Light at the end of the tunnel

This past Sunday we posted another 2nd place finish and bettered our time to within .03 of a second of our class record. As happy as we all are on the tremendous amount of progress we've made, it's bittersweet in the fact that once the front runners return from their trek to Pennsylvania that record is more than likely to fall in the mid 38 second range. No worries though as we'll be there very soon ourselves.

Sam and I really have to thank Dan and Travis Kosik alot for our recent successes. If it wasn't for them showing up at the track over the past two weekends we very well may not have improved as fast as we did. Travis is a great kid who's very friendly and knowledgeable, and not opposed to sharing tips with other people. And because Sam and Travis are so close when it comes to their times around Badger, this helped motivate Sam and gave him something to shoot for.

A big thank you also goes out to Laukaitis Racing Engines for getting us a carb in the 11th hour. The problems that we've been experiencing over the past three weeks are just about gone and with the new carburetor that he supplied us for this weekend we were able to post a personal fast time of 39.05 in HPV Jr. Thanks again Kent.

So technically after this weekend we are leading the points in our class. Although we did not set out this season to chase points in the club it would be a nice caveat if we were to win it. There are several drivers who could put an end to this for us real quick if they decided to enter a few more races between now and October. If this does happen though we won't mind, we'll take the competition over an easy win any day.

Badger Raceway- Sunday July 15th

I wish I could say that last week's carb issues were a thing of the past but we're still struggling a bit to find out what the situation is. The kart is definitely quick once it gets up to speed, hence our personal best lap time of 39.14, but it still struggles to move on the low end. The carb was rebuilt, settings were changed, and we even began to teach Sam how to reach back and tune the darn thing in flight. And after all of this, it was still a roll of the dice on whether or not we would make it out of the pits under it's own power.

Although the stress level was much lower than last week you wouldn't have thought a thing had you seen Sam. We brought a couple of his friends from back home with us to the track and they quickly embarked on doing what all young boys do. Make stupid noises, run around like indians,(forgive me if any native americans are reading this, I mean no disrespect) and flirt with girls. This was the first time I might say that I've witnessed my son noticing the opposite sex. He keeps this kind of thing pretty much to himself but I know he notices them. He's just too shy to admit it. It's not until he's around other guys that you can see it more clearly. Maybe this is half the reason for his stupendous showing out on the track. That whole peacock displaying it's feathers thing is a very powerful motivator.

Once the race came we were very confident that what little of a deficit we had we could conquer. The kart was getting pretty easy to predict and Sam was getting the hang of tuning it on the road. So this, combined with our dropping lap times, had us excited to see what the final held in store for us.

Travis Kosik joined us from his normal CES schedule and offered a great chance for us to compete with someone who was not only a great teacher for us but a good friend as well. I actually grew up with his late uncle Dave and knew his father and Aunt through this relationship. We all went to the same grade school together about 100 years ago and became reacquainted through the sport. Truly a small world.

The final was pretty uneventful with Sam nipping at the heels of Travis for much of the entire race. Both of them were posting some pretty impressive times. Impressive for Travis in the fact that he hadn't been on this track for some time and was trying to find his stride again, and impressive for us in just being able to stay that close to him. The real excitment came on the last lap. I almost couldn't believe what I saw when the two of them were nose to tail coming down to take the checkered flag. At the last moment Sam drew out from behind him to challenge for the win and just came up short. We took second place but there was no more than a half a kart length seperating them at the line.

Aggression? I asked myself. Was that aggression I just saw? Is he finally finding the tenacity that I've told him he needs to do the job? I sure hope so. I could get used to races like this every weekend.

AAAAARRRRGH!

Our once pristine kart now has it's first set of battle scars.

When practicing for last Sunday's race, Sam came upon a slower driver who was not very aware of his surroundings. When he went to overtake him on the inside of "the boot" at Badger, this driver came right across the track and chopped off Sam's line and a good portion of our nose in the process. Nothing mechanical was damaged in the altercation but the site of that body scuff is going to drive me nuts until the end of the season.

I had the priviledge many years ago of working with an all around master mind of race car fabrication and chassis prep who asked to remain anonymous. One of his attributes that rubbed off on me is the fact that all of your equipment had to be kept in immaculate condition all of the time. We would wipe down and polish our cars when they came off the track before we'd ever begin to inspect them. After all it did help in identifying potential problems, and a lot of things can be covered under a layer of dirt and grease that could remain hidden until they would bloom into something much larger.

But even though I'm thankful for all that I learned from him in the past, this is one thing that I wish I didn't. Or at least one that I'd pay less attention to later in life. It's almost become an obsessive compulsive disorder for me. And clean, polished, nicely painted equipment doesn't always make it to the finish line first so I don't know why I try so hard. Making it to the finish line first should be the only priority, clean or not. I'm going to try my hardest to live by this but it won't be easy.

I can't leave this one at the track

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.