2003 MSOKC HPV Champions

27 March - First (Disgusting) Laps

Thanks no doubt to the National Kart News week in Florida a last month, we got both karts on the track earlier than ever. The Saturday afternoon session was the ladies' first chance to try out the new Circleville Raceway Park pavement, however, we had no plans to lap for speed as the main objective was to break in the Ed Kesse-rebuilt HPV engine and the new Yamaha.

The track is about 1M% better than last year although there are currently three fairly severe bumps to content with. The first is right at the turn-in point for Turn One which tends to unsettle the kart just as the weight begins to transfer. But that one didn't bother our drivers as much as the heave/drip going on at Four. And the bump at the exit of Nine was just a nuisance. CRP owner Steve Tatman says the company that did the resurfacing is supposed to come out and smooth out One and Nine but wasn't sure what could be done with Four. Steve had also just finished new run-out curbing at One, Four and Five that, at 30" or so wide, makes those corners new and faster.

All in all, the track is really very good, and if Steve gets those two areas fixed it will be nearly perfect. This is a relief because last month I stopped by Butch McCall's shop and there was some guy there running his mouth about how bad the resurfacing was, complaining about the seams and bumps. He pretended to know what he was talking about but I always take a guy like that with a grain of salt. I was right to do so because everyone that has been on the track only point to those three bumps and say the rest is great. Just another case of somebody trying to complain just because they're good at it. And, the kicker on the whole thing? This guy doesn't even run Sprint races, he runs enduros on long tracks. Well, good riddance, go race on those big tracks you think are so great

We ran three good sessions of break in and the girls did a fine job of it. It takes concentration and discipline to fight the urge to go flat out on an open race track - especially when other karts are out there zipping around. After those sessions I let them go for some hot laps but not ragged edge stuff - there were still too many tall drop-offs at the edge of the pavement and particularly at the edge of the new curbs. Still it gave them a feel for the new surface. We had dialed in as much grip as we could and both drivers said they were hooked up, so that was promising. Tracy was delighted with her new kart saying it was doing what she wanted, when she wanted and that turns 7 and 9 were actually fun for a change.

It was just about a perfect day until Tracy came in off her hot lap session and heard something break. We found the drivetrain locked up when we tried to push Kart 99 out of the pit-in lane. For several anxious minutes we gathered tools and borrowed some from Gary Grotsky to begin checking things out, fearing first a hurt motor or then a wrecked clutch. It was in the clutch that we found the problem. The problem was that I'm a bonehead and never torqued the clutch down. With Gary's help I determined that the clutch had been loose and slowly destroyed the crankshaft key which in turn either got lodged between the clutch cover and the spring tensioning bolt or broke the bolt through vibration. I think it was the former but the result was a broken $2.17 spring tensioner bolt when it could have been much worse - a $300 clutch or a $800 motor. I need to thank Gary for his help, the liquid-cooled clutches are all new to me and he gave me a rapid education as the afternoon wore on.

But the worse part wasn't bringing home a broken kart. The worse part was cleaning it later. You see, the track was just barely dry after a night of rain and the track was virtually covered with worms - yes, the same worms that were all over your driveway. Our karts became high speed worm collectors with carcasses flung onto the side pods, nerf bars and anything else behind the tires. Disgusting. And even more disgusting after they dried and became what Butch McCall refers to a s "beef jerky".

We should have everything back together and the beef jerky scraped off in plenty of time for next weekend (April 3/4) and hope to be back out there. Dana just needs to get her driving muscles toned up again while Tracy needs that plus seat time in her new kart. We also hope to focus on Tracy's driving, racecraft and set up knowledge. Only three weekends to go before the opening race to do it in..

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