Post by Simon on Feb 23, 2014 13:30:22 GMT -5
As Mike asked, i thought I would do a quick summary of our adventures last weekend.
The NFRA team comprised of Rich, Ron and Simon as drivers with Brad and Scott B as crew, logistics experts, beer suppliers, etc.
Practice and qualifying day
We arrived bright and early Saturday for practice and qualifying. All pretty uneventful, Ron and Rich did more practice than me, as I was conserving energy for race day. My #47 Italkart was the chosen weapon for our campaign with my rather tired stock motor for practice and Ron's stock motor for Qualifying and Race. Much of practice was spent playing with seat stuffing as my seat is my size... not Rich and Ron size. Ron took the unusual approach of putting padding in his suit, whereas Rich went with the conventional padding fixed to the seat.
After practice we swapped motors for the racing spec motor and Ron and Rich each did 8 or 9 laps in qualifying and we ended up with a respectable mid field qualifying position in the WF Masters class. In qualifying everyone complained that Ron's BRAND NEW clutch was chattering and clunking horribly, so we ended up building a frankenstien clutch from my silky smooth cassette and Ron's drum and driver. (My driver was having the bearing walking out the middle problem. (Man those clutches are garbage, I wish Briggs would stop using those as the spec clutch!)
With qualifying over, kart prepared, the team retired to the luxury resort like facilities of the Laurel Tree Inn, Salinas. After checking in (yes the whole team managed to book rooms this year, and on the correct date), freshening up we hit party central (Brad's room) for a pre-dinner beer. 30 minutes after the appointed meeting time the topic of conversation turned to "Where the F&^% is Rich ?" .... it turns out he lay down on his bed to watch TV for a few minutes, but was overcome with tiredness. I quick phone call later and Rich was awake again, presented himself in party central, glugged half his exotic high end beer and the gang moved to the team dinner at the Black Bear Diner. Massive quantities of unhealthy food was consumed .. more beer ... back to party central ... another beer .... then Rich's tiredness hit me, so I went to bed. Apparently Ron was later contemplating looking for pool halls in Salinas, or something like that. That doesn't sound scary in the slightest !
Race day
We woke to very wet roads having rained overnight. Luckily, as NFRA didn't invest in rain tires, the sky was clear and by the time we got to the track, things were starting to dry out.
Team tactics were for Rich to drive for as long as we thought a tank of gas would last, then I would do a shorter stint, then Ron another long, followed by Rich to bring it home.
The start is an old school Le Mans style start with driver and starter crew running across the track after the start 'signal' immediately following the national anthem. It turns out the start signal was something like an M80, which scared that crap out of Rich, but after a moment of "What the f^&* was that??" Rich and Brad sprinted across the track, started the kart and off he went. A nice start indeed !
The track was dry by this stage ... apart from one puddle on the outside of the sweeper T3/4 turns (which shall be known as the 'skydiver turn' due to the proximity of the landing zone for the skydiving school that operates out of Marina airport.
About 10 laps in the busy field was pretty well all mixed together (30 Clones, LO206s & WFs with varying laptimes), Rich got involved in what must have been a 3 wide pass round the skydiver turn, where he had no option but to drive right into the only puddle on the track. Puddle + slicks meant Rich span, without contact with anyone, recovered, but that put hm at the back, behind all the clones.
Rich put his head down and picked his way through the field and got back to pretty much where he was before.
About at hour in, Rich existed the track for no apparent reason. As he coasted down pit lane, we could see him trying to drive the kart by pulling the throttle cable by hand on the carb. He got to the pit and said he didn't seem to be getting much throttle and the pedal wasn't moving far. A quick inspection, showed the locknut on the throttle pedal stop adjustment had loosened off and the the adjuster vibrated round and round to mean he was only getting about 10% pedal movement. Easy fix and we sent him back out.
Rich completed his planned 100 lap 1st stint and came in for fuel and driver change, where I was to take over. Rich mentioned the steering wheel hub was loose on the shaft so there was play in the steering. That drives me nuts, I knew i could not drive like that, se we spent a minute tweaking that nut and bolt up tight again, and I set off to rejoin the race, but here is where our race went from going just fine to a living nightmare.
I was only in the kart for about 8 laps and was just getting into the groove, lap times dropping a few 10ths every lap as I got my bearings. But then coming up the front straight, I had a two kart train on the inside, and I think someone pushing me from behind as I arrived at the left/right 1st chicane. I backed off to allow in inside karts room to get to the corner before me, and I would drop in 3rd in line. This was all well and good until the kart 2nd in line span right in front of me in the chicane, I had nowhere to go, no time to react and ended up with my front right wheel hitting his front left corner. This snapped the tie rod, bent the arm of the spindle and bent the steering shaft to the extent I could barely turn the wheel. With the barrier approaching quickly I manhandled the steering to the right, and dabbed the gas to try and get the thing to turn .... there was no turning, I just ended up accelerating into the barrier, where I came to an undignified halt.
Luckily this was close to the pit, so Brad ran out with the kart stand and the kart was retrieved. I was pretty annoyed with myself that I managed to get tangled with a spinning kart after just 8 laps and made a real mess of the kart.
