Katy, Texas, December 6, 2004

Katy, Tx.'s Gulf Coast Karters Incorporated had their twelfth race of the season December 6, 2004. This was not a tri-city challenge where visiting clubs would be here, and some of the members were away competing on the road. This was my third race of the season, as I joined late, and my third race ever as an owner/driver. Yes, I had been to the kart tracks that were opening up around town, indoor centers with nice fast karts, but the kart I own is a Birel, set up to race. My first couple of races hadn't gone well inasmuch as I didn't finish. Mechanical failures- broken chain, and such sidelined me. I was alongside Mike Range in the pits, Mike sold me the Birel, his mechanic Frank Newsom and owner and engineer Colin Walker. Colin is an old school racer who understands the needs of a team and personally funds this team' entire operating costs exept engine building, which is where Frank asserts himself. Both are longtime racers, and both bring a wealth of information trackside, and I am blessed and very lucky to be in their proximity. I watch, learn, ask questions and try to address all aspects of my own operation. I am essentially a privateer, who they share their pit area with, and they are a factory sponsored Fullerton Kart Chassis racing team. The engine is also factory supplied by Yamaha through Frank. When I had mechanical difficulties, the helped me. So many issues were easily dealt with because of this situation that would have driven a newbie crazy during this early time, and I tried to take advantage of it and race as much as possible.

On this day, the conversation was about carb triggers. My friend Griff had mentioned reading about this earlier in the week, and I posed the question to Frank. And this is why I like Frank: He doesn't give the ten cent answer.
Yamaha's KT 100 motor had been and still is a staple in kart racing for 30 years. Today's KT 100's were essentially the same as the old ones, with the same spec's being utilized. The difference is the technology being incorporated in the exhaust pipes. The motors on karts today, due to the extreme pressures being inflicted by modern headers and tail pipes, operate on a razor-thin edge of performance and destruction. The carb trigger works on a simple principle: By flooding the chamber with an extra shot of fuel (which has two cycle oil mixed in), the super heated engine's cylinder is cooled, and if the carb is set to it's leanest position, the carb trigger will literally save the motor from lock-up, or sticking. You see, as if operation this close to the edge weren't dangerous enough, the carb trigger pushes the envelope even further. According to Frank, these engines don't need the extra stress, however that it makes the kart faster is evident.

I was in the field with a number of other Yamaha karts and Brian Bosein. Brian is in the same class and, as I found out later, has a carb trigger mounted on his KT 100. Brian's a big guy and we are very compatible in speed. During our first practice event we didn't see each other much and finished in comparable spots to begin the pre-final next to each other.

When the green flag flew on the pre-final, I slipped ahead of Brian into turn 1 and began workin on the field. Our track in Katy is an asphalt-paved sprint road course. It's usually run in a counter-clockwise rotation, but today it's clockwise which puts the long straightaway before the start finish line instead of before turn 1. This way's turn 1 is actually turn 7 . At the end of the first lap of 12, Brian knocked on my back door at the end of the front straight, coming into the last turn before the start finish. I kept my advantage and worked through the turns and coming off of the long straight, the last turn is a 90 degree right which we take full out or "flat-out", which I did. Brian came unexpectedly on my right after that turn and beat me to the first turn with the inside position. I was surprised by this, he was so fast at this point, but I immediately made to re-pass after the next turn, another right hander. Since he was inside for this turn, I expected him to move outside upon exiting and set myself up to retake the lead coming out. It worked like a charm. I defended the re-pass and held the position until the end of the straight at which point he over took me again comin out of the start finish turn-at which point I re-passed at the very same spot. He couldn't defend his position on turn 1's exit, and I was able to set up the move again. This actually kept up for the next several laps, Brian passing me at the start finish line, me taking the position back with a timing move against his inability to defend the pass, until...

Lap 6 I couldn't retake the position. Brian foiled my fourth attempt to retake the lead on the exact same scenario by simply slowing at turn 1 forcing me to stay outside of him and leaving him to lead into turn 2. For some reason he didn't defend his position coming out of 2 and I took advantage and blasted my way around him leading into the button-hook turn and onto the back straight. I was definately faster on the interior turns of the track, he was faster in the straight. We kept our positions until the start finish straight again when Brian pulled his 'carb-triggered' kart alongside again going into turn 1 and this time I asked the kart to do too much. I stayed in the gas and attempted to turn on the outside at the same time Brian was inside. It didn't work and my rear end came around slowly and I spun into the infield. I kept it going and got it back onto the track but the laps were dwindling and Brian was out of sight. I was determined to close on him again and I drove the kart even harder through the two right handed turns 1 & 2 into the button hook left of turn 3 onto the back straight into the medium speed long right hander of turn 4 then a short sprint to the complex of turns 5 and 6, usually turns 2 and 3. Run regular rotation, counter clockwise, turns 2 & 3 begin with a declining-radius left hander into an immediate right hand 180. Exiting this complex onto the front straight, the next turn is taken full throttle, a hail-mary type of right hander to the short start finish straight, into the right hander of turn 1 again. I absolutely willed the gap to close and it did dramatically. Slower traffic helped and it was two short laps before I was back on Brian's back bumper. That was the way I finished, there wasn't enough time to make the pass. In the final I wasn't able to get by Brian and because of his switch to another class the next season, I never finished higher on the podium than Brian.

We were a treat of dicey racing action for the spectators gathered at the fence that day, and everyone treated us like we'd won a championship, but we had actually only run a helluva race.

-Katykarter