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.