Taking things to the next level

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!



We are very excited to let everyone know that we've just launched the Inch-Hi Motorports online store. And now as of 11/20/2006 it's up and fully functional.

Check out the apparel and other items that have been customized with team logos and pictures and remember, all proceeds from the sale of these goods benefit two very deserving causes. One being the Help Sam secure an Indy Car ride Foundation as well as the Help Sam's dad retire with the shirt on his back Fund

To access the site go to

Inch-Hi Motorsports Online Store

2006 Awards Banquet

  

The Badger Kart Club held it's annual awards banquet on Nov. 11 at Olympia Village Resort in Oconomowoc, WI this past weekend. This year was quite special for us for several reasons.

First was the fact that Sam finished second in points in both the HPV Jr. Sportsman class and in the Junior Summer Series. The runner-up trophy is a monster. Sam was barely taller than it! The Junior Summer Series, as always, had great things to give away to all participants this year. Terry Thomas and everyone who put together this program deserve to take a bow. They really go out of their way to assure that the drivers in this series are always well taken care of.

 My wife and many others were recognized for all of their hard work and dedication to the club this past year. These were all individuals who went above and beyond what is asked of us as members. Shirley Howard is a great gal and rarely is there a case where she has all the help that she needs at any of our events. A core group of ladies has always been available to her to lend a hand when needed, and this night was Shirley's way of saying thanks to all of them. Everyone here at Inch-Hi Motorsports would like to say thanks to her as well for all that she's done for us this year and for keeping our club one of the most affordable ways to go racing in the country. We're going to be sad to leave them in '07 but we'll stop back from time to time to run with old friends.

 
 
    
The final reason that this year was so special for us, and definitely the most important, was the fact that we got to celebrate this night with other family members as well. We had a packed table this year. Both my wife's, and my parents were on hand as well as my sister and two aunts. The food was good and the awards ceremony was long but all of us had a good time being together to celebrate the end of another season. Like I've mentioned before we'll miss this next year as our plan now is to try our hand on the national level. Who knows, if the WKA brings back kart week at Daytona International Speedway between Christmas and New Years we might manage to get everyone down there together for that. Christmas in Florida? I'm in!

And now a final look at Badger Kart Club's 2006 HPV Jr. Sportsman runner-up, Sam Marmurowicz.   

Another season comes to a close

  

That's it, we're done, there is no more!

We've officially ended our 2006 season 1 race before the club calls it quits. Prior committments that I have personally are forcing us to miss the last race scheduled for next weekend but all of that aside, I think it's still the right time for us to hang it up for the year. We've been going almost non stop since April and it really takes a toll on you fast. We've secured our spot as the runner-up in the championship for HPV Jr. Sportsman anyway so it's now time for a collective sigh of relief. One last time we'll head back to the track on the 22nd for the Fun Race and Backwards Enduro but then it's off to a long deserved break for all.

These past two weekends saw beautiful weather and relatively easy days for us at the track. After competing there so much you start to figure out what set-up works and you just stick with it. We were lucky enough not to break anything, Sam consistently reduced his lap times to a personal best 42.14, and even managed his first 1st place finish that he actually took to the track for. It's too bad that this all had to happen on the last two days of the season. It sure would have been nice to experience this a little more frequently this year.

Unlike last season's lengthy year end speech on lesson's learned, I can honestly say this one will be shorter,(I'll wait for the roar of your applause to subside) and much more to the point.

Being that this was our second full year of racing we already knew alot of the things that were new to us last year making the anxiety level much lower at the beginning of the season. We knew there were still going to be people that seem to take it all way too seriously and make fools of themselves. And we knew there were going to be plenty of people that we were eager to see again and race with. My son and I both have a much better understanding of how a track changes during the day which will ultimately judge when you'll find quick times and when you won't. He's learned that 2-cycle engines can be felt much more through the chassis and steering wheel than his 4-stroker did from last season. And we learned that no matter how good of a time we're having, we're just not going to be really happy until we can keep up with the Jones's and afford a monster RV with a nice big trailer that I can't crack my forehead open on every weekend. My wife has actually been trying to talk me into it. She says that hotel rooms cost money, and we all know they do. She also said we need to drive there anyway so why not drive our hotel to the track with us! Well why didn't I think of that! It's brilliant! And I want to make it clear that I'm not being facetious. We already have the fuel costs factored into pulling the trailer there in the first place so in theory it sounds great. But this theory comes crashing straight down to earth when you find out how much one of these things cost and you figure you might get your money's worth if he's still living at home and racing with us when he's 30 years old. Don't count on this one happening any time soon.

Our long list of thank you's starts with Margay Race Products and Keith Freber, Brandon and Bonnie. All of whom listened to my silly questions all year long as we were making our transition from last year's chassis to the new Margay. We still have some work to do but came a long way with your help. I also want to thank them for completing our kart and shipping it to us literally ready to go. Unlike the erector set that most people have to deal with when they buy a new kart, ours just needed the wheels thrown on and off we went.

