January - March Reports
15 March - First Outing Encourages Us
There's nothing quite like a well-placed challenge to prod a body into action.
On Friday, March 7th, Mike Unger took delivery of his new Biesse kart from J & J Racing in Erie. The following Friday I get an email that says essentially, "well, I've got my kart together and will be at the track tomorrow, you coming out too?". Our plans called for us to hit the track the last week in March and both karts still had a ways to go before being track ready. And I would have been happy to keep that schedule had it not been for Mike closing his email with a simple question: "I mean, how hard can it be to put an HPV together?"
At 2 am Saturday morning, we were ready to take the the new kart on the track for the very first time. Whether or not it would start, run, go fast, not blow up when we got there was a another question. And there was some question as to whether we could even get there - this would also be the first time we would be hitching the new trailer to the poor old Villager. Although friends were telling me that there should be no problem and I kept telling me that there should be no problem, there was a small, pessimistic voice in the back of my head that doubted whether a Front Wheel Drive with 140k on the odo would be up to the task.
But other than a small problem with the lights, those fears were unfounded. The good news continued at the track as the kart not only started, it ran. And it ran pretty good. After five laps we had Dana come back in and checked things over to see what might be loosening up or falling off. Everything seemed tight and happy so out she went again.
We used a very conservative approach for the first time out this year (and my first time working with 2-cycle engines since my snowmobile racing days in the early '80s) to avoid any of the aforementioned unpleasantries - an oil-heavy mixture, a rich jet setting, some very old, marginal Bridgestones. Nevertheless, by her third and final session Dana was able to get down to a 46.9. She was a little rusty in a few corners but overall was very comfortable in the kart and demonstrated a lot of confidence in traffic.
Dana quickly became aware of the the additional physical demands of this kart and class. She may have to do some physical conditioning to prepare for the long Manufacturer Cup races which are usually about 20 laps in length. This time out she ran as many as 15 laps before she got to the "Jello Phase" (the point at which your muscles feel more like Jello than muscles).
Special thanks to Mike for goading us into getting the kart finished and out there and for the trackside help. He did a quick safety tech (the person that puts the kart together should never do the safety check), programmed the My-Chron (since I didn't have time to read the manual) and offered some key advice.
2 March - Shivers in Charlotte
When Brian O'Hara mentioned that J & J Racing had reserved the kart track at Lowe's Motor Speedway I thought it would be a good chance for me to see how the experts get karts to handle and see how the Biesse karts respond to the changes they made. So, for the second time in two and a half months, I simply invited myself along on someone else's road trip.
Not that it was an easy decision. I have been losing valuable shop time to business travel and dropping another entire weekend weighed heavily on me. But if the weather would be good (at least dry) the opportunity to learn would outweigh the loss of production. Besides, I'd get to know Jim and John Giacomelli a little better and generally just get out of the snow and around some karts that actually run!
After forecasting sunny and 60s for the weekend all week, Saturday broke gray, foggy, misty and thoroughly wet. The track opened for practice at 8:00 and the mist stopped shortly thereafter but it was 11:00 before enough water drained off the low parts of the track and a few brave souls went out on rain tires.
Before they did Brian and I walked the track and frankly I was greatly disappointed. The World Karting Federation has been headquartered in Charlotte for years and years and I was expecting something of a showplace at it's home track. Instead, I got the impression that the Charlotte kart circuit, while challenging for the driver, was Lowe's Motor Speedway's silly little side project. I thought it was horribly bumpy and generally poorly maintained. So poor was the attention to drainage that there were six or seven areas where the rain water collected in huge puddles on the track.
The track itself was scarred by random trenches cut for drainage or sewage pipes poorly repaved with concrete. In other areas, because LMS directs several hundred motorhomes to park on the track during NASCAR races, one could find large divots in the asphalt from the motorhome leveler feet and one inch holes from spikes driven through the pavement to tie down tents and awnings. Scoring and other officials' dwellings are portable and were missing when we were there making Charlotte the first track I've ever had to inquire as to the location of the Start/Finish line. Next time I hear someone complain about CRP's surface I will repeat my impressions of Charlotte. But I guess that's just me.
