Night Race!

Well, the Heat races were in daylight but the feature was under the lights.  The fun was dampened by news of a fatal accident at Thompson Dragway next door.  The club observed a moment of silence during the driver's meeting as a sign of respect for the competitor lost that day.

A local radio station was on-hand to brighten the mood for a few hours with music, games and prizes.  Lian didn't win the cornhole game but won a drawing for discount movie tickets!

The Rookies were joined by an 80cc kadet kart that was significantly slower than the rest of the rookies and created a moving obstacle for each Heat and the Feature.  Lian started on the pole for Heat 1 but she skidded a little in the right-hand hairpin and allowed the second place kart pass her in the last lap.  I had her tire pressures at 12.5 psi cold for the heats because it was very warm that afternoon (upper 80s) and the pressures built up 1 to 1.5 psi from the heat of the track and friction.  This seemed to work well for her as she had lap times in the mid to low 24 second range, as quick as she has ever been.  We started with 13.5 psi in the tires for the feature which was about 30 minutes after sunset.

The most exciting event was Lian's pass of the second place kart during Heat 2.  I was lucky enough to get video.  She was being hounded by the #12 kart behind her when she managed to cut off his pass attempt while simultaneously establishing an inside position on the red #17 kart going onto the main straight.  She turned a challenge for her position into a double pass!

Ok, so I'm having trouble with the video.  I'll try to do it in another post.

There were different lights on the carts ranging from LEDs to chemlights to those little guys that go on the valve stems of the wheels.  Lian was hoping to combine some old chemlights with the LEDs I got at a auto parts store but in the end, here chemlights were just not very bright (there are lights on the track) so the LEDs are all that really show in these pictures.