Kent Laukaitis of Laukaitis Racing Engines provided a good strong motor for us this season. And being racers on a budget, we didn't even send it in for a mid season refresh but managed to better our times every weekend we raced. A testament to a good package and a fine builder. Thanks Ken.

Jim Bennett. For his help on and off the track. We learned an awful lot from you this season, both myself and my son. Joe Hewitt. Who started this season with his son Ben as the only other Margay pilot in our class. He was more than willing to divulge any of his secrets to help us give the Birel camp a run for their money. And Willie Kootstra for continuously reminding me that we showed up to the grid with only half a motor!

Sam and I would like to give a very big thanks to Chris and Carla Heitman of Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies. Again your generosity and kindness continues to overwhelm us. When we started racing 2 years ago we never dreamed that we would ever compete in new equipment with top of the line products at our fingertips. This was something that we believed to be reserved only for factory drivers or the fortunate few. Working with, and knowing both of you has now made it possible for us to be in this group. Without your help this year none of this would have ever been possible.

And of course we saved the best for last. I especially would like to thank my wife Lori for all of her help this season and for weathering the occasional attitude problem from Sam and/or myself. She played a pivotal role in securing all of our work days required of us to be eligible for our class points. Not one time did I nor Sam have to volunteer ourselves to do some type of work that neither of us particularily wanted to do. She did them all and then some! And if anyone from Badger is reading this, I want it to be known that some sort of recognition should come to her for this. She has gone above and beyond what was asked of her and never once asked for anything in return. There were times when no one even asked if she wanted something to eat or drink while she was working! I say this not out of spite but because there are people in this great club of ours who do very little by contrast, but are very vocal about how much they want you to believe they do. These are the people who are always first in line for the accolades whether it's a much publicized pat on the back or a free meal. Don't worry dear. Like confucious said, "A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions". You've definitely done that.

And to Abi. The best tire cleaner a team could have. And for having to give up most of her summer weekends so her brother (and dad) could go play. For all of her work we're going to give her a chance at driving in two weeks in the powder puff race with Sam's kart. I know she'll do well and god help anyone on the track with her. I've seen how competitive she can be.

I know that I may have missed a few. The relatives that stopped out at the track, the friends who always have time to ask how he was doing, and everyone who comes to this site week after week to read up on our journey. Thank you all. I know this was originally intended to be his words recounting our efforts but I think I may have overestimated what a child of his age can really be expected to do. Although I hope the day finally comes when he can take over the task of writing these columns, I have no problem filling in until that happens. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing them.

Cheers

Follow the Leader

  Points race #14 was held at the Briggs and Stratton Motorplex nestled inside the confines of Road America Raceway in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. To anyone who hasn't seen this facility you are missing an absolutely beautiful place to enjoy a race. To those of you who have you'll agree when I say this is by far the best race track in the country.

A big plus for us was the fact that the Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival was going on at the same time as our event. All day you would be entertained with the sights and sounds of race cars of a bygone era streaming by at break-neck speeds. Everything from old Formula One and Indy Cars to Bugattis and Bug Eyes were there. And as valuable as the cars were you could count the number of driver's who pampered them on one hand. For the most part they were all driving these things the way they were meant to be driven - flat out! Case in point. A magnificent Group C car with a Judd V10 was just screaming around the track on Saturday when he blew a tire and vaporized most of his bodywork. Rumor had it he Duct taped what was left back together and continued on. But enough about the fortunate few and on to what the lower budgeted little guys do on the weekend.

Follow the leader. We all do it from time to time. I used to get a chuckle out of messing with our competition when I worked for a race team years ago. When you are fortunate enough to be running up front, your cars (or karts) are closely scrutinized by everyone. When you have a particular part or set-up that's in plain sight, chances are someone will mimick it real fast. We used to put absolutely stupid things on our cars to see who at the next race would be sporting this new item that must be helping us go so fast. They may never have known just what advantage we were getting out of it if any, just that if it worked for us it must work for them. I bring this up because this weekend a couple of situations were based on following someone's lead. One example was a good lesson in not always trusting what your competition is doing, and the other is keeping your head in the game and not developing tunnel vision.

This weekend we had the rare chance of having the WKA Manufacturers Cup National Champion in HPV Jr. Sportsman at the track competing against us. He's number one, numero uno, the big cheese, there's no one better than him in the entire country, and he's all of 10 years old! Man, if I thought that our points leader was hard to chase down then you could imagine that this driver was impossible to catch. From the drop of the flag he pulled away from the field so easily you couldn't help but wonder what a "national" motor had in it that ours didn't. I can't speak for anyone else's equipment, but ours has about 12 races on it, no rebuild, not even a refreshening, and is anticipating a nice winter's nap. I would assume anyone running nationals has their equipment gone through every few races but even so, you couldn't take away the fact that this kid could drive.

