The Bench Racers Journal

[Terry Bentley]

Chapter 100

It sure turned out to be a perfect night for racing. Well it might have been if we were racing tonight. Maybe we will have a chance to race out here before the track is gone. I got to meet some awesome people. It was very late already and I dont remember much shortly after we piled in the truck and were headed back home. I must have fallen asleep.

But I did have a million questions by the time dad made his way to the Ranchero before we left. He held his hand up for me to just slow up for a second. In a very casual calm voice, he proceeded to give me the low down. Jack had replaced the frame with a new one for a customer. This frame is one of the earliest S-85 karts they had sold over a year ago.

He was delivering the new chassis all set up to race for a customer here tonight. They decided not to keep the old frame. He also had no plans of taking this frame back with him to the shop in Waco. Jack then thought you might be interested in it to tinker with.

Jack asked me a lot of questions about you guys and your karts. Mainly how much interest you showed in building them. I told him you acted like having more enjoyment in working on the karts than actually racing them. I do realize you dont have it very convenient getting to the track right now.

But I did give him the whole rundown on what you two have done since last spring. It impressed him enough to think about offering to take this off his hands. He did say it was not going to be put to use for anything else. So thought you might enjoy having another project to add to your never ending list of them already.

Wow, Mr Jack Peck had given me an older model S-85 frame that had been retired. It is beat up, but looks solid enough to possibly make use of. The frame had been repaired on the left side in front of the motor mount. This early model has the flat plate welded to the main frame for a motor mount.

So now I own one for myself. But it is only a bare frame with the seat pan welded in. After what Mr Peck explained about the differences, this one still had the long throttle cable, instead of a steel rod running back along the seat. The other karts they were running tonight had already been modified to the newer style.

After dad took a moment he continued with more information. Jack did make a suggestion you might consider. He said you could go ahead and remove that welded mount. Then fabricate a new style swing mount out of box tubing.

I told him what you guys were doing with the kart Chris brought over for an upgrade. Like converting to a live axle. Then even modifying the old motor mount over to full floating type. He then asked my opinion of how that project was coming. I didnt exaggerate when telling him the work you guys did was top notch.

One other thing I probably should not mention to you guys. But Jack told me, in his opinion, that your Cates karts are good as it gets right now. That is one chassis they have tried to work past how well it handles too. If someone knows what they are doing setting one up, will give the S-85 a good run for the money. You guys keep this under wraps too. He will deny ever saying that. So dont repeat it to anyone.

It was about three years ago now, when my oldest brother just had to start racing. My dad went overboard trying to get him something going. But like most projects my brother got started, well that is what happened to all of his projects. They got started, then he lost interest.

Dad thought my brother would stick it out and even start racing, but his interests only wandered off to other things. Mainly focusing on getting his first car, then on to college. My brother usually got way too deep in doing anything that had his attention. But he had a very short attention span.

For whatever reason he would tear apart a perfectly working bicycle, kart, and even that first car he just had to have. Then think he could do a much better job in making it perfect. Unfortunately none of his attempts went any farther than disassembly. He spent a lot of time sketching out ideas. But some were so far fetched, I dont know how he could not see they just wouldnt work like he thought.

He got mad at me plenty of times when I just asked a simple question. Not one that was trying to make fun of his way of thinking. Just that I did not understand what the purpose was or what he was trying to do.

Thinking back now, especially with how much the karts have progressed in the last couple of years, some of his ideas sort of make a little bit of sense. Not that they would have worked like he thought, but not so far off that with some more thought put in them he might get there.

I think the word concept fit best what my brother was working on. He saw one kart then reinvented it from scratch. He didnt bother to see what else was already available. But three years ago, there was not that much available or any different yet from how those first karts were built.

My brother would come up with something different than what everyone else was using, then could not grasp why nobody was doing his way. To him it was an obviously better idea, but he didnt bother to invest his time any farther than scribbling it down on a piece of paper.

So when my brother hit any roadblocks with his ideas or projects, then he just walked away. He left them torn down and not worth his time to do anything further. He was done with it completely.

Little did he know I kept a lot of his sketches, drawings and ideas he had jotted down. When he left for college, almost everything he had was just tossed in the trash. He sold off what things were of some value, then trashed the rest. But when he lost interest in something it became worthless to him.

Last year one of the last projects he worked on was a two engine mini-bike. The mini-bikes had just came out and took off like the karts did. He put a lot of thought into the two engine machine. It was his project in shop class.

But it got canned since he went too far with ideas and no way to fabricate most of the parts needed to finish. One thing he hit a snag on was not thinking everything all thru to the finish line.

The dual engine frame was just about to become a reality. But he failed to work in how the brakes would fit together. This is before he realized there was no provisions for a gas tank.

When Steve asked where the gas tank was, my brother just blew a head gasket with him. I cant believe he didnt figure that out until now. Steve didnt realize my brother had not thought this thru yet until just then.

Steve then suggested mounting a small tank on top of the frame. Or maybe even put one behind the seat. It could feed gas down to both engines. But my brother went totally rabid. THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD. WHY WOULD ANYONE PUT A GAS TANK THERE? THAT MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL.

So one more almost project was abandoned and sold off. He had managed to horse trade some other failed project and rounded up the Power Products AH-47 engines for that mini-bike.

These were bolted to some cool motor mounts he did build in shop class. He also worked in a jack shaft to connect both of them together with a timing belt drive. Sort of like Tom Spaulding did on one of his cool projects. I think that is where he came up with idea for his project.

Another one of the setbacks was modifying the chainsaw clutches with drivers and a way of adjusting the belt itself. Both engines needed a way to adjust separately. But my brother could not see it right if they didnt both move exactly the same amount either.

Dad thought my oldest brother would have been more hands on at first, but realized his talents were better suited doing something else less direct. But every time my brother threw in the towel when hitting a snag, he bailed out quick. Then something else would catch his attention.

I was impressed in some of my brothers projects. But learned early on to keep my questions to myself. He thought I was trying to be a smartace whenever I asked him about anything. He would loose his cool then reply back trying to deflect with something making me feel stupid just for asking.

The are a few things given up on that he didnt bother with trying to sell off. They were not worth anything but I had fun messing around with one to see if I could get farther along with or work past what he didnt catch the first time.

Thinking now, my brother would give me all kinds of grief. He would laugh at the thought of wasting so much of my time working on such a lousy old worn out frame.

If he were here right now, would already be telling me everything that was wrong with this old frame. It isnt even worth scrap. Why didnt I spend my time making a better one instead of all that effort attempting to fix this one.

He had already assumed I would waste all that time fixing it instead of starting with new materials and build a better one. After all that is what he would surely do.

I always wanted to ask him how those new projects of his turned out. But would have to duck and run to avoid his wrath.