Tuesday May 26th Race

Well let me tell you tonite was the worstest YES THERE IS A WORD Nite of our race season. Thank God nobody was probably there to see it. Last week we had the kart running great other than the fact we need to change our rear gear and get some more experience. Tonite you would think we were new or something! Caleb could not hold the kart on the track. He was sliding ass end out around every corner and hell on the straight away too. We changed the right rear tire from a SS22 to a SS11 and made it worse. Then we changed the air pressure in the tires, had the tech guy Chris Long move the rear left wheel closer in and down more to increase our bit on the inside of the kart. Nope not much difference so I switched the right rear tire back to the SS22 and changed the tire pressure AGAIN! We cleaned the tires good and put some tire prep on them to increase the grip. We were all set to try this new combination and then the rain comes. We managed to get our warm-up heat and 2 qualifier heats in but not our feature point race. Probably for the best since we were running so bad. Now next week were will race a feature race then 2 qualifiers and then another feature race. Hopefully the track will be nicer to us and all the changes will work for us since we will have no other chances to tweak before our first feature race. So tonite was an early nite with us home about 8:45 instead of the usual 10:15. The problem is now next week will be super late with all the make-up races from tonite since Junior restricted, 1 and 2 plus Senior not running their feature races. Hopefully i will have next Wednesday off work so I can recover from slugging dirt and plants all day in the garden centre and a 165 lb kart all nite. Good times. Caleb was not to upset that he did not get to run his last race. If he was running really well i am sure that it would have been a different story thought. I am still trying to figure out why his kart ran so well last week and this week it is crap. Could a dry verses wet track make that much difference and why was it only us? Oh well it is done now so shake it off and move on right! Well that is it until next week i guess. OK who wants to see pictures again or is it boring see a kart going around. Please comment and let me know my faithfull race fans!

Racing May 19th

Well race fans, if there are any out there, we had an amazing nite tonite. Unfortunately no one seemed to be around to witness it unless we have some fans across the feild in the spectator section. Our pits were empty tonite. Anut Rae and Grandpa were unable to come and so far that is all that we have been drawing for a crowd. I guess if you don't win big, people just stay home. This year is a learning year for us. I am trying to learn about all the ins and outs of maintaining the kart and making adjustments. There are so many thing that can be changed to affect performance that it is a little overwhelming to be honest. There is toe adjustments, camber, stagger, gearing, air pressure, cross weight and then there is just how the driver performs to. Lots to consider but hey we are having fun even if we are not winning races or money this year.
OK tonite we started off with some clutch problems so off we went to the tech guy Chris for some quick input to fix our noisy problem. Last year I over lubed, apparently now i am under lubricating! Hole crap, hopefully I get it right next week. If not I atleast know how to fix the problem should it happen again. Our first heat we started last and finished last. Oh well. The second heat we were in the number one pole position since they flip the starting order. We feel back and finished second last only to Caleb's friend #20. For the feature race we cleaned the tires. prepped them, topped up our air pressure and methanol. We started the race second last but let me tell you, Caleb ran the best race so far of the season. He was passing other karts and moving up in the pack with 5 karts behind him at one point. Then the trouble started. There was an accident and yellow flags came out. The karts were relined and restarted, then another accident and Caleb ended up off the track and dropped back to 3rd last. Then more problems and he was 2nd last. THEN his friend #20 ran up the back of him and Caleb's kart got a little messed up and he did not finish the race. S..t happens right. He was doing awesome thought, keeping up and passing. I was biting my knuckles and talking to him from the fence even though he could not here my coaching. After it was all said and done, we changed his spark plug, rotated the air filter and FINALLY got it to restart and he ran it around the track some more to make sure that what ever was wrong was corrected. His kart was reving super hign but had no torque to it? He figures all 4 tires were on the ground and he ran out of fuel but i beg to differ. I think he was on uneven ground and yes there was fuel. The air filter was full of dirt so maybe the engine just could not breath? Who knows but we can only get better next week right! Until next week if anyone is out there. I am beat from lifting 165lb kart all nite.

How to Build a Shed

First you get your shed delivered!

Then you lay out ALL THE PIECES!!

