I've learned a long time ago to "leave it at the office", and not to bring my work home with me. I can't say I've been the best at it but nonetheless I've tried. The same holds true for racing. You have your highs and lows and you learn to live with both of them. And up until now I think we've all done pretty good. So then why does the disappointment of this weekend not want to go away?
A lot of it had to do with the enormous expectations that we had. After all, This was the Midwest Sprint Series coming to OUR home track. We have plenty of miles logged at Badger, and our times were well on their way of closing in on the faster guys, so we thought we'd be able to truly compete with this group for a change.
We also rectified a couple of things with the kart that may have had an adverse affect on us performance-wise. Couple that with new rubber and a strong will to show the out-of-towners how we do things here and you can see how we felt that we really had a shot at something this weekend.
Friday's practice session was hot both on and off the track. The temperatures were hovering in the 90's making it unbearable to even sit still much less wrestle a kart around the track all day. Sam was getting beaten down by the heat pretty good so after a late morning session where he posted a personal best 39.43 lap, we decided to temporarily quit for a couple of hours and return to test later in the afternoon once things could cool off a bit. We were back out around 4pm for the last two remaining sessions and managed to stay in the mid 39 range. The kart was handling well, it was quick, and all looked very promising for Sunday's race.
Here's where the "life isn't fair" thing comes in to play. As hard as we worked to get down into the mid 39 second range, our competition worked just as hard to get in to the mid 38 range. We've been chasing this idea that 39 flat was where we needed to be to compete up front and now it looks like the bar has just been reset. Back to the drawing board!
Now comes the point in today's story where you hold your hands to your face and cry with frustration. I know I have for the past 2 days so feel free to join me. After all misery loves company, right?
Sunday morning's practice session went well and we were still firmly in the 39 second range. Once qualifying came though, the kart decided that it didn't want to move from a dead stop. The carb would load up so bad it took about 50 yards with the pedal to the floor to finally clear out and begin working it's way up to speed. By the time the race came it was so bad that Sam couldn't even stay up with the pack on the pace lap! And if any of you have been to a race and seen how much they slow the drivers down on a formation lap you'll understand how pathetically slow this kart must have been. Needless to say when the starter threw the green flag the field was almost to turn 2 before our kart cleared out and began to run. We were already a quarter lap down from the field before they completed the first lap!
If there's one silver lining to this horrible experience it's that Sam's commitment to finish this race well within the pack didn't change. After 5 laps he had made up enough time on them to make it look like things were beginning to turn around for us. With 10 laps left and at the pace he was going I felt he could easily catch back up but this premonition came to a screeching halt in a whisp of tire smoke as he spun the kart exiting turn 2 and couldn't continue on. Had the carburetor been working right he would have had enough power to re-enter the track and finish the race but once the throttle was released, the thing would load up so fast it couldn't get out of it's own way. A truly disappointing end to what should have been one of our finest moments.
Now we need to put this all behind us and just move forward. The next two weekends we're going to be back at Badger for the local club races. I'm hoping that after my telephone call to the engine builder, a few new parts, and a couple of test days we should be back in the swing of things again. I hope so, because it's going to be a long way for us to get into the 38's.
