Speedsportz Karting

I was involved in the kickoff league night at Speedsportz Racing Park

It really is great racing, and I was with about 35-40 other guys and girl split into two divisions by weight: lights and heavies. Thank goodness too, several of the fast guys from the K1 Speed league were there and had to race lights. One however, was Steve Plentl who wore ankle weights to get into the heavies.

We had two heat races and a main. The combined finish position of the heat races determined your starting postition for the main event. I started the main 2nd, outside pole.

To get the 2nd starting position I had a 5 place finish and a 3rd place finish in the two heat races. I was a lucky racer boy this night, and kept my nose clean in the heat races and steered around several pileups. The first race I was away in 4th place but I knew Steve was lurking. He caught me and tried to pass, but ended up only bumping me at the entrance of turn 2, but I knew it was coming and it didn't upset me. Since I knew it was coming, I steered into it and never missed my line. He was lighter than me and later in the evening he posted a lap a full second faster, but it took him 5-6 laps to finally pass in the first heat one lap before the finish.

During the second heat race, I started from 13th position and evaded spinning and three-wide karts at the first turn. This is a mad rush and I avoided trouble this time by stepping two left tires off into the grass and going around snarled traffic, springing clear and settling into the business of hitting the marks. I did find out a constant tonight, but it's a constant I'd known years before. I can hang with the faster karts driven by lighter drivers by having a faster corner speed.

In the main I started P2 outside and I knew what was coming. Steve and I had been watching it all night. The track crew tonight were great and one thing the Marshal set out was he would change up the starting procedure: First heats had rolling starts. Second heats had grand prix starts (from a dead stop), It didn't matter: first turn from position's 2,4 and so on was rough. Turn 1 being a right hander, the karts starting P2 in the light heats were getting smashed into, taken out, driven wide, and generally manhandled out of several positions on the opening two right hand corners.

As it had happened all night, I was driven wide on turn 1 and survived outside on turn 2 to settle into a groove in 5th place, unable to close on the kart in front of me,

All told, I should have a pretty good points aggregate if they collect points from heat and main races. Otherwise, a fifth place against the ringers seems like victory.