Where it gets silly is when some of the competition (myself included) started noticing different tricks on his kart and thought we might gain from them. A very wide stance on the rear end, a seat that was barely bolted to the chassis, and so on. These things probably all worked for him and his kart but could they work for us or was I falling for the placebo effect that we had placed on our competition so many years ago? We all returned to the grid an hour later with a variety of his tricks incorporated and not one of us gained a thing from it. One of the fathers in our class even said he was almost a half second slower with the new set up. The moral of this story: never follow the leader and just stick to what works for you. I'm still asking myself How I could have given in to that!

The second example is alot funnier and before I tell you let me explain the B&S Motorplex. This track can be configured in about 10 different ways. If you look at the track map it looks like an airport with taxiway and runways everywhere. Where you are going to go is dictated by bright orange pylons that they'll set out to change the track for any given weekend. We've competed there three times already in the past year and every time we've gone the track has been different.

With the champ well out in front of Sam and our closest rival James, the only race was really for second and third. James was about 6 kart lengths ahead of Sam but in a truly amazing show of effort Sam kept him pretty much in his sights all weekend. He really was doing well and like other races in the past, he consistently brought his times down every session and became more comfortable with drifting the kart through corners verses steering it. It really appeared that he brought his A-Game this weekend until about 5 laps into the race when James takes a wrong turn. I don't know what happened but James decided to leave out about two corners of the track and go through some pylons and wouldn't you know it Sam followed right behind him. He later told me that he was concentrating so hard on the back end of James' kart that he followed him right off course! The flag man was immediately drawn to this and before he looked like he was going to impose some sort of penalty to either of them, he just threw his arms up and let it go. No one really benefited from it, and the leader of the race was about 20 kart lengths ahead of both of us so what did it matter if we now were only 19 kart lengths away.

All in all I thought it was a great weekend. My wife and I love to come to this track any time we can. There's alot of memories here from when I used to drive, and this track was always our favorite. The weather held out nicely unlike what the forecasters were saying (what a surprise) and with the fine show going on out on the big track there was plenty to watch during your down time. As for our daughter, well she loves traveling period. Put her in a hotel down the street from our house and she'll think she's on vacation. Living out of a suitcase gets old for some folks but I can't see that happening with her anytime soon.

Points Race #12

Another day, another lesson learned. Loose is fast! Tight is not.

It's not that I never knew this. I mean it's more or less the mantra of karting. It's just that I thought we had the kart as loose as we were ever going to be. What I learned this weekend is what I learn any other time that I become complacent and feel I know what I'm doing and that is, I'm wrong again.

My son and I were just talking this weekend about how he misunderstood me when we got into this sport. He thought that I said since I had 12 years of auto racing experience under my belt, this kart thing was going to be a breeze. For the record I never said that in those exact words. I think it may have been more along the lines of me feeling that with less equipment to have to dial-in this would be simpler than anything I had worked on in the past. On the contrary karting is much more complex and challenging than anything my Formula Ford could have thrown at me. And I mean no disrespect to the Ford guys. It's not like you just show up at the track and throw fuel in your car and race. There is plenty for you to do as well. It's just a different animal. Someone once told me something along the lines of this: If you only have three things to do verses sixteen, those three things being done right are going to be that much more crucial in the outcome of your efforts. The less you have to do, the more you have to be absolutely perfect at each one of them. I think we were actually talking about drivers in road racing verses drag racing, but I think you could apply this theory to the guys turning the wrenches as well. The less you have to work with, the harder it is to get the results you're looking for.

Up until recently I thought that I had my end of things sealed up for this season. I believed that everything I could do to give Sam the best kart possible had already been done and now it was time for him to step-up his game and show me something. All the fine tuning was going to come from him in getting our lap times down further. Wrong yet again!

Jim Bennett, father of James (who is leading our class in points), comes up to me in practice and says we need to do something to loosen our kart up and get Sam through the corners easier. He noticed Sam was holding the steering wheel in a constant position through the corner and that the kart was never "pitching" into the corner. It was more like plowing. Shorter hubs and a track adjustment then back out we go but not before making Sam realize that the kart was now going to slide around a bit more than he may be used to. And slide it did, but through all of this we still managed to consistently lower our lap times. Now that the first plan of attack is complete it's on to Phase II.

With the back end taken care of we now had to narrow up the front track in an attempt to get it to slide around just a bit more. It looked really good in the last session but we thought there were still gains to be made. We sent him out on his final run of the day and noticed a big difference. He now just had to flick the steering wheel slightly into the corner then bring it back straight, allowing the kart to drift through the turns instead of being steered through them. This was no easy task for him and in one occassion it sent him looping off course with his eyes as big as saucers in his helmet! He managed to keep it running and finish the race but the most important thing for me was the fact that now the attitude of our kart was looking more like what I was so used to seeing with James.

