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FKA Race #5 Cross Roads Motorplex, Jasper, FL
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Race Report
Rain, rain, rain! It didn't look like we were going to get this race in. The weatherman said that there was a 60% chance of rain so we decided to wait until Saturday morning to go to the track. I guess it rained on Friday night so those that came out on Friday night for practice didn't get any and we didn't miss out on anything by waiting. It rained on and off on the way to the track so we figured that it was going to turn out to be just a Saturday drive but we got lucky, it never rained a drop at the track all day.
FKA has a different type of practice program. The senior drivers have the track until around 11:30 AM and then us Juniors get the track for an hour. We got to the track at about 9:30 so we had plenty of time to get things set up, register and get the kart through tech. When practice started for us we were ready. The track was still pretty damp so we needed prepped tires at first but the kart felt good even though we were still over a second slower than the track was capable of. In each practice session we took off rubber and eventually got to some tires that were on the hard side but the track never really got very fast.
By the time we got to qualifying the track was pretty good but the skys were a little overcast so the track still was about a half second slow. I went out for Heavy first and the kart was great, especially on the last 2 laps, and I qualified 3rd. Before we went out to qualify in Lite the track came around a bit more. We changed the gear but left the prepped tires on and I think that was a mistake. We were a little bit slower and qualified 5th. I was pretty happy thought because that meant that I would start both races on the inside row and I knew I had a good kart.
In the first race I got a good start and after the end of the first lap it was just me and the leader all by ourselves. I was faster but I just couldn't get under him coming off the corners. I tried lap after lap until he finally waved me by. I guess I drove the kart so hard that I got the tires hot and my kart started to push a little. After leading for about 5 laps I got bumped coming off of turn 4 and that sent me up the track enough for the second place kart to get under me. I tried to stay with him but the nose of my kart just slide off the turns and I eventually fell back to where I started in 3rd. Not a bad race though, I was the fastest kart!
In Lite it was almost the same thing but everybody got a little better and I got a little worse. The sun shown brightly during the hour before our race so we decided to change gears again and changed right side tires too but we didn't make any adjustments to the chassis. By the time our race started the track was as fast as it has ever been. I was in 3rd after one lap and even lead the race for a few laps but the kart started to push again and I couldn't stay with the leaders. I wound up finishing the race in 4th.
It may sound like we had a bad day but actually we didn't. Since we got our motors back to where they used to be we have had to slowly work our tires and chassis back to where they need to be. Earlier in the year we were always so loose but that was because we thought we were slow because we had too much rubber on the tires. Without any rubber the kart just slid around so we adjusted on the chassis to tighten the kart back up. Now we are slowly putting back on the rubber and the kart is hooking up but when the track comes in we have to slowly adjust the chassis back to where it is free again. This weekend we had everything pretty much right except we still had the camber a little low in the right front. I think that is why the kart didn't race well for the entire 20 laps.
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