Nogaro

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First I like to take my hats off to Brooks from coming out in the 100+ degree sun and racing with me. I guess not everybody at AW is a keyboard racer.

Due to lack of interest, Brooks and myself were forced to enter as solo entries and left the race organizer to group us with 2 other racers. The upside was we were assigned with only 1 more person when we paid for a 4 person team. More driving for everyone which was good news... for now.

My race weekend split into Friday practice and Saturday qualifying and race. Due to work, Brooks was unable to join me for the Friday practice. So before the race even started black clouds begin to loom over my 1st ever race. Originally hoping to lure Pete and Eric into the team so I can have some experience hands along, I was forced into racing with people and a track I've never seen before.

FRIDAY:
Of the drivers that decided to show for the practice, 2 group were formed. Group 1 made up of returning racers and group 2 of 1st racers. I was surprised to find group 1 made up of quite a lot of seniors. I mean guys in their 50-60's or even 70's! Later I found out they are the team that won all the races this season!

Today would be my introduction to both the Willow Springs kart track and SpeedVenture's karts. The day made up of 5 15min sessions for each group with a mini race for group 2 at the end. I used the 2 sessions to learn both the track and the karts. In the last 3 sessions I practiced some passing techniques I got through Skip (worked) and watching F1 (didn't work). XP

Interesting enough KartingVenture employers the old LeMan style starts which drivers had to physically run the their karts and take off. Since the race was a practice qualifying was 1st come 1st serve, I qualified P12 out of 14. I made a decent sprint and sat at P3 entering turn 1. After a clean dive on the inside I left turn 1 at P2, with the former P2 swapping ends. I followed P1 throughout the remainder of the race but never passed because at the time I thought it was an instructor driving.

So at the end of Friday I had a good idea of what a 15min stint feels like, the feel of the kart, and the track.


After dinner Nasa gave me a quick load down of Enduro do's and don't over the phone.


SATURDAY:

Endurance races emphasis on overall strategy and experiences both I do not have. Not knowing the abilities of my teammates or even my own limit to stay in a kart, playing as I go along was the only way.

Finally meeting Brooks and our last teammate Michael an Enduro veteran for the 1st time we dived right into planning some sort of race strategy. We are forced into minimum of 11 drivers change throughout the 6 hrs which worked out to 12 30min stints if we aim to pit at the minimum amount. Based on my experiences from yesterday 30min stints seems to be well within my limits but we weren't sure if Brooks who only raced indoor karts would respond to it.

The day kicks off with a 40min practice session with a 20 min qualifying session. 3 of us decided to give Brooks the majority (20min) of the practice session because he missed the Friday practice and to see how he feels after a stint close to our planed race stint. The rest of 20 min timed practice were split between Michael and myself to see who should take the qualifying session.

At the end of the practice session our times ranges as follows. After some tips from Michael and myself Brooks turned in a very respectable range of 56.8-57.8sec having never driven these karts and the track before. Michael using his experience to over come a weight disadvantage clocked in a very consistent 56.5-56.9sec. Being the inconsistent Montoya like I always am I clocked in with a low of 54.1 but sometime went as hi as 56's. It was obvious qualifying was down to me but due to pressure I could only best a 54.6 during qualifying which put us all the way back in 5th out of 9 teams.

11am I found myself the 5th men in sprinter position. The green flag falls and 2 giant leaps later I WOT into the chaotic back straight with 8 other karts. Due to my light weight I could pull on quite a few teams and got P3 into the braking zone for turn 1. After turn one I held onto my P3 and begin working on a retired air force pilot in P2. After 2 laps and found myself dead even and couldn't get a run to make a pass. Knowing he is heavier then me, I was sure he was either on a better kart or simply on a better line and was not about to crack under pressure. For 1 lap I started to copy his lines and finally found 2 corners where I could make grounds. I tried to make a pass in once corner and ended up rubbing paint and door shut in my face. I gathered the kart up and tried again in the second corner, again had the door shut, my right front in the air after contact with his left rear, and a black flag warning. Now I'm clearly pissed off but I can see Brooks in the pits giving me the "calm down" signal. Now I decided to use those 2 sectors where I'm faster to get right on his exhaust and try a traditional pass at the next hairpin.

FINALLY!! P2!!

There goes my 1st real dog fight in a race, and I can say patience pays in racing.

