July 9th, PKA Points Race #3 at Toledo


Results


Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed up to Toledo Speedway for the 3rd PKA points race. The day started off well, fine tuning the set-up in the two hot lap sessions. We started 4th in the first group of heavy heats. Everything was going rather well when I came up on our "buddy" from a few weeks back. He didn't get off 4 very well, and I got a huge run on him. I stuck my nose under him, and he turned down...I don't know if he saw me or not. Well, I ended up climbing him, and we both took action to get me off. As a came down, still going about 80mph, I had the wheels turned and the kart bicycled big time on the right-side. I thought I was going over for sure....but I saved it. The front steering support ended up bent because I had turned the wheel so hard to the right to save it. I could still drive it though, and we ended up 7th out of 8 in the heat. The 2nd heat we started 5th and wound up 3rd in a rather uneventful race. I did find out the kart would go anywhere though since I made my only pass on the outside. So now it was feature time. We started 7th out of the total 16 karts in the class. The kart was handling great, and I was confident of a top 5 finish. The guys behind me thought they could win it on the first lap though. As we came down to complete the first lap, I got tapped in the left rear, spinning me and setting me broad-side to other half of the field. It didn't take long, and I was T-boned by another kart going about 70mph. Let me tell you, it didn't feel very good. The kart still ran though, so I tried to continue. When we restarted, I found out something was seriously wrong though. I brought it in and saw the chain was coming off the gear, but then noticed the real problem...the frame was bent. We decided right then and there that we are not going back to Toledo anytime soon...if ever. It has been just way too expensive.

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