Wild day on Sunday

Sunday's fireworks started early.

Formula 1's British Grand Prix from Silverstone, England aired live at 7am Houston time. Grid positions from the saturday session saw Jenson Button's BAR Honda qualify tops only to see a late lap from Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren Mercedes go quicker, but it was Fernando Alonso and the Renault powered car that stole the pole at the last second. Alonso is the points leader going into this 11th of 19 world championship races, closely trailed by Raikkonen. But it was to be Juan Pablo Montoya's day following a scorching start from the second row, and a pass for the lead in the second turn. From there, it was McLaren's stellar stops and reliable car that enabled Montoya to hold off Alonso and Raikkonen.
Move of the race: Montoya's pass in turn 2 after going side by side with Alonso into turn 1, but I must mention Raikkonen's drive, which started from 12th position following an engine change penalty.
Michelin's tire troubles seemed to simmer under the lid this week, although news came out that penalties for the sanctions named two week's ago will preceed the appeal date.


Champ Car's Grand Prix of Toronto from Exposition Center came later in the morning, and there was plenty of action on this road course that is a staple of the Champ Car calendar. It began with the usual suspects on the front row, Bourdais and Tracy, followed closely by fast entries from RuSport with Wilson and Allmendinger and Vasser and DeMatta in PKV cars. From the start, Bourdais and Tracy are the cars to beat, stretching out a solid lead over the third place car till the first rounds of pits. Bourdais enters the pits first, but after short fueling, Tracy drops from his jacks first and sprints to the exit just ahead of Bourdais. Then, Bourdais makes the bad decision: He refuses to yeild at the pit exit and runs side by side with Tracy toward the exit line, and in order to keep from being penalized for crossing the pit exit merge line, he swoopes over and clips Tracy's front wing! This is not the first time these two, while dueling for the lead have tangled and taken each other out this year. Bourdais cut a tire from the collision and slowed and entered the pits when he came around. But Tracy, with only half a wing, continued on past the pits, and after running a slightly slower lap than normal, his team decided to stay out with the car as is. Paul Tracy showed great gamesmanship by pushing his car as hard as possible, he actually improved his fastest lap with half a wing! Their day was cut short by a bad split-second decision by Paul Tracy himself, when after intending to enter the pits for a "green" pit stop, was blocked by a 'closed' status because of an accident on track. Tracy ran out of fuel only two turns later and was out of the race. In retrospect, his team Mgr. said they were surprised to run out of fuel, so there were problems with the milage estimate and, of course, would have preferred a penalty for entering closed pits than a DNF. Oriel Servia inhereted the lead late in the race, but a clean pass by the quicker Wilson iced the victory, and after several near misses, Justin Wilson hung on to take his first Champ Car victory. His teammate AJ Allmendinger clipped one of those tight concrete walls and wrecked with only six or seven laps to go, and after spinning back into the racing line, was clouted hard by Mario Dominguez. Niether driver was injured by the scary impact, thankfully.

Karting update; I'll be looking to field the Birel next month. It's been several months since I competed and I'm itching to get back to it. Luckily, our season runs well into December.
My last outing was marred by brake failure. It had been coming, we struggled to gain pressure, but etched cylinder walls from the moisture in our air and lack of use made them irrepairable. This etching happens when the system is mothballed, and we weren't able to hone and rebuild anymore, (This kart was stored for sometime before I bought it, and the brakes were a problem from the start).
Prior to that, we were extremely happy with the handling and the power. I had made a serious mistake during a test session, but the PPK team helped me through it on race day, and I was able to finish.
I have to commend the PPK/Fullerton team. Colin Walker and Frank Newsom put fast karts on the track. Their driver Craig McClain is terrific as well with many years of experience and an eye for first place. These three help me a lot at our local events and I thank them all. They help many racers in the area, and the Fullerton kart chassis is getting a fast reputation.

Part of the reason I named this page is the need to express the fantastic feeling racing gives me. I knew that feeling from when I was a kid, but this kart is several steps faster, and not the fastest. Still, 75-85 mph in a kart ain't bad-and the addiction, at times against monetary sense, must be satisfied. A'ight.

-Katykarter