September 1st, Barberton Night Show
Results
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day week-end! Our's wasn't too
bad as we headed back to Barberton for their night race on Sunday. We pulled
into the track about noon, and had loads of practice to get prepared for the
heats. In the first heat, we started 8th out of 10. Most of the karts were
pretty evenly matched, and the start was just nuts. There were karts
everywhere. But, everyone ran close, fast, and clean. I ended up tagging on
to the tail of the line just waiting for the kart to come-in, and some of the
traffic to calm down a bit. After a couple of laps, everything had thinned
out, and I started to move forward. At the 2-to-go signal, I was gaining rapidly
on the 6th and 7th place karts who were battling with each other. I tried to
pass both of them down the back-stretch, but couldn't get the run that I
needed. So, coming down for the white I decided I had to get by them. I got a
good run through 1 and 2, and I was able to pull to the outside of them down
the back-stretch. I went on the outside of them through 3 and 4, but
unfortunately had to squeeze the guy in the middle a little down so I wouldn't
hit the wall. I was able to keep my momentum to the line though and finished
6th. For the 2nd heat, we started 3rd. We had a pretty good start, but the
kart wasn't there right away. I got locked into a battle for 5th fairly early
on. We didn't have enough gear to get off the corners, so it was hard to pass
coming out. Also, the kart had a very slight push off as well which made it a
little tougher. I was able to pull up right behind him, even bump him a litte
down the straights, and I knew someone was right behind me because I could feel
him doing the same thing. Finally, I got a great run down the back-stretch and
was able to pull under the 5th place kart. Down the front, I got a little tap
from the kart that was behind me which was just enough for me to get by the 5th
place kart. After that, I pulled away, but didn't have enough laps to catch
4th. So, this put us 7th for the start of the feature. The track wanted all
the features under the lights, so we had to wait a little bit between the heats
and features. We finally we ready to go onto the track about 9:30, but just
before we went out they asked if we wanted to go 30 laps. I guess the vote was
for it, so we paused a little for everyone to make sure they had fuel and hit
the track. I found out very soon, about 3 laps in, that the adjustments I made
to the front end of the kart were probably a bad idea. The steering was very
tight, and it would make 30 laps even longer. Anyway, about the 2nd lap we
were all still pretty bunched up in 3 and 4. I was going to follow the kart
ahead of me through, but he broke loose a little and I bumped him. He also
brushed the kart that was above him on the track. The two karts that were hit,
pretty much stopped, but we were able to get going, forced to catch-up. We
were able to run down the pack, and about lap 12 the kart really started to
come-in. We were really gaining on the leaders, but there were plenty of karts
in between. I battle with one for about a lap before I got by cleanly. He
thought he could get me back on the inside going into 3, but ended up break-in
loose, bouncing off of me, and then spinning himself out. I kept going, trying
to get to the leaders. I was running out of laps, but we were gaining. BUT,
with about lap 20 the engine started doing some funny things down the front
stretch. About the flag stand, it would cut-out a little bit. I was thinking,
"Great low on fuel, hopefully I can make it." Well, the condition got a little
worse every lap, and on 23, I lost a position because of it. A few laps
later, I recieved the the 5 to go signal, and as I came off the 2nd turn to
accelerate down the stretch, the motor just died. I pulled off thinking it was
out of fuel. When we got everything situated back in the pits, we found out
there was about 1/3 of a tank left. So no fuel wasn't the case. We think it's
something ignition-wise, but still haven't figured it out. Oh well, that was
our first DNF in pretty much 2 seasons. Hopefully, we'll get it figured out
before next week-end because we'll be heading back to Barberton on Sunday.
Back to 2002 Reports