A Smoking Nite of Racing!

Hello Race Fans this is the update for Tuesday June 23th racing. Well let me tell you it was a hot nite racing. The sun was beating down and we were hiding in the shade of the pick-up truck when we could. I have no idea how hot it was but I went through a bottle of water and a bottle of gaderade. Anyways we had our practise heat and everything looked like it was in good shape as far as tire pressure and tire compounds etc. For our first heat Caleb started second last. I have to wonder when every week we pull a random number to determine starting order that Caleb ALWAYS draws the same spot in the second group of kids. Interesting... perhaps some kind of a conspiracy. Anyways, he came off and said the kart was sliding a little so we changed the right rear tire from a SS22 compound to a SS11 since the track was quite wet. The water truck soaked it and there was chunks of mud on his tires. His second heat was kind of exciting with him rallying ahead of and behind again with Braedon Bilinsky. It was a great race and Caleb finished ahead. The Junior 1 heat was very exciting with all the bumping and spin outs. There was a huge accident with Caleb's freinds brother #8 Stephen. Poor #18 got bumped really hard and spun around only to be hit head on and flipped upside down. It was sickening to watch. Luckily the kart finished to rest on some tires and #8's kart so he walked away OK. Poor Stephan was not as lucky and now has sore ribs and back from the ordeal plus his kart body was majorly damaged. He races with a hard plastic body that we call tupperware. It usually dents and you bang it back out. Tonite the body actually cracked and broke. With all the yellow and red flags by 9:30 Caleb still had not competed in his final race and now instead of sweating and burning my body i was covered in goosebumps and wished i had brought a long sleeve shirt and some pants.
Finally he gets to go out for his race and before the first lap there was an accident and Caleb has to swerve off the track to avoid it. Restart and off we go again just to have another crash up and Caleb is off the track a second time. They go to restart again and now Caleb's engine is pouring off blue grey smoke and he can't get any acceleration so he calls it a nite and comes off the track to have Chris Long the tech guy from RCM Racing look at it. He checks it over and restarts it but the engine seems fine. Caleb goes back onto the track to do some practise laps and it is still fine. Now we are scratching our heads as to what the problem could be. We have oil in the engine so was it some debris that needed to burn off. One of the Dads at the track came to see what was going on since he seen Caleb smoke off the track and suggests maybe our clutch is gone. By this time of nite it is 10:30 and I am tired with 2 fresh cuts on my fingers from naughty parts that got me unexpectantly. We packed up the kart without even draining the oil and just came home to have a shower and get ready for bed. Well that is all for tonite race fans. Remember to quit smoking it is bad for you and always wear protection to minimze getting knocked around and up!

Tues June 16th Racing From a Pick-up

Hello Race Fans!
We made it through another nite of racing without any damage or problems. Posting some pictures for you Mary of how it looks to be racing out of a pick up truck. Do you think we can stuff any more stuff into the back! We have to thank Grandpa Wayne for letting us use his truck every week. Without it we would be struggling to get to the track each week. If you log on Grandpa thanks! We had a not to bad of a nite. We had a bit of sliding around again on the corners so we made a few changes. We changed the tires from SS22 to SS11 and moved the left rear wheel to change the cross around. We finally got the kart running just right for the last feature race. He ran a great race passing and batttling for his spot. Eventually he lost the battle to #20 and fell behind him. He did not finish last YEAH but was 2nd last. Good racing though! Just a short update this week. Tonite is Crab Fest and I need to clean the house and get everything organized. Until next week use a magnetized bowl so you don't lose your nuts!

