January 29, 2018
So it’s been a while since my last update. Well last year I went from Master Rotax to Master Shifter. All I gotta say is holy crap they are fast. I’m definitely much heavier then the other racers and it shows. I race with a lot of seasoned and light drivers so I got my work cut out for me. I’ve been on a diet though and it’s going well. I won’t be at my goal by the start of the season but I’d imagine I should be by the end. Got 15 weeks left til the first race and 48 pounds to go. Wish me luck.
July 25, 2016
I’d say that was an awesome weekend I’d say. The 6 hours of driving there and back was definitely worth it. That track was fast. Saturday had more racer there with a field of 10 in my group. Got my gearing right by the prefinal. The final though was epic. Past a few karts and spent the whole race battling for 6th back and forth, ended up in front and missed a crash behind me at the end. Knocked 4 seconds off my laps by the end of the day. Had some good laughs and was ready for Sunday. Only had a field of 4 on Sunday and really worn tires to drive on. I was the only one out of 4 with a rotax max so I wasn’t expecting to pass anyone so I just drove my ass off and had fun doing it. The imagination does wonderful things sometimes. I ran the shit out of that engine for sure, it’s need work and I need to lose more weight, but having a blast is what counts, the trophies are just a bonus. So you can imagine the look on my face when they call my name for 3rd. Looks like 3rd messed up his last lap and I didn’t see it, none of us did. So I went up on the podium looking like a jackass in shorts for pictures and got a good laugh out of it. I know that inner racer is in me somewhere, If I can lose the weight and switch to a shifter kart next year, it’s gonna be wild and crazy. Got my fingers crossed, one more race left this year.
June 26, 2016
CKC Race #3 I think went pretty well. Morning was cool, didn’t forget anything this time lol. Practice and qualifying was ok. Prefinal was my best times of the day because of the heat, but only after getting a wiring problem with the starter on grid, almost missed it. After the prefinal, I had thought I was losing top end because my tach only read 10200 RPM in the straight, found out the powervalve was sticky and had to replace the bellow cap, and valve. Felt better out of corners in the final but I still had the RPM problem. After watching the gopro footage and comparing it to videos online of karts with the proper dash, I found that the cheapo tach I had on it didn’t work properly. So I think that even though I am only in Rotax Max, I plan on getting a shifter anyways so I might as well just buy the damn dash and at least get the telemetry use out of it. Had my dad and his father in law watch it and they think that my driving lines are fine so that’s good. Just got to lose some serious weight once my body recovers, get into shape, get my gearing right and get lots more track time.
May 29, 2016
Hot, humid, forgot gas and wd40, forgot to charge my transponder, just not a good start to the day at all. Had to run to Innisfil for gas and Canadian Tire for WD40 before the practice started. After practice and qualifying, I had a few problems with acceleration so I geared down to 11/83. It took so long to change it that I was late for the pre-final and just barely made the group right before the flag dropped. Acceleration was back to normal. I found as the day went on, I was finding better ways to make the corners to keep my speed up. I also found my tires were rubber magnets, they looked thicker at the end of the end then at the beginning. Looked like a bolt for my muffler fell off during the main and the exhaust pipe was bouncing off the brake rotor the whole time. Surprised there isn’t a hole in it. Not sure if I lost any power but being its a 2 stroke with a tuned pipe, I probably did lose a bit.
Now I’m not gonna claim that lap times and mass are related in such a competitive sport but the numbers are interesting when I think about it. Rotax and DD2 minimum weights is 390 and 420 lbs. I currently weigh 465 with the kart, now most of the guys I race with have weights on the kart to meet the minimum weight so make it 395 lbs. That makes me 17.6% heavier. Now in comparison to them I am only 13.6% slower. So that tells me that there is a good chance I’m on the right track. I don’t think I can push the kart any faster at this point without spinning out or throwing up so I am going to take a shot at doing P90X after this weekend and see how much weight I can cut by my last race of the year on Sept 11. Hopefully I lose something, I need it badly. So with that, I ordered a better aftermarket exhaust mount that won’t fall apart, a seat kit to adjust my seat further back a bit, and a proper high accuracy tire gauge so I’m not guessing my tire pressures anymore. Once the seat is adjusted, I will have to find some seat foam and make it wraparound me better on the front lips of the seat so I don’t have to death grip the steering wheel in corners to stay in the seat.
