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We’re in Florida. The Winter Tour looks for be huge once again. We are running the International class and there were at least 30 guys practicing today. I know more will be up tomorrow as several tents are almost empty! We have been running well but are working very hard to get faster. Greg was quickest in the first two sessions and has been at or near the top all day. Late in the day we fell off a bit but we found the seat had failed big time. We are putting a new seat in it in the morning and hopefully we can find a couple more .1 Even with the seat broken, Greg was within .15 of the quickest time.
Tomorrow will be more difficult and we are hoping to be in the top 10.
Oh, the weather today was just over 80 and sunny. That is the forcast for the weekend.
Go get em guys!
Another day done and here we are, tired and sore. Greg is still fast but we have worked our butts off. Lots of fast guys here, Joel Miller and Wes Phillips just to name a few. The best time in the last session was reported to be 49.89 on new tires. Our best was 50.04 on old tires. Dave Zippie joined us today and he’s working up to speed. We’re hoping for a top 10 in qualifying tomorow.
By the way, there must be at least 35 to 45 in the class. There were a LOT of karts on the track.
Just keep throwing your body at it Doug, you guy’s can run with anyone. Good luck again and keep us posted. Who all is there representing Shockwave /Colorado aside from Greg, David and Nick? Any other Welch boy’s?
I don’t think all those “names” really affect Greg. He’ll just race them the best he can. Sounds like your in the game based on your times, running old rubber. Oh ya, For Christ sake, give him some new tires and tune with those. It is a pretty big stage (and a lot of miles) to be tuning with old rubber.
Good luck again.
Rick
According to My Laps, Greg is qualified 9th in Senior, Nick 3rd in Jr! Looks like David is trying to get his feet under him. Top 38 in Senior are within a second!
After tech, Greg was 8th in qualifying. In the prefinal Greg had moved up to 5th and was passing the Canadian National champ (Luc somebody, the pole sitter) for 4th when Luc pinched Greg into the barriers, Greg bent an axle so he would start the main in 35th.
Greg passed karts at every turn and finished in 15th spot after tech and driving penalties were assesed. It was rough out there. In the main, Greg set 3rd quick time. We were timing the race and for much of it, Greg was the fastest driver on the track.
Thanks for the kind words Rick, every one should race at one of these just once. This may well be the strongest field of Rotax drivers ever in the US. This field has national champs from at least 4 countries. To give you an idea how tough it is, Wes Phillips, the US champ, didn’t make it out of the LCQ.
Dave had a tough day. He injured his back early on (the track is rough) and then he waded the kart up in qualifying. He started the LCQ in the back but was so intimitated by the size and level of competition that he spun himself out of contention. He was done early. I got confidence in the kid, they just want to try that much harder.
Thanks Rick and everyone for being so supportive. Like my dad said we came away ok and fairly happy. We did run third quick in the main and did pass 20 go karts so we do look forward to the Grand Nationals and hope to do well.
And these “names”? They are just like everyone else and have their good luck and their bad and thats the same as us. Thanks for the support, hope to see you guys out to the track for some early season testing when we get back.
Sounds like you still had fun. Roman had mentioned giving you guys the helmet cam, and I forgot. Would have been something to watch (20 passes) and for Greg to use in is driver school. Good job.
Ekn and MyLaps are not updated yet. How did Nick do?
Regional racers get a real taste of competition when you step up to the National level (that series really is national caliber) it will just make David better and more determined in the long run. Bent parts / karts are easy to fix, hope the back is o.k.
Safe travels,
Rick
We made it back home today. Sunday was crazy racing. It was by far the most agressive racing I’ve ever seen. Our car is sitting in the trailer with a bent axle, bent front spindle, bent rad bracket, both rear bumpers bent, and completly trashed body work. It will take us all day to put it back together once we get back down there in February.
Where to start. We qualifed in 20th spot. At one point, one tenth of a second covered almost 15 spots on the grid. I’ve never seen a grid so tight. The kart was handling a little weird so we looked it over closely. We found a broken seat strut and some missing seat bolts. Greg moved up a few spots in the pre-final but then all kinds of insanity broke out. It looked like the dogum ride at a carnval. Greg was crashed out with a debeaded tire. Some much for bead locks. Not only did the tire come off, it also wrecked the tire!
So that meant we started the main in 37th spot. The back was full of fast guys that crashed out of the per-final including Saturday’s pole sitter and they were going to move forward. Greg got a great strat and moved through traffic well to get in the top 20 then a guy litterally blew through his side pod and knocked him off track by at least 30 feet. He rejoined in the back and again moved up 10 or more spots before it was driven over by a guy. There were some guys who were making no attempt to pass, they were just hitting the guy in front of them out of the way. By now Greg was pissed (I’ve never seen him so made after a race. It lasted all night and into today.)
At one point, Greg was hit from the back so hard, it knocked him up over the back bumper of the kart in front of him. If he had let off the gas, he would have gotten stuck. Instead, he nailed the gas and litterally drove over the kid. Another guy hit him in the side so hard, it knocked him half out of the kart. Still another guy hit the other side, driving his leg in to the fairing and hurting his foot. That one toreup a side pod and the driver’s fairing.
Remember yesterday’s pole sitter. After hitting Greg a couple of times so hard that his back still hurts, he cut the track coming out just in front of Greg. The guy tapped the back of his helmet, asking Greg to bump him forward. Greg returned the favor by not using his brakes at the hair pin and drove the guy sideways off the track. At this point the kart was pretty screwed up and Greg decided that it wasn’t worth wrecking the kart to finish 20th so he brought it in.
Rick, we could have gotten some of the best video ever with what went on out there. It was absolutely nuts.
Zip had a bad day. He qualified something like 44th so he had to do the LCQ. David crashed out at the start finish line without help in the first lap. Short day for him.
Can’t wait to go back. We know we can run with these dogs, now we got to prove it.
I sold out of axles!
Hey Doug
Glad to hear you guys survived the Florida Crash Tour!!!
Welcome home, we will try to stop by the shop this week.
Maybe you should take a bumper car down there next time.
Happy New Year!
EddyWe made it back last night at midnight. Totally exhausted. It was a tough weekend for us, mainly due to David’s back. He said it hurt just sitting in the car. All in all a good learning experiene for us. We want to thank Doug and Gregg for all their help. We learned a lot in repairing cars with very little time.
We will be back in February. There is no quit in this team.
Dave Zippie
Hey Doug,
I thought there was going to be some Group B racers from CO this past weekend. Did anyone you know make the trip. I did not see any familiar names on the official thread or MyLaps.
What’ the poop?
Did Jim go to race or work?Just wondering here in Fargo, CO.
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