For the most part we actually have a new kart. One that doesn't act like the kart of old at all. That one was too safe, too comfortable, and slow at best. With this new set up we have a kart that is going to require a little more work to drive right and a little more guts to accept. Sam almost has to teach himself to drive all over again but I'm not really worried about it though. Through all of this he still managed to keep his times fairly consistent and low. We never beat our personal best that we set out to do today, but I feel what we got instead is far more valuable. With a little more work and the time to get comfortable with it again, he'll be well on his way to the 41's that we felt we'd never get.

Points Race #11

All I can say is that it's good to get back to some kind of normalcy. Even if it was a bittersweet weekend of sorts.

In our usual fashion we finished second in our feature and managed to consistently bring our lap times down session after session. This, combined with the fact that we had relatives in attendance who flew in from out of town for our family reunion, made for the sweeter portion of our day.

Sam was definitely on his mark all day, posting lap times in the mid 42 second range. Not to take anything away from his efforts but for the first time this season they started the faster class behind us for a change. In HPV Jr. Sportsman there are so few entries that the club has been combining other classes in with us. Until this weekend they were doing split starts with the faster group out front. Now having changed that, Sam was faced with faster and older drivers bearing down on him at a very rapid rate. This must have been just the motivation that he needed to perform as well as he did. You could tell he really didn't want this bunch to catch him. This change just may have been what the doctor ordered to light a fire under him and get us going faster.

On the bitter end of things we found out that our frame is indeed bent. We'd been speculating on it since his crash at Blackhawk but weren't absolutely sure until this weekend when we had the kart on a flat pad and scales. It's very minor but just enough to have thrown the front end out of alignment, leaving Regan Vehring of 4-Cycle Central to come up with an alternate way to straighten everything back to as close to normal as possible. Mission accomplished though as the kart never appeared to be sluggish or darty and Sam never complained of feeling anything out of the ordinary. It never fails though. Last season we had an 8 year old well used chassis and ran it into a variety of things. Never once did it appear to be bent. This season with a brand spankin' new chassis we run into someone just once and the outcome is totally different. It's kind of like not being able to pay someone to crash into your $100 beater car but the moment you pony up the 30 grand for a new one, a rogue shopping kart finds your shiny new passenger door.

Anyway Sam and I want to thank everyone in our family who showed up this weekend, especially Frank Jr. who helped out all day in the pits and back at our trailer. I think we're safe to say that he enjoyed himself as much as we enjoyed having him. And I think I can recall hearing him mutter the words "I'd like to get me one of these" a few times so maybe, just maybe, some day there will be another Marmurowicz blazing a trail at an Atlanta area kart track sometime soon.

Murphy's Law couldn't have been more prevalent!

Anyone who has ever been involved in any form of motorsport will read this post and immediately relate to it. Resting on the old adage: "That's racing".

In no way was I myself or my son ever promised that anything in this life comes easy. We've never expected it to be but it would just be nice to catch a break every now and then. I've written about bad times before but nothing compares to this last event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. We've had bad days before but never three consecutive days in a row! Were the gods angry at me? And if I did something to deserve this why punish my entire family for it? It really started to look like someone upstairs had it in for us or was trying to test us in some way.

We decided to leave for the track on Thursday night to get an early start on Friday's all day practice session. That night we spent sleeping on the floor of the trailer and it should have been some indication of things to come but how comfortable can one be in a trailer anyway? We woke to what looked like a fine day of practice. A little warm, but sunny and not a cloud in the sky. The only tiny drawback was that all of us were a bit sore, under rested, and in need of a shower.

Sam took to the track in his first session of the day but never came around for his first lap. I hunted down an official and he told me there was a report of a driver off in turn three and that he was out of the kart and OK. What could have gone wrong? Everything was checked and double checked before he went out so it must have spun on cold tires I thought. I wouldn't get to really know until the end of the session so the important thing for now was the fact that he's fine.

The truck and trailer came down the track carrying back to us one filthy Margay kart and one dejected driver. On the outside it looked like what took place was a simple spin off course into a really wet area. I mean there was grass and mud on every square inch of the thing. On the contrary, what had happened he said was that another driver much further up the track from him had spun off course and then right back on in front of him. Sam didn't have alot of room to get by him and eventually made contact with his right rear, almost kicking himself clear out of the seat. Hearing this I attempted to spin the rear wheels and confirmed my worst expectations - the axle was indeed bent, 4 teeth were ground off of the sprocket, and we had a severely deformed brake rotor. Pretty much the entire back end was broken or bent in some way.

I walked what seemed like the entire paddock and eventually found all of the parts we needed. In the process I also managed to consume all of the cash that we had with us for the weekend! What was equally bad was the fact that what had originally been thought of as being a quick fix took almost four hours of our day to correct. The axle I found was not for a Margay and the keyways didn't line up properly. This forced us to become creative with how we had to offset it to make everything else line up. With this done we returned to the track for only two short practice sessions that were left in the day but never really reached our stride. We decided to toss in the towel, check in to our hotel, and get some much needed rest.

