September 16 - spectators and volunteers

Lian was greeted by her fellow competitors warmly and with sympathy.  She enjoyed the attention but eventually grew tired of telling the story.  Mom and Dad visited with other families, even helped one with a chain alignment issue before heading over to do our volunteer duties.

Mom signed-up to run the scales and Dad became a corner worker for the Heats and Features.  During the practices, we also told Lian's story over and over but it was nice that all the other families were concerned.

When intermission time came, Lian asked if she could announce the starting lineup for her class Feature race on the PA system.  The club president graciously not only allowed her to do it, but introduced her and her circumstances to the crowd.  He added lightly "...she was hurt playing football, not on the track.  It just proves that Karting is safe and football is not!"

Here she is giving the lineup to the crowd on the starting grid...

I gained an appreciation for the work the corner workers and Race Director have to do to put the races on fairly and safely.  Sometimes, things don't seem fair to the competitors but the volunteers I worked with did their best to be unbiased and responsive.  It is a long day in the sun for a track volunteer, and it was not even that hot Sunday!  Fortunately, concessions are free for corner workers at intermission.

We will see what the doctor says about Lian competing on September 30.  I'll try to post here with news.

Race day cut short

I had to work the night before the race so I was tired at the track.  I was also excited to see how our new gauge would work and to see how comfortable Lian would be with yet more padding in the seat.

Practice went pretty well and we tried a few different air pressures to get Lian the best traction.  The new guage was working great and I was adding a little tape after each of the practice sessions to get the engine hotter and reduce drag from the cooling fan.

After the first heat, the drivers did there normal "touch" football in the field nearby.  This is where our day went wrong.  Lian tumbled to the ground and while she was there, one of the boys fell on top of her.  She heard a "pop" followed by pain in the right shoulder.  When Lian came to the trailer to describe the events, she was obviously in pain.  After a short visit with the EMT posted at the track, we packed-up and headed for home to have her seen at our local ER.

She didn't cry until the EMT told her that she was done for the day.  That is when it became tragic!
Here she is in the ER treatment room after the doctor did all that can be done for a non-displaced clavicle fracture (sling).

After a Motrin and some ice, she was feeling a little better.  Sleep was not easy the first night so she didn't go to school on Monday but she has managed every day since so the worst is behind her.

Lian has asked to go back to the track next week as a spectator so she can watch the action and catch-up with her friends - even the one that landed on her!  We plan to go.  We can get some volunteer points with the club to offset the two (at least) DNFs she will have.  Next week, Lian will see the family doctor and we'll get an idea if she can race again on Sept 30.

Preparations for September 9 race

Over the off weeks, I wanted to make two changes to the kart. First to the seat and second to the tachometer.  The first was to improve driver comfort, the second to improve our ability to analyze what was happening on the track and with lap times.

The seat issue as mentioned in the previous post has been bugging Lian for a few races where she found the back of her arm hitting the top of the seat where it wraps around her ribs.  Although the seat fits her well around the hips, it is a little too tall and her upper arm is getting bruised by the top of the seat.  This is a quality seat but seat makers don't seem to get the proportions right for the smaller drivers and it is just too tall.  The added padding to the seat bottom and back to move her shoulder away from the seat top only partially improved things.

Thinking a new seat was in order, Lian and I looked over the seat inventory at a local shop and found none that fit her better (the best fitting one was identical to the one we had).  Modifying the existing seat seems the only way to get her more comfort.  I considered cutting the seat top, shortening it, and re-attaching it with an extensive fiberglass patch.  In the end, I chose the less drastic path of adding yet more padding to the bottom.  We'll see if she likes it better.  Here is a shot of the additional layer of self-stick foam in the bottom.

Hopefully, this won't change the CG shift in the turns very much.  This is a distraction I wanted to eliminate for our driver.

As for the tachometer, it is giving good data as far as the rpm but I wanted more.  With engine tuning, I wanted to operate it as hot as I could without compromising engine life.  The old tach is capable of giving me the engine temperature at the base of the spark plug but the kart did not have this sensor installed.  When I investigated a replacement sensor for this old gauge, I made an important discovery.  The engine temp sensor that works with our old gauge does not fit our newer engine (without rule-violating modifications to the engine).  A new gauge was in order.  Here is the old instrument with it's simple, two -window display.

The new standard for Karting instruments is the Mychron 4 tachometer which has not only a tach and temp sensor that fits, but also an optical sensor.  The sensor is for an infra-red beacon setup trackside (usually at the start/finish line) that starts and stops the internal timer.  This feature allows it to record lap times error free!  Mom won't have to fumble with a stopwatch anymore.  This was not inexpensive but it was needed to step-up our game.  Here is what the new gizmo looks like mounted on Lian's steering wheel.

It was a little bit of a chore to install, mostly because there was a modification needed to the engine air shroud near the spark plug.  I didn't want to do the cutting with this still on the engine so a few hours worth of disassembly and re-assembly and about 10 minutes of cutting and filing got the job done right.  Now it is giving me what I need to squeeze the max from our trusty Briggs & Stratton engine.

Next post - the results at the track...