My first top 5 weekend!

For the 6th race of the OVKA season, G&J Kartway's 2A configuration was used, probably the most demanding circuit we've raced on this season. I had high hopes coming into the weekend, knowing that driver skill would be the most important factor on 2A. I was consistently in the top 5 or 6 in times over the weekend, and it showed in the first prefinal, where I picked up 4 positions over the 8 laps, moving up from an 11th place starting position to finish 7th. Even more amazing was the fact that I had outside pole for the 2nd prefinal!

I didn't quite have the pace of a few people who started behind me, but I still managed to hold on to 3rd place until the 2nd to last lap, when my friend John Powers passed me seemingly with ease heading into turn 3. I got back alongside him in the next corner, but I eventually had to give up and settle for 4th. I would start in 4th for the final, and had a pretty uneventful race, though I was under constant pressure from the #17 of Juliana Stafford. I finished 4th, and for the first time ever I got to go to impound, something I'd waited a long time to do. Hopefully I can keep up this pace for the rest of the season, and finish in the top 5 in points.

On behalf of the Meek Motorsports* program,
Drive hard!

A Regional Race Gone Wrong.

Well, this weekend I felt a little adventerous, and decided to run the GLSS race at Camden. We were very unorganized and unprepared for the weekend, which led to no practice before raceday. Even so, I qualified 10th, or I would have if I hadn't been DQ'd for an illegal can.
As a result, I had to start the prefinal in 21st place, and only finished 15th. In the final, I passed 5 karts in the first turn, putting me in 10th. But at the end of the back straight, I hit a spinning kart, and was bumped out of the driver's seat. I didn't stay off the kart for long though, becuase it had landed on another driver! I ran over and with the help of a corner worker lifted my kart off of the other racer, and pushed it off the track. Well, imediatley after the race, the weekend got even crazier! A huge thunderstorm srtuck Camden, Ohio, and all the racers had to flee to the saftety of their trailers. After the storm died down a bit, I went over to the trailer of the guy my kart landed on to apologize. His family didn't sound like they were expecting an apology though, because the first thing they said to me was thanks for getting my kart of their son! Aparently if that corner worker and I hadn't gotten mykart off of him he could have been seriuosly hurt! Anyways, I found out the kid I landed on was named Kyle Krump, and he turned out to be a real nice guy! I didn't know anything about him at first, but now I see him popping up all over WKA's Karting scene. I landed on the creme da la creme of junior karting!

My kart is a mess now, with a bent axle, and a sidepod thats at a 45 degree angle, but all in all the weekend was a success. I learned many valuable lessons, and I know what to do the next time.

Circleville Raceway Park. We made it there still SANE. Mostly.

Ah, well here I am. It's the 17th of May, which just happens to be my 13th birthday! This weekend will be the 3rd round of the OVKA series, visiting Circleville Raceway Park. We're pulling out of our garage with our brand new trailer, ready to go to, when all of a sudden...THUNK! Dad, YOU BROKE MY TRAILER!!!

3 hours later, we arrive at CRP, at least somewhat composed. I pretty much just get out there straight away, but I'm not sure I liked it much. CRP has a lot of bumps, and you see, my kart oesn't seem to handle very well in midair. Well anyways, at the end of the day, I'm 2 or 3 seconds off the leader's pace, partly because my line around CRP sucked at first, partly becuase my engine, carb, and clutch, suck all the time.

On Sunday I learned just how hard it is to pass at CRP, as I got stuck behind my friend Olivia for the first 2 prefinals, finishing 7th. The second prefinal was a bad one though, as 3 or 4 people, including me, Emerson Reed (the championship leader), and others. My friend Logan was someway up the road by now, stuck behind who else than Olivia! About halfway through the race Logan gets a little loose on an attempt to pass Olivia, and sees who else but me and Emerson flash by him. The 3 of us have a good scrap for position in the next couple of laps, but I come out with the short end of the straw this time.

By the start of the final, I realize that my kart just can't keep up with anything else out there, so I do the only thing I'm really good at- I pass 3 karts in the first 2 corners, tight hairpin turns. But alas, I do get passed again by one person, who I must admit pulled a fantastic move on me, one that I sure don't have the vital male parts to pull off. I finish 5th, and I move up into the top 5 in the championship too!

The CRP guys gave us a great track that weekend, and I'd just like to thank them for keeping Circleville alive with that racing spirit.

Until next time,

DRIVE HARD!

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Sportsman Yamaha

OVKA- The first BIG race!

It is a rainy day in southwest Ohio, but an avid young karter and his dad are still making their way up to G&J Kartway in Camden, Ohio for a Saturday practice session on the brand new "1A" track configuration. I go out for the first time and spit out a 47.79 second lap time, 7 tenths off of the fastest time.

As I'm lapping, sprinkles of rain start to hit my helmet, and soon enough the track is too hard to drive. The rain eventually goes away, but a hurricane-like gust remains, killing the kart's aerodynamics and ultimately costing about 7 tenths of a second per lap. I pack up for the day somewhat disappointed about my results, and wanting only to come back and have a better day on Sunday.

I get up on Sunday morning at about 6:00 a.m. and in get in the car with my dad. We go to Mickey D's and get an iced mocha with LOTS of hashbrowns. We get to the track at around 7:30, and get the kart prepared for pre-tech.

