2-21-09 Kart Racing Report
We arrived at Moore Park at 7:05. Anthony Harwin was already there. We only brought one kart (Ben’s aging Invader, powered by a Briggs and Stratton Raptor running on methanol). We unloaded, and Anthony walked the track with us, explaining the line to Ben.
As time went by, other local carters, and some from as far away as MS started to show up. Mostly shifter carts. Made me wish I had brought mine, but this was Ben’s day and I wanted to concentrate on making his kart run and helping him learn to road race.
He ran two practice sessions of about 6-8 minutes each. The first one was just to check tire pressures and kart setup, but it also gave him a chance to start learning the line around the track. The flagger is a very experienced 4 stroke cart builder, and spent about 10 minutes talking to Ben after he came in to help him understand driving this track. It’s very important in low horsepower carts to relax and let the cart work. If you steer too much, you burn up a lot of power and speed, and the cart doesn’t have the power to make it back quickly. Smoothness, rhythm and a good line really matter.
Anthony’s daughter Lindsay showed up later in the morning. She is 17, and runs a Coyote Wide Track LE chassis with a Methanol Animal motor. In the videos of the kids, she will be the black kart. Lindsay was 2006 Gulf Coast Karting Challenge Champion, and she was there to show the younger kids the line and give them a sense of pace. For reference, her motor in stock trim should be about a 10 horse. Ben’s in stock trim is about 5. Since both motors are built and running methanol, figure 12+ for the Animal and 7ish for the Raptor (Ben). Remember these numbers later when subject of Ben’s next race comes up.
For the second session, Lindsay went out, as well as our autocross friend Logan Breaux. Logan has autocrossed one season in a Kid Cart. Today he was there with his new Shadow chassis running a gasoline fueled Animal to get some seat time. Ben and Logan ran behind Lindsay to see how it was done. Ben’s line had improved, but his tires were starting to go away so he was fairly loose. It was a good long practice though and the kart ran good. Ben had a total of about 5 spins while we were sorting through tire pressures.
There was a long break while the shifters practiced, then the racing started. The kids went out one at a time for a qualifying session – one warmup, one hot, one cool down. This set them to line up as predicted: Lindsay, Ben, Logan. This was Ben’s first ever road racing start. The format for this race was a rolling start, so he lined up to Lindsay’s right with Logan behind Lindsay and they took the green. The big Animal pulled him hard right from the start. It was really no contest with the two carts they were running. Even so, it was obvious that Ben was driving well, because in the tight parts of the track he could take up some of the distance Lindsay was putting on him in the open sections. It looked good and fun, but without the fear and pressure that would have come from running in a larger pack with more carts close to him in speed. As it was, he got a good feel for being on a track with other carts without a lot of tight wheel to wheel dicing.
The shifters ran some more, then it was time for the kids feature. Lindsay had left for a baseball game, so it was just Logan and Ben in a 12 lap race. Ben was very consistent and smooth on new rear tires, and showed a lot better line, faster without the looseness of the earlier sessions. He lapped Logan one lap before the checker, and took the finish with a substantial lead and a lot of fist shaking.
We stayed around a while longer to shoot some video of the shifters.
Next race is March 7th. By then we should have a much newer chassis (an 05-06 CRG Kt-1 for you google freaks). We will also be running a Briggs World Formula engine. 15 Horsepower. That’s more than twice what he has now, and should make for the fastest 4-stroke cart in the club. It will be very interesting to see him adapt to the much faster and more modern kart. I will be bringing my CRG Heron 125 Shifter out for that race as well. I have been fighting handling problems with that kart while autocrossing, so some time on the race track should give me an opportunity to do some sorting and tweaking as well as having some noisy fun. Stay tuned.
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