Our bad luck continued on Saturday when we failed to get to the track in time for our first of two scheduled practice sessions. When the second session finally came we never even made it out of the pits with what was thought to be a suspected fuel delivery problem. No need for panic, we're just going to have to fix it and hope that our intended set-up is going to work for our race today. Unfortunately for us the disappointment wouldn't stop there. When the green flag finally flew on our race Sam managed to drive the kart about 100 feet before it coughed and died on him again. With the help of several individuals along pit row we repeatedly tried to start it and get him back on the track but to no avail, it just wouldn't stay running.

Sick with the thought that I finally had something wrong with the kart that I couldn't diagnose, I took the carb off and brought it to Don from L.A.D. Specialties. He spent nearly the entire afternoon helping us out and answering all of our questions while we tried time after time to put it together and pull it apart in our quest to make this engine run again. I can't thank him enough for his knowledge and all of his help because by 5pm when the track closed for the day we finally had a kart that would move again under it's own power. We all went back to the hotel very optimistic in our chances for tomorrow's race.

Now it's one thing to experience bad luck at the track, but it's totally another issue when it seeps into your personal life as well. It's about 3am and we're all awakened by a drunken lover's spat in the hotel room next to us. After about an hour of listening to their shouting and banging I decide to skip my intended idea of strangling them myself and call the front desk instead. Problem solved. At least for an hour until they chimed up again but I think we were all so beat we were finally able to sleep right through it.

The alarm at 6am came way too soon. We all got up, showered, and got ready to check out when my son noticed how dark it was for 6:30 in the morning. It did seem strange to me at the time but I just discounted it as overcast skies and continued to pack the truck to get to the track. It wasn't until my wife looked at her watch and noticed that it was 5:30am that we truly knew why it was so dark. Now I remember. Before we went to sleep the night before I had a problem with the alarm clock in the room and mistakenly set the time ahead by an hour. Yesterday we were late, and now today we have more than enough time. This all wouldn't matter anyway as the rain began to fall just as we got to the track and eventually washed out all racing for the day.

So there you have it. Several hundred dollars later and only two sessions out on the track. The only thing that we learned from this weekend is that it's going to take a lot more than this to break us. And do you want to know the biggest farce of it all? For making it just barely past the timing and scoring tower in our race on Saturday, Sam was awarded with his very first win. It seems that in our race group of about 6 classes Sam was the only one registered in HPV Jr. Sportsman. All he had to do was take the green flag to receive a first place finish and a nice plaque to show for it. I would have rather looked back on this as a nail-biting back and forth fight to the finish with him being the ultimate winner but when you think of it, this isn't all that bad of a story either.

July 23rd, Points Race #10

What originally looked like an average day at the races turned into yet another personal best for Sam today. He had a lap time of 42.71 in practice and a pretty good dog fight with a new driver to the track. We thought we finally had someone that we could race with a little more closely but that all fizzled quickly once the feature came. This driver ran away at the start and just about took the win from the class points leader leaving us to occupy the third place spot. Still not bad for a day's work but it would have been a lot more fun to see him further up in the fight.

Now it's off to Blackhawk Farms Raceway in two weeks. This is Sam's favorite track to date and we're all really looking forward to it. Even our dog who get's the rare opportunity to come with us to the track as well as the hotel.

Blackhawk Farms is a 1.9 mile track built for automobile racing and is much wider, longer, and faster than what he's used to seeing in your average kart track. Last year when we ran a Briggs engine he could literally stand on the gas all the way around the track. Even though the speeds we'll reach this year are much higher in our current class, I have to think he'll still be flat-footin' it around the place. If my calculations are right he should be averaging around 79 MPH and that's pretty spectacular for a twelve year old. I don't know who should be more spooked? Me for letting him do this or him for doing it. Like I said, when I was his age I still had a playing card in my spokes and only went as fast around the block as my two feet would take me. A far cry from where he's at today. The other nice thing about this event is it's part of the Championship Enduro Series which brings a whole new and different crop of young drivers to compete against. He's always saying that he wants more people to drive with and this is just the weekend for that.

June 25th, Points Race #8

What a relief! What once looked like another rain out for us turned out to be a pretty good day. Our first 2nd place finish, a personal best lap time, and a world of lessons learned.

In our last post I explained that I was struggling to get this kart working for him, and that I had talked to everyone and read everything that I could. Well I was wrong. This weekend we had the luxury of having Jim Bennett coach both myself and and my son on everything from carb set-ups to where he should be putting the kart on crucial corners. Jim is the father of James who is the current points leader in our class. Let's just say aside from the fact that they are a virtual runaway in the points, both Jim and his son have seen more than their share of laps around this track.

He started by straightening out our carb. I didn't realize that the adjustments on these things are so minute, that a hairline turn on a metering screw can make the difference between running strong and falling flat on your face. After that, just some basic things like plug gap and index was checked, then off for our second practice session of the day. For what little was done it literally breathed new life into that engine. It sounded better and our temps were much closer to where they needed to be. Jim also taught me how to more effectively read my MyChron dash to find out every little thing that's happening to that engine on any given lap. Something I will be paying much closer attention to from now on.

