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Okay Gang:
I’m taking my old school camera with film (remember film? the stuff that used to go in the back of the camera and you didn’t know if your photos were the bomb or you sucked and missed the “special shot”)
That said, I’m going to get the commentary done tonight along with photos from my digital camera. In the meantime here’s some thoughts for you to chew on:
1) I’m getting old! Mr. Natural stayed up 24 hours and no one wanted to play after 4am. Pansies! Otto and I went over to the Palms and they were shutting it down there too. So we headed back and had what I call the time management breakfast special. Don’t know that one? You eat biscuits & gravy; omelette and fruit and then you head to bed because you know you’ll not have time to eat when you get up at 7am.
2) Intense is the only word I can use to describe things. It starts when the visors go down and the aggressive way people drive. I didn’t say idiotic, just aggressive. You leave 60″ of room between you and the barrier in a shifter class and you will see someone in that spot passing you, period! I called the guys who didn’t do this DOORKNOB. As in everyone got a turn passing them!
3) If Picasso can paint and Hemingway can write then the super pros, TaG Senior, and stock shifter pilots are in the same category. Watching Schuey, Thonon, Carlton, Gidley and others straightline a corner vs. carve the corner was pure poetry. Majority of the field went outside apex of the corner by 16-20″ and these pilots were 1″ CONSISTENTLY from the apex. Amazing. They do this by a quick flick of the wrists (2″ max on the wheel of deflection), hold and then on the gas. Nothing is wasted in energy. None. TaG drivers did the same in the Red Bull corner. Hard brakes, quick flick of the wrist (same amount of deflection) and on the gas. No and I mean No Colorado driver did that but then again, how long has Dan Wheldon Indy 500 winner driven a kart?
4) You want to talk about dedication/money/dedication? I watched the first TaG Junior heat and met a very nice french lady (I know, an oxymoron and I was honoured to have met her and she’s going to change my thoughts of the french if this keeps up) who’s son was racing for Sodi Kart. Her son lives in England to be near the team and track. She sees him 5-6 times a year when he’s NOT racing or studying in school. She and her husband want him to race against the best and be immersed around the best. Pierre Gasley was his name and he kept a cool head. Reminds me of Alain Prost. Started P8 and moved up to P2 and did this a few times in his heat races. Cool headed kid and showed ME how to settle down then get in a groove and then when the kart comes in ATTACK and Attack smartly. Not once did I see him make a “dive bomb” move that meant he nor his competitor would be both knocked out.
5) Everyone has engine stories to tell. I found out that a zip tie around the spark plug base attached to another zip tie around the spark plug boot does NOT mean they’re afraid of the boot coming off in the race. It meant the engine builder lets you USE his engine but not LOOK in the engine. That education experience was worth admission alone.
6) Schuey is a pretty cool guy. Lauren Holleran got an autograph and I’ll let Rob tell that story. Michael was humble and he tolerated all the fans who go gaga over him and he put up with the people who want his autograph only to sell it on Ebay. Yes, you could tell the difference. He had the best move IMO in the main. Coming out of T1 he was right behind the racer in P9. At the last millisecond prior to T2 he passed left (inside), stood on the brakes and caused a cloud of debris and tire smoke (seen that in F1 but NEVER in a kart) bumped the guy ahead of him (sidepod to sidepod) but not enough to cause him to wreck and passed him CLEANLY. Best pass all weekend. The stands collectively held their breath, then let it out when the pass was made. Same thing happened to Memo Gidley in his S1 race but the guy behind Memo came in too hot and wrecked Gidley. Game over for Memo and I had him as the favourite in that race. The difference between idiot’s move and Schuey’s move? About a foot would be my guess.
7) Women with talent at the races. I don’t know how I’m going to explain to Sandi the photos of the NICELY DRESSED WOMEN there. 8)
8.) I was in America, right? I’m in the stands and I’m hearing French, Portugese, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (mexico), and of course, Italian. Talk about the melting pot of nations. This race is it my friends! The funny thing about this race is we as American racers ARE progressing. But when you consider the European Karting championships being televised and broadcast live on Eurosport TV with roughly 10-20 THOUSAND spectators; we’ve got a long way to go baby to paraphrase a cigarrette advertisement.
9) How many kids are taught manners nowadays? 8 year old kid pushes his way into the stands where the Runkles and myself are sitting. I almost get in a fight with his dad because I have the kid go back to where he and his team are sitting, we’d worked for over an hour to get our seats. You think if he’d have said PLEASE can I stand here we’d have had the same results? Then dad or his adult teammate are going to try to guilt me into feeling bad because the little kids upset and in tears and Dad’s throwing F-bombs. I just played the ugly American card (which I’m not proud of mind you) but like I said, MANNERS GO A LONG way. The adult was an Aussie and shut his trap when he realized how big I was and not standing on the top of the stands. Set a nice example to kids. And they let these kind breed????
Here’s a few lessons for me and all of us to glean from this experience:
1) Agressive braking! Learn to reduce your braking zone to next to nothing. You wanna pass someone? Learn to outbrake someone VIOLENTLY and IN CONTROL when the back end wants to come out from under you. Doug sells billetted gas and brake pedals in case you feel like you’ll break your existing pedals. AND DO IT CONSISTENTLY.
2) Exit speeds out of the corners. How many times have we heard that one?
3) Clean your kart! A clean kart is a fast kart. Clean karts don’t break down.
4) Paranioa! One karter in Stock Honda was the favourite. Twice he lost his carb when it feel off. Tap your kart for vibration to locate loose parts. Redundancy systems are a good thing. I looked at a Tony Kart and their redundancy of the rear bumper from coming off even after a hard hit was a thing of beauty. There was no way that kart was going to get a meat ball flag for a hanging chad, err, bumper! Larry Frasier in TaG Masters was favoured in my eyes and he forgot to tighten up the engine mount and the chain came off in P1 less than 5 laps from the end. How much $$$ was spent and time taken away from home to have this happen? It’s always good to have a second set of eyes on stuff.Well, that’s all for now.