As we waited on the weather to change it's mood, I had a chance to talk to Kelsi Guess, a young lady who has been racing karts since an early age (11, I think she said). Kelsi has been making a name for herself in the HPV classes on a national level and she's another racer gal we've been keeping an eye on. For years she has raced Margay karts but has made the jump to Biesse for 2003. Bright and personable, she further impressed me with her John 3:16 message on her kart.
Otherwise it was just a matter of staying out of peoples' way. J & J Racing brought down about 15 Biesse karts most of which were being delivered to their new owners. The J & J compound was buzzing with activity as Jim, John and Brad helped everyone get their karts drivable. John Nevoso, who tuned for Marco Andretti last year, was also on the J & J team tending to several customer's new Corsair karts.
Shortly after noon the track was pretty dry, but there were still several big puddles to avoid and streams of runoff crossing the track from the more important parts of the speedway. First order of business for Brian was to break-in his two new ICA motors. Having completed two sessions on the first motor, we set about swapping motors. Just as we were about to finish we realized the rain had returned and was coming down steady. With the rain came a drop in temps and it was obvious Brian had done all the driving he was going to do that day. Once my shoes started squishing, I declared it officially miserable.We called it a day headed back to the hotel to dry out. Later, we met up with the J & J crew again for dinner. As it was John Nevoso's birthday, a bit of a celebration was in order and the Hooters on the corner seemed to fit the bill. As the birthday boy, John had to partake in an apparent Hooters ritual of standing on a chair while the servers chanted something at him. Even so, the festivities ended early as it had a long day for everybody (for Jim, John and Brad it was still Friday having driven down from Erie all night).
Sunday dawned damp again but at least there was no moisture in the air. Once at the track, it wasn't the water in the sky that was the worry but the water on the track. Several monster puddles would have seriously compromised everyone's test session had it not been for the efforts of about a dozen determined karters who relocated the puddles with brooms, shovels and buckets over the course of three hours! Even so, it wasn't until after 11am that karts took to the track.
By noon the track was 90% dry and Brian headed out to break in his second motor. After taking it easy in his first session Brian was able to lean on the engine a little more and push a bit. Even though the track was mostly dry, it was absolutely green after a winter of disuse and grip was nowhere to be found. Brian did find the new motor's power band a little peaky and thought a little more flex in the chassis might help the kart absorb the bumps. Before his final session we took out all the bars (optional frame stiffeners) and Brian installed a shorter piece of flex pipe in the exhaust system to change the port performance of the engine.
That exhaust length change seemed to work as Brian reported that the throttle response was less abrupt and more drivable overall. The additional flex in the chassis, while reducing grip further, did seem to help the kart negotiate the bumps. So a little insight was had. It was sometime in this session that the weather that had been forecasted finally showed up and soon it was even pleasant. Too bad it was with only a couple hours left in the weekend.
As it was, it was a good time. Lots of laughs with Brian... got to know the Giacomellis a little more... enjoyed meeting Kelsi Guess and her folks Lisa and Stan... it was cool to talk with IRL driver Mark Dismore about his new track and super cool to talk with Williams BMW driver Juan Montoya's father (even if he did politely refuse my donuts). I enjoyed watching Biesse team driver Robbie Pecorari demonstrate some superior kart control. Was it worth losing 15 or 20 hours of shop time? Maybe. Maybe not. But we'll make it up somewhere. We always do.
16 February - Getting Ready For The New Season
Knowing we would be adding a second kart to our team, in December we began rebuilding the old Margay/Briggs kart that Tracy will be racing this year. That involves a complete tear down and rebuild from the chassis up inspecting everything for safety and massaging each component for speed. The Margay is also due for new bodywork as the one that was on there was pretty battered after two full seasons.
