09-05-2016, 07:18 PM
Well as usual my good buddy Gary W. talked me into going to another "street"race.
Gee, it only took TWO days and 16 hours of travel to get there.
BUT
WE HAD FUN!!!!
some history,
last year Gary W called and said lets go to RIGP for saturday and TBO for sunday.
RIGP i said last year what the heck is that??
it's rock island gran prix a street race that has been rolling along for many years.
they close off an entire section of Rock Island Il. about ten blocks and turn it into a street based kart track.
at about 3/4 + miles it's a big track.
It has TWO insane straights with a easy corner between.
top speed for fastest karts is about 32 seconds.
do the math that is insanely fast.
added to the speed drama is brick buildings,street poles,plate glass windows all along the course should you mess up.
To run it you may decide an upgrade to brass on certain personal parts is needed.
lately we got them to "invite" Vintage Karters to the race.
kinda insane, modern inviting us outliers from long ago to one of the best kart road courses.
but they did!!!
so last year i had bad luck got a few laps in but became determined to return .
SO WE DID.
this year i arrived on time to Gary W's house.
i had Mike E. in tow he was headed to TBO right around the corner.
Gary invited Frank Wier and Jim Donavan to dinner (they were both headed to TBO) we had alot of fun bench racing.
As they left both Frank and Jim pitched Gary and i about going to TBO but we had other plans.
At 8 a.m. we blasted off, we drove 8 hours along some fairly rough highways.
seems some states build roads with built in speed bumps for many miles.
we arrived a bit early but decided to park anyway.
As we turned the corner about a block from parking BOOM.
we thought the trailer had dropped the hitch.
NOPE
it had broken in 1/2 right where the hitch is supposed to be attached to the box.
a touch of bad language might have occurred right then.
anyway we dragged the trailer around the corner and unloaded anyway.
after all we had a karts to prrep .
but first we rented a u-haul trailer so we could get home.
we endured ALOT of "whitty" comments about buying "cheap" trailers and so forth.
enough of that.
we got things ready went to the Hotel that wasn't (another story) finally found a room and crashed.
WAY way too early we were back up.
driver meeting was at 7.15 am no excuses.
after the driver meeting we pulled out the karts.
Gary had his with mc91 and pipe.
i had my gk800 with my fast mc10.
for some strange reason everyone kept asking me where was the kart i was gonna race?
anyway we got our first practice.
i was a tad nervous about my mc10 it's fast but kinda old.
with rigp it was Barely enough motor flat out the WHOLE course.
definitely a track that wants motors that have ALOT of top end.
regardless i had a blast and the ten ran really well.
off track everyone else reported similar experiences.
we watched the insanely fast c-opens and went back to the pits.
there were many repairs needed to most karts the track really stretches a karts potential.
too often pushing our karts beyond mechanical limits.
before i here ANYTHING about old tired gear.
the modern if anything had more equipment destruction than us.
the track is just that fast.
we did a second practice about 5 laps everything went fine.
i had a small issue with a loose plug it was tossed and replaced.
we had lunch hung out and waited our turn for the heat.
about 50 minutes before we gridded gary w did a pre grid final inspection on his kart.
he noticed a serious crack on his aluminum motor mount adapter.
i made a badly timed comment about gary and aliminum breaking (aluminum trailer too)
at first he was scrubbing but we decided fixing it was doable.
45 frantic minutes later we installed a replacement in steel that fit just barely.
we made the grid with seconds to spare.
i was put in pole position by somebody who thought they were funny.
why me in pole with a mc10 in a field of 100cc karts with and without pipes.
anyway when the flag dropped i let the closest guys have the first corner.
the mc10 was running great it took a few laps before anyone passed me in the rest of the field.
i kinda got lost in the moment and pushed the little ten too hard.
lap 5 the motor seems troubled i added a full turn to the high needle.
mid lap 6 BOOM again luckily it was only a piston stick the track was just too big for the 10.
i watched the rest of the race it was insane how good these old karts did on the street.
then the c-opens went out.
THAT was insane.
the modern guys were glued to the fences watching the crazy old guys running so fast.
we had two foriegn twins two us820 twins and several other foriegns and yamahas mixed in.
the field ran well together then stretched into mini grids as the race went on.
nobody watching moved away till the race was over.
many modern guys were grinning and shaking their heads at what they had just seen.
back at the pits we regrouped there was broken stuff to fix and piston funerals.
two mccullochs got stuck probably gearing errors caused the motors to spin up too high too long..
to be continued
Gee, it only took TWO days and 16 hours of travel to get there.
