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Nobody else has started a thread, so I took it upon myself.
What happened to Bad News Karter? Watching the live timing & scoring around 10 pm, they were on the same lap as and catching Karting Coach at about 9 seconds a lap. Then, at lap 524, neither team added any laps for a while. As of 11:15 pm, Karting Coach is still up front with 585 laps, but Bad News is stopped at 524 laps.
Did they come together? Or did both teams pit, but Bad News had some, er, bad news in the pits?
For next time, it’d be nice to indicate who’s in what class on live timing & scoring. Yeah, I might guess a kart turning 1:01 isn’t a rental, but it looks like some teams are in conservation (or sleepy driver?) mode. :loony:
We had major clutch problems on the primary motor, Vampire, and our back up motor did not want to play. Scott, Tim, Chris, JP, Aaron, Cole, and Matt all drove their butts off keeping the program up front, but in the end the karting god’s just were not with us.
No contact was had, on or off The Track. We had a blast.Stopped by during my ride this morning… One Leopard and 3 rental karts on track. Lots of tired necks and arms, judging by the flexing the drivers were doing on the straights. 😀
Sadly, the kart numbers and team names have dropped off of the online scoring page. Still, the current leader’s 1182 laps in 23 hours works out to a 1:13.1 average lap, including time in the pits and otherwise stopped, for hour after hour after hour… 😯 :clap:
Well the 2009 24 Hours @ The Track is in the books. If you missed it, it was a grueling race of attrition once again this year. There has been a lot of doubt about our sprint race equipment being able to handle making it to the end of one of these events and I think that this years race should prove that it can do it well.
Thanks to Jim Keesling for hosting and organizing such a great event once again. This is by far the most challenging race I have competed in in my 11 years of racing and am proud to now say that the Karting Coach team has won!
I do want to thank everyone who helped us this year:
Our sponsors Peak Eurosport, Big O Tires, and Grease MonkeyOur Pit Crew: Rich Lubischer, Richard Southall, Luke Vaughn, and Greg Weatherman
and our Drivers, (Mike Weatherman), Mark Lubischer, Will Calton, and AJ Noud
I know alot of people are wondering what special things we did to make a Leopard Tag run the whole distance so here is a list of what we used:
2 sets of tires (sorry but the details on tire selection is our secret!)
4 sets of brake pads
1-engine – built for sprint race specs!! (no, we did not run it rich or stack base gaskets or anything like that)
3 chains
3 rear sprockets
3 countershaft sprockets
1 roll of racers tape
About 30 gallons of MS98
**Our Italkart Chassis and Leopard engine held together so well that we finished the race with the same lap times that we were running at the start of the race!!Thanks again to everyone who competed in this race and made this race possible!!
Congratulations to Mike and his Team,
You guys are tough!! You forgot to mention one thing in your race report.
It rained!! Great run in the wet. You deserve a lot of credit for your great accomplishment. We hope to
give you a run to the finish line next year. Doghouse Racing’s Rotary is planning
already to return next year with hopefully our drivetrain problems worked out to last the full
24. We hoped to push that kart of yours hard, but you proved to be the Team
made of steel. Again, well done. See you at The Track.Also, thanks to Jim and his staff for making the 24 Hours work. Awesome!
Mike
Well, it was a great event. I understimated 24 hrs in a rental kart. I give Jim and Ironman Roger a lot more credit! Congrats to the all the teams who made it!
Batman and Robin.
Mike and Mike,
Thank you!!! Without the efforts of teams like yourselves, this would not be nearly as cool. The ideas, designs, thinking games that all go into this are so cool.Here is my short list, with a full story soon…
1) Bad news karters: The names says it all. Showed up with an old chassis, as it looked “in a box” and a motor “in a box” and 5 guys with a bunch of tools and a table. They lost the equipment they planned on last minute, and were putting together their “Plan B”. I had Josh prep. a corp kart just in case with new chain, motor, tires, for them to race. All day friday, mass assembly for the “new” but old Vampire!!! Frustration set in early as it would not start by 9:00pm. Sat morn, 6:30 start the drill again and trouble shoot. 9:00am “Fire in the hole” It runs! Time for last minute check-over. Motor – Vampire2) Dog House Racing: Last year, it was all about the “young guns.” The kids (drivers) all working together, helping with all maintenance, staying up all night to do their jobs, and really working together. Same principals this year, but reverse roles. Good/best equipment, different enough that needed special care on/off track. Whoops, learned that early. Late delivery of new type clutches for the rotary, types of chain issues put the kids sleeping and the dad’s wrenching all night to figure it out.