1 lap after my pass I noticed he decided to not argue about 1 position during a 6hr race and never showed a challenge. I took the chance to pull away and ring in some fast laps hoping it'll help the team in the next 5hr and 45min. During the last 15min of my 1st 30min stint I clocked a 53.98 which became the fastest lap of the race for the next hour. After my 1st stint I was happy that I made up for my poor qualifying, set the fastest lap and brought the team to P2 with Brooks out. After a 10min of breath and drinks, I was shocked to find we had fall back to P3!! It seems the all the drivers in P1 (senior) and P2 teams were pulling consistent 54-55sec laps while Brooks improved but was still in the 56sec zone. So within 10min after my stint we had lost a position. At the end of Brooks stint he expressed how much he wished he been in the Friday practice session. Michael was able to get into his top racing speed right away around 56-57sec but it was still at least 2 sec off P1, P2, and P4. At this point I begin to realize 1 and 2 is out of the question and holding onto P3 was gonna take a **** load of luck. Soon enough in the middle of Michael's stint our team fell back to P4 and my lap record had been broken by 0.12sec.

<img src="http://www.avalanchedesign.net/~real/small/racing2.jpg">
RACING WAS CLOSE FOR THE WHOLE 6HR!!

Fast forward to 3rd hour of the race, P3 had about a lap on us, and both P1 and P2 were in a comfortable ~4 laps in front. And having 2 of our team stints ruined by slow karts didn't help. Obviously at this point our main goal is to keep P4 at all cost. Thankfully our nearest competitor a team with 1 smoking fast girl who has been neck to neck with me, and 2 large guys had 2 kart problems in a roll. That puts them all the way back in P6. That leaves us with a comfortable lead of 1 lap to the new P5.

Fast forward to the last hour. This is where the race suddenly got crazy.

RAIN! Yeah! Having 100+ degree burning sun then the next thing you know you got a freak SHOWER going!! The suddenly shower lasted 10sec but it was heavy enough to soak the whole track. One second I sweating hot and putting on my helmet the next second I found myself soaking wet! It was like God decided to dump a bucket of water over us. This is when I got word Michael had spun. I was told he entered turn 9 just like he had for the whole day but found a swimming pool at the exit this time. Luckily the yellow flag had been pulled and he was able to get back without losing position and time. For the next 10min I waited for the yellow flag to drop and my final stint instead I saw the red flag. In the end the race organizer decide to stop the race, allow a free drivers change and do a rolling restart. To me this rain looked like a second chance at the podium from Buddha since a spin is very likely for any one even the top 3. My team decided to put me back in hoping some fast lap and a mistake from the top 3 could put us back on podium. Well we ended up getting more then we asked for. The old men from the top 3 had no problem keeping me at bay, and walked away from me when I came under pressure from behind. Also the tape that held the timing cable's across the straight suddenly gave up under the rain and caused the cables to hit no one but me as I blasted down the straight. Instead of gunning for P3 now I had a fast driver from the P5 or P6 team on my ***. It seems they had the same plan we had, hoping for a mistake up front. Even though that driver was at least a lap down on me, he felt like he needed to get by me to pull in some fast lap and I didn't see a reason to let him by.

We ended up getting into a 10+ lap dog fight where we swapped places twice and ended up with me back in front and finally pulling away.

The position held till the white flag and we were no closer to P3 then before, and kept a comfortable lap lead on P5.

So there you have it... we lost to 3 teams of old men well past their 50's. All the young and fast looking guys who showed up with GT3's and S4's lost to old men with mini vans.


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GROUP PIC!

NASA racer

You need to be able to put 10 laps together within .2 or .3 seconds of each other (unless there's traffic).

Last time I was running timed laps on an open track I did:
1:17:98
1:17:92
1:17:97

You need to run races where it isn't old guys driving minivans but racing drivers to get experience and to push you but as long as you had fun, that's cool.

Nogaro

I was told some of them race at SKUSA, and have few years of experience.

They had one-way radio contact with the driver.
I never expected to see that kind of seriousness.

So I say my team lost fair and square.

Next is Jim Hall's arrive and drive series.

Karting Venture is doing another 6hr at buttonwillow in Sept. Shouldn't be so hot anymore.. you up to it?

NASA racer

I'm not into 4-stroke karts.

When are you going to race a car?

Nogaro

No sooner then my next 2 day adv school at Laguna in Oct at least.

NASA racer

maybe there would be some more competition at JHR races...dunno but Karting Venture 4-stroke kart races are one step above dromo 1.

Nogaro

Gonna focus on JHR and jim russell's karting series now.

Karting Venture's events are $350 so I can still do it on the side.

NASA racer

think you're wasting your time with that 4-stroke crap...you aren't 7 years old so if you want to race, you are going to have to jump in at a higher level.

Nogaro

Pass the direct drive karts, and stright into shifter?

NASA racer

I cant remember if you want to race for fun or seriously. You don't have time to "work your way up" if you are semi-serious about it.