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Been having a blast racing at local club G&J Kartway this year. The owner of Full Throttle karting in Cincinnati has a huge pit area at the track. We generally have 10-12 karts pitting in his area. It gives Dan and I a chance to help some of the first year racers with setup tricks we have learned. But we aren’t burdened with full crew chief duties while we are racing. It’s a good balance.

We are taking it a step further this week. A 13 year old from indoor track in Cincinnati wants to race at G&J. His mother has limited budget. We are putting together one of our older karts at discounted price to fit her budget. We plan to help him get into the outdoor karting scene. Kid seems sharp and eager to learn. He has some fast times at the indoor track so we may have young phenom on our hands. Either way it will be fun and a learning experience for us.
 
More learning for me this past weekend. Had fast kart, qualified 4th out of 15 karts. Been having intermittent problem with brakes on my kart but no issues early in the race evening. Then in feature race brakes totally disappeared. I had to pull off after one lap. Very frustrating. Have to tear calipers apart today and see if I can figure out the issue.

On a positive note my brother got a brand new kart last week and took it for first race to shake out any issues. He was slower than me but slowly got it adjust to his driving style. He ended up taking 7th place first time out and brought it back home without any damage. Top half finish first time in kart is a good sign.

Race 4 of the Buckeye Karting Challenge this weekend at the track where we started our asphalt racing. Haven’t raced there in a year but Dan and I have thousands of laps around the track. This should be our best chance this year for one of us to get a feature win. We really need to go 1-2 this weekend to have a chance at State Championship with 3 races to go. Dan currently in 3rd in points and me in 5th.
 
Dropped our trailer and karts at the track today. 4 practice sessions tomorrow to prepare for Sunday races. Hopefully have my brake issue resolved. We found a burr inside the master cylinder that was causing my brake to disappear under stress. I hope.
intermittent problems are the worst to troubleshoot.

when we got home our 13 year old prodigy came over to get final seat position mounting and scaling of kart that we are selling to his mom. This kid is sharp, follows F1 and asked me questions about setup that I couldn’t answer. Looks like broken family with mom trying to get kid into karting after dad deserted family. So sad.

Cant image any man deserting this bright mind. His loss, me and my brother get a chance to mentor him and learn from him.

As excited as I am about racing this weekend the chance to help someone young work toward their dreams make me feel fulfilled.
 
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My brother made the podium with 5th place finish this weekend. Our class had biggest turnout of the year with 13 karts in a stacked field. The 1st and 2nd place guys have both been in karting their whole life. The winner has been kart racing for 50 years and was national champion several times when he was younger. Very encouraging to be able to race with this talent level and able to keep up. My brother was in a pack of 6 karts racing for 2nd place. He had 2nd fastest lap time in feature but just couldn’t get by the guys that were holding him up.
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A picture of my brother and the director of the Buckeye Karting Challenge. This is one of the best racing programs I have ever been a part of. The moving parts to host these races at 6 different tracks is crazy. And they keep everything on schedule and penalize any aggressive driving. We will probably volunteer to help next year to pay forward the help we have been given over the years.

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My day was filled with the normal ups and downs of racing. It started with a high as I won the pea pick and got to start on the pole for the first heat race. That turned into a low when I lost 4 spots and finished 5th. Just made a few driving mistakes. In second heat race I started at the tail and picked up 6 positions to finish 7th. Back on a high knowing I would be starting mid pack in the feature race. Our class is so close the 5 drivers all had a 12 resulted from adding finishes from both races. So they went to best lap times to break 5 way tie for feature. I started 4th in my number 13 kart in feature with my brothers 23 behind me in 6th. I was really high at this point. On the grid waiting for start my brakes disappeared once again. They had been perfect all weekend and just disappeared at worst time. At the start of race it was evident to me that the issue wasn’t going away so I drove off the track in first turn to get out of the way. Very frustrating but these challenges will make me a better racer when I finally get it resolved.

At the end of weekend my bother and I fastest lap time of weekend was 1/100 of a second difference from each other.
 
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A local photographer caught a picture of the first heat race with me on the pole.
 
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And the end of the race after I lost 4 spots. You can't make any driving errors in this class or you will have a couple karts pass you.
 
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Hell yeah, After 5 long years everything came together today and took podium with 2nd place finish and 2nd fastest time. Hard work pays off if you don’t give up when things aren’t going your way.
 
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Along with helping the 13 year old get on the track this past weekend we also helped out one of Dan's co-workers at Full Throttle. Justin was running an old cycled Arrow kart. When Dan got his new kart I suggested that we put Justin in the Ricardo kart that Dan had been running. It was just sitting in work shop doing nothing. Moved his engine and tires over and Justin was rolling first time out on new kart. He loved how it handled compared to his old kart. He may end up purchasing it after he sells his old Arrow. Very rewarding helping these young kids. I was beat yesterday though. Lots of work racing and being a crew chief.
 
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Hell yeah, After 5 long years everything came together today and took podium with 2nd place finish and 2nd fastest time. Hard work pays off if you don’t give up when things aren’t going your way.

Dan (7th) and I (2nd) have a combined 10 years of karting experience. The other 5 guys in top 7 have around 200 years of karting experience. We are gaining on them......
 
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Our 13 year old getting the kart we sold his mom ready for race.

1600223899117.pngAnd here he is pitching in to help when someone blew an engine and left debris on the track. I didn’t even realize he did this. Anything to get back out racing with his buddies.
 


My 2nd place finish on Saturday from kart behind me. He got me off the start but I passed him on lap 2 and stayed ahead the rest of the way. He hounded me for the rest of the race but I didn't make any mistakes. That was a blast! Now I want to win one of these races.
 


Been trying to figure out how to make the kart fast out of the gate. For qualifying I used heat gun to remove all the excess rubber from tires and it worked allowing me to qualify 2nd out of 17 karts. Starting 2nd in the feature race I did the same tire scraping before race. The inside line got a jump at start and I fell to 3rd. Tires came in quickly and I blew back by at the end of lap 2. Starting to learn the little tricks of the trade.
 
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