Wow. Where to start? This sums up the weekend:
The kart and entire racing operation was prepped during the week to make the 400 mile trek to New Castle Motorsports Park east of Indianapolis, Indiana Thursday night.
I was ready and excited to race on a track I’ve never been to. New Castle is probably the best karting facility in the country! Up to this point, this is the biggest race I’ve ever entered. Racers from Mexico, Canada, Florida to California were in attendance to do battle for the Rotax Pan American Challenge. The winner of the 4 race series earns a spot on Team America representing the USA at the Rotax World Finals in Italy! I thought the kart was ready. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
Friday morning I got registered and set up the pit next to the LSR Motorsports guys. 5 practice sessions were on the schedule for the day. The first session I went out to familiarize myself with the track and concentrate on picking up the apex points learning the track. As the day and practice sessions went on the kart just wouldn’t respond to any chassis adjustments I’d make. Sometimes it would hop in the corners, sometimes it would be loose in, sometimes it would push, sometimes it would be loose off. WTH was going on?
The last practice session for the day I picked up a bad vibration. I aborted early and went back to the pits scratching my head. None of the tires were losing air pressure, nothing was loose, and the axle wasn’t bent. I swapped out the sprocket and chain for new parts and prepped for qualifying Saturday morning.
It rained all night and most of Saturday morning. Luckily the track was dry for our 15 minute qualifying session. By the halfway point the kart was shaking and vibrating pretty violently. I pushed on trying to diagnose what was happening but I wasn’t going any faster and called it quits. By this point I was way down on everything that was happening and bummed.
Remember I’d thrown the chain in previous race weekends? I found out why after qualifying:
http://picasaweb.google.com/morganschuler1/CRGBlackStarChassisCrack
Weak sauce, the frame freaking cracked where the rear cross bar behind the seat meets the second rail motor mount. The second rail is cracked too. At this point I knew my weekend was probably over. Pissed off and bummed out, I spent Saturday cussing and running around looking for a welder or another chassis. I conceded that I wouldn’t be able to make the Saturday races, but maybe I could get everything together to race on Sunday. The motor came off and I got permission from race officials to switch chassis if I could find one. By the end of the day, no one would weld the frame for fear of causing more damage. Don’t blame them. Found a chassis but it was a you break it you buy it deal. No thanks.
All the time, effort and money wasted with two Did Not Starts to show for it. Suck!
I loaded up and left the track early Sunday morning to make the drive back home. At this point we’re still trying to determine if the frame can be welded and fixed. So for now I won’t be racing, at least this weekend. A new bare frame might be in my future.
No pictures from the weekend. Too busy running around pissed off that I forgot I even brought the camera. No video either. One because I didn’t race, two because race officials wouldn’t allow on board cameras. Never did get an explanation, just a NO.
Since I’m not racing this weekend, I’m going to watch Indy Cars at Iowa Speedway Sunday with my Dad! Thanks Manatts for the sweet (and suite) tickets!
Your friend and my favorite,
Morgan
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