Once that was done we moved on to Sam. Jim pointed to certain areas on the track that he wanted Sam to hit and after about 6 laps of practice he lowered his times by nearly 2 full seconds! Although still a little reluctant to do it, he was going almost full throttle through turn one which has been an on going obstacle for us all season now. I think he's learned a valuable lesson too which I've been trying to tell him for the past two years. "Slow in the cockpit = fast on the track." It's a hard thing to explain to a 12 year old. That the fastest lap times usually come when you work the least, but after he finished the feature I think the point sunk in somewhat. "I'm sorry Pop but I think we were a little slower this round" he said to me. It had been raining lightly and he complained that the kart was pretty unstable and a little harder to control. But on the contrary when we checked his gauge it recalled a fast lap time of 42.86 seconds. The fastest we had gone all day, and in less than perfect conditions I might add.

We were all very proud of him and he was beaming from ear to ear as well but we all know we still have a lot of work cut out for us. To get anywhere near the front we have to knock another 2 full seconds off his times. It sounds like an eternity but look how far we came in what little we did this weekend! Once he can get used to driving the kart at it's limits all of the time, not just through turn one, the times will fall steadily. He's going to have to be comfortable in jumping curbs and sliding around a bit before we'll see that happen but I know he's got it in him. It's just a matter of time.

This weekend was the first in a long time that we didn't have anyone from Sam's fan club present. Previous obligations by all meant that this weekend was just to be for the four of us. One person in particular who won't be joining us anymore is our niece Aaliyah. My Sister and Brother-in-law had been her foster parents for years now and she's been quite the character since day one. No matter how bad of a day we were having at the track she'd say or do something to put a smile on your face and put everything back into perspective again. Both of my kids loved her as we all did and she will be sorely missed. We were truly blessed to have her as a part of our lives if even for a short period of time. All we can hope and pray for is that her biological mother gives her all the love and care that she needs, and that she had when she was with us. Good luck Kiddo, we love you.

Point Race #6, June 4th

Oh well, another third.

What makes this one different from the other third place finishes is that we are a little bit closer to second, and alot better on lap times.

At the sake of saving face, I'm not going to go into detail about how I've managed to be sending us in the wrong direction over the past few weeks. Let's just say I was told one thing and instead of checking to see if it was correct, I just believed the individual(s) and continued on. That was until this weekend when we took an entire day to practice and found out we were wrong. WAY WRONG!

Having renewed enthusiasm we returned to the track on Sunday hoping for better gains. Although we still feel we are not quite in the league with the top two drivers, we are making progress. A reliable source informed me of a couple of different chassis tweeks that would show us some benefit. Out came the wrenches and after all was done we reduced our lap times by almost 7 tenths of a second! For the most part we are almost identical in chassis set-up and engine tuning to the other Margay driver in our class. With the exception of this driver having about 3 more years of experience on us, we should be up there relatively soon. That is if Sam polishes his driving skills a bit more. There's still a night and day difference between his lines and exit speeds verses the others. Then again we still have to realize that we're now in a class that easily runs 5-7 seconds faster per lap than what we were used to.

Since school is out we're going to make it a point to try and get to the track at least one if not two days a week to practice. The little way that we have to go is only going to happen with seat time. I know for a fact that if he could overcome one or two of his problem spots on the track, he would be amazed at how much quicker he would be, and that he then could become a little more of a worry to the others as well.

One last thing. With school being out you may be glad to know that starting with the next race, most if not all of the posts will be done mainly by Sam. I'm going to have him become more involved in this and paint the picture more in his words verses mine.

Points Race #5, May 21st

Remember the popular old fishing bumper sticker, "A bad day of fishing.....? Well you can pretty much insert any hobby or past time into that phrase and it carries the same impact. But in my case I can honestly say that a bad day of racing is certainly not better than a good day at work. At least not last Sunday the 21st. That day I wished to god I was back at the office.

It was a colder than usual morning so we were plagued with a slick track for both practice sessions. Sam looped the thing in both sessions leaving him so far behind the other guys that he never really had anything or anyone to chase and learn from. The first spin was pretty harmless. No contact with anything so he just continued on. The second spin on the other hand sent him over the rumble strip and into the grass. He was trying to get himself back onto the track when an official ran up to him and grabbed his seat to stop him. He was concerned with the traffic that was near and wanted to send him off after they passed. The problem is the goofball pushed him back onto the track back over the rumble strip! This hairbrain move tore 4 teeth off a new sprocket and threw the chain, eventually binding it in our clutch. Since we were one of the last groups to practice and one of the first groups to race, we had to miss our first heat while we fixed the kart. Things didn't change much for the second heat or the feature for that matter. I was running around like a crazy man trying to widen that, and lean out this, that I wasn't quite sure what was working and what was not. Cardinal sin number one. Do not change more than one thing at a time. It's common sense and I know it. It's just that desperate men do desperate things and sometimes they're not the right things.

