61 Kartway Race #2 Report

I guess a miserable day at the track is better than doing most anything else on a Saturday. 50° with 15-20 mph winds made for a long day. Remember high school track meets when it was cold and windy? You had to sit outside all afternoon and night. Nobody wanted to be there, not even the coaches. It sucked. But you stepped your game up and killed it when you had to. That’s how it was Saturday. Turnout was so-so but pretty good considering the weather. 7 total in TAG. After 2 or 3 practice sessions I had the chassis hooked up for once and was actually confident going into qualifying. I jacked up the air pressure in the tires and mentally prepared to hold it WFO whenever possible.

Qualified 3rd. Less than a tenth of a second split the top three. When I saw my time on the gauge I thought I had a chance at stealing the pole. Just missed it!

For the pre-final I totally missed the setup and was off pace before the halfway point. Got a terrible start anyway and banged side pods with Dave for the first couple turns. I rode around in 3rd by myself waiting for the race to end. Back in the pits I went through some adjustments and stressed about what air pressures to run for the final. Pressures set, last minute check, and off we went for the final. I got a great start this time behind Kyle and the three of us up front checked out. It was great to finally be back on the track doing battle and being competitive.

I hit the podium coming home 3rd. Fun, fun race. Second fastest time in the final! If I would keep all four wheels on the track (I might have done a little lawn mowing excursion) and be more consistent I could be contending for the win. More seat time and racing will cure that. Hopefully.

No pictures. Hey it was too freaking cold, I was hiding in my garage most of the day. No video. I am pissed about that. That video would have been way cool. Not sure what happened but nothing even recorded. With any luck it works next weekend. Then a week off and back at it last weekend in May.

Your friend and my favorite,
Morgan

Rock and Roll

New chassis and engine locked and loaded!

Marching On...Motor in a Box

No, not JT in a box. But I do LMAO every time I see it.

This:


2010 125cc Rotax Max. In a box.

I haven't had a motor on my kitchen table for awhile now. Instead, the complete assembly is front and center on my living room floor. C’est La Vie. Really ties the room together. I had a bad case of shiny-new-thing-itis and when someone offered to buy my used motor I didn’t hesitate. The new stuff showed up yesterday. I just have to put that mess on the new kart, break it in, and get ready for the first race of the season.

Somethings been brought to my attention.


I've been told no man should ever be caught on an elliptical. Something something questioned my masculinity something something cut up my man card. Then I was accused of willingly watching Twilight, WTH? Listen, it tightens my buns and thighs ok.

No worries, with the spring weather I’ve pulled the bike out and started doing some spinning. Did a brick workout for the first time ever, what a PITA!

Your friend and my favorite,
Morgan

2010 Schedule

April 17-18: Great Lakes Pro Series New Castle, IN

April 24: 61 Kartway opens

May 8: 61 Kartway Race #2 Rotax Max Challenge

May 15-16: Midwest Sprint Badger, WI or 61 Kartway #3 Rotax Max Challenge

May 29: 61 Kartway Race #5 Rotax Max Challenge

June 5: 61 Kartway Race #6 Rotax Max Challenge

June 19: 61 Kartway Race #8 Rotax Max Challenge

June 26: 61 Kartway Race #9 Rotax Max Challenge

July 3-4: Midwest Sprint Road America, WI

July 10: 61 Kartway Race #10 Rotax Max Challenge

July 14-18: Rotax Grand Nationals New Castle, IN

August 6-8: Championship Enduro Series Blackhawk Farms, IL

August 21-22: Midwest Sprint Norway, IL

September 3-5: Rock Island Grand Prix Rock Island, IL

September 17-19: Championship Enduro Series Autobahn Country Club, IL

September 25: 61 Kartway Championship

October 9: 61 Kartway Challenge

Cabin Fever

Happy 2010 team! I’ve been freezing my ass off thanks to another awesome Iowa winter. Hard to find motivation with a balmy 15° high let alone when it’s below zero for weeks at a time. I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

“Phil? Phil! Phil Connors?” “Ned Ryerson?” “Bing!” Classic.

