DD2 Race at USA International Raceway 2007.05.12

[Rick]

I went up to Shawano to race with in Phil's Master's Pro Series today. It was my first time at USAIR (http://www.usainternationalraceway.com/). And it was my first "official" DD2 race in the Rotax Challenge this year.

The track is incredible. It's very complex due to so many combinations of camber and elevation changes and blind turns. You need a lot of faith to drive and/or track time to really do well at this track. If you haven't gone there, I really recommend checking it out at least once. It reminded me of Sears Point. The facilities are nice as well. I did not see any garages though (+1 Norway).

The DD2 field consisted of 5 karts. One of the drivers is the track champion (or something along those lines) and two other club members. Phil and I made up the other two.

During practice, Phil had a mechanical malfunction. He lost all drive power. He had to pull in and take his kart apart and diagnose the problem. This took a relatively long time and he ended up missing all the practice sessions. They finally figured it out. The thing that hooks the engine up to the axle was loose. Fixing it was a simple matter of tightening some screws.

In qualifying, I qualified third. Phil qualified 4th, but was put on the back row for some reason.

In the first sprint race, Phil passed me on the inside right at the start and took off and kept with the front runner for the entire race. I was dicing it up with one of the club guys and finally pulled away but could not catch Phil and the other DD2. Unfortunately for Phil, he was DQ'ed for running non-spec tires. He had the MG yellows mounted. The spec tires are the MOJOs.

During the feature race, I started on the 2nd row on the inside. Phil started in back again. At the start, my kart bogged down and the Phil passed me on the inside and the guy on the outside passed me. I finally caught up to the guy who passed me and regained one position. I was slowly catching up to Phil and the front runners. I was about 7 kart lengths back when Phil decided to go off roading on the exit of one of the fastest turns on the track. He tried getting back on and spun across the track and was sitting in the middle of the track as I past him while trying to avoid crashing into him. From then on, I held 2nd for the remainder of the race. I could not make up any ground on the leader. I'll take 2nd anyway I can get it! :clap:

We later found out that Phil's throttle cable had problems and both stuck and too loose. That's what caused him to go off roading. Moral of the story? Check your throttle cable regularly. Mechanical DNFs can ruin a race day quickly.

Well I had a great time racing at USAIR and the locals were nice. I'll see you guys at CHMS on the 19th.

[MPIGP - Phillip Gordon]

Congratulations to Rick for a good run at a track he's never raced at before :thumbsup: As he mentioned, the gremlins were out in full force this weekend for me. I raced the DD2 in both the Rotax and money shifter races. Despite the problems, I learned a lot and left the track feeling pretty good about the CRG/DD2 package. Even with a sluggish carb, I was able to push the leader for the 3 laps I raced before the throttle got stuck wide open and caused me to go into a wild 270deg spin in turn 4. For the shifter feature race I changed the carb and how the kart ran before the axle shifted and I lost drive power :uhoh: made me confident that the winner in the DD2 class will have his hands full the next time we meet :kungfu: As Rick said, all you guys owe it to yourselves to visit USAIR at least once.

[Rick]

Thanks Phil! I really enjoyed racing at USAIR. I wish the field would have been a little bigger but it was still very fun. I'll definitely revisit that track in the future.

You have really bad luck or something! Almost every race I've race with you at (which isn't that many), you've had mechanical problems. It's like you're jinxed.

Watching you fix the problems is almost as fun as watching you race. It's very educational and exciting. I remember when you stuck your shifter motor last year at the 100 lap race at Norway. I watched you disassemble your engine and fix the problem. And with your luck, you went out and stuck it again. You seriously need to buy some horseshoes, garlic, crosses and rabbits feet.

[peterjank]

Sounds like a really neat track. Congrats on your second place finish Rick.

[Rick]

Sounds like a really neat track. Congrats on your second place finish Rick.

Thanks Peter! Are you going to make it out to the CHMS race on May 19th?

[peterjank]

Nope, I'll be qualifying for Sunday's SCCA National at Blackhawk.

[Martin Lenick]

Phil, was that your first mechanical DNF?

[MPIGP - Phillip Gordon]

Phil, was that your first mechanical DNF?

Unfortunately not. As Rick mentioned it seems like I've been jinxed. The worst part was, at the two major races last year, RIGP and the RMax Grand Nationals I had some major issues with the karts. Some beyond my control and some due to the fact that I didn't get a chance to do any pre-testing. Moral of the story, if you rent your karts, make sure you do some testing before heading to a major event. I need to go back to my early racing days of stripping the karts down and reassembling them between races. I almost never had a mechanical DNF when I did that.

[Martin Lenick]

That makes sense; it's hard to believe someone could race as often as you without the occassional DNF, but a guy at Norway told me you never had one.