It was a bit frustrating for my son as well. He wants to be in the thick of things and 9 times out of 10 we are kart lengths behind anyone. Can't really blame the chassis since we have another driver in our class with the exact same kart and he's doing great. Can't blame the engine really. Although there are many builders out there, this class is pretty much spec. No adjusting of anything other than the high and low jet settings. The principle of this class is to keep it even so driver talent shines. Could Sam have more experience? Sure he could, but I truly believe he's about 95% there. There's still a learning curve but even though he jumped into a class this year that runs on average over 4 seconds quicker per lap, he's still quite smooth and shows real maturity out there. We'll still continue to practice every chance we get, that goes without saying. Which brings me to ME. Do I really know what I'm doing? If I don't I'd like to know which book I didn't read or which individual I didn't talk to because I'm about certain that I've referenced every bit of information that is out there for me. I'll never say that I know everything but I have to believe that I'm in the right ballpark at least. It can just get a little disheartening when you think that you've done all that you can do yet there's a distinct difference in your engine tone verses the others. Is it down on power? A wrong line out of a crucial turn? Bad gear selection? Puts you right back to square one all over again.

It's basically going to come down to practice, practice, and more practice. Nothing else is going to help us find the answers to all of our questions. And not just for his driving but for my tuning as well. You can only ask so many people how they do it before you realize that you have to take what's said with a grain of salt. It works for them but should just be a guideline for you. At the time of writing this piece I just received word from the engine builder about a set-up that looked promising on an engine he just had on the dyno. A light at the end of the tunnel? In one week you'll find out.

Sunday May 7th

A pretty uneventful weekend in general. I learned that the slew of sprockets that I purchased and brought to the track were not the right ones for our application. Knowing this we had to forge ahead with basically the same set-up as last week. Sam was not very happy with the fact that he'd be chasing his tail again this weekend. Aside from experimenting with tire pressures we had nothing in our arsenal to help us get further up with the top two runners in our class.

Well 3rd place always sounds good on paper but when you factor in that no one else showed up other than the three of us, it paints a totally different picture. We'll take it though. I promised him we'd pick up the correct parts and head out to practice this weekend before our next race and hopefully we'll have a little more exciting news to report next week. Beating the top running driver may be a stretch, but once I understand this new kart a little more I have all the faith in the world in him and his ability to compete more closely with them.

First Rain-out

This past Sunday was our first rain-out. Frankly Sam and I didn't want to go to the track this weekend anyway so it worked out fine for us. Allergy attacks made life miserable for me so the rain was a welcomed contributor to this cancellation.

We got first place points though! Unfortunately so did everyone else. How, you may ask? Well the club has a rule where if a race is cancelled and you do not compete in at least two heat races, all PAYING drivers will recieve 200 points each. So when I called the track to make sure everything was off for the day, the young lady on the end of the line confirmed it, then went on to tell me to get myself to the track and pay to enter my driver if we wanted to receive his points for the day. And by the way, do it within the next 45 minutes because the track is closing soon. I'm in my pajamas and more than 45 minutes away, so jacket on, in the truck, and a quarter of a tank later I'm paying to enter Sam in a race that's never going to take place.

Now I don't quite agree with this procedure but I guess it's the best compromise that the club can come up with for people who are there already. I can understand the volunteers who show up and have to wait until they call it a day to leave. I can also understand the guys who drive long distances to get here for the weekend only to turn around and go home. What I can't understand is why we couldn't compensate them in some other way as to not inconvenience the rest of us who choose not to embark in the first place. Why can't we give everyone a big fat zero for the day and credit those who paid already. It can't be that big of an administrative nightmare to note individuals who paid but didn't race and just give them a freebie next week could it?

Anyway I learned a lesson here. If we want to stay in the points chase, my big lazy rump cannot stay firmly planted in a chair or in bed on days when it could be rained out. I'll have to go to the track like everyone else and pay my dues. Literally showing that in one form or another, we're all just racing with our wallets.

1st race of the season, not bad for the new guy.

Sunday April 23rd was the first points race in our 17 race season. Although we find ourselves not only in a relatively small class, the few who run it are light years ahead of us. Aside from the fact that we are only in our second season, and the fact that we are 4-cycle transplants, we have a lot of learning to do. This kart and the class we run in are much faster than anything we're used to. And the driver's who we are up against have a lot more seat time than us and it shows. Not to steal any of Sam's thunder. He's adapting pretty quick and I think we can be in the thick of things some time soon.

We showed up knowing that we could still be underweight for our class. 250lbs for the kart and driver are the rules. Up 25 pounds from last year. I thought I purchased enough weight to get us close and I could rely on filling the fuel tank more or less should I need to compensate. No such luck! After hanging 22lbs of scuba diving weight to the seat we weighed in about 5 lbs light in practice. I found some more weight and we got ourselves close, I mean real close. With a half of a tank of fuel at the end of the feature race we weighed 250 on the nose. Too close for my liking so I'm adding another 2lbs next week.

