September 22nd, WKA Ohio Speedway Pavement Divisional Series at G&J Kartway
Results
This week-end we attended the final WKA Ohio Speedway Pavement Divisional Series race for the season. It was held at G&J Kartwary in Camden, OH which is near Dayton. Actually, it's probably closer to Richmond, IN. Anyway, it was our first time at the track, and we quickly found out how tricky it is. The track is probably about 1/6 mile, but the two ends have different radius turns. The 1st and 2nd turns were the toughest due to the extremely high entry into 1 that you needed in order to get to the bottom coming out of 2 where the track was much narrower. I found out in one of our practices that you really need to get to the bottom or else you end up "mowing the grass" off of 2. I ended up pretty far off the track, and pretty deep out in the grass. So, during our practices the sun was out and it was pretty warm. Well, the clouds started to move in after our last session and it got much cooler. We made and gear change after the last practice, and by the time we qualified, the track had cooled off a lot. It was hard to get any heat in the tires for the run, and we found out we probably shouldn't have changed that gear. We didn't have a bad run, but we could have had a better run without the change. So, we started 7th in the feature, and I didn't have a great start. The first lap went pretty well as we started to catch the pack. However, in 3 and 4 of the second lap two or three karts got together and one spun on the inside. I saw a hole I could get through, but as I committed the spun kart started rolling back across the track. I ended up smacking him with my left front damaging my nose greatly. We lined-up for the restart in 8th with a fist-sized hole in my nose, and I hoped nothing bent on the front-end. I got a much better start this time, right in the thick of the battle. We got another couple laps in before there was some action at the front. The two front-runners got together causing the leader to spin, and pretty much blocked the track. Most everyone right in-front of me had no where to go, but I had already committed to the top. I got by the whole incident, unscathed this time and in 4th position. They did not throw the caution this time thankfully. I stayed in 4th till about 5 to go. The kart was getting a tick tight, but nothing too bad. We had changed the gear back after qualifying, and we were running out of motor at the end of the straight which is where they were catching us. Two karts got around me by the checkers, so we ended up in 6th. Not to shabby for our first time there I must say. So, that puts an end on our WKA Divisional season. I think we ended up around 7th or 8th in points. They'll probably be official by the end of the week.
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