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.