Being our first time in competition with the new kart and engine we found nothing to really be disappointed with. The kart is very forgiving and accepts changes well. The engine and clutch are pretty much a spec package so there's no real science to tuning or adjusting it. One low speed adjustment, one high speed adjustment, thats' it! And the engine builder pretty much told us where to set it and leave it. You really can't get any easier than that. SHAMELESS PLUG As a matter of fact I don't know why more people aren't getting involved in racing HPV classes. Once the initial investment is made in your engine you can graduate from class to class by just changing the carb and your pipe. The engines from what I hear are very robust so freshening and rebuilds are not done as frequently as one might think. And having a spec clutch, spec tires, and the constant scrutiny that tech officials give to it, makes for a more driver oriented series. Cheaters Beware! You truly have to be a good smooth driver to walk away with anything in this class.

And walk away they did. Once the heat races began we found out what seat time and all around smooth driving can get you. I want to point out that all of the youngsters in this class are good including Sam, but two boys in particular have what it takes to really seperate themselves from the pack in a hurry. This is where it gets hard to explain to my son that I can't pull a rabbit out of my hat, or build him more of an engine to get him closer to them. He needs seat time. Lap after lap, day after day, just plain seat time. The driver who is leading our series, and will most likely remain in the lead of our series, has been driving for at least 5 years now. It also helps that they are probably one of the higher funded teams that we're up against. This combination is lethal to anyone competing against them. You see an awful lot of people in racing that have one or the other. Unfortunately they tend to fail somewhere down the line. But when you have both, the world is your oyster.


As for the races, everything was pretty much uneventful for the most part. Sam diced with another Margay driver all morning trading places during the heat races but managed to stay ahead of him in the feature netting him 3rd place. Like I mentioned before, the top two drivers started their seperation from us almost immediately. Sam had the fourth place driver on his tail literally for the whole race and I was paying more attention to the flagman than the race at times just waiting to see that white flag in his hand. Once out you would think I'd be relieved but I was far from it. The fourth place driver had much better gearing for the long straights and was easily catching Sam through out the race when they came out of the tight stuff. If Sam bobbled one bit on the last corner the race would be lost. I don't know how he did it. When I raced cars pressure like that usually cost me something, but he stayed calm, kept plenty of speed through that corner, and easily beat him to the checkered. Not bad for the new kid in town.

It's finally here!

Sorry about the long wait everyone, but we finally got the new chassis and engine delivered to us about two weeks ago. We made time to go out and shake everything down to see how it works and are pleased to say how very happy we are with how it handles. Everyone at Margay who had their hand in building this kart, as well as Kent Laukitis of Laukitis Racing engines has done a marvelous job. Our lap times are almost 4 full seconds quicker than we ever went before, and Sam doesn't appear to be struggling or showing any signs of being in over his head. I'm really amazed at how fast he's adapting to this new kart.

I've got some learning to do as well. We've now crossed over from 4-cycle to 2-cycle which is a much different world of it's own. I'm not yet comfortable with the amount of oily residue that's getting blown across everything in the back of the kart when we run this thing. After every session I find myself cleaning the whole kart for 20 minutes before a wrench ever sees the thing. Blame my slight case of OCD but I'm not letting my investment turn into a living breathing example of the Exxon Valdez wreck. I have to have my equipment clean! Now if I could apply that same thought process to my lawn, or the basement, I'd be as happy as that guy named Bob in the Enzyte commercials.


I also have to learn to use the new data aquisition equipment that we have. MyChron makes an unbelievable dash system for karting as well as auto racing. It's light and compact, and just like any data aquisition system, comes with a fairly large amount of things it can monitor. But, if the user has no clue as to what he's reading, it ends up being just another pretty light show to impress your friends with.

This is our year for new things you might say. We just purchased an enclosed trailer as well to haul all of this equipment. No more trying to fit everything in and on my truck, forcing us to take two vehicles to the track. With gas being over 3 bucks a gallon, this came at just the right time. In addition to the financial end of it, now we can all sit comfortably in one vehicle and have everything we need stored where it belongs. What once seemed like an unneccesary "want", is now looked at as an over due "need". We might be able to outfit it with any creature comforts we might need so we can camp right at the track and avoid expensive hotel bills when we're out of town. This all sounds like a lot of fun to everyone in the family but I'm sure it'll grow old soon when it's realized that a hot shower and a flush toilet are not always going to be at your fingertips.

Mike's E-mail Address

I've had an overwhelming amount of requests by people who are looking to contact me directly. Just for the record, my e-mail address is mjm@pegasusautoracing.com

Feel free to contact me at your leisure. On any subject, whether it's race related or not. Keep me in line too. I'd like to think that when my son allows me to ramble on, I'm being as unbiased and unopinionated as I can. If I offend anyone, let me know.

Although this is my son's site, I have not yet given him an e-mail address of his own. Any and all questions for him should be directed to me and I will forward them on to him.

Thanks,

Mike Marmurowicz