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.