When we get the o.k. from the tech people, we head off to registration and get a transponder, which will record our lap times in the race. While I'm waiting for the first practice session to start, a play some catch with a friend, who's got one helluvan arm. Once my mitt has been beaten down to a pulp, and my hand has gone completely purple, it's time to suit up and get ready to go. I start the session stuck behind a bad driver in a very good kart. After about 3 laps of kissing the kid's back bumper, I see a black kart passing me down the straightaway. He cuts in between me and Captain slow at the end of the back straight, and when we get to the front stretch I bumpdraft him, and we pass 3 or 4 karts before the flagman waves us in. I look at my times on my MyChron 4 data thingy and am surprised to see a 47.4 second lap! Whoever said there's no drafting in karts? While we're waiting for my class to go back out again, my dad makes a small adjustment to the clutch. This little adjustment ended up making a BIG difference, as the 2nd time out me and my friend in the black kart draft our way to a lap time of 47.09, only a second off of the leader, who has twice the kart of either me or my drafting partner.

Next up is qualifying, a two lap scramble for the fastest time, with the field of around 20 karts going out in small groups. I go out alongside Matthew Newberry, a Slattery Racing teammate and an all around great guy. We qualify 8th and 10th on the grid, with me laying down a lap of 47.3, and Matthew coming in somewhere around the low 48 second range.

So now I'm on the warm up lap for the pre-final race. The field is supposed to circle around the pace oval (shown in picture) one time and start racing. So I'm at the end of the pace lap, and I see the green light flash on, which is my signal to tuck my head down (aerodynamics) and go. But what I don't see is the green light turn off as a back marker spins upon speeding up. This will mean another lap around the pace oval. But I'm too busy driving to notice, and I look up from my MyChron at the end of straight just in time too see my front tires fly up over another kart. I come down with a thud, landing sideways across the track. I'm still not quite sure what's going on at this point, but I can see several drivers scattered around the pace oval in various stages of shock and disappointment. Although I'm certain that I will see a black flag at the line, I motor my jumble of bits and pieces back up to the pack, and into my grid position. We finally start the race, and I am absolutely amazed when I do not receive a black flag from the marshal. So now it's just a race, and I get my game on. I tuck in behind a kid named Scott "Sharky" Rumsey and follow him around for a few laps until at the end of the back straight, he gives a little shove to the guys in front of him and we both squeeze through the hole. Though I do think I am one of the better drivers in the field, Scott is one of the most experienced drivers I know, and once he gets by the guy in front of him, I can't keep up with his pace. On the second to last lap, I am brking at the end of the hill (the long straight to the very left in the picture), when all of a sudden I feel a jolt from behind me. All of a sudden I'm sliding sideways around the turn with another 2 karts, one of which belongs to Matthew Newberry, doing the same on the inside of me. I regain control of my kart and hold my line around the next corner to hold my 7th place spot. For the next lap all I can hear are two angry bees buzzing around behind me, but I stand my ground until the finish line.

On the first lap of the final, one of those angry bees is starting on the outside of me, and he uses his smaller gear to blast by me on the straight. My friend Matthew is also starting right behind me in this race, and at the end of the straightaway he pushes me to he outside of the corner, and tucks in next to me. We run about a ¼ of the track side by side, before we eventually hit a straight and Matthew closes the gap on me. He and I run nose to tail for the next few laps, and we quickly reel in the guy who started next to me. Around halfway through the race, going into turn 1, Matthew gives a little lovetap to the guy in front of us, and he takes his opportunity to get past him. I, on the other hand, get stuck behind the kid due to the fact that he has about twice the straight-line speed as I do, which makes it very hard to set him up under braking. I run inches from the kids back bumper, and I finish the race with my nose getting a facefull of the sidewall on his his left-rear tire. I would have had him the next lap, but I ran out of time. Oh well...

Weather hates me.

Weather hates me. Somewhere up in the sky, a really annoying science lesson that I paid absolutely no attention to is getting it's revenge.

Hmm... it looks like Cameron is going out to practice for next weekend's kart race today. I'll make it bright and sunny.


Hmm... it looks like Cameron's race weekend starts tommorow. I'll flood the track.


Hmm... it looks like Cameron's gonna go buy some rain tires. Too bad he gets home from school 1 minute after the kart shop closes. Too bad :(

Yes, weather hates me.

karting season starts in a 4 to 5 hour rainstorm.

Well, last week my karting season started off with a big...well...downpour.
But this didn't stop the "Ohio Valley Karting Association" from running a little...

The OVKA may have some of the strangest racing rules in the world. For one thing, there's no qualifying- a computer picks the starting order for the first of 2 prefinal races at random. Since I am a "rookie" karter in OVKA I had to start at the back- 17th out of 17 to be precise. And in an 8 lap race you might think thats not very good odds. But there's a catch- the field is inverted for the 2nd race, giving me the pole!

Anyways, here I am in 17th place coming to the green. I look up at the starting lights, (the flagmen were to lazy to wave green flags), and I go.

I must have really gone when I saw that green, because i passed 12 karts in the 1st 5 laps, putting me in a respectable 5th. I may have made some pretty dumbass moves in that race, like the one where I tried to pass 4 karts on the inside leading into a hairpin, but I did turn a couple heads by pulling those moves.

So, 17th to 5th in the first race. I'm on pole for the second race. Everything looks great. Then the rain comes down. Hard.

So there's my first race weekend for you. And we even got some pictures for ya!
Although I did have a very good race, I'm still not in any position to be cocky, seeing as there were 2 karts who turned a lap almost a whole second faster than me. I think I have the driving part down, but I'm going to have to learn how to make the kart faster to win.

P.S.Those photos were taken in preseason testing, hence the lack of other karts. Besides, with the size of the field in the OVKA, you probably couldn't find me in a race to take a picture of me anyways.