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Commercial Point Karting Classic

Geared up in the pits
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Entering the starting grid
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Rolling into position
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Race picture
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It's a year later and the 2018 Commercial Point Karting Classic is this weekend. Its a big chance to learn from my mistakes last year and see if I can do better and avoid the barrels. A lot has changed for me since the race last year. My divorce was finalized in November and I have buried myself in my karting business and racing since. My brother and I have scheduled about 30 races this year with this one being the biggest.

Our rental business has started to pickup and the owner of Wilmington Raceway Park (WRP) offered us his concession rental business to run. We have been doing that for a month and using it to feed customers to our arrive and race business.

When we arrive for race this year we won't have a 10 year old kart to race like last year. We are showing up as vendors "Beyond The Karts" and we will have 3 brand new Ironwill karts in our pit area. Dan is racing one in the 206 medium class. Dan is one of the main fabricators for the kart chassis at WRP. So he will be racing a kart that he built from tubes and inanimate karts parts. He was my crew last year so this is his first chance to try this track. I'm racing another in the 206 heavy class and the last will be on display in our pit area.

WRP has 2 other karts it is working on building right now. Our display kart hopefully can gain some customers for those karts in production and also draw attention to our arrive and race rental business. It going to be an exciting weekend.

Pictures to follow.
 
Returned from Commercial Point unscathed. They call this the Monaco of gokart racing because there is no runoff anywhere. If you make a mistake you will pay dearly. I made contact with the plastic barrier trying to avoid a wreck qualifying on Saturday and it cost me a side nerf bar and I had to start the feature race from 20th in a field of 23 on Sunday. I worked my way all the way up to 12th place late in the race. There were 5 karts in my pack fighting for 12th place. We raced 3 wide at the finish and I ended up taking 14th place. My goal was to finish better than my 18th place finish last year and not get lapped. I was able to do both. Our pack was only 20 seconds behind the last payout spots for the race. Something to shoot for next year.
This had to be the best 12 minutes that I have had in a long time. Feature race from the front of Ironwill #19



This wreck happened in my brothers race. He went by and about 4 karts later the girl over-steered and packed it into the turn one barrier. 1 kart behind flipped on side and the other got by. A third trailing by a few seconds didn't react and had to drive head on into the barrier to avoid the karts in the track. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. That turn can be scary. You lift at the last second doing between 55-60 and turn into a blind 20 ft wide alley. If you miss or are following someone who misses it ain't pretty. Here is the wreck

 
Here's a few more video's

I noticed a bolt fall from rear tire of kart ahead of me when we pulled out of grid for practice. I tried to catch him but he was faster than me. I finally caught him when he started to feel vibration and was slowing. The tire flies off in front of me and hits barrier and goes back past me and grazes driver who was on my bumper. Good thing he had fast reflexes.



LO206 Heavy Race was red flagged before it even got started. Sitting in the 95 degree sun waiting for restart on main stretch. Ironically "If I ever Get out of Here" by Paul McCartney came on. I chuckled and enjoyed the moment.

 
OK, combined all the near misses, crashes, passes and good pictures into a 6 minute video that documents our weekend at Commercial Point.
I will be back there again next year trying to improve my finish. Definitely something you'll never forget. Till then.

 
2019 marks the 3rd year and counting for me in this race. I put out my possible schedule of arrive and race dates for 2019 with this race included in early August. I already have a customer signed up to race one of my karts in this race this year. Baby steps but my business plan is starting to draw in steady customers.
 
2019 marks the 3rd year and counting for me in this race. I put out my possible schedule of arrive and race dates for 2019 with this race included in early August. I already have a customer signed up to race one of my karts in this race this year. Baby steps but my business plan is starting to draw in steady customers.

the big question tho...have you gotten better :-)
 
I think so. Late in the year I had my best finish in both a heat race and feature in our club races. I paid $400 for a deep seat. Allows someone tall like me sit further back without killing the balance of kart. The forces back and forth in these karts will wear our your torso if you aren’t totally comfortable in seat. I’m finally there so now I can concentrate on driving.

Commercial Point is a different story on getting better. You can’t practice this track since it is a city during every other weekend of year. Even after running 2 years I have less than 80 laps on the track. Late in the race this past year I really started to gain confidence racing with the 16 kart of Steve Ritter. We went back and forth with passes. His final pass forced me to navigate turn one in the outer lane. I realized my kart would take the turn even faster than I had been driving. And then the race was over. Now I have to find that confidence level right away this year to improve at Commercial Point.

They also have a extra race for people like me in mid pack. If you pay for money race you can also pay $25 to race in a bragging rights race. The top 5 don’t run in this race allowing someone from mid pack a chance to win. I’ll probably run this race along with the Heavy money race. For $25 extra I can get another 30 laps which is invaluable.

I think I’m going to sign up for it and use the race as a warm up for Heavy
 
Business Cards purchased and Facebook page created. Welcome to "Beyond The Karts"

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondTheKarts/

Coming up on 2 years since the facebook page was created for my business. The weekly karting video's I put up have garnered a steady audience. The page has over 1500 followers and I have been able to use facebook to get new customers.

Taking off regular work this afternoon to run concession karts for a grandfather and 5 of his grandchildren (teenagers, yuck but its money)
Then tomorrow I have company outing that is coming to run our concession karts with 8-12 people for several hours. $$$
Sunday is a club race and a chance for me to get last competition in before 3rd year at Commercial Point race in early August.

Should be a fun weekend......
 
Talked to my daughter in North Carolina. She is coming up for family reunion-vacation in Michigan. At end of that week is the Commercial Point Race. She is going to watch me race there on the Saturday before she returns home. My bother and I will be racing along with an arrive and race customer in our 3rd kart. She has never seen me race go karts or my business in action. She was the one who came up with my company name "Beyond The Karts". And we haven't had a road trip together in more than a decade. Its going to be a memorable week for me.
 
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This was a photo of me racing last year. The owner of Adrenaline Fix Karting took this picture with one of his team members (#16) leading a pack of 5 racing for 12th place at the white flag. I'm right behind him in the #19 kart.

This is one of those pictures that almost transports me back to that moment in time when I look at it. It was year ago but I can remember what I was thinking and everything I was feeling at that moment.
 
Both me and my brother improved on our finishes from last year. Dan took 9th place in 206 medium and I took 8th place in 206 heavy. The last payout spot was 7th place. So close.

Our arrive and race customer Troy was faster than us and had spot up near the front. But he hit the wall hard in practice on Sunday morning and didn’t get to race anymore. It tore the right front spindle right off the kart he hit so hard. He had a big bruise on his shin where he hit the barriers.

I also raced in the 206 woody and took 4th place. That race they only reward 1st place with wooden trophy. I used that race to get extra practice for money race. All in All I logged close to 70 laps around the dangerous track and kept my kart off the barriers. I was pretty happy. I’ll post some pictures and videos of the event soon.
 
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