Murphy’s law somehow showed up un-invited and stayed all day… “Next year.” Motor – Axiro XR-503) The “Coyote-Ugly” team. Race equipment this year, good shifter kart. Short story, 80cc Honda shifter. Ran great, until driven hard, and bad. Sorry guys, great effort again, but need to smooth everything down a lot for the stuff to last. I saw many miss shifts, high revs, one gear for full laps, etc… more practice on the track to get everyone comfortable with how to drive a shifter… Motor – Honda 80cc Shifter
4) Dangerous Karters. Katie and her Broncos Cheerleader friends supporting us to support them. Corp. kart. Raced from start till time to go. Came back at 9:00 am to finish. All bruised up and know what its all about now!!! Building excitement for the charity race in August for the kids… Motor – Corp kart Honda 390GX
5) Mobile View – Team Sweeny. John and family, plus some real Supercross experts giving it their all. Corp kart. Great showing, got faster all sessions and really had a great game plan. Bad news when upon exit late at night, hit the fence post of the exit lane, bent the axle and was down a “good, race ready, corp. kart.” Grabbed a back-up, (The cheerleaders kart) broke the steering column attachment, found another one, clutch popped, found another, bad tires, but ran and they finished the event… Great first year. Many thanks for the HUGE big screen once again. That is AWESOME to have at any event!!!
Motor – Corp kart Honda 390GX6) Batman and Robin. Josh (the tech guy) and Ben (“A” license holder) in for “Ironman” (he, he, Roger and I are laughing that they have no idea how hard this is…) They were having a great time “hiding” their stuff from everyone (including their team name) right up till qualifying. Rules – all corp karts had to be EQUAL! Period! Josh and Ben did a great job of really pulling all 4 together and even for this years race. We laughed our butts off when Batman and Robin flew around the corner in full costume ready for qualifying!!!
Great, great effort. 5 laps into the race, Josh, right on my bumper pits…. One little piece of grit. Just one little piece of grit was all it took for them to be 10 laps down for 24 hours!!! Motor – Corp kart Honda GX3907) Iron Maniacs. Jim and Roger, second year ironman. With more corp karts in the field, pressure was on. No driving around the track, we had to race every lap!!! New pit strategy, same great pit boss (Matt), and off and running. No issues this year at all. Motor – Corp kart Honda GX 390
8) Team Karting Coach – Mike Weatherman. “This Year!!!” Lessons learned last year, applied this year! Fantastic job!!! Roger and I, plus Ben and Josh were secretly hoping for a blown motor at 9:30am when we saw you in the in-field. Tired as all get out, we drove as fast as we could trying to make up the 30+ laps we were down. Darn, just a chain fell off!!! That’s what made you the champion! Everything worked as it should! Lots of prep. smart driving, care of the equipment, 24 hour pace for 24 hours!!! Job Well Done!!!
Thanks again for all the teams efforts. It is a lot of work! Thanks to Roger, Ben and Josh for trying this as you did! I’m still sore and tired. Now I really feel to old!!!
Thanks to Carolyn for staying with us and scoring all 24 hours, Andrea for keeping watch and still working all day Sunday, and all the behind the scenes efforts that don’t go unnoticed. Ok, back to bed…. wait! I have to get ready for NEXT YEAR!!!!Jim
I will also post more info about what was used in our effort shortly. Special thanks to the
following for their help and support of Doghouse Racing kart 24H.Our drivers – Jack Bradley, Sydney Edwards, Tyler Edwards, and Sam Urban. You gave it 100%. Who says teenagers have issues. This group has their act together!! You are incredible! Sorry we didn’t give you a kart that could be driven to its potential for 24 hours. Next year!