There then followed much wrenching to replace the bust up parts and get the thing back together. We must have wasted 30 minutes doing all this. But FINALLY, I got back in the kart and resumed my session. The plan was then for me to drive 55 laps and hand over to Ron. Everything was going great, lap times were not too embarrassing, I was keeping out of trouble, the kart felt great .... all until I got 30 laps into that session, when I noticed add odd delayed reaction of turn in of the kart, especially on right handers. I turned the steering wheel, the kart started turning, then a moment later, turned more as I would expect. I thought "Oh the steering hub is loose on the shaft again, and I'm feeling that slop ... no biggie" half a lap later while entering the skydiver turn the back of the kart went all over the place, it felt like a puncture. I dodged between the cones to get off the track and then the rear left wheel overtook me and headed off down the hill, right towards the skydivers who were all sat around after their drop assumedly waiting for the next wave. I turned the kart around to see if the crew had seen my and waved them to come and get me. While Brad was once again pushing the kart stand out, I went to recover my wheel and was met by a skydiver walking up the hill with my wheel in his hand. I said "Thanks! I hope it didn't hit any of you guys." he replied "I think he'll be ok" ... at which point I bade farewell and helped Brad lift the kart onto the stand again.
By now, i was beyond pissed, but luckily we had some spare hubs on hand, swapped the rear hubs, put wheels on and sent Ron out. We had an hour and 45 minutes of the race to go, so Ron said "I'll drive to the end and we'll see if the gas lasts that long" ... everyone agreed and Ron went out. At this point we were still last in class, but the 4th place team was out with a blown motor, it didn't take long to pass their lap count and we were then in 4th, with Jeff's Redding team in 3rd, some 50laps ahead. Ron pounded round and round, then the Jeff's team had a problem (I can't remember what happened), but they spent a good 20 laps in the pit, which allowed us to close the gap.
From there on out Ron kept on going round and round and he completed his epic 1:45 driving stint and didn't run out of gas and finally took the checkered flag.
We ended up 4th in class .... didn't win anything in the raffle (a continuation of our luck for the day) .. packed up and went for pizza and beer (thanks Rich and Scott!) and everyone headed home.
All in all a fun adventure ... and next year we'll do better !
I have some trackside video I'll upload sometime. Rich forgot to turn on his helmetcam. :-(
P.S. After the race, the failed hub and studs were shipped to the NFRA forensic metallurgy labs in Peru, where our senior staff scientist, Dr. Seymour Brokestuf, determined the cause of failure was due to one of the studs backing out of the hub thus causing to two remaining studs to bend around until they snapped.
The NFRA team comprised of Rich, Ron and Simon as drivers with Brad and Scott B as crew, logistics experts, beer suppliers, etc.
Practice and qualifying day
We arrived bright and early Saturday for practice and qualifying. All pretty uneventful, Ron and Rich did more practice than me, as I was conserving energy for race day. My #47 Italkart was the chosen weapon for our campaign with my rather tired stock motor for practice and Ron's stock motor for Qualifying and Race. Much of practice was spent playing with seat stuffing as my seat is my size... not Rich and Ron size. Ron took the unusual approach of putting padding in his suit, whereas Rich went with the conventional padding fixed to the seat.
After practice we swapped motors for the racing spec motor and Ron and Rich each did 8 or 9 laps in qualifying and we ended up with a respectable mid field qualifying position in the WF Masters class. In qualifying everyone complained that Ron's BRAND NEW clutch was chattering and clunking horribly, so we ended up building a frankenstien clutch from my silky smooth cassette and Ron's drum and driver. (My driver was having the bearing walking out the middle problem. (Man those clutches are garbage, I wish Briggs would stop using those as the spec clutch!)
With qualifying over, kart prepared, the team retired to the luxury resort like facilities of the Laurel Tree Inn, Salinas. After checking in (yes the whole team managed to book rooms this year, and on the correct date), freshening up we hit party central (Brad's room) for a pre-dinner beer. 30 minutes after the appointed meeting time the topic of conversation turned to "Where the F&^% is Rich ?" .... it turns out he lay down on his bed to watch TV for a few minutes, but was overcome with tiredness. I quick phone call later and Rich was awake again, presented himself in party central, glugged half his exotic high end beer and the gang moved to the team dinner at the Black Bear Diner. Massive quantities of unhealthy food was consumed .. more beer ... back to party central ... another beer .... then Rich's tiredness hit me, so I went to bed. Apparently Ron was later contemplating looking for pool halls in Salinas, or something like that. That doesn't sound scary in the slightest !
Race day
We woke to very wet roads having rained overnight. Luckily, as NFRA didn't invest in rain tires, the sky was clear and by the time we got to the track, things were starting to dry out.
Team tactics were for Rich to drive for as long as we thought a tank of gas would last, then I would do a shorter stint, then Ron another long, followed by Rich to bring it home.
The start is an old school Le Mans style start with driver and starter crew running across the track after the start 'signal' immediately following the national anthem. It turns out the start signal was something like an M80, which scared that crap out of Rich, but after a moment of "What the f^&* was that??" Rich and Brad sprinted across the track, started the kart and off he went. A nice start indeed !