I’ll get on the photos ASAP.
I’ve got a captured turkey that’s not talking and it obviously needs to be waterboarded in brown sugar salt water for a few hours till it talks.
If it doesn’t talk it goes in the oven tomorrow.Happy Thanksgiving all. Think & pray for our soldiers who’ll be eating MRE’s in the field so that we can talk any sort of junk we want because they give us all the freedom to sprout our so called knowledge.
PS I know why Rick wasn’t there. His reputation is mud amonst the Chippendales guys. But I’ll let him tell that story since they were all asking about Rickee.
By the way, the RIO rocks. Nice wholesome cocktail waitresses who’ll keep the martinis coming from 6pm till 2am without hesitation. And, service with a smile.
See you all there.
Here’s the Challenge for those that aren’t driving: Let’s pull off the Ronnie Woods/Keith Richards Marathon. They stayed up 6 days while gigging in NYC at the Garden. I figure since I’m not a Rock n Roll musician I’ve got 48 hours in mah body.
Anyone wanna play? I’ll be at the craps tables (martini and stogie in hand),sports book, and bars. Cmon down. This is going to be fun. If ya can’t race in it at least we can have fun.I LOVE YOU MAN!
Great season. Looking forward to doing it again next year when the ribs are healed!
See y’all in Vegas in a few days.
Justin: Scott and I said if you went there, we’d let you face the door so you can see the talent coming in or out… 8)I’ve got guns.
let the posse deal with them.
Justice, the old west way.
Why doesn’t Colorado have a sheriff like Maricopa County or a Hangin’ Judge like in Vegas…@Kirk Deason wrote:
Citation needed where you got your info that Rossi was not running a wet setup. If he had rain tires on, he definitely had a soft suspension setup AND the proper ignition maps.
I have to comment on Stoner’s dominance, though. That kid is an Alien. He was lapping EASILY 2 seconds faster than Rossi in the wet. I don’t know where his speed comes from. He makes his teammate on equal equipment look like he is not even trying.My cousin from England called and told me about the post race interviews. Rossi said they didn’t have time to change setup so other than tires he did what he did. My question is if Stoner and Ducati had the same information or did they anticipate better and take the gamble since they had nothing to lose. Like at Donnington Park earlier this year (forget the driver who came in and switched to rains IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE)
Regaurdless, Stoner drove a heck of a race and we’ll see what happens next year, it will be good.
Got it.
I’ve got an idea. :devilhow ’bout a race at the parking lot of Silver Creek High School in Longmont. Near my house and we could have a ball. Plus, plenty of parking and smooooooooooooooooth.
I like your thinking Rickee. This WOULD be fun… And that’s what it’s all about, right? 8)
Wait a second… How about the middle of the season and call it the PEPSI Center race. Next year in 2010. TV coverage, BIGGER FIELDS, out of state racers and a good time.
But I get your drift…
@Rick Schmidt wrote:
To hang out with all of the families we’ve grown with for the past several years?
If some of the younger families involved in racing could experience the great times some of the veterans got to?Rick, that last line (almost) makes me wanna cry. Seriously.
Watching Ben S in briggs; Tate Hollaran and Flynn Lazier in kid karts with Tate’s sister Lauren playing in the pits walking the dogs, then racing herself. And 20+ fields in TaG Sr and Masters. James Michael in a Briggs without braces! Moto/ICC main with Bobby Wilson, Sam Walls, AJ Noud, Ryan, Scarberrry’s etc. to name a few.
Put aside the “e” in ego and we go forward. One can dream…
I agree thsi does rock!
Best gift I ever got my Dad for Father’s day was a lithograph of the Speedway that now hangs in his Chambers. Of course he never told me that he loved it (a good friend relayed that info to me!) but that’s another story about some fathers…
Mine was through my Dad also. He went to Indy from 1949-1961 and then started back in 1988 to present. Many of you were put to bed with stories of Mickey Mantle or Joe Dimaggio, etc. My stories were of Duke Nalon in the Novi, Bill Vukovich making a right turn, and of course, AJ Foyt.
The one time we rented a station wagon and drove back from seeing the grandparents in Illinios was tops. We hit every greasy go kart rental track on the way back to Vegas. My Dad allowed us to do these things but if we wanted to further it, that meant getting a paper route, etc, for money. I raced bicycles but never karts, in Vegas they simply didn’t race em. We did have a speedway (Craig Ranch) but that was roundy roundy stock cars.
I got my start in karting by promising a friend we wouldn’t have a bachelor party with strippers (that’s another story all to itself!) and clients told me of a place called IMI not far from where i lived and worked. The rest is history….
First off: I in no way am blowing my own horn.
That said, how many of us have actually gone and seen Rich? Yes, I know, Johnstown is an hour away; I’m real busy; it doesn’t fit in my schedule; etc.
I went and saw him several weeks ago. He looked at me and quit fidgeting when I started talking about his CRG Rotax kart and our time racing against each other. People with injuries of the brain need to be reminded of things from the past and their passions. In my opinion it reconnects things. Make it a point if you know Rich to go see him if you can. Talk to him about the karting season and what it’s meant to you. Talk to him about his kart and thank him for the time he lent you “X” or helped you make the green flag by working or suggesting things on your kart. It helps him and (surprize) it’ll help you too.
@Rodney Ebersole wrote:
Craig is moving back to Denver soon 😀
I didn’t know he liked hanging around me THAT much… 8)