May 14, 2016
Got the parts in, changed the 11/82 to a 12/83 and moved the pedals up more, and just general tinkering, nothing special today.
May 1, 2016
Race day….Got there an hour early so lots of time to go over everything. Ended up adjusting the pedal position after noticing it was adjustable to better suit my long legs as I was having problems in corners with the pedals yesterday. Practice went good til I hit a huge puddle, recovered but got drenched. Kinda dampened my mood a tad and would explain my tiny decline in lap times for the rest of the day. Qualifying was my fastest lap time for the whole day at 56.584. Race time bests were 57.83 and 57.836 for pre-final and final. Finished last but got a lot of compliments considering how my lap times were for how new I was to the sport so that’s a good sign. Got to change my seat, play with the pedals a bit more, change the gear ratio, and lots of practice. The only consideration for my times is that I was the only one in my class to show up in the rain so I ran with the DD2 guys which have 3-4 extra hp and a 2 speed gearbox, and the guy that won has been doing it for a long time with 49 second laps so I may not be doing all that bad after all. Need another Sr Rotax racer to run against to find out…
April 30, 2016
Went out to watch the races and grab some practice time before the race tomorrow. Had to replace the bumper with a proper one. After getting the kart ready, I went on the track for the first time. What a kick in the pants that was, very fast indeed. Got some setup tips from the locals to help get going. Ended up doing 2 20 lap sessions to burn out the old tires the kart came with and bought new ones when I left. It’s quite different then anything else I’ve done for sure. Because of the track setup for the practice sessions, I basically got the crap beat out of me because of a very sharp 180 left to 90 right. Feel like my guts got rearranged honestly and completely out of breathe.
April 17, 2016
Got the new suit back after spending more then it cost to exchange it lol. Still tight but an improvement none the less. I’ll probably have to unzip the suit to get in the kart and then zip it back up, gonna have to cut some weight off the waist and thighs to get more slack when I sit or bent over. The DIY aluminum chain guard turned out, just a basic strap with a tad of side coverage. The bearings on the rear axle weren’t too bad to change and it spins nicely now. Put some new gearbox oil in it after struggling with a really stiff oil syringe and spraying oil everywhere when it unstuck itself. Now all I gotta do is get the seat mounted and flush the antifreeze out of the rad to fill with distilled water and its ready to go.
Planning to go for a practice day April 30 before the race day on May 1. Gonna be interesting for sure, I’m definitely curious to the learning curve I gonna experience. Will I be a total racing noob and spin out all over the place or will I adjust to my surroundings very quickly and kick some ass, only time will tell. After observing the races today for another series, I saw the different class leaders go from 33.4 to 38.7 seconds a lap so that’s what I have to aim for by the end of the day if I want to be anywhere near competitive for the first race the day after.
Out of the 6 races, I’d like to get at least 1 podium, being that most of these guys been racing since they were kids though won’t help my cause at all haha.
April 5, 2016
Got my parts and gear in today. Gloves and boots fit like a glove, suit not so much. The size I got says 6’6″/42. Legs fit, but my torso vertically just won’t fit in the suit. After messing with my shoulders for a few minutes, I managed to get it on though. I can walk around and move my arms fine but I can’t bend my torso at all, can’t sit, can’t bend over whatsoever. I unzipped it and it is basically the same, there is just no material left to stretch in the back to let me bend my back. Hopefully I can trade it for a bigger size. So much for up sizing all the gear one size to be safe lol, at least the gloves and boots are fine.
Went to check out the place and get the paperwork done, nice place and nice friendly people. Must have talked for a hour lol.
March 26, 2016
Figured out everything it needs and placed an order for that and the suit, boots, and gloves. Seats needs some adjusting still. While cleaning the engine, I found the power valve spring missing so that’s on order. Also decided to make an aluminum chain guard that will actually survive a chain impact but ran out of argon about 10 seconds into tig welding it lol. Slowly getting there…
March 7, 2016
Got bored last week and was surfing kijiji. Decided to look at karts just to see what was there and found a decent kart on the cheap. After looking at the cost to race it, I decided to try it since I’ve always wanted to do it. So what I bought is a 2011 CRG Blackstar with a Rotax MAX engine in it. It’s in pretty good condition for what I paid for it and will cost 300-400 to fix it up. The local CKC season starts May 1 so I will probably manage to do the whole season this year and see if I’m any good at it. Wish me luck, pictures soon.