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CFK Race #1 Dirt Devils Speedway, Land-O-Lakes, FL
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Race Report
Here we are back at Dirt Devils! We haven't raced here for the last 2 years and now it seems like we are here every other week! You would think that we would be getting pretty good at this track by now... Let me tell you how we did.
We went over for Friday night practice even though we didn't change anything on the karts. We hadn't run the champ here so we wanted to get a little seat time on it and just make sure that everything was set up right. This is the first time that I took apart, cleaned and put the karts back together pretty much by myself so we wanted to make sure nothing would fall off! Well, that part was real good and the karts felt good too so we just took a couple laps in practice and then put the karts away for the evening.
Saturday morning came around and the weather was great. Not a cloud in the sky. They put down the calcium and the track was slick as usual but that didn't last too long. The track started to come in almost immediately so we changed from the heavy prepped tires after the first round of practice and got on a set that was more like what we planned to race on. Compared to the other karts who were sliding all over the place we looked pretty good. We thought we were ready to qualify.
In the first qualifying session, my crew chief over filled the tank again and I just sputtered around the track and never really got up to speed and qualified 10th. I guess now that I'm doing some of my own mechanicing I'll have to start checking the fuel too! Poor guy, I think he's about half blind any more. In the second session for Sportsman II Heavy I got a good lap that would have put us about 4th but my transponder failed. They made me go around and qualify again but we weren't able to re-prep the tires or put any fuel in so the kart was 2 and a half tens slower than it was in the first attempt and we qualified 10th again. In the champ things went a little better and we were able to qualify 4th fastest.
When the first race started I knew I had a lot of work to do. I got a little anxious and from the start I was trying to pass any one and any way I could. If I saw an opening I jump in it but then I would rub and tussle with the other karts, slowing me down and allowing the karts behind me to get a jump on me in the next turn. I'd move up one or two positions and then lose one or two in the next turn. It was sort of fun but I really should have been a little more patient and set the karts up for the pass. When it was over I finished in 8th.
In the second race I did a little better but I was a little too caution and didn't take advantage of the opportunities I had to pass this one kart. He was pretty fast but I was faster. I kept following him trying to set him up but I didn't get close enough in the turns to pull under him coming off the corner. We played follow the leader for most of the race and then, on the last lap, 4 karts in front of me including the one that I had been following spun. I just held down the gas and closed one eye and somehow I made it through. When I took the checkers I was in 5th.
The champ race was pretty uneventful really. I was able to get in behind the 2nd place kart on the start and ran in 3rd for much of the race. The second place kart was driven by a kid who is really fast but he quite a bit bigger than the rest of us so it takes his kart a little while to get up to speed. When the yellow came out I tried to take advantage of that but he knew I was coming and tried to block. I got into him and spun him and I thought that we both were going to go to the end of the pack. Lucky for me they lined us back up as we were and we restarted the race. This time I got under him and got him lose enough to get around him for second. I tried to stay in the 1st place karts draft hoping to close in but he was a few 10th quicker than I was so he slowly got away and I finished in second.
Running 2 karts really helped us this time. You see we always though we were tight at this track because the kart didn't want to finish the turn coming off. My Twister chassis always gets a lot of bite coming off the turns except at Dirt Devils. The champ set up is a little different but you can't get a way from the weight of the cage which adds a lot more weight transfer in the turns. The funny thing is that usually would tighten us up but the champ was better than the sprint kart. We ran more rubber on the champ too and that would usually tighten us up as well. Before we left the track we went over and just looked at it and to see what was really different and then it hit us. Dirt Devils at first looks short because the turns are long and the straight aways are short but it is deceiving. This track is still about 1200 feet, mostly in the turns, and that is where you get all your speed! The turns are not banked all the way through. They seem to slope down coming off which throws the kart out of the turn. When you lose the banking you lose the grip which causes the kart to feel tight when in fact it is just sliding off the corner.
Well, that gave us a few ideas... We're coming back here in 3 weeks for another race so check back and see if we have any idea at all!
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