June 9th Night of Racing

Hello again Race Fans! Welcome to our weekly update of Tuesday nite racing at Merritville Speedway for all who are visiting for the first time. For my faithful fans, you know who you are or maybe not Mary, thanks for following along weekly with us!
The nite was great for racing tonite! The weather was cool, blue skies, partly cloudy with minimal wind and YEAH no rain. That all came on Mon and got it out of its system. Since we did so much to the kart last week after our major collision we were pretty set for racing with minimal work SWWEET! All I had to do was top up air pressure, methanol and wash and prep tires. For all of you who saw the damage last week would you believe it was not even $25 to fix. Whole crap i was happy. Chris Long must have work 30 to 45 minutes on our kart and we worked 20 minutes just getting the dents out of the front. Glad we did not have to pay for labour!
Now down to the racing, Caleb ran the warm-up heat and was sliding a bit in the one corner he always has problems with. When he came off I changed the air pressure around a little on the left rear. His first qualifier he started last and finished last. OK tweak a little more and wash the tires good. On the second qualifier because he started tail the first race he was pole or first for this race. He did quite well and finished 3rd this race only losing 2 places from the start. The first time we had to actually get scaled this year. Only the top 3 in the qualifiers and the top 5 in the feature cross the scales to make sure everyone is about the same weight. We came in exactly at 280 lb which is the minimum that we are allowed to weight. Phew. I was so excited that he held the other kids off cuz let me tell you the one kid was bumping from behind trying to push Caleb out of his way. He finally dropped down and passed him low and Caleb thought ya off you go and leave me alone as he let him pass. For the feature race Caleb was positioned 10 out of 14. The best we have ever place so far this year. Normally he is in the back 2 positions with his friend #20. Caleb raced really well and passed a few and lost a few places but in the end finished 10th with 4 karts behind him. Again the best finish we have had all season. He raced very solid and consistant. The whole nite went really smooth with few yellow flags except if someone slide off a corner but no accidents or major problems. We were in the truck ready to go home at 9:25pm. Pretty early considering some of our nites. I was meaning to take some pictures to put on this blog to make it more exciting but i forgot my flippin camera AGAIN! Hopefully next week to add some colour and excitement to these updates. Until next week keep your air filter clean and stop sniffing the tire prep!

A Smashing Nite for Racing!

Good day all you racing fans! Hope noone logged on early Wed morning for our update. I have had a busy day and unfortuately am not entering our exciting nite until now. Where to start with our nite of racing.... Well to start we were rained out of our feature race last week so we had a bit of a different race format for the night. We started with the usual warm-up heat but then went straight into our feature race for points and money which also counted as our first qualifing heat of the nite. Here is where the excitement started! After our warm up heat we decided to try to tighten the kart up abit and moved the left rear tire. With the adjustment I was unsure if it was going to make the kart better or worse so it was a if this does not work option then we will put it back the way it was then adjust the air pressure kind of deal. WELL in the feature race for whatever reason Caleb spun out on a corner and ended up facing backwards and was waiting for the yellow flag so he could move and get turned around. Maybe the flag man was our for a smoke or something because the beginning of the pack came flying head on towards him and he had a front row seat watching these karts going probable 30 kmor more towards him and bracing for the inevitable. YES A HEAD ON COLLISION! I got to watch it and replaying in my mind over and over when I tried to sleep last nite. I should have had my camera to document all the damage to his kart and the poor other guy who was following behind 2 karts that split around Caleb and he had no time to react or avoid the accident. The front end was caved in, the tye rod was bent, the front right tire was slanted in and there is now a dent in our rim. After the St. John Ambulance people looked him over and he got out of the kart Terry from Beckett Racing # 20's dad tugged the kart off the track because it was not drivable. We put the kart on the kart stand for repairs and I went to check on how Caleb was doing. My boys response when I poked my head in the ambulance, well is my kart fixed! What a kid. I came back to the kart to find 5 dad's using a 2 x 4 to try to push the dent out to no avail. I made the executive decision that the front end nose piece needed to come off. With Nascar speed, we whipped out the impact wrench, 7/16th wrench and started passing the bolts, washers and nuts to be put off to the side. Once the nose was off Terry and his friend Greg came over and helped jump on dents to pop it back out. By the skin of our teeth and a few bolts short we got him back on the track for his next race because we were being paged to the grid. He ended up finishing second last but I was worried he was going to lose his one wheel because we did not have all the nuts on. Today I put all the correct parts back on for next week and made sure all the screws were tighted up. After his second heat we went down to the tech guy to get our tye rod replaced, things straightened up and toe adjusted and kart rescaled with a new 61 tooth gear. His feature race was awesome. He was keeping up and was ahead by 3 karts until the end when he spun a bit and lost some ground. Still he finished 2nd last behind his friend #20. Not a bad nite of racing since he walked away without being hurt and our tupperware body bounced back to race another day. Until next week race fans! And a special thanks goes out to my #1 fan, u know who u r!!