Well, Im back and sore. I'd usually be sore anyway but this is a little extra I think.
Recap:
First race of the day was 30 minutes, it was stand alone, and its own class. It was a lemans style start in the hot pits, and I was gridded about halfway back, behind all of the experienced drivers but the first of the "novices." Green flag dropped and I passed every one of them except a shifter kart that was supposed to start in the first wave but stalled and had to start with us.
I won that race with no problems at all, hauling ass. Never passed by anybody in my class and most of them were rotax's which are supposedly faster than a fast Parilla leopard. Yeah okay :) I'll believe it when one is faster than I am.
It was a 30 minute race for us, and 45 minutes for other classes on the track. There was a little bit of controversey because the flagger told everybody that he would wave the green and white flags for last lap for the 30 minute race, and then wave the green and checkered. Pretty simple right? Well, halfway into the race he held (didnt exactly wave it, at least for me) the green and white flags indicating the halfway mark. I knew the race wasnt anywheres near over and never saw him wave the checkered flag after that either. Race to the checkered! Almost (if not everyobdy) everybody came into the pits at that halfway mark because they saw the white flag. It wouldnt have mattered anyway, I was checked out and gone from the field.
The second "race" class consists of two 20 minute heats and the average of the two is the finishing position. Well, I start out here, it takes me one lap to get up to the top of the field and I check out again. There's one problem though, THERE IS NO BUMP DRAFTING ALLOWED. Say what you wish about that but we're doing 97+mph out there in gokarts, theres no space to be messing around doing that stuff. If everybody doesnt do it, then its entirely fair. Well, these two idiots (one of which was who I was racing against in November) finally pass me bumping all the way through T1. I latch on and try to tell them to cut it the f*ck out and just to race but obviously they didnt care or know what the hell I was waving about. They continue to do this and I say fuckit, and push one of them twice. The ONLY way they caught me was because they were latching together and bumping their way up to me and I was TICKED. At least it feels good that they had to resort to using both of their motors to push themselves to where I was. Upon further review of the situation I could have not done this, let them go for 1st and 2nd, then protest it and get 1st back but I still woudlnt have gotten an overall first because I didnt even run the 2nd heat at all--reason soon. So anyway, on the 2nd to last lap in the last corner, T11, this guy was pushing me between T10 and 11 and I looped it bc I was going faster than I had thought, got backwards, and he ran into me. Hardly any damage to my kart but he got airborn, bent up his kart, nerfbars, and axle pretty badly. Serves him right as far as I am concerned, but it prettymuch screwed me too for that heats finishing position.
The reason I probably would not have started the 2nd heat anyway is because my motor went soft at some point. Ever since the beginning of the day it was having some troubles starting, but after the 1st heat it just quit. I pulled the head, looked inside, checked the reed valves, checked the carburetor, checked the spark...it was all good till I found a buddy with a compression tester. Just as I had originally thought at the beginning of the day; it was soft. Brand new engines are about 220-230psi compression ---- mine had 60. 180 is a little iffy.
Oh well. I had fun while I was out there, and can be happy here that I smoked everybody in Race#1 and veterans are impressed :) I'll try to get video footage up soon of the spin and some other stuff too maybe.
-Justin
Recap:
First race of the day was 30 minutes, it was stand alone, and its own class. It was a lemans style start in the hot pits, and I was gridded about halfway back, behind all of the experienced drivers but the first of the "novices." Green flag dropped and I passed every one of them except a shifter kart that was supposed to start in the first wave but stalled and had to start with us.
I won that race with no problems at all, hauling ass. Never passed by anybody in my class and most of them were rotax's which are supposedly faster than a fast Parilla leopard. Yeah okay :) I'll believe it when one is faster than I am.
It was a 30 minute race for us, and 45 minutes for other classes on the track. There was a little bit of controversey because the flagger told everybody that he would wave the green and white flags for last lap for the 30 minute race, and then wave the green and checkered. Pretty simple right? Well, halfway into the race he held (didnt exactly wave it, at least for me) the green and white flags indicating the halfway mark. I knew the race wasnt anywheres near over and never saw him wave the checkered flag after that either. Race to the checkered! Almost (if not everyobdy) everybody came into the pits at that halfway mark because they saw the white flag. It wouldnt have mattered anyway, I was checked out and gone from the field.
The second "race" class consists of two 20 minute heats and the average of the two is the finishing position. Well, I start out here, it takes me one lap to get up to the top of the field and I check out again. There's one problem though, THERE IS NO BUMP DRAFTING ALLOWED. Say what you wish about that but we're doing 97+mph out there in gokarts, theres no space to be messing around doing that stuff. If everybody doesnt do it, then its entirely fair. Well, these two idiots (one of which was who I was racing against in November) finally pass me bumping all the way through T1. I latch on and try to tell them to cut it the f*ck out and just to race but obviously they didnt care or know what the hell I was waving about. They continue to do this and I say fuckit, and push one of them twice. The ONLY way they caught me was because they were latching together and bumping their way up to me and I was TICKED. At least it feels good that they had to resort to using both of their motors to push themselves to where I was. Upon further review of the situation I could have not done this, let them go for 1st and 2nd, then protest it and get 1st back but I still woudlnt have gotten an overall first because I didnt even run the 2nd heat at all--reason soon. So anyway, on the 2nd to last lap in the last corner, T11, this guy was pushing me between T10 and 11 and I looped it bc I was going faster than I had thought, got backwards, and he ran into me. Hardly any damage to my kart but he got airborn, bent up his kart, nerfbars, and axle pretty badly. Serves him right as far as I am concerned, but it prettymuch screwed me too for that heats finishing position.
The reason I probably would not have started the 2nd heat anyway is because my motor went soft at some point. Ever since the beginning of the day it was having some troubles starting, but after the 1st heat it just quit. I pulled the head, looked inside, checked the reed valves, checked the carburetor, checked the spark...it was all good till I found a buddy with a compression tester. Just as I had originally thought at the beginning of the day; it was soft. Brand new engines are about 220-230psi compression ---- mine had 60. 180 is a little iffy.
Oh well. I had fun while I was out there, and can be happy here that I smoked everybody in Race#1 and veterans are impressed :) I'll try to get video footage up soon of the spin and some other stuff too maybe.
-Justin