Not much new, not much happening, just the same old routine everyday. Work, gym, home; rinse and repeat. I went back to Atlantic for Christmas but thanks to 2 feet of snow not many friends got together to catch up. Bummer. At least the college-like binge drinking was kept to a minimum. Plenty of family time though and it’s always cool to see Sis back from Zoo York. Went deer hunting and sniped a doe. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a big guy cross my path. Throw in the always exciting once-a-month Rock Island Grand Prix committee meeting and that about sums up the last month and half.

I’ve been using the Nike+ Ipod app to keep track of my running workouts:

It’s easy to track progress and set goals, plus now I actually feel bad when I don’t get the cardio in thanks to the little widget. But my local workout facility, the DeWitt Health and Fitness Center, is no YMCA. It's owned and run by the city, like the public pool. 3 treadmills one of which has the ever impressive laminated sign which reads For Walking Only and 4 ellipticals. The track is less than a 1/10 of a mile. It's crowded. Hey Cougs (I know, my target audience, right) less walk on the running treadmills and use the right machine. While you're at it, ditch the hoodie and sweatpants, it's a gym nobody cares what you look like. Just know that while you're tearing up that treadmill at .1 mph, I got the perfect view of your butt behind you on the elliptical.

Most of the 2010 karting schedules have been released. I’m still working on my race schedule and all that jazz, but I have good grasp where this summer will take me. Already pumped, I could race every weekend April-September. I’d need a liquid-cooled bank account though!

Karting has already started down in Florida! WKA Man Cup was at Daytona and the Florida Winter Tour has kicked off! Next year maybe? It would be a nice vacation. I’ll be at the Kart Expo in Chicago February 26-28 manning the Rock Island Grand Prix booth and probably making impulse purchases. I really want to get my brain bucket custom painted! Got any inspiration? How about copying MotoGP star Valentino Rossi’s? Not a chance.

Finally, Jay, one of my best friends, got engaged! Congrats dude!

Your friend and my favorite,

Morgan

Off Season...err winter

Forecasted snow for today, Thanksgiving tomorrow, December a week away...winter might finally be here. I know the off season is. Plus it’s been over a month without an update.

Nothing is left of my CRG Kali kart. It got torn down to the bare chassis, cleaned, and put away weeks ago. If everything goes as planned, I’ll use that as my Rock Island Grand Prix and backup chassis, and buy a new CRG Black Star kart. Everything else is in storage hibernating for the winter. Except my engine...its umm...currently sitting on my kitchen table. HA! Makes for a good centerpiece anyway, not sure if anyone else appreciates it. After Christmas its going to the engine builder for a once over and to replace any worn parts. Probably at least a piston and ring, the little Rotax does have nearly 45 hours of use and abuse! Rode hard and put away wet is an understatement.

April 30-May 2, 2010 is the first race next year. World Karting Association’s Manufacturers Cup at South Bend, IN. It’s already marked on the calendar, 5 long months away. Goals have been scribbled out, well, in my mind anyway. Training has ramped up. Lets be real, I’ve always ran or biked one or two days a week. Gotta do better than that, gotta have that edge. Plus the scenery aint all that bad at my local DeWitt Health and Fitness Center. Hopefully I’ll be using Nike+ to track my fitness and training. I’m a dork, I’ve been reading Racer X Virtual Trainer to get inspired. And watching this over and over and over:

How do I really know the season is over? The SKUSA SuperNationals XIII at the Rio in Las Vegas were last week. Biggest. Kart. Race. Ever. This race is on my Bucket List of events to compete at. Some how SKUSA pres Tom Kutscher got big name drivers from all around the world to compete at his race. Leading the way: 7 time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher.

Other pros included Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon and F1 drivers Nelson Piquet Jr. and Sebastien Buemi. They all got beat by karting’s best. Robin Miller from Speed TV was there covering the event for the Speed Report and Wind Tunnel. Pretty freakin cool. Check out some highlights:

Supernationals XIII from Dillon Felber on Vimeo.

Super Nats XIII Las Vegas, Abbasse (Sodi) Heat #1 from KARTCOM.com on Vimeo.

Thats all for now.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

MRP Race Report

We came. We saw. We did NOT conquer. It was a rough weekend...

