I want to say Happy Fathers day to all the dads out there taking their kinds to all their activities. There is a special place for those that are able to involve their child in racing. Your giving them something special, not everyone has the opportunity to strap on a motor and see how fast they can go. They are learning the discipline to find the edge of speed and the patience to hold it. Enjoy your time with them.
Our racing was inspired by stories of my dad helping my grandfather fixing cars and of his cars as he became an adult. He showed me the beauty of these machines that propelled us down this road. We shared with him our love of racing, Thanks Dad.
The latest race was at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 15-16. This is the first of two shared events between Championship Enduro Series and AKRA/Dart Kart Club. Mid-Ohio is a favorite due to its hills and blind corners that combine to make it one to the fastest and most challenging tracks in both series.
The Dart Kart Club requires junior animal drivers to run with the black plate on the carburetor. The keeps them from ‘going too fast’. Early in Friday’s practice, Jason reported that the karts were both burping at the end of straights. At first we thought the motors where having issues but after talking things over with a number of people, we figured out that the plate was causing the carburetor to overload the motor with fuel. Now that we knew what the problem was, we did not have time to figure out the proper setup and had to take a few guesses. Some of them seem to work a bit better but still not quite right. Eventually, we asked a former junior driver for his suggestions and he gave us his carburetor parts. I put them in and the burping was gone and the kart was faster. This may have been the same issue we were battling last year.
Saturday was pretty good, aside from losing a wheel on the road kart. Jason helped scale the kart and missed the cotter pin holding the lug on and the wheel, which quickly came loose once he was on the track. The racing was great. Jason and Keith, a senior super heavy driver had a great race. They swapped places almost every lap, sometime more than once. Jason could catch Keith in the corners but Keith would pull away on the straights. Keith’s timing was just a bit better and he was looking for to beat Jason when his frame broke two laps from then end and he slowed. Sunday things got a little rough when the clutch came off the road kart in the first practice and the belt broke in the second practice, but we got things sorted for the races. Jason finished first in all four of the weekends races.
This weekend was also the AKRA Awards presentation(2017 points). Jason managed to win the Sprint Junior Championship by a mere 38 points. He had Matthew had a great season with Jason winning the first few races and then Matthew dominating the last few. The season came down to the last race where Jason needed to finish fourth or better. After the awards the team was interviewed by Mid-Life Karting Crisis on Facebook live.
Next up is East Lancing Kart Track with the Cup Karts of North America, this will be the first time we have visited this track, though we have though about going for many years. In the mean time we are going to the Indy Race at Road America this next weekend.
Thanks to all the Folks that support us and the 4 Cycle Central Animal Pen at Mid-Ohio: Michelle, Jen, Jenna, Lisa. The food was great and the company was better. Thanks to Jack for the scale work and Reagan(4 Cycle Central) for continued kart help. Thanks to Jordan Johnson for the carb parts. Of course Happy Fathers day to all our racing dads.
Thanks to our 2018 Sponsors for their continuing support:
Atomic Decals, Alex Ross Art, Amsoil, Christian Lantry Photographer, C&M Auto Service, EVS Sports, The Greenwood Restaurant, GoPro, Hoosier Tires, InTech Trailers, Jegs Performance, NVUS Images, OGIO Bags, Slick Products, Shorai Power, Winning Synthetics, Stardust Memorials, Jennings Chevrolet, Xona Software, Wicked Audio