July 29 Points Race

Third race of the month and there was a slightly smaller crowd at the track this time.  In the Junior Sportsman class, there were only eight.  Some of the classes had only two!  This race had plenty of excitement though.  Fortunately, there were no injuries or serious damage to any equipment but dad will be doing some bodywork in the coming week...

Lian wanted to go to the track and practice the day before when the track was open so we went there and let her get some seat time away from the pressures of a race day.  Talking to some other "crew chiefs" with some more experience, I found that the pursuit of higher top RPMs may not be the optimal.  Looking back at lap times bears this out - plus the news that some of the fastest racers were running lower RPMs than we were.  With this new understanding, I went back to the 62 tooth gear.

Lian drew a fifth place start in Heat 1.  After a few laps, she was well positioned to pass two karts that were slow entering the hairpin.  She made her move to the inside.  Unfortunately two karts stacked-up behind her as she slowed at the apex and bumpers met bumpers, karts were turned and when the dust settled, she lost two positions.  On the next lap, she was following another pair of karts that tangled in the sweeper leaving one spinning in the middle of the turn.  Lian tried to steer around him but clipped his back tire, rolled over it and lofted her kart on two wheels briefly, landing with a thud back on all four.  She complained about her butt hurting but got going again and managed a sixth place finish.

In Heat 2, she started fourth and there was no passing or other drama on the track.  Lian finished fourth.  The combination of these results got her a sixth place start in the Feature race.

The Feature start gave Lian another opportunity to pass and exited the sweeper in fifth place.  Much of the race was without any passing action until after the halfway point.  Lian found the track blocked by two slow moving karts exiting the hairpin and had to bail out on the grass.  She managed to get restarted but not before the kart she had passed at the start, passed her back.  She finished sixth.

The race day is not over until you get home and unpacked.  Unfortunately, we blew-out a trailer tire on the interstate and waited about an hour to get help mounting the spare.  It was violent enough to tear the fender off but no one was hurt and we made it home.  Amen!

No racing next week.  If I can adjust my work schedule we'll be doing the night race on August 11th.

Summer Shootout

Welcome back.  I managed to get a few days off for the race weekend so we set up the kart with a larger sprocket (66 tooth) and mounted up the repaired bodywork (more fiberglass) and off we went.  This was the season's second night race so there was excitement about that.  Lian made sure to stop by the dollar store and get some chemical light wands to add to the kart for the Feature race.

The class had 13 competitors this weekend.  With approval from the parents, the race officials planned to have all of them competing together rather than splitting the group into an A and B heat.  By this time, we had seen the entire group practicing together without any issue and we all had confidence in our drivers to be civil on the track.

Lian worked on the corner entry for "the hairpin" during practice and was consistently smoother through that corner without chattering tires.  This will pay dividends I believe.  Her mom even thinks that the tires were in better shape than expected - perhaps getting less abuse?  Anyway Lian reports that the right hander was more consistent than before.

For this practice, I quickly cobbled together a helmet mount for the video camera.  I figured if we could find speed in the right hander, maybe we could find speed in other parts of the track using video footage.  I reasoned that a velcro patch large enough to hold about 4 pounds would be able to hold the light little camera that weighs in at just over 6 oz.  Here is a couple of looks at the crude mount with a curved aluminum part to stick the velcro to.

Ahhhh, guess again.  In the very first practice, in the very first turn, the camera departed the helmet and disappeared in the grass.  Ooops...   Fortunately, it was not only easy to find with the grass freshly mowed but the camera still works!  Hooray, the gift from Lian's grandfather can still be a tool for a learning driver - as soon as Dad figures out a functional mount.  Back to the drawing board...




Lian drew a pill in the middle (they draw numbered pills to determine their starting position in the heat races).  She started 8th and 6th in the two heats and qualified 8th for the feature.  One of the kids near the front dropped out of the feature so Lian started the feature in 7th.

We applied the lights as before and there were plenty of lights shown in this group.  Here is a picture on the starting grid.

The kids all did a great job and the racing was very clean.  Lian had a great start and was a little quicker than the karts ahead of her.  She attempted a pass coming out of the hairpin but was cut off sharply enough that she had to get hard on the brakes and lost two spots.  She did pass one of those racers back though and finished 8th.  With everyone so evenly matched, it was amazing to see any passing at all!  I was very pleased that I didn't have to do any more bodywork!

Thanks again for reading...

Finding ways to improve

Sorry this post is so much later than the race.  I've been getting home late this past week and getting to this blog hasn't been my top priority.

Here we are again but with continuing problems with video uploading.  I'll try to tell the story without video but instead with concise descriptions of photos.  This was good week of racing overall.  Lian had some good laps but didn't better her record.  She did show good strong average times for her heat races and the Feature.  There were only ten racers in her class at the track this week so they all ran together.  Her performance in the Heat races only gained her a 8th place start in the feature.  She finished 9th.

Below is a sequence of photos that shows the competitors entering the tight, right-hand turn called the "hairpin" by most club members.  Notice where each positions his or her kart prior to turning into the hairpin.

First the leaders:







Notice how they are to the far left of the track.  Below, the subsequent racers follow suit.









Here, you can see the Third place racer, really hugging the left edge.
















Same with Fourth place...













and Fifth place...











and Sixth thru Eighth place follow suit.  Lian is just exiting the turn prior in this picture.













Here you can see her entering the turn just ahead of the last place kart.  She is hard to see but if you look at carefully, you can see her kart just about centered in the track using a completely different line to approach this turn.

We will be focusing on this corner next race.  I hope that we can find some real improvement by changing her approach.  I was also compelled to buy new tires before next race.  Although there was useable tread left after the feature, a friend with a durometer (a device that measures tread hardness) checked them and found that they have hardened significantly since new.  The harder tires are not as sticky and their competitiveness is reduced.  

I'm also going to make another rear sprocket change to up the RPM a little more.  The last change got us up to 5,540 RPM and I understand that we should get up to 5,700 to 5,800 RPM.  I'm planning to go from a 64 tooth to a 66 tooth gear.  I'll let you know how that goes.  

Thanks again for reading!