Last night race of the season

This week's race was the last night race on the schedule and the day did not start out promising.  There had been rain showers through the area all night and the morning was marked with even more.  The club president posted on the forum that the weather was dry at the track and that we were a go for racing until otherwise notified.

It drizzled on us while we were setting-up our canopy and equipment.  Drag racing at the track next door was curtailed and eventually cancelled.  The practice session was interrupted twice by rain.  After  the second time the track was soaked and the club brought out the wheeled leaf blower to try to dry the track. Eventually, the senior karts were sent out to practice and finish the drying process.  Drizzle came and went during the heats but it was always very light so it didn't impact the program.  With dark clouds in the area, the club decided to have no intermission and go straight to the Features before rain fell again.  Here she is during the Heat 1 when we had a glimmer of sunlight peek through.

Lian started 7th in Heat 1 and 5th in Heat 2 out of 11 racers.  Again a crowded track but mostly clean racing.  One competitor hit Lian while passing and backed her up a couple of spots.  The same racer hit a few of the other karts as well and after warning, was shown the full black flag.  The disqualification was a tough penalty and kept him out of the Feature but he will be more courteous next race.

Here is a shot of the new front end numbers as required by WKA.  The club informed everyone that they were going to start to enforce this rule this week.

Lian started 9th in the Feature race and moved up to 8th in the first turn traffic.  One kart passed her a couple laps later putting her back to 9th.  Later, a few racers ahead of her had trouble and spun out.  The same thing happened again two laps later.  The difference this week as opposed to the last race was that she was able to pass cleanly.  That luck combined with her very consistent laps to allow her to move up to 5th at the checker flag!

Although I was happy about not needing to do more repairs, I was very proud of Lian's cool hand on the wheel.  She managed track conditions that changed every lap with the intermittent drizzle, droplets on her helmet visor and 10 other very competitive racers sharing the track.  Through it all she never got frustrated and always showed good sportsmanship.  If I can make her kart the best it can be, she will probably win a race soon.  Now it is time for the Crew Chief to step it up!

Drizzle became heavy after her race and after a few false starts, lightning was spotted.  In the end, only one other class finished their Feature race.  We were lucky indeed!  The drive home was through some pretty heavy showers at times but with the prospect of future races looking bright and the confidence of two fresh-new tires on the trailer, I wasn't stressed at all on the highway - just pondering where I can find more track speed.

We race next week so I plan to go to a 60 tooth axle sprocket to see if I can advantage her with more top-end speed.  I'm also looking at leaning the carb a little but don't want to play that until I can get the Cylinder Head Temp (CHT) sensor working.  I'm working with Digatron right now to see if I can get the right sensor.  I've already adjusted the valve lash to 0.002" on intake and exhaust so it will flow as much as possible.  I'll let you know how we do...