Greg and I loaded the trailer Friday night in preparation for an early morning. We pulled out of the 61 Kartway driveway at 0700 Saturday to make the 4 ½ hour trek east to Michiana Raceway Park. It rained on and off for most of the boring drive. I’m not so sure which is more boring, the states to the west or east of us? Maybe its just me. We just wanted to get to the race track as soon as possible. After a pit stop or 2, we were in Indiana with the Garmin leading us down what amounted to a back road cow path. I could hear the banjos playing. The locals must be pissed when WKA or other big series come to town and cause traffic jams. Seriously, the track is in the middle of BFE. Anyway, we made it, got signed in, and set out to get some hot laps on track.

First impression: very fun track and great facility. But, why are those huge tents set up and all these trailers here? It felt more like a regional race than a club race. I had to ask, this is club race #12 right? The last club race here for the season? Track Layout B? Yes to all my answers. I was impressed. After the first practice session on track I came in to make adjustments but that was all she wrote. Mother nature caught up with us and rain set in for the rest of the afternoon and night. I was pretty bummed to get only one practice session in.

I cleaned the kart up and Marshall Martin of LSR Motorsports showed us some new tricks. That literally made the whole trip worth it for me. We BS’d and generally tried to stay dry for the rest of the day. Someone asked where we were staying for the night. Uhh...umm, we planned on rolling into town and getting hotel rooms. No problem. We just overlooked one big problem. Notre Dame was playing at home against Washington. Rooms were $300 on up and we are cheap bastards. We went into town to grab food before going back to the track listening to Chuck and the Irish barely hold on for the win in OT. We slept in the truck. Thank doG it is a crew cab. It gets cold in Indiana this time of the year.

Big surprise, I was up early Sunday morning! I’m thankful that MRP had the wherewithal to put in public showers. The track was still wet from the day before. With 11 classes on the schedule the day looked like this: 9:45 am start, 2 practice sessions, qualifying, 12 lap pre-final, and 22 lap final. The first practice session was useless. We were the first group on the track and it was like driving on ice. The front end pushed like a dump truck in every corner. No grip whatsoever. The second practice session was even worse. Somehow, Rotax International, Rotax Junior, DD2, and Shifters were all put in the same group. Easily 40+ karts on track. It was a mess.

I was about 6th or 7th back in a train when I got punted from behind. Whoever it was got the number one salute as they went by, but they didn’t have a back number plate so I don’t know who caved my back bumper in. Loser didn’t even have the stones to stay anything afterwards. Ha! I almost forgot, I left the freaking choke on when I went out on track! I'm an idiot. Not only was I pissed after getting hit, but the engine was spitting and sputtering. I thought something was seriously wrong with the go power. I didn't realize what I did till 45 min. later back in the pits! Result: no clean laps and in two days only one good practice session, the first time I was on the freaking track!

We all basically threw a hail marry for qualifying. Didn’t work. Dave qualified 7th, I was 9th, and Greg was 1oth. Why did we drive 4 ½ hours to race ourselves? The 12 lap pre-final was uneventful, but I moved up one spot to 8th , with Dave ahead in 7th and Greg behind in 9th. 22 laps is a long way to go in a kart when you’re running 48 and 49 second lap times. We all sniped one spot to move up. Dave and I had a good battle for 6th in the final. I passed him 6 or 7 laps in, he passed me back 6 or 7 laps later, and that’s where we finished for the final; I couldn’t get close enough to make a pass. Greg finished in 8th behind us. It was a workout that I need to prepare better for.

We did good, not great or bad, with so little track time. All said, I was about 1 second off the leaders pace. While the results don’t reflect it, it was a worthwhile trip. Bittersweet anyway. I can think of worse ways to spend the weekend. We packed the trailer, said our thank-you’s and goodbye’s, and got the hell out of Dodge before the day was over. We were back home around 10PM. We’ll be back to MRP next year; rumor is WKA Man Cup will have a Rotax class next year...

I actually had the helmet camera on for the final! It only recorded for three minutes after I turned it on and I was sitting on the grid the whole time! Operator error or something. I’ll have it working for the next race. Link to the photos:

MRP Race