in the change of attitude that my better half has taken. Where once I was spending too much money, We now can't spend enough to get him closer to the front. Where too much time was involved in yet another hobby, we are now planning EVERYTHING around the remaining events on the race schedule. I've never seen someone take such a wild turn before in my life. It's not just her though. I'm pretty excited too.

He is, after all, 7th place in the standings and doing better every time we go out. Can he catch the front runners? Maybe not first thru fourth, but 5th and 6th could be a possibility. It would be tough and those two might have to finish last or miss a race totally for it to happen. That's highly unlikely, but even if this rookie can ruffle the feathers of a couple of veterans I'd think that's worth the price of admission itself! We're just going to keep plugging away and be happy with what the results will bring. If we can make it through this season with much better times than when we started, keep the kart in one piece, make new friends, and learn a thing or two along the way, I'd consider us pretty successful. Upcoming posts will keep you up to date on our progress.

In closing. To anyone who might be reading this and pondering the thought of getting into karting themselves or for their children I say go for it! Don't stop. I may have said some things in this posting that would turn you off like the money I've spent or any safety issues with the sport. Forgive me if I've made you a little apprehensive, but there's no reason to be.

Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, you will not find any other form of motorsports that you and your family can enjoy for this type of investment. And the sport is very safe. Most incidents on the track involve bumps and scrapes, seldom anything more. How expensive it will be is what you make of it. You CAN be very competitive on a lower budget. There are always going to be competitors who will have every go-fast piece on their karts, have tons of spares, maybe even 3 or 4 spare motors, and will consistently be in the top five. You also have to realize that over 99% of the time it's driver effort that got them there, not the trick parts on their kart. At least in our club, things are so highly scrutinized it would be almost impossible to buy anything that will give that large of an advantage. Like our engine builder said, "about 5% of the mix is motor, 10% is chassis, and the rest is the driver". Karts for the most part do not have alot of power. The need to keep up your momentum and be as smooth as you can be around the track is critical. Tenths of seconds all add up when you take turns wrong and in your first season, you'll be taking plenty of them wrong. No go-fast gadget on the market is going to make you faster than plenty of seat time. So practice whenever you can, enter every race you can make, just keep driving and in no time you'll see improvements. Even if you paid to practice and race every weekend, and factored in all maintenance costs, you still won't be anywhere near my tire bill alone when I raced cars. So take that step, go to the Badger Kart Club's link on this page and read up on it. Check out Pegasus Auto Racing's link for good books on the subject, and to get an idea of what parts cost. Or just get out to your local track and see what all the excitement is about. I guarantee you won't be dissappionted.

July 10th

Although I've been racing for almost a half season already, Today was by far my best race all year. Make that, the best day all year.

I'm one of 5 new kids in this class and my dad and I have had a really tough time trying to get up front with the faster drivers. I always practice well, but when it comes to the heat and feature races I can only get 7th place. The next two drivers are real close but they both have more seat time than me and I can never seem to catch them. That was until this weekend.

We had the chassis set-up this morning by our engine builder and all around prep guy, Regan Vehring of 4-Cycle Central. He is great! As an engine builder, chassis set-up man, and driver coach. My dad said it had to be a whole lot of Regan and a little luck that got me my first 5th place finish in front of these two drivers. He's also very proud of how far I've come as a driver. Him and my mom were smiling for days. I hope our next race on the 24th is just as good. I'll let you know then.