New Engine, New Tires, New Excuses

Since our last race on June 4th, we had received our rebuilt motor and mounted new tires.  One by one we were removing our excuses and we were feeling pretty good about our chances of getting closer to the front of the pack.  Pretty good indeed.  Right up until 1 am Sunday morning.

One ayem Sunday morning was about the time I realized we were in trouble because I was still awake.

The excuse du jour

I had spent the week working in Spokane and my body-clock was still on west coast time. 1:00 am seemed like 10:00 pm to my body and it wanted to know why the heck we were going to bed so early. But if it was just one night of shorted sleep, I don't think I would have been as concerned but this was night three of minimal sleep. A nearly all nighter was required of me in Spokane Thursday night and my flight back to Columbus was an three leg hop across the continent through the wee hours of Saturday.

7:30 am Sunday had Tracy and I pulling out of the driveway bound for Circleville. Dana and my folks, in from Chicago, would arrive in time for the first heat race. Tracy wasn't doing much better than I, having been out until after 1 am with friends at King's Island. So our "base camp" went up at the track amid uncharacteristic apathy and after as long a donut break we could afford, we set about the race morning prep on the kart. And even at that early hour the temperature was already over 90 degrees.

Practice

The new engine needed a couple break-in sessions and the new tires needed to be scrubbed in so we decided to do two full practices. For break-in we were aiming for about 5800 rpm and geared the kart for that. We were a little surprised to see 6100 on tach then. Everything felt good but the new tires, incidentally, really didn't seem like an improvement over the worn ones. A lap of 53.29 was encouraging for fairly leisurely run.

I hadn't watched the cylinder head temperature guage very closely during the first practice (shame on me - the first indication that I wasn't on my game) and for the second I intentionally let all the other karts get ahead of me so I could go about my business un-distracted. After a few laps I noticed the temperature climbing through 420 degrees - still safe but higher than I've seen it before and I freaked out a little. I adjusted the carb for more fuel and immediately lost about 600 rpm as well as 20+ ticks on the temp gauge.  Leaning it out again, I got some of it back but made no improvement over the earlier session time.

I also became acutely aware during this session of the affects of my sleep shortage. Normally, when driving at speed, the mind is what I've always referred to as being "ahead of the car" or kart in this case, thinking of and planning what is going to happen a few tenths or a half second before it does. When mentally unprepared for driving at speed, it seems as though the mind is "behind the car" and things happen too quickly. Rather than planning and waiting for the next braking point or turn-in, the mind does more "Whoa!, we're here already". The driving is reactive instead of proactive. The result is an uncomfortable, disjointed seemingly unending series of mini crisis rather than a confident, flowing stream of precision movements. Rather than the machine feeling like an extension of the body, the body feels like a more like an attachment to the machine.

Race 1 - Strategy is no substitute for horsepower

By the first heat race (and "heat race" was particularly appropriate name this day) our thermometer was displaying 100. We had changed to a race gear to give us more revs for the race and had changed out the oil the engine was broken in on. I had drawn starting position 2, outside row one, beside Jonathan Dick.  I thought it would be nice to get a good start and lead into turn 2 if possible. If I timed the green flag just right I might be able to get a run on Dick and swoop across going into Turn One.

I didn't and Dick edged ahead. Jason Karr (I think), starting on the inside of row two ran up the back of Dick and pushed them both through on the inside. Being off line in turn one forced me to back off a bit and the loss of momentum allowed another kart (Jack Humphry?) through before we got to turn 3. From second to fourth in two corners. I'll have to work on my starts. Down the backstretch I lost another position just on horsepower. The head temp gauge was reading 380something, too low. Leaning it out helped and I was able to maintain the margin to the guy ahead of me but make no advances on it.

Lapping on my own the rest of the race, I was able to analyze the performance of the new tires.  As I discovered earlier, they didn't feel much different from the worn ones they replaced - until later in the race. The new tires' performance remained consistent whereas the old tires would begin to slide noticeably the second half of the race. As a result of this consistency, I managed to keep the kart on the black part of the raceway and pointed in the preferred direction. The other thing I noticed was that the super high surface temp made the track very sticky and several times the kart "bicycled" - cornered on two wheels - the result of too much traction. A certain degree of sliding is preferable in these low powered karts and the stickiness would be something we'd want to adjust out.

Race 2 - Horsepower is no substitute for sanity

The second race started getting wild even before the green. I was starting in fifth position right behind Ken Chamberlain. Bo Strawser (Bob's son) was on pole. I really don't know what Bo was trying to do but he set the pace lap as a crawl. Coming up to the start of these races there is a lot of minor bumping nose to tail as everyone bunches up in the last turn. The pole man, naturally, can set the speed of the pace lap at his discretion.  But what Bo was setting was not a pace lap as much as a creep lap.  But, the Strawsers have been at this kart racing a lot longer than we have and if this is the way the game is played, I'm willing to play.  My concern though was we were going so slow that my clutch was overheating to the point where it was not disengaging completely and was pulling my engine down and making it vulnerable to fouling the plug or stalling out altogether.

Then, Chamberlain gave Strawser an encouraging little shot up the bumper (which, by that time I think we all wanted to give him) - Bo's response to which was to just plain stop. Now we were a parking lot as Strawser looked back at Chamberlain accusingly. Chamberlain shrugged and gestured over his shoulder at me, as if I had pushed him into Bo. Whatever, I didn't mind. Actually, I would have been heartily amused if the clutch heating problem wasn't putting me in imminent danger of stalling right there and then. We resumed the "pace" lap just in time. But it wasn't soon enough for Jonathan Dick, on the outside of row two, who stalled out while Bo and Ken signed back and forth to each other.

