May 26th, BKC at Barberton
Results
Well, we finally did it, we finally got a good enough day to race, and it was
very eventful to say the least. We went down to Barberton for the Buckeye
Karting Championship series show on the fast 1/4 mile oval. Saturday, they
held an open practice in the morning, so that's when we headed for the track.
It was cold, cloudy, and threatening rain, but we did get two sessions in.
Sunday turned out much different weahter-wise. It was bright and sunny, which
made for a much faster track. We started tuning the kart in our hot laps
sessions, and it got better every time on the track. I should tell you now,
that the rule on starts for the day was you had to stay in line until you
crossed the start/finish line, so no passing until then. For the first heat,
we started 6th out of 9 karts. We had a good start and the kart was handling
great. By the 2nd lap, I was up to 3rd and closing in on second. Then, as I
went through turn 2 on the 3rd lap, I heard a loud bang and went spinning
towards the wall. The kart ended up catching on the bumper and doing a tail
stand. When it set back down, the last kart was coming through and careened
off my nose. My initial thoughts during the accident is that just blew a tire.
But after everything stopped, I saw that my right rear tire was laying about
half-way down the back-stretch. That's right, all three studs that hold the
right rear on had sheared off. So, we got the kart back to pits and got it
fixed for the 2nd heat. Luckily, the only thing that was wrong with the kart
were the sheared studs. For the 2nd heat, we lined up 4th. Now, here's where
the start rule come into play. On the first attempt of the start, the first
two kart got together in the first turn with everyone else bottled up behind
them, since we couldn't pass. Again, trying to avoid the accident I almost
backed it into the wall. So anyway, on the 2nd attempt, the first two karts
weren't the fastest on the starts, but the faster karts were behind them.
Going into the first turn, I'm getting rammed in the back while I'm trying to
stay off the guy in front of me. Well, I pretty much got trapped on the high
side then, and by the time things sorted out ended up 5th in the heat. Well
with the heats down, it was finally time for features. By virtue of our
finishes in the heats we lined up 7th for the feature. We were making
adjustments throughout the day, and I knew the kart would be fast. We had a
clean start and by the 3rd lap we were in 4th, but I had to run down 2nd and
3rd. It took a couple laps to do so, but we were coming on like gang-busters.
I made a move on 3rd place going into the 3rd turn. I don't know if he didn't
see me or what, but he started to come down on me. Instead of getting
together, I turned it left and hit the brakes which caused me to spin.
They ended up DQ'ing that 3rd place kart for spraying fuel, and wanted me to
re-start in 3rd. I told them, "No, I spun myself trying to avoid an accident."
So, I restarted on the tail of the field. I was a bit more cautious coming
back up through the field. It was a great race coming to checkers with 3rd,
4th, and 5th within a kart-and-a-half of each other. We ended up 5th. Our
good friend, Seth Schneider won it. So, the week-end was rather eventful.
Almost hitting the wall a couple of times, and then going from the back to the
front to the back and to the front again made the first week-end hard work.
I have to extend loads of thanks to Seth and Stan for tips and assistance for
set-up, and also Chuck from Chuck's Custom Kart shop for tire set-up with the
new Burris tires.
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