Daytona KartWeek 2009

[LikeStig]

The Prokup's will be heading to Daytona this year for our first ManCup. We expect to be in the bottom third, but qualifying is more important. I will be posting pictures and updates throughout the week as goes on. I will be running light an heavy KPV classes, and my Brother (Michael) will be running light and heavy Junior SuperCan classes. I will be on my Arrow X-1 with an Adkin's rental HPV and my brother will be on his Margay 1.9 Brava Junior with a rented Switch KT100. Arno might try to make it down for monday and tuesday too if he can get a flight. We leave tomorrow night and would also like to wish everyone a merry christmas. Updates to follow soon.

[Rick]

Merry Christmas and Good Luck! :thumbsup:

[rystar]

Good Luck Guys!!

[LikeStig]

Well, today was the first day at the track to get everything ready. There are alot of karters, someone told me there should be over 1000 with all three events. With the Dirt karters added to KartWeek, trying to organize the flow of trailers was a slow process, but was done well. We're pitted with the Jump's and also near alot of the big teams as well as Margay and Jaime McMurray. Getting the karts tech'd went pretty well (I had to go on a scavenger hunt to find something) and Michaels went well too. Here's a couple of pictures. Tomorrow's the first day of practice so lets hope we can get a grip (literally) on this track quickly. Oh, and as for the track, the venue's awesome; the layouts nothing special.


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[Rick]

Are you guys doing the sprint race or the road race?

[LikeStig]

Sprint track.

[rystar]

Sweet, How much did the Adkins rental cost you. Good luck and stay safe.

[LikeStig]

Today was the first day of practice. It took me alittle while to fine tune my braking points and apex's (Maybe 2 sessions) but I was able to stay near the pack. I was the only one practicing at Heavy weight (360) and everyone was practicing on light (320) and there were about 20 karts I believe. By the end of the day, I was at 45.01. Michael wasn't having as smooth of a time. He's still struggling with the track. At the end of the day, I took my kart to Comet to compare our setups, and they were nearly identical; so I feel my setup's pretty good.

Ryan- It was $350 for the week.

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[LikeStig]

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[rystar]

Kyle,

Gongrats on you top 10 finish in your first Man Cup event. How many total were in the class?

Here are your UNOFFICIAL KPP Heavy Final Results:

1. TJ Koyen +0.078
2. Patrick Olsen
3. Corey Reeves
4. Ryan Stewart
5. Bill McLaughlin
6. Chad Kruger
7. Blake Deister
8. Jackson Mears
9. Scott Kopp
10. Kyle Prokup

[LikeStig]

Kyle,

Gongrats on you top 10 finish in your first Man Cup event. How many total were in the class?

Here are your UNOFFICIAL KPP Heavy Final Results:

1. TJ Koyen +0.078
2. Patrick Olsen
3. Corey Reeves
4. Ryan Stewart
5. Bill McLaughlin
6. Chad Kruger
7. Blake Deister
8. Jackson Mears
9. Scott Kopp
10. Kyle Prokup

12 :whistle:, oh well, atleast I can say I got top 10. Throughout the day my kart was very loose on exit, and that really didn't help throughout the day. In my pre-final, a few of the guys got together in the first turn, and I got up to 4th for a few laps until my kart slid too much and I had to go off the track to get the kart going back straight again; which brought me to last. In the final, everyone got through the first turn relativly clean, I was in 9th for the 2nd to last lap, when my kart did the same exact thing it did in the prefinal, sending me to tenth. We were the last class of the day, and the sun was really low, and I dont have a tinted visor. I couldn't see anything on the straight and turn 4; on the straight I was looking for the grid marks to make sure I didn't go off the track, and I was looking for the glare off the curb for the turn. I got to go. I'm going to tip my seat back before the first practice to solve this exit problem.

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[avmaviator]

That's awesome Kyle! Good luck for today!!

[LikeStig]

For today, I ran HPV Lite, and weighed in at 353; and the class weight was 320. So I knew I would be at a 30 lbs disadvantage from the start. As I said before, I was going to try and move my seat to get rid of this snap exit oversteer, but it didn't fix it. On the verge of giving up on the problem, Brandon at Comet Kart Sales told me he wants to try some things on my kart. We first started by double checking my toe. When you measured it normally, it was fine; but when he measured it a different way (Never seen anyone measure it the way he did) it came out an inch off. So, then we discovered the kingpin was bent. We had to cut off each end of the kingpin to get it to come out, and Mark said he's never seen one bent as much as mine was (More than 30 degrees). He said it should have snapped in half. We put the kart on their scales and it was still coming out wrong. So then we took the front end apart and discovered the stub axle on the spindle was bent. We replaced it and put it on the scales and it was still off. Then we discovered the chassis was bent. After some jumping we got it to scale correctly. Why do I like CKS so much? Because they spent an hour working on my kart, and charged me $60 for the parts; and did all the work for free. Customer support second to none. I just wish I would've found out my Halloween GP Wreck was worse than it seemed; yesterday.

Before this, I couldn't get past 45.0 all week. In the next session, I was doing laps from 44.00-44.15. The fastest driver was a 42.8. I dont know how much time 30 lbs will take away, but I felt pretty good.

In the final, I was in 9th. There were 16 karts. I got knocked off by a Merlin in lap 8ish. He got a warning the next time around. I worked my way back up to 13th, and if I had 2 more laps, I could have had 2 more karts. He knew what he did (I flipped him the bird when i got back on the track :) ) Hell, I guess thats racing. When we came up to the scales, he weighed in at 323. When he heard I was at 353, all I could do was smile at him.

I really wish I would've known just how bad my kart was yesterday, because I think I would've been alot more competitive. Will we do more ManCup's? Probably not, we still have alot to learn. Give it a year. I haven't had a more fun race weekend though.

Oh, we also stopped at the Dirt Cup. Looks like fun. Way more relaxed than ManCup. It was like you should have a RedBull at ManCup, and a beer at Oval karting. Not our thing though, trust me...


Sorry guys, I forgot my camera.

[xaugievike]

I've really enjoyed following this thread. Sounds like a great experience, thanks for sharing! :cheers::cheers:

[Rick]

Sounds like you had a great time! Thanks for sharing.

[JET Karting - Andy Finke]

Awesome Kyle. Coming home smiling is all anyone can ask for.

You guys do a lot of making sure your karts are right before you leave, so you'll catch the kingpin thing next time. All education costs something, right??

Easiest way I know of to check a king pin is loosen it slightly, and spin it with a wrench. If the end of the spindle moves, the kingpin is bent.

Nice writeup!


Andy

[LikeStig]

Yeah, I don't know how I didn't catch it. The stub axle wasn't bad, but it did need to be replaced. How much time do you think 30 lbs can make up? .2? That's what I was guessing.

[JET Karting - Andy Finke]

Thats a good guess. I've heard .1 per 10 lbs, but there is not an answer that applies to every track/driver/hp combination.

Any time you come home from a race smiling, thats a good race. We all would rather run up front, but only a few do. Pat attention to how many racers on the podiu go home mad sometime. It's WAY more than it should be IMHO.


Andy

[Jeff Salak]

Nice job Kyle! Must have been fun to be there. Great experience for you in the future. Great to know that you can hang-in there at a Man Cup!

Jeff