Then you painstakingly level the ground. It is a very time consuming process but very necessary or the pieces do not line up properly and you have to rip the whole thing back down after 2 hours of work. Not that i am speaking from experience or anything! got to love the trial run right !

Next you need to recruit some labour to help with the work. Thanks Caleb and Conner! NOW THE WORK BEGINS!! The floor got laid and walls were put up, next came the roof gables, doors and finally the roof. What started out on a sunny day at 10 am in the morning ended up being an all s=day thing not getting finished until after 6 pm with the help of my husband and uncle. i was to short to do the rooof so had to get them to do that. Plus I had to make supper, life is so exciting right.

Tuesday May 12th Race Results

Well race fans another great race nite for those of you who are faithfully following us! We started off the nite getting a thorough looking over of our kart by Chris Long the Tech guy at the track and skipped the warm up laps. We discovered, much to my surprise that more damage was done in last weeks bumping than expected. Our measurement for toe was completely out and apparantly we bent one of our spindles and tie rods. We adjusted, banged and changed a few things around to increase our cross weight and minimize our slipping around. The result was the kart ran tighter but did not affect our overall results. But Hey we were not last and we crossed the finish line unlike some kids. Poor number 11 got creamed in a crash right behind Caleb and the St. John Ambulance attendants had to look at him. The feature race was another crazy race tonight. With 16 kart there is lots of pushing, rubbing and of course spin outs and crashes. Caleb alone had 3 "incidences" with other karts. Mainly his "friend" #20 when they were challanging each other around corners and jockeying for the lead over each other. Caleb did finish ahead of him in the feature YEAH! It was a good nite, weather was warm to start and cooled off when the sun went down. i was glad that i brought my winter coat.
Exciting news!!! Wed we get our "NEW SHED" { pictures to come later } to store Caleb's kart at our house now. This will make it easier to do stuff to the kart and work on it. I have to extend a HUGE thanks to Rae and Vicki for their generous donation to the make a child smile campaign Hee Hee. With their sponsorship money we were able the buy this great shed. Now I just have to build it and we will be all set. Our next project is to get the team jackets and then have the graphics applied. Soon I hope, but i need to get it sorted out and the guy is in Chippawa.

May 5th - First Race of the Season

Well we finally got to hit the track and race. Here is Caleb and his friend #20 possing in there cool racing suits and booting around the track. It has been a crappy start to the season with all this rain. Practise after practise was post poned. The night started off pretty crazy. We were supposed to use my father-in-laws pick-up truck but he lent it to someone else, Tim's cousin Dan, and it was not available when we needed it. AHHHHH! Next I called my old boss Frank at Concordia to see if I could borrow the work truck that we had last year but he had it on a job sote so it was in use. Next I called my sisiter-in-law the amazing Rae and she got us the work truck from Modern Mosaic. She is the best!!! By the time all this craziness was said and done i was feeling the stress of when would it all come together and when would we get to the track. We ended up getting to the track at 6:15 and the drivers meeting started at 6:30. We barely got the kart off the truck before Caleb had to go. I checked and filled oil, methanol and air in the tires.

This year Caleb has jumped from the Novice 2 divsion into the Junior 2 division skipping Junior 1. This was an advantage only in the fact that now kart and driver can weigh 280 lb instead of 265 lb. We scale in at 283lb right now so Caleb has to watch his carbs and sweets Hee Hee. Every other way we are at a disadvantage. These other kids have been racing up to 6 years over Caleb and have that much better karts and pit crews. The other problem is right now there is 16 karts in his division. It makes for a crowded track and more delays and yellow flags as seemed to happen last night. They split the group into 2 groups of 8 for the first 2 heats but everyone raced together for the feature. Caleb started 14th out of 16 and fared not bad considering everything. There were a number of crashes and problems but Caleb finished the race, 5 karts did not PLUS he was not last YEAH!!!! No money but we had fun and played around with stagger, tire compounds and spacing to get some info on the affects on performance. Next week we hope to get this bad boy on the scales and change our spindle high and up our cross weight. We are running abit to loose on the track right now and sliding out on the corner. It is going to be a great season with lots of learning but we are keeping a positive attitude to get around the track and finish each week aiming to not finish last. Good times YA BABY!!