To all,
For all of those who weren’t able to make the race, I would like to share my four day adventure at the supernationals. This was my first “big race.”
The weather all weekend was perfect. No wind, no rain, and really no clouds. The temperature only varied about 20 degrees from the racing when the sun was up and racing when the sun was down.
My father and I arrived at the RBI tent Wed. afternoon and found everything setup and waiting for my arrival. I want to thank Richard, AJ and Preston for all the help they provided. You guys rock. Everyone under the RBI tent worked as a team.
Thursday morning was our first practice out of six or seven total. We practiced in both the dark and light. My first practice I stuck the engine after the third lap on the track. I had the bottom end to lean. At this point, the RBI team stripped down my engine and we had parts shipped over night to replace the piston.
Now I need to thank Jim Keesling for letting me borrow his backup engine. I am a true believer that “what comes around goes around” and at the first CSC race in Grand Junction Jay broke his Rotax and I lent him my spare. Jim let me use the engine for as long as I needed HOW COOL IS THAT!! Thank you so much JIm.
With Jim’s engine on the RBI, I only missed one practice on Thursday. I also ran his engine very rich. My times were a little slow but I was learning the track and the braking points.
We had a single practice on Friday morning and then qualifying. I believe it was on my third lap of qualifying that coming out of turn two a haybale jumped out and grabbed me 😆 I caught the haybale by about an inch and the impact was so great that it completely sheared off my axle with the sprocket and tire still attached. Luckily, the chassis was not affected and still straight. I can’t say the same for me though. I made my way to the doctor yesterday and found out that I have three cracked ribs.
After the haybale incident, the RBI team put a new pod on and axle and the kart was ready to roll. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about me. The track consisted of 3 out of 13 left hand turns and for each of those turns I had to turn my body sideways,lift myself out of the seat, and steer with my knee and right hand. Never-the-less, i made my way halfway through the field in each of the heat races.
For the final, I finally put back on my engine which Paul Leary inspected/worked on and made sure all was put back together correctly. On the start, I gained three or four spots from my starting position of 11th. I stayed with the main group of front runners and was waiting until my tire pressures came up. I knew I had a kart capable of winning. What a great feeling that was. Then the unthinkable happened the top of the engine popped off? No one seems to know how this could have possibly happened but it did. I immediately shut it down and coasted off the track.
I spoke with Todd Bellew many times and let him know how pleased I was with the event. The schedule was maintained practically to the minute. The other classes were great to watch and the track layout was wide open and had lots of room to make clean passes. The tire wear was minimal.
Thanks to all the SKUSA officials for making an awesome event I look forward to next year.
Tom