Back to Racing!

After a few days at school without her sling, we decided to go to the track for practice and feel-out how her shoulder would do in racing conditions.  The track was open Saturday (29th) and we had good weather.  There was a only a small crowd of folks there making it easy to get right to the track for a trial.

In the days leading up to the practice, I tinkered with the engine making sure that all would be ready.  I discovered a sticky float needle which I replaced, and reset both the plug gap and the ignition air gap.  I even adjusted the valve lash for optimum performance.  Cleaning and lubing the drive chain rounded out our preps.

In practice, Lian came off the track with "a burning sensation" in her right arm.  Most likely from muscle fatigue from lack of activity in that arm while stuck in a sling.  She pressed-on and did another 15 lap session, bringing her times down to the high 23 second range.  Quick enough to keep up with the field.

Despite her discomfort, she really wanted to be back Sunday to compete.  We got some thermal wrap for her and made plans to race.

Here she is on the starting grid with her old buddies plus one new competitor in a purple kart.

In the first Heat, she started 6th and finished 10th out of 10.  In the second Heat, she started 5th and finished 4th.  In each run she was getting steadily faster lap times.  She came off the track with no real complaint about her arm.  She worried mom during the warm-up laps before the second heat when one of the karts in front of her spun out in the hairpin right in front of her and she had to bail out in the grass.  Fortunately, she wasn't jarred and only became stuck briefly until a flagman pushed her back to the pavement.

With those finishes, she started 8th in the feature.  When traffic got tight coming out of the first turn, she elected to back-off rather than defending her position, settling into 9th.  She ran there the rest of the race but actually showed quicker and quicker lap times during the race.  She told me later that she was glad that her peers didn't race her any differently.

Her good buddy Alex won the race, working hard to pass the leader for most of the laps.  After Lian was injured, Alex promised to win a race for her and give her his trophy (he has many).  Diana told him that was very nice but that he didn't have to do that.  He insisted saying that he didn't want to break a promise.  Here they are after the awards were given (notice the big trophy and the heat wrap).

There was one competitor missing this race and we all missed him and his family.  Tyler is his name and even as a rookie, he has had a dynamite season.  We all trust all is well with him and his family and hope to see them at the track next race.

Just a few more races left.  We plan to make them count.  Thanks for reading!