The Track at Centennial, Jim Keesling and staff – technical support, and too many other little things to list. Could not have done it without you!!
Billet Performance Karting, Barry Lewis – technical support, parts, and another long list of little things. Even when you were on vacation, you just had to check in! Barry, thanks!
John Bradley – always a pleasure to work with you. Too many things to list, but without you, we would not have raced, or finished. I know how your back feels after lifting that kart on its stand 100 times. Thanks for listening to some of my crazy ideas.
Mike Edwards – new to our team this year. You didn’t give up on me, even after I hit you accidentally in the head with our pit sign in hour one. Also too many things to list. Thanks to you, another guy with a sore back Monday morning!! A pleasure to work with you as well!
The Bradley and Edwards families – support, energy, and food. Thanks!
The Urban family – support, energy, food, and a loving wife who lets her husband do some pretty crazy things!
Imagewerx Photography, Mitch Bowers – encouragement and great photos! Thanks!
Brian Robson – encouragement and technical support. Thanks!
Bad News Karters – chain support after our last one broke. Barry, more thanks and a story to follow.
Lindsay Brewer and family – data recording and hospitality. Thanks!
Brian Sedlack – data recording and energy when we needed it. Thanks!
Batman and Robin – how do you beat having the chance to race Super Heros!
The race fans – thanks to all that came out. I was blown away by the number of fans watching late into Saturday night, and again to the finish on Sunday. An apology to all that I pushed out of our pit space during the race. Our exhaust heats to 1400 + degrees. I didn’t want to have anyone get burned. Your energy and support to kart racing makes it all worth while.
361 more days to get ready!
Mike
Doghouse Racing Kart 24H Team PrincipleSeems to happen when you type a long list. You miss a few.
Thanks to the sponsors of The Track at Centennial, especially the
24 Hours Sponsors such as John Sweeny and his Mobile View equipment.Thanks to all that raced and entered Teams. 24 Hours of challenge without incident, complaint,
or issue. Unbelievable race skills on display. Hope you all come back next year.Really really really cool to see everyone still smiling and having such a good time after 24 hours of driving not to mention getting prepped that night and day before the race. I was so impressed to see all the teams having so much fun..Good job to all what an awesome event. Ben I am not to sure about the costume I kind of pictured you more as big bird but robin kind of worked……. p.s. I almost got roger to do pushups after the race but he was more into the frosty beer…..
So Justin,
It’s 8:30am, I’ve been driving for 1 1/2 hours so far, Roger is waiting for me to pit – helmet on and all, I know that Josh is out on the track, and has been for the past 1 1/2 hours, so I decide to pit after Josh, when I’m out of gas, or I lap the other corp kart again, which happens once an hour or so…Josh has told himself that he isn’t pitting until I do! so….
2 hours into the session, I see Roger all suited up on the hot pit lane doing push-ups as I drive down the front straight!!!
I think that is why the frosty cold beverage was more to his liking!!! LOL
see you next year, I hope…
Jim
Thank you to everyone that took part in this year’s 24, whether you raced, were part of the pit crew, or just showed up to cheer on your favorite racer. Every little bit helps… especially the cameraman taking pictures, firing off the flash in the middle of the night as you go down the front straight… makes you feel like a rock star!
One of the sponsors of this year’s Karting Coach team, C4-Photo.com has posted a bunch of photos from the race on their website and has made them available for purchase.
http://www.c4-photo.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=c4-photo&gallery_id=1602806
We’ve also posted a bunch of race photos on our website as well http://www.kartingcoach.com/24hours2009.htm
Already looking forward to next year’s race!
Mark
PS. Some of you may have been eyeing the quick jacks our team was using during our pit stops… we’ve got a few refinements to make, and then we’re going to make them available for purchase. If you’re interested in a set, drop myself or Mike Weatherman a line.
PPS. If you haven’t heard about or seen our soon-to-be-released KartTuner iPhone app, check it out at http://www.karttuner.com. If you have an iPhone and are interested in beta testing it, please let me know.
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