Race Reporters Wanted
As mentioned last newsletter, we are looking for someone from each class to submit a race report following each race. We have had several people respond. If you want your class covered, contact us and we will give you the necessary information.
Race Report
Two of our members have reported their results in the Rotax "Challenge of the Americas" This is a 6 race winter series that will be contested over 3 weekends in Jan, Feb and March.
Tyler Brooks is racing in the "masters" class for drivers over 190 Lbs, or over 32 yrs old.
Sat 1-24-09: Tyler is driving for a new kart team, Reaction Karting. He qualified a fine 2nd to John Crow. Crow won the heat race with Tyler finishing right on his rear. In the 25 lap Main event, Tyler got past John and pulled out small lead. Tyler proceeded to lead most of the laps, then with 3 remaining, two backmarkers tangled right in front him and Tyler got held up which allowed John get to his bumper. John completed the pass and won the race. Tyler finished 2nd but had fastest race lap, which pays 5 points.
Sun 1-25-09 Crow AGAIN got pole with Tyler 2nd, Crow won the heat, Tyler 2nd. John was just a little better, with Reaction Karting not sure what changes to make. 15 mins before the main, Tyler decides to change an axle! Going for the win, making a big change & getting it done in time!
At the start of the 25 lap main event, Tyler jumped into the lead, and Crow was touching his rear for 5 or 6 laps. Tyler again pulled out a small lead and then got a break. "John hung two wheels off into the dirt and gave us a 2 second lead" Tyler built to this to five seconds at the checkered flag!
"We were very nervous because at about lap 10, I noticed the exhaust pipe mount was loose and the pipe was swinging back and forth". "If it comes off, we will get pulled off the track, and if it's really loose we'll get disqualified in post race tech inspection". "Lucky for us, all was fine, the pipe stayed on, and we passed tech"! Tyler had won the International race over stout competition!
Cameron Jocelyn At the Challenge