The track was dry by this stage ... apart from one puddle on the outside of the sweeper T3/4 turns (which shall be known as the 'skydiver turn' due to the proximity of the landing zone for the skydiving school that operates out of Marina airport.
About 10 laps in the busy field was pretty well all mixed together (30 Clones, LO206s & WFs with varying laptimes), Rich got involved in what must have been a 3 wide pass round the skydiver turn, where he had no option but to drive right into the only puddle on the track. Puddle + slicks meant Rich span, without contact with anyone, recovered, but that put hm at the back, behind all the clones.
Rich put his head down and picked his way through the field and got back to pretty much where he was before.
About at hour in, Rich existed the track for no apparent reason. As he coasted down pit lane, we could see him trying to drive the kart by pulling the throttle cable by hand on the carb. He got to the pit and said he didn't seem to be getting much throttle and the pedal wasn't moving far. A quick inspection, showed the locknut on the throttle pedal stop adjustment had loosened off and the the adjuster vibrated round and round to mean he was only getting about 10% pedal movement. Easy fix and we sent him back out.
Rich completed his planned 100 lap 1st stint and came in for fuel and driver change, where I was to take over. Rich mentioned the steering wheel hub was loose on the shaft so there was play in the steering. That drives me nuts, I knew i could not drive like that, se we spent a minute tweaking that nut and bolt up tight again, and I set off to rejoin the race, but here is where our race went from going just fine to a living nightmare.
I was only in the kart for about 8 laps and was just getting into the groove, lap times dropping a few 10ths every lap as I got my bearings. But then coming up the front straight, I had a two kart train on the inside, and I think someone pushing me from behind as I arrived at the left/right 1st chicane. I backed off to allow in inside karts room to get to the corner before me, and I would drop in 3rd in line. This was all well and good until the kart 2nd in line span right in front of me in the chicane, I had nowhere to go, no time to react and ended up with my front right wheel hitting his front left corner. This snapped the tie rod, bent the arm of the spindle and bent the steering shaft to the extent I could barely turn the wheel. With the barrier approaching quickly I manhandled the steering to the right, and dabbed the gas to try and get the thing to turn .... there was no turning, I just ended up accelerating into the barrier, where I came to an undignified halt.
Luckily this was close to the pit, so Brad ran out with the kart stand and the kart was retrieved. I was pretty annoyed with myself that I managed to get tangled with a spinning kart after just 8 laps and made a real mess of the kart.
There then followed much wrenching to replace the bust up parts and get the thing back together. We must have wasted 30 minutes doing all this. But FINALLY, I got back in the kart and resumed my session. The plan was then for me to drive 55 laps and hand over to Ron. Everything was going great, lap times were not too embarrassing, I was keeping out of trouble, the kart felt great .... all until I got 30 laps into that session, when I noticed add odd delayed reaction of turn in of the kart, especially on right handers. I turned the steering wheel, the kart started turning, then a moment later, turned more as I would expect. I thought "Oh the steering hub is loose on the shaft again, and I'm feeling that slop ... no biggie" half a lap later while entering the skydiver turn the back of the kart went all over the place, it felt like a puncture. I dodged between the cones to get off the track and then the rear left wheel overtook me and headed off down the hill, right towards the skydivers who were all sat around after their drop assumedly waiting for the next wave. I turned the kart around to see if the crew had seen my and waved them to come and get me. While Brad was once again pushing the kart stand out, I went to recover my wheel and was met by a skydiver walking up the hill with my wheel in his hand. I said "Thanks! I hope it didn't hit any of you guys." he replied "I think he'll be ok" ... at which point I bade farewell and helped Brad lift the kart onto the stand again.
By now, i was beyond pissed, but luckily we had some spare hubs on hand, swapped the rear hubs, put wheels on and sent Ron out. We had an hour and 45 minutes of the race to go, so Ron said "I'll drive to the end and we'll see if the gas lasts that long" ... everyone agreed and Ron went out. At this point we were still last in class, but the 4th place team was out with a blown motor, it didn't take long to pass their lap count and we were then in 4th, with Jeff's Redding team in 3rd, some 50laps ahead. Ron pounded round and round, then the Jeff's team had a problem (I can't remember what happened), but they spent a good 20 laps in the pit, which allowed us to close the gap.
From there on out Ron kept on going round and round and he completed his epic 1:45 driving stint and didn't run out of gas and finally took the checkered flag.
We ended up 4th in class .... didn't win anything in the raffle (a continuation of our luck for the day) .. packed up and went for pizza and beer (thanks Rich and Scott!) and everyone headed home.
All in all a fun adventure ... and next year we'll do better !
I have some trackside video I'll upload sometime. Rich forgot to turn on his helmetcam. :-(
P.S. After the race, the failed hub and studs were shipped to the NFRA forensic metallurgy labs in Peru, where our senior staff scientist, Dr. Seymour Brokestuf, determined the cause of failure was due to one of the studs backing out of the hub thus causing to two remaining studs to bend around until they snapped.
