03-18-2017, 08:42 PM
3/18/2017
First, an uncommon serious note. We all wish Rick Gilmore a speedy recovery.
The track announcer said he was released from the emergency room last night. Despite no broken bones, he probably feels like he was tackled for three hours by the NFL's biggest defensive linemen without wearing any protective gear.
For those who remember the refrain from Hee Haw that went "If it weren't for bad luck, Id have not luck at all", Gary W. continues to experience the did not start jinx. He blew an engine at Bushnell before starting a single lap. At Barnesville, GW was passing his old reliable Hornet through tech. Strocker Ace said to Gary that he should wipe the bit of grease off the frame. Upon inspection the grease turned out to be a broken frame that ended GW's race plans for the weekend.
Gary continues to outperform me on interesting reasons for did not start. At Bushnell, I had decided to bring an SAE back from Yard Kart hades. It was much more time consuming than I thought and I lost a week to a death in the family in Ohio. My entry went unused (except for the pit pass). So there was lots of time for watching races and daily reports on the goings on at the track.
For Barnesville, I decided to mobilize a nice Margay Panther with a killer komet from Mike Berg. All I had to do was put a fat guy seat on the kart, mount everything up, bleed the brakes and go racing. This project has earned (the repeatable) nickname of thrice revisited. Virtually everything time consuming required at least three "reworks" to get the kart race worthy. Thursday and Friday (race day 1) were spent prepping the kart. I did very little race watching because I thought success was just around the corner. When I finally got my new Mychron 5 2T mounted up, I thought I would get to run Sunday. Sunday morning was a washout with rain. My final get readies took to long and I decided to watch most of the third heats. For those who engaged in the exhaust gas vs cylinder head temp debate, I can report that at zero rpm the egt was 68 and the cylinder head temp was 69. My question from that is What's The Difference?
The good news side of my experience was that Butch K and his race team (son and grandson) packed their gear in my Alaska "monster" trailer along with my stuff and raced for the weekend.
There were lots of rear engine duals in the pits, but most of them were for the kart show. The two that raced had completed all three heats at Bushnell. They completed all three heats at Barnesville which is really amazing for C-open. The end of the third heat saw the driver of the bender equipped SAE get inside the Mac powered SAE on the last turn and win the heat at the finish line.
The c-open sidewinder race was quite interesting. Butch K's son was running a pair of stock MC92s against various spaghetti. He proved again that finishing really matters. He outran the two 6 cu in duals in every race. In the last race two of the b-bomb karts tangled up and brought out the red flag. Vince K ended up second of the remaining four with a true b stock sidewinder.
The final race report is about the historic class race. There were three Clintons (engines not thankfully politicians). The drivers basically went out and ran together on every lap despite any differences in the karts' capabilities. They were pretty close to finishing three across at the finish.
A final note to the fellow with the nice white ford dually with your trailer next to mine and two down from Lynn Haddock. You forgot to pick up the kart stand you set on the bank when you moved your trailer. You need to call the track and have them stash it before one of those tater diggers grabs it on Sunday.
Smokey - my nickname earned because of my hat in the early 70's not my racing prowess.
First, an uncommon serious note. We all wish Rick Gilmore a speedy recovery.
The track announcer said he was released from the emergency room last night. Despite no broken bones, he probably feels like he was tackled for three hours by the NFL's biggest defensive linemen without wearing any protective gear.
For those who remember the refrain from Hee Haw that went "If it weren't for bad luck, Id have not luck at all", Gary W. continues to experience the did not start jinx. He blew an engine at Bushnell before starting a single lap. At Barnesville, GW was passing his old reliable Hornet through tech. Strocker Ace said to Gary that he should wipe the bit of grease off the frame. Upon inspection the grease turned out to be a broken frame that ended GW's race plans for the weekend.
Gary continues to outperform me on interesting reasons for did not start. At Bushnell, I had decided to bring an SAE back from Yard Kart hades. It was much more time consuming than I thought and I lost a week to a death in the family in Ohio. My entry went unused (except for the pit pass). So there was lots of time for watching races and daily reports on the goings on at the track.
For Barnesville, I decided to mobilize a nice Margay Panther with a killer komet from Mike Berg. All I had to do was put a fat guy seat on the kart, mount everything up, bleed the brakes and go racing. This project has earned (the repeatable) nickname of thrice revisited. Virtually everything time consuming required at least three "reworks" to get the kart race worthy. Thursday and Friday (race day 1) were spent prepping the kart. I did very little race watching because I thought success was just around the corner. When I finally got my new Mychron 5 2T mounted up, I thought I would get to run Sunday. Sunday morning was a washout with rain. My final get readies took to long and I decided to watch most of the third heats. For those who engaged in the exhaust gas vs cylinder head temp debate, I can report that at zero rpm the egt was 68 and the cylinder head temp was 69. My question from that is What's The Difference?
The good news side of my experience was that Butch K and his race team (son and grandson) packed their gear in my Alaska "monster" trailer along with my stuff and raced for the weekend.
There were lots of rear engine duals in the pits, but most of them were for the kart show. The two that raced had completed all three heats at Bushnell. They completed all three heats at Barnesville which is really amazing for C-open. The end of the third heat saw the driver of the bender equipped SAE get inside the Mac powered SAE on the last turn and win the heat at the finish line.
The c-open sidewinder race was quite interesting. Butch K's son was running a pair of stock MC92s against various spaghetti. He proved again that finishing really matters. He outran the two 6 cu in duals in every race. In the last race two of the b-bomb karts tangled up and brought out the red flag. Vince K ended up second of the remaining four with a true b stock sidewinder.
The final race report is about the historic class race. There were three Clintons (engines not thankfully politicians). The drivers basically went out and ran together on every lap despite any differences in the karts' capabilities. They were pretty close to finishing three across at the finish.
A final note to the fellow with the nice white ford dually with your trailer next to mine and two down from Lynn Haddock. You forgot to pick up the kart stand you set on the bank when you moved your trailer. You need to call the track and have them stash it before one of those tater diggers grabs it on Sunday.
Smokey - my nickname earned because of my hat in the early 70's not my racing prowess.