Our last race of the season was both disappointing and encouraging at the same time. It was the last chance for us to place second or (dare we say it?) even better in a race but small mistakes in each of the races prevented that from happening. At the same time though, there were plain indications that we've come to understand how to get the speed we have out of the machine and that our driver can still get the speed out of himself.

Pre-Race Prep

We didn't do anything special since the good showing we had last time out (Sept. 24) - just basic maintenance as we've come to know it. Disassemble and clean the clutch; new fuel pump diaphragm; change of oil; general inspection.

Practice

We did four laps in the first practice session just to shake everything up and down. Temperatures were a little cooler than we had been running lately and so we had taped off about half of the inlets in the cooling shroud to make up for it but once out on the track it looked like it was unnecessary. The cylinder head temp was up there fairly quick. Cranking in more fuel helped but only a little. The tape could come off for the races. We didn't run too hard and the times were respectable given that.

With all looking good, we didn't bother with the second practice session and instead put a clock on the competition. Aaron Blue was significantly faster but Jonathan Dick was running laps within our reach. Of course, there was no way of telling whether he was pushing or cruising either so those times had to be taken with a grain of salt. All things considered we were feeling pretty good about the day.

Repeat Customers

We were treated to our first returning guests - Bill and Graham Gibson and this time Mom came along. The guys must have enjoyed themselves enough last time out that Sanda had to see what it was all about. They are also neighbors with Jim and Nick Evans who regularly run MSOKC events so they had several teams to root for. In fact, Nick looks set to win the club's Rookie Alcohol class this year.

Heat One

We'd be starting on the outside of row one with Jonathan Dick inside and Aaron Blue right behind him. Flagman Rich Burke waved us off the first time since Jonathan get on the throttle a little early and left us. The second try he was a little more cagey about it an even with me expecting it, he managed to get a kart's length jump on me by the line.

Horrible start number 1 - Dick gets a jump

On the second lap Blue made a charge up the inside at Turn 7. I had to give him room (as Mario Andretti liked to say, "Ya gotta give a guy room to race.") but wasn't ready to give up the position. We went around Seven side-by-side, wheel-to-wheel but never touched. Being on the outside at the exit of Seven put me on the inside of eight which gave me the advantage. But by Nine Aaron was challenging again.

Aaron's line out of Nine was fantastic and before I could defend going into 10, he had the inside track and I had no choice but to run high. Shame on me for not expecting it and running low to block his move. Once he was through, he was gone. He had a mph or two on us on the straights so he just motored off. But I have to say, having raced with Aaron several times this year, he is a very clean racer. He could have easily pushed me wide on the exit of Seven (where I have trouble staying on the track when I'm by myself) but he gave me a lane and a fair fight.

Defending 2nd Place from Blue
at Turn 9 - temporarily

He also got by Jonathan a little later and then I set my sites on the #74 kart. But ours was loose and just as soon as I'd pick up a few kart lengths on Jonathan, I'd lose it getting sideways in a corner somewhere trying too hard. Generally, I like a kart or racecar a little loose but Circleville's bumps were catching me out when the kart got light going over them. But I was convinced we could catch Jonathan if I could keep it straight. After all, lap 3 of this race saw us turn our quickest lap ever, a :52.45. Between heats we'd lower the rear tire pressures a pound to try to get more grip at the rear.

Heat Two

The second heat had us starting inside row Two next to Jonathan and behind visiting driver Jon Baker. Aaron was on the outside of row One. I was concentrating so hard on getting a good start that I screwed it up! Anticipating the green, I got on the gas early and had to back out of it. As is inevitable in these instances, just as I lifted the green came out and I was left going the wrong way. Out of Turn One I was chasing Jonathan.

Horrible start Number 2 -
"Which way did they go? Which way did they go?
Ya got ta tell me now, George"

There's nothing like making a dumb mistake to fire up the adrenaline and the result in this case was our best ever lap at CRP, a :52.34. The adjustment to the rear tires helped but it wasn't enough. Again, I'd work my way up to Jonathan and then fall back when the kart got a little sideways. The Briggs engines do not have a lot of power to spare and any loss of momentum is catastrophic in a close race. Getting sideways scrubs off a few miles per hour and it takes a while to build up your speed again. Meanwhile, as you claw your way back up to speed, your competitor opens up an agonizing gap.

Jonathan had the straight line speed but I was able to gain in the corners. But I found myself throwing away a series of great corners on one bad one on several laps. But with a couple laps to go I was a within striking distance following Jonathan close enough to taste the methanol fumes from his engine. When the white flag fell it was obvious to me that I'd catch Jonathan in the twisty bits, turns Five through Nine.