Also in December we took delivery of our new (to us) Biesse Viper that Dana will run in HPV and what Mid State Ohio Kart Club (MSOKC) will be calling Spec 100 this year. Mike Unger had run this chassis last year and did very well. The kart is a little bit famous too: Mike is a regular contributor to the National Karting News, a slick monthly magazine serving kart racers. He uses his engineering background to write technical articles and often used our Viper to illustrate them.
Brian O'Hara, who has quite a reputation for maintaining his karts and equipment in pristine condition had an engine for us to purchase. The HPV engine is a 100cc purpose-built kart racing engine engineered to live its life at 16,000+ rpm. Besides being reliable, its design leaves little to be improved on so expensive engine work or membership to the Speed Secret-Of-The-Month club is not necessary.
As mentioned above, for 2003 our local club, MSOKC, will be combining the HPV engined karts with the Yamaha engined Spec 100 karts. The main performance difference between these two categories is the engagement speed of the clutch, the Yamaha's being allowed to spin up much higher before engagement and begin moving the kart when the engine is making more power. Circleville Raceway Park, with predominantly high-speed corners, should minimize this advantage (or so we're told) but the one race at Camden (Ohio) may present a problem for the HPV'ers. We'll have a better idea once the season starts. In any case, early indications are that this class will be huge and Dana will have plenty of people to race with.
Also in December (gotta love end of year bonuses) we bought Rich Burke's enclosed trailer. Not only did we need a trailer that would accommodate two karts but with a few out-of-town races on our schedule, it was time to get something that could be secured and left in a hotel parking lot overnight. The Burke trailer was perfect as it was low enough to permit it to be stored in the garage rather than in the driveway (and therefore avoid the wrath of the homeowner's association posse) and he had ordered it with the optional side door which gives us much needed additional access when in the garage. Rich's kids have all moved onto other sports and he found himself with a trailer and nothing to put in it.
In addition to running the MSOKC schedule we are planning to enter Dana in several Manufacturer's Cup races, a national series for 2-cycle karters. In these races she would be competing with the best karters in the country and the HPV class in particular is intensely competitive. We know we are not even near that level of experience or commitment so our objective at those races will simply be to have fun and learn, learn, learn.
Currently, the Tracy's Margay is about 90% ready to go but Dana's Biesse is still in the disassembly phase of its rebuild process. We had planned on attending the mid-March round of the Manufacturer's Cup at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina but my work travel schedule has severely limited the time I've had to work on the karts and we're woefully behind our prep schedule. We'd need several days of practice/test time with the new kart before we could attempt to race safely with the Cup racers and we simply won't be able to pull that off. We should, however, be able to start testing late in March and be ready for the first club race on April 13.
15 January - Trailer For Sale
With the addition of another kart to our team, our open trailer had to be replaced with an enclosed one that provides kart storage on two levels. As a result, we're looking for a good home for the old open trailer. It will be a great solution for a new racer with one kart just like it was for us. If you or someone you know are interested in it, click here for photos and all the details.
1 January - New Colors For 2003
Welcome to our restyled website. After three years of borrowing the Players CART Champ Car Team's white/light blue/dark blue with gold trim paint scheme on our equipment and web presence, we're exploring new combinations. Unless a substantial benefactor swoops in and begs us to take their money in exchange for colorizing our equipment and website to their preferences, this will be the colors Conlin SpeedSports will be associated with for the next year or so.
The girls, all being partial to purple, liked the silver/purple/yellow graphic design they saw on the Lexus SC430 CART Pace Car at last year's Mid-Ohio Champ Car weekend. We will try to complete a reasonable facsimile on both karts this winter and spring with the rest of the peripherals to follow.
In addition to the new colors, I've spent some time redesigning the website to be more user-friendly. By removing the fancy but simple cycling banner at the top the Back button combinations should work as you're used to now. Now our sponsors and supporters will always be visible at the bottom of the screen. You should also see the this main page load much faster as I've cleaned up the code some and plan to not load it up with more graphics than necessary.
We've got a lot of exciting things planned for 2003 so we're hoping you make us a frequent stop on your Internet travels. And in the meanwhile, Happy New Year to you and yours from all of us.
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