$%&#!!! (Race the Rockies #1)

Other possible titles are "Can't win them all", "S*** happens", and "SRSLY, WTF?"

Grand Junction Motor Speedway. FANTASTIC track. If you like driving karts, you should put this place on the to do list.



Kirk (My buddy and super tuner, or is it tooner?) and I shoved off from Denver just after 7 am on Friday with my super fancy big rig ($200 open trailer behind my WRX). We grabbed some lunch as we pulled into Junction and were at the track before noon. We set up camp next to our buddy, Mike.


We did a bunch of laps on Friday, working on the chassis and carb. This track is a lot of fun. The grip was super crappy for most of the day, but I was having a good time. Saturday was more practice all day. There were more karts showing up and it looked like spec Honda would have an ok field (10). We used some better tires and tried another axle and found ourselves doing about the same time as other class favorites. Many of the hot shoes appear to be within a few tenths (53.7-53.9sec/lap). I was looking forward to a good race. With kirk's tune up and my dialing of the driving line, we felt pretty confident. There would be 50 laps (15,15,20) of racing plus qualifying. I wasn't too worried about qualifying way up front, just do 2 or 3 good laps and save the tires.

Kirk, super tuner


Crack dealer, err, I mean, AJ Noud. Get you karts and parts from him. Rocky Mountain Kartworks


Sunday was Business Time and I was ready to go at it. Warm up is bizarrely restricted to cruising around as if everyone rebuilt their engine overnight. I did a few laps to evaluate balance and carburetor settings. We mounted new tires for qualifying and since all the shifter classes qualify in one 10 minute session, we elected to watch the first 5 minutes and then find a hole in traffic as drivers that went out in the mayhem peel off the track. It worked beautifully. I found a nice section of clear track and laid down a 52.79 in the 2nd of 3 hot laps. Less than 0.02 off the spec class pole, good for 2nd. Sweet, I could have gone just a little better. I'll start 6th overall because we are on track with the ICC karts (they are supposed to be a little faster).

I suited up for heat #1

and proceeded to have a HORRIBLE first half lap. Royally bogged the start and then spun as I got too greedy following someone deep into the braking zone on the dirty line. AWESOME job, now get to work. I got my rhythm going and hunted down the rest of the class. As I was approaching the lead group of 4 or 5 spec motos (fighting with 2 ICCs), there was a small tangle that made my life much easier. There was one more spec driver in front of me that I managed to pick off with several laps to spare in the heat. The kart felt good, the driver felt like an idiot. All this made for fantastic video footage, as you'll see. There is some weird audio problem with the left hand turns. Damn, oh well.



In Heat #2, Jake snider got a better start than I did, so I ran 2nd to him for the first few laps. He eventually had a little contact with an ICC that let me by to the point. I ran some consistent quick laps, but didn't get away from Jake. We had a nice little fight at the half way point when he got along side on the front straight. I didn't want to go at it too much and let others catch up. I took the spot back and held it for the heat win. That felt good.



In the main (final) race, I finally nailed my start. We all got on with it and I found a rhythm at the front of the class. I saw Jake was out very early. There was an ICC all over my ass, but I couldn't afford the time to lift and "let" him by. They have like what, 7 more horse power? I expected him to drive around me on the straight. It only took a few laps for that situation to turn into a mini-accident. Tim got his kart lifted onto mine by my rear tire in a slow corner. I continued, but it really F'd my focus. As the laps counted down, I was clobbered again from the rear by an ICC as Jack Bradley was finishing chasing me down. Now I was just furious as the 1st thing I saw was Jack and I (wrongly) though he punted me. I was coming apart. We missed the tire pressures for the main, the 1st accident broke my silencer (changing the exhaust note), and I was imagining bent parts and flat tires. Jack got by me as I was recovering. I managed to get the lead back, then later that same lap he got through again (great move, btw). I lost my cool with 3 corners to go, thinking if I could get a killer run, I may be able to force it with 2 corners to go. I spun it, and let one spec driver by, dropping me to 3rd. @*^%*$%^$^%#$%$#!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not what we had in mind.

Lessons learned. Let's do this again. I'm still pissed, but it was a ton o' fun. Results link and video below. It's a little long, but it made sense to me to just gather all the highlights. The audio problem could annoy the hell out of some of you. Please don't give up on it, just play some of you own soundtrack over it. Maybe, open this in another browser and reduce the kart video volume to acceptable levels.

Results

Race the Rockies #1, Spec Honda Video Clips from Jeff Field on Vimeo.

5-3-09 Club Race (Knock off the rust)

Kirk and I went to the second day of the doubleheader club races at Centennial this past weekend. The 1st race was postponed due to weather in April and was held on Saturday, May 2. The weather was cold and overcast on Saturday, so I passed. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day. Our goal was to shake off our rust and see what we could do with the new chassis. We learned quite a bit and did some things to fix a somewhat surprising understeer that was quite a nuisance.



My guess at an initial setup was way too tight and I qualified poorly, 9th of 12 overall (4th Spec Honda). No big deal, this club race has a format of two 10 lap heats leading into a 20 lap main. I had plenty of time to work my way up. We made huge changes for the 1st heat and they worked. I went more than a second per lap faster, setting a 54.2s lap at the half way mark. It was still a little tight, but rolled way better almost everywhere. I was still losing time on the way in to the corner. I moved up to 6th overall which was really 3rd in spec moto (top 3 specs occupied 4th, 5th, and 6th). The 2nd heat went a little better, I never lost touch with 5th and had a little run on him at the white flag. It didn't work out and I could have been a little more clever about it. Oh well, I held 3rd in class and felt pretty good about taking a few more tenths off my previous best. The class leader did a lap about 0.5 faster than I went, so I'm curious where I'll find that. I've got some ideas, so look out, Jack (his home court pace is very impressive).



We made some more changes to the kart for the 20 lap final to "free" it up some more. It helped a little, as I set my first ever 53.X lap at centennial in either direction. We were running "uphill" or CCW, which is historically my weaker direction. Yay, us. So, in the final, I was cruising around a little behind 2nd in class, waiting to see how the last 10 laps would go. An ICC driver working is way up from way back made a surprise move on me in lap 12 in a hairy spot. Then on lap 13 he did the same to the fella I was chasing down, unfortunately sending him off track. Once I had inherited 2nd and knew 1st had a big gap, I backed it down a bit to finish 2nd ~10 seconds off the leader.

Not a bad day at the track. Learned some stuff and cranked down on my personal best so far. The kart is going pretty well, and we have some tricks up our sleeve for the first regional event in Grand Junction on the 17th. Results and video below.

RESULTS



Our buddy, Troy pointed out Kirk's racing stripe as we were calling it a day. :)



Some clips from the 2nd heat race and the final.

Mile High Challenge Race #2, Spec Honda Video Clips from Jeff Field on Vimeo.