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Back to St. Lucie. Do you think it will ever quit raining here? It's been raining almost everyday here this summer and the track has really suffered. I guess the best way to look at it is that we all have to race the same track.
Practice was pretty much fun. The track was real loose so I was practicing getting on and off the gas smoothly through the turns. I figure I'll need to know how to do that next year when I move up to blue plate. I think I'm getting the hang of it because I sure had to use my new skills on Saturday during the races.
Saturday morning came after an all night rain. The track was drenched. They waited around until about 11:30 am and then brought the water truck out to begin to run in the track. About 12:30 pm they started practice and by 3:00 pm we had a track that we could qualify on. It was just like earlier this spring. All of a sudden the track came in and everybody picked up 2 seconds a lap.
In Heavy qualifying I got up on the back of a slower kart's rear wheel and lost a lap. Then the officials penalized me for running up on the back of the kart so only my first lap counted. It was only good enough for 8th place. In light I stayed out of trouble and qualified 2nd.
Then the races started. One or two races went off without a hitch and then, just as suddenly as the track came in, it went away again. Right in the middle of the Sportsman II race everybody's tires went away and they were spinning off the track left and right. We were already on the grid so we couldn't go back and change anything so we just let most of the air out of the tires and hoped that would help. It didn't... On the first lap I was trying to get down behind the 79 who started 5th as we went through the 1st and 2nd turns. So did everybody else. A kart went high in front of me and then came back down and hit me on the right. Then a kart hit me in the rear pushing me sideways into the kart in front of me and finally, I got t-boned in the left side which folded up my nerf bar and basically destroyed my kart body. I rolled down into the infield and jumped out of my kart. My crew chief came running out to the kart and tried to pull the side panel back out but it wouldn't budge. He then stood the kart on it's side and pushed the panel out with his foot. It "popped" out and we set it down, started it up, and went back out on the track in time to restart the race. I tried my best to get the kart to handle but it just didn't want to turn. Later we found that the toe was knocked out about an inch. Fortunately, no one else had anything either so I was able to get back up to 6th before the end of the race.
In heavy we changed gear and tires to what we used to run here on a Saturday night. That worked pretty good except I forgot to be careful until the tires got a little heat in them. I started second and was doing good but got a little too anxious in turn 4 and slid high on the track. When I finally got it gathered up I was back in 9th. I settled down and ran my line and as each kart in front of me slipped up a little I took advantage and passed them. Everybody was running off the track and spinning out. When the race was over I wasn't sure where I finished. It was hard to tell what had happened. Then the tech man told me to go to the tech shed because I finished 2nd! What a race!
I am sure glad and thankful that they let my crew chief fix my kart so I could finish the race. Other races we have been to would have restarted without us.
Well, the season is winding down. Just one more race for each of the 3 series I am running. I wish it would never end!