While Dick's crew came out to restart him, the rest of us got a few free fast laps around the oval. This was just what our clutch needed. Once everyone was running and lined back up, we did the creepy-crawly thing again up to the start line. At CRP they use a couple of pylons on the front straight to channel the grid across the start/finish line to limit overtaking before the line on the starts. One pylon on the edge of the pavement and the other smack in the center. All the karts have to pass between these two pylons on the start and there can be no passing until you're beyond the line. Coming up to the line Chamberlain had a run on Strawser and as soon as he saw the first flicker of green flag jumped out and went around the pylon to get inside Bo.  Can't remember if it worked out, I soon had my own hands busy.

I lost sixth position going into turn 3 - this may have been because I had lifted a bit to see what was going to happen ahead of me. There was a kart down on the curb again and a lot of bumping and banging and sliding but no one spun out. Going into four the guy (either Jason Karr or Aaron Blue - they're teammates) who had just demoted me a corner before left the door wide open. I was able to take back sixth in the hairpin and follow Humphry, who was side-by-side with another kart, out and onto the backstraight. I'm not sure what happened next but Humphry and the other guy seemed too close together for my comfort and stayed to the left. This proved to be a wise move as a moment later these two made contact and both went flinging off into the weeds on the right.

This, by my count, put me into third place what with those two off the track and Chamberlain ahead on the track but surely DQ'd for the pylon infringement. Humphry got back on the track far in arrears. The other kart in that incident ultimately retired from the race. I was hoping the driver which I had gotten by in the hairpin might have been caught up in it too but going into Turn Three on the next lap my hopes were dashed.

He tried the ever popular NASCAR-sytle clobbering from behind to knock me off line and out of the way. It was effective but he was not able to get by and really just alerted me to the challenge and prompted me to protect the inside line going into the hairpin at four. But we were still a little low on revs and power and come the braking zone at the end of the backstraight, he had claimed the inside line and I have to let him have the corner. But, that line compromised his exit speed and I was able to just get back under him again at Turn Six. I was able to stay in front of him all the way to the backstraight again where we replayed the whole thing over. This time, however, he had a little better speed out of Five and my attempt to slice back inside at Six didn't work nearly as well as the lap prior. He chopped down for the apex and we touched, his kart taking to the air a bit. We both stayed on the track and carried on but I was not able to get close again.

For the Feature race we speculated on what we could do to get more power out of the motor. I felt it was just a matter of not getting the fuel mixture right in these very hot conditions so we tried a different jet. Also, in addition to the regular list of items and systems to check, we also checked the front alignment in case the wheel-banging episode had knocked it out of whack. It hadn't.  It was still in whack.

Race 3 - Always look on the bright side of life

Starting outside row three for the feature there wasn't much more we could do. We were still low on power compared to our competitors and as they slowly drove off into the distance, I experimented with the fuel mixture screw, making worse more often than better. Ultimately, it was another race written off to experience. Jack Humphry (right) won his second in a row, overcoming that crash in Heat 2. Congrats to him. To alleviate the disappointment of the results I consoled myself with the fact that the we didn't have to report to tech and could get Dana and Tracy out lapping right away.

The girls' turn

Both Dana and Tracy had very good sessions, each turning their personal-best lap times, no doubt spurred on by having their grandparents as their audience.

As usual it was a joy to see Tracy (shown going flat out through Turn 1, left), with the meticulousness of a scientist, shaving tenths of seconds off her time a lap at a time. By the end of her stints she had found over two seconds and posted a time that was over a full second better than her previous personal-best. She met her goal of a 54-second lap not once but four times along the way. She managed to keep the kart straight and on the pavement the whole time even, at one point, while overcoming the stinging discomfort of sweat seeping steadily into her eyes.

Dana (apexing Turn 2, below right) once again attacked the course lapping just about a second better than ever before. She has what more and more appears to be a natural style. She nails her lines and flows from one corner to another and seems to be intimidated very little by the speed - even when she's bouncing through the dirt at the exit of Seven or with four wheels in the grass exiting the hairpin as she was this day. The fact that by the end of her sessions she was within two tenths of my best lap for the day speaks for itself.

I'm very proud of both of their performances to this point. Their styles are very different but their dedication to driving better each time out is identical. Both have shown a high level of concentration as indicated by their consistent lap times. But most importantly, they have demonstrated a great deal of sensibility and respect for what they are doing out there. Neither has lost her head and gone sailing wildly off a turn in defiance to the laws of physics they're fighting (as I have seen other "rookies" do). The spins and offs they've had have been the result of pushing the limit of the kart, the result of minor miscalculations. And in racing that's all it takes. And they are now beginning to enjoy and understand the essence of race driving where life is lived in tenths of a second rather than minutes or hours. They've entered a world only other racers know, where the only thing that exists is piece of asphalt in front of you and the only thing that matters is the pursuit of the perfect lap. Not only have they acclimated themselves to that world but they seem pretty happy there too.

I'm also proud of Julie, who after driving the kart earlier in the year, made the mature decision it didn't offer her the thrill the rest of us got from it and has had no need to drive it since. Nevertheless, Julie has been at every race and session she's been available for, keeping an eye on us and offering her support.

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