FKA Race #3 Maxville Motor Speedway, Maxville, FL May 15th, 2004   Photos load one after the other. Depending on your modem speed, there maybe a short delay between images.

Race Report

Have you ever been to Maxville? If you have you've never raced the track that we did this weekend! Everybody was scratching their heads. When I sat in my kart on the grid and looked at the crew chiefs, I never saw so many concerned and confused faces in all my life. This was a strange event for sure.

Friday's practice was something new for me because we brought a new kart with a Sr. body and gold plate motor on it. I ran about 3 rounds of practice with it but the track was pretty slow. We also had the wrong gear and tires on so I really didn't get to see what the kart would do but I think I'm going to like the added power.

On Saturday we slept in a little because FKA doesn't start practice for my class until 11:00am. Usually the senior drivers that practice before us have the track pretty much the way it will be for qualifying by the time we get out on the track. I guess they got a little carried away with the calcium because the track never got any bite in at all. All through practice we wanted to get off the prep tires but every time we did we just slipped all over the place. We were over 2 seconds off the lap times that we ran the last time we came here when we ran our last practice so we didn't know if the track would come in for qualifying or not.

When the other classes started to qualify we watched them closely to see if they were getting any faster but they weren't. We had to make a decision on the tires but we just didn't feel comfortable putting on prepped tires to qualify. We never do that! So, we changed the gear to get the RPM's up a little and went out on lightly prepped, fresh cut tires. Boy, was that a ride. I was on the brake more than the gas and we qualified 8th out of 9 karts. When I came in my crew chief said he was going to go to the extreme to see if he could get the kart to hook up for the the next class. He put on brand new un-cut tires soaked in tire prep! Well, it worked! I was able to go flat footed after the first lap and we qualified 5th fastest.

After all the other classes had qualified we noticed that the track was actually starting to come in. So, we switched back to the tires we used in the first qualifying round. The only thing was that we didn't change the gear. I got a great start and went from 8th to 3rd in the first lap but I just didn't have the momentum that the other karts did and one by one they passed me until I was in last place. With about 2 laps to go I got back around the 8th place kart where I finished the race.

Before the last race we changed the gear back to where it was to begin with and added a little air to the tires along with a healthy coat of prep. When the race started I took advantage of my inside row position and got a jump on the outside row. As we came around turn 4 the second place kart slid up and I went under him for second. Then, the leader and I started to pull away from the field but the 3rd place kart was close behind. He was faster and I tried to protect the inside and kept him behind me but after about 3 laps he got a real good run off the corner and beet me into the next turn. I let up a little and let him go by and then jumped right in behind him hoping we would be fast enough in the draft to catch the leader. Well, the leader had taken advantage of us racing the last 4 laps and had quite a big lead on us. As it turned out I couldn't stay with the second place kart so he got about 60 feet ahead of me while the leader was about 100 feet ahead of him. As we were coming around to take the white flag, the second place kart slipped up and I thought maybe I could get under him for second but I was was too far back to take advantage of his mistake and finished the race in 3rd.

Everybody just couldn't get over how the track was so slow. We went out on the track and looked at the surface but it didn't seem much different that any other track. What was kind of weird was that all around the track was a oily rubber dust. When you picked it up and rubbed it between your fingers it felt like grease but it didn't smear it just sort of rolled around on your finger tips. If we can figure out a way to get our tires to stick to that we might get back the second we lost since the last race we had here!

 

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