BUT
WE HAD FUN!!!!
some history,
last year Gary W called and said lets go to RIGP for saturday and TBO for sunday.
RIGP i said last year what the heck is that??
it's rock island gran prix a street race that has been rolling along for many years.
they close off an entire section of Rock Island Il. about ten blocks and turn it into a street based kart track.
at about 3/4 + miles it's a big track.
It has TWO insane straights with a easy corner between.
top speed for fastest karts is about 32 seconds.
do the math that is insanely fast.
added to the speed drama is brick buildings,street poles,plate glass windows all along the course should you mess up.
To run it you may decide an upgrade to brass on certain personal parts is needed.
lately we got them to "invite" Vintage Karters to the race.
kinda insane, modern inviting us outliers from long ago to one of the best kart road courses.
but they did!!!
so last year i had bad luck got a few laps in but became determined to return .
SO WE DID.
this year i arrived on time to Gary W's house.
i had Mike E. in tow he was headed to TBO right around the corner.
Gary invited Frank Wier and Jim Donavan to dinner (they were both headed to TBO) we had alot of fun bench racing.
As they left both Frank and Jim pitched Gary and i about going to TBO but we had other plans.
At 8 a.m. we blasted off, we drove 8 hours along some fairly rough highways.
seems some states build roads with built in speed bumps for many miles.
we arrived a bit early but decided to park anyway.
As we turned the corner about a block from parking BOOM.
we thought the trailer had dropped the hitch.
NOPE
it had broken in 1/2 right where the hitch is supposed to be attached to the box.
a touch of bad language might have occurred right then.
anyway we dragged the trailer around the corner and unloaded anyway.
after all we had a karts to prrep .
but first we rented a u-haul trailer so we could get home.
we endured ALOT of "whitty" comments about buying "cheap" trailers and so forth.
enough of that.
we got things ready went to the Hotel that wasn't (another story) finally found a room and crashed.
WAY way too early we were back up.
driver meeting was at 7.15 am no excuses.
after the driver meeting we pulled out the karts.
Gary had his with mc91 and pipe.
i had my gk800 with my fast mc10.
for some strange reason everyone kept asking me where was the kart i was gonna race?
anyway we got our first practice.
i was a tad nervous about my mc10 it's fast but kinda old.
with rigp it was Barely enough motor flat out the WHOLE course.
definitely a track that wants motors that have ALOT of top end.
regardless i had a blast and the ten ran really well.
off track everyone else reported similar experiences.
we watched the insanely fast c-opens and went back to the pits.
there were many repairs needed to most karts the track really stretches a karts potential.
too often pushing our karts beyond mechanical limits.
before i here ANYTHING about old tired gear.
the modern if anything had more equipment destruction than us.
the track is just that fast.
we did a second practice about 5 laps everything went fine.
i had a small issue with a loose plug it was tossed and replaced.
we had lunch hung out and waited our turn for the heat.
about 50 minutes before we gridded gary w did a pre grid final inspection on his kart.
he noticed a serious crack on his aluminum motor mount adapter.
i made a badly timed comment about gary and aliminum breaking (aluminum trailer too)
at first he was scrubbing but we decided fixing it was doable.
45 frantic minutes later we installed a replacement in steel that fit just barely.
we made the grid with seconds to spare.
i was put in pole position by somebody who thought they were funny.
why me in pole with a mc10 in a field of 100cc karts with and without pipes.
anyway when the flag dropped i let the closest guys have the first corner.
the mc10 was running great it took a few laps before anyone passed me in the rest of the field.
i kinda got lost in the moment and pushed the little ten too hard.
lap 5 the motor seems troubled i added a full turn to the high needle.
mid lap 6 BOOM again luckily it was only a piston stick the track was just too big for the 10.
i watched the rest of the race it was insane how good these old karts did on the street.
then the c-opens went out.
THAT was insane.
the modern guys were glued to the fences watching the crazy old guys running so fast.
we had two foriegn twins two us820 twins and several other foriegns and yamahas mixed in.
the field ran well together then stretched into mini grids as the race went on.
nobody watching moved away till the race was over.
many modern guys were grinning and shaking their heads at what they had just seen.
back at the pits we regrouped there was broken stuff to fix and piston funerals.
two mccullochs got stuck probably gearing errors caused the motors to spin up too high too long..
to be continued