Rockin Rock Island Grand Prix

[David Luciani]

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

[Sterling Brundick]

Thanks for the informative review Dave. Glad you were able to get away with just minor engine issue instead of a grenade. Regards, Sterling

[David Luciani]

theres more but gotta sleep first
d

[steve welte]

yes David it was a blast. Please people put this on your schedule for next year. This was our 4th year. There is no karting experience quite like it. On Sunday the 6/10th's mile course is lined with spectators 10 deep. I'm talking all the way around. Many say "Oh it's to dangerous and fast".We had several discussions about this and I told everyone of the drivers to be safe, give lots of room, and we are not racing anyone! Yes we run hard but we are there to put on a show for the crowd and the modern racers. They absolutely love watching us! You see to understand this you must understand the demands of the track. The Speed, The surface you run on and how you end up running to survive. You have pavers in the middle of corners and manhole covers to dodge. For us on rear karts (and we were on duals) with Vintage Speed tires that duro. at about 78 you have little grip when you have 65 mph gearing. That is what makes it so fun. You are driving a squirrel that might just want to change direction. You can find some pretty smooth ways around the course but first you have to understand where to drive. You have to ask questions and look for your own lines. Don't get that discouraged. It's not that hard to do. Don't bring your best stuff to run at a fun event but don't bring a knife to a gun fight either. Remember you are in control. You drive how you feel you need to, to have fun. We will help you in anyway we can. Just ask. Put this on your schedule for next year and join us.

[David Luciani]

What steve wrote is absolutely true.
while it's true we were sent out as a race grid we really weren't racing.
in fact we were so casual that we dropped using transponders and "scored" the so called race by seeing who came in the escape chute first.
after the checker dropped we depended on the honr system for drivers to maintain their order as they left the track.

i think for myself the fun lay in pushing my kart and motor to the limit in my own personal comfort zone.
my little mc10 was amazing i was pretty much was running flat out the whole course.
and it was FAST an 820 with a box muffler was hard pressed to pass me , it took it several laps.

i wasn't doing this to destroy my motor ,win a race or even be competitive.
i was testing my skill against a track that had alot of obstacles to offer.
i also wanted to see whether the mc10 had the balls to hold up in a serious road course.
it did .
for the first two practices it ran almost flawlessly a loose plug at the last practice lap was the only issue.
but a freak failure of the extra head gasket (a piece seems to have fallen into the combustion chamber) caused a piston stick on the rear intake ports.
sad but not fatal to the motor.


the track:


there's a a massive straightaway with a very fast corner onto another long straight. if you aren't winding out your motor you ain't tryin.


then you have the cobbles that break track adhesion ,  they are in most of the corners..
In the normal world they are pedestrian crosswalks but something less than suitable with a racing kart roughly 3/4" off the ground.
hitting them at speed confused the kart into thinking it could fly so when you go over them it gets interesting maintaining control.


THEN there's the manhole covers.
avoiding them was good if you wanted to keep your chain on , maintain control and not mess up your shorts.
a total blast.

the best part??
no young pimply cops pulling you over with a squad car and asking you what the heck are you thinking running a kart on the street!!!

dave l.

[Gary Wlodarsky]

Man,,is David long winded or what,,,,,,502 miles to RIGP and David talked for 501 of em,,,, lol.. no harm no fowl..he didn't know I had ear plugs in....

but ..he speaks the truth about RIGP... both challenging  and fast...and sooooooooo  much fun...I cannot believe the guys that live close and don't go??????????

the trailer thing,,,think I got it straightened out ,,,new one on the way,,part waranty and part cash,,,what else is new,,,minor upgrade...

parts are coming to repair my upper steering block...oh yeah , forgot to mention that...it came apart going into the first corner at app 70 mph....a little exciting,,,felt like I was driving a zero turn lawn mower.....hand up ,,slow down ,,pull into pits, were the Redds was...

heck of a week end for metal fatigue of all kinds..

already making plans for next year...

pssst,,had a great time with Frank, Jim, Mike and David at my mini clam bake, and  fish fry thurs night....

hope the new trailer is here for DelMar


gw