The first race weekend of the season is in the books. As usual, no race weekend goes without some type of excitement...some racing, some technical. Friday's practice session went smooth. Weather was in the upper 70's all day, with winds gusting in the 30mph range!
Saturdays racing schedule proved to be a physical challenge for my first outing. Racing two classes, that of course, were back to back. That basically means race one kart, fly into the pits after the checker flag flies, park it, and run to the other kart on the grid and GO RACING again! I am a junky. A good way to get my fill of racing. The line up had me racing the 125 shifter class first, and the Rotax 2nd. The final for each class consisted of 18 laps. That meant 36 laps of non-stop racing fun! The Rotax ran flawless all weekend, and I placed 3rd overall for the day. The shifter on the otherhand...gave us some technical challenges through the day. During qualifying we were WAY off with our jetting - 10th place result. Prefinal = broken coil wire, 8th place finish. Final = broken coil wire, 6th place finish. All-in-all not a bad day, and GREAT FUN. Oh, I forgot to mention...during the first Rotax race, the gas cap seal was missing. That meant that during the first few laps with a full tank of gas, my knee pad that I wear to soften the blow of my knee slamming against the top of the gas tank managed to become soaked with GAS! That lead to a nice BURNING sensation while I raced for 20 minutes. Needless to say, I needed a little aloe vera to cool my knee.
Sundays weather proved to be more of the same. Beautiful morning, sunny skies and highs in the upper 80's. I opted out of the two class deal (muscles were a little sore!). I decided to race the shifter for the day, and one Rotax race. Believe it or not....NO technical issues for the day! Races went well. Great starts, some awesome clean, fun racing! Qualified 8th in the shifter, finished my prefinal in 3rd (after what was an AMAZING launch on the start for me!), and finished the final in 4th. I battled for the 3rd place spot for a few lapps with Eric Batt before he make a pass stick after his 3rd attempt. I tried for a couple of laps to real him in, but no luck.
I did race the Rotax in the prefinal on Sunday....starting in the back of the field. I had some great racing, and managed to work myself up into the 3rd place finishing order in the Rotax class.
Another great race weekend in the books. Looking forward to the next outing in May. Gingerman Raceway in South Haven MI.