Jonathan was loose too, I noticed this following him through Ten.  By trying to be as smooth as possible I was able to stay with him and managed to get a great run off of four. The result was not falling back as much as usual on the backstraight. I gained in Five, gained in Six and by the time we got to Seven, I was close enough that when I carried more speed into the turn, I didn't know where to go with it. Jonathan was on his normal line (he never made a driving mistake that whole race) and all I could do was pinch it down to try to go inside of him on the exit. Of course there was always the option to back out of it when things tightened up but having fought so hard to get that close and with only three corners left in the race, it really wasn't an option at all. I couldn't pinch it down enough and our front bumper got into his right rear wheel.

My kart began to ride up the tire for just a moment but then fell away. But the action took the grip away from the front wheels for that moment and our kart pushed over into Jonathan's rear bumper. Things got a little dicey there as he caught the slide I pushed him into and I tried to get away from him. We both were able to carry on but I couldn't muster another challenge by the checkered flag. Oh well, but this is racing - this is what it all about. You have to take the chance and then accept the results. As I said, backing was not an option since that would have been the end of the race for sure. Staying in it meant there was a small chance it could all work out. The irony of this particular incident was that I had actually gained too much going into Seven - gotten through Four, Five or Six too well.  Had I been six inches farther behind Jonathan going into Seven I likely could have missed him. Not sure if I could have gotten around him but would have been able to pull up next to him on the run to Eight.

"Are you gonna make it?"

Not to belabor this point but I'm going to revisit the subject again here.  Racing at just about every level is very physically demanding - if it isn't, you're not trying hard enough. Coming off the track after trying so hard to catch second place, I was winded. So much so that the lady working the scales (which we roll across before we leave the track) was amused enough to ask "you gonna make it?" as I climbed out of the kart. I wasn't weak or wore-out, just behind in my breathing.

Now, I'll admit to being somewhere towards the low end of the physical conditioning scale but I'm healthy and fairly close to my optimum weight. I could run around the block if I had to. (Really had to.) But the intensity of that drive in particular had my cardio-vascular system working overtime. I don't know what my heart rate was but my breathing was somewhere in the neighborhood or two breaths per second, I'd reckon. While the exertion of controlling the kart was a huge factor, it was only part of the reason.

When going through a corner the entire body tenses to keep the extremities from flopping around. As I've mentioned before, these karts can approach 2 Gs and feet, legs, head and even arms, in spite of being anchored to the steering wheel, can succumb to the sidewards forces and bouncing that goes on. In addition to that, except for fairly easy, lazy corners, a driver doesn't breath in a turn. Some drivers don't even realize this. I've heard two reasons for this. One is that by taking a deep breath before the corner and holding it, the driver's torso expanding just that little bit makes the seat just a little more snug. This means even less movement in the seat at that crucial time and there's just that little more sensitivity to the feedback coming through the seat.

The second explanation is that so high is the concentration and focus level when carving through a demanding corner that the mind can't do both (analyze the thousands of pieces of information being collected and breathe). After all, in many situations especially in car racing, what the brain is processing is nothing less than data for self-preservation. I'm not sure which is more correct but both illustrates just how difficult driving at the limit is.

Not many people - even those involved with racing for a long time - realize this establishes what drivers call "the rhythm". You may hear drivers say they "found their rhythm" or that they had to "get back into a rhythm". The "rhythm" is not only the mechanical movements in controlling the vehicle (brake, downchange, downchange, downchange, turn in, power, drift out, upchange, upchange...) but also the number of breaths and sometimes even the heartbeats between each action (brake [breath-breath], downchange [breath-breath], downchange [breath-breath], downchange [breath-breath], turn in [breath-breath-breath], power [breath-breath], drift out [breath-breath-breath], upchange [breath-breath], upchange [breath-breath]...).

A driver "finds his/her rhythm" when the race settles down and the breathing and heart rates even out and remain consistent even if high. That is when the lap becomes fluid and tidy and so enjoyable for the driver. But that's also why, when a driver spins out or is involved in some other incident and continues, his or her laps times often are inconsistent for a few laps or, in a worse case, find the driver crashing further on down the road. A fearful incident may very likely drive the heart rate and breathing even higher - to incredible levels. So when moving from one corner to another where, say, six breaths are the norm the driver becomes uncomfortable or even disoriented when there are eight required.

So the rhythm drivers talk about is almost a true harmonization of the mechanical and human machines. It's just that in this race, my human machine was working harder than usual.

I hope you found all that interesting. Back to the race...

Feature

I'm not sure how they came up the starting positions for the feature - which in my understanding should be determined by the combined finishing positions form the heat races - but Conlin SpeedSports was gridded on the outside of Row One with Jonathan inside and Aaron in the third spot.

The green flag saw Horrible Start #3. Not only did Jonathan get away but he pulled Aaron with him so by the exit of Turn One I found myself in third. But it was the best seat in the house for the opening lap tussle between Blue and Dick. They went wheel to wheel in Three, Seven, Nine, Ten and One. I was able to stay right with them the whole way since, in fighting that ferociously for a position, both drivers' racing lines were compromised. So neither were able to capitalize on their power on the straights as they normally would letting me stay on their heels.

And, of course, my hopes were buoyed by the possibility that one of them would make a mistake that would take them both out and leave me in the lead. To someone outside the sport that my seem like a weaslely way to win but it is part of the game. There's never been a guy in third place watching a dogfight in front of him and thinking "Gee, I hope these guys don't make any mistakes". You see, the pendulum swings both ways and if you're in racing long enough you'll have seen someone else benefit from your misfortune so when fate favors you, you accept it graciously (or sometimes not).

Going into Turn Three, Aaron and Jonathan were side by side with Aaron inside. I was close enough that when Jonathan slid wide at the exit I was able to jump in and just for a moment take over second place. But I couldn't get far enough ahead of him approaching Four to claim the corner - and he dove down the inside and reclaimed P2 (position 2). However, his line was compromised more than mine - he would run out of track earlier than usual and was bound to come out of four low on power. This was my chance - from my placement in the corner I could apex the corner late and carry a ton more speed onto the backstraight and have a fighting chance to be second into Turn Five and maybe gain enough in the following corners to hold Jonathan off.

That all played out great in my head until I cut in behind Jonathan aiming for that late apex and the back end snapped out scrubbing off more than a ton of speed - more than Jonathan had lost with his early apex. That was it. That one mistake took me out of the race.  That corner is probably a 35mph corner for our class and that slide cost about 20mph of it I figure. Jonathan just flat motored away.

After that is was a pretty boring race. Jonathan had lost touch with Aaron with his mistake and I was adrift of Jonathan as penitence for my miscalc. Aaron won, Jonathan was second and I was in my usual third. On the brighter side we stayed on the black part all day long - no off course excursions. And we made some good decisions on dialing-in the handling - between the second heat and the feature we increased the front tire pressure a pound and it kept the kart straighter, just like we intended - so that stuff is getting a little more intuitive for us. Most encouraging, we've demonstrated in the last few outings that our team is as fast or faster than our competitors in the corners.

It would have been nice to place better in the last race of the season but we need to remind ourselves that at the beginning of the year we told ourselves that we'd have a conservative year learning the ropes and didn't expect to be racing for the lead. By July though, that strategy wasn't nearly as satisfying as it seemed back in April. Our frustration had us working harder and were eventually rewarded with a few good fights for position at the pointy end of the field, a lap led and got within .3 of our goal time of a 51 second lap so we have reason to be happy with the season.

There are also a number of reason for us to be optimistic about next season the details of which I plan to list and analyze in a future article here. But it is obvious that we need just a little more horsepower to stay with the leaders and that is something I think we can find over the winter.  Stay tuned for a season review and a preview of how we think we can do next year.

The Crews' Turn

As is our tradition, the girls took advantage of the open practice the track offers at the end of the day. Dana was short on sleep after taking friend (and August ConlinSS guest driver) Heather out for her birthday the night before and it showed in her driving. She was able to get within .5 of her personal best didn't have the sharpness to find the rest. She knew this right away and it just goes to show how demanding driving on the edge is of all your senses and reflexes. But it was still a good session, trying some suggestions of different lines and not lifting at Three and Nine.

Tracy had her act together, doing her trademark consistent progression to cut laps faster than she ever had before in both her sessions. Her lap of :54.13 was almost two-tenths better than her previous best set back in August. She's finding the fast lines through more and more of the corners and seems to less intimidated by the curbs and edge of the track each time out. Next year we plan to spend more time with Tracy and the art of driving after which she'll be giving Dana and I a run for our money.

As usual we were the last ones out and had to turn of the lights and lock up. Tracy could have gone out for another session, there was plenty of daylight left but she had homework she needed to get to before the end of the night.

(Homework instead of driving? I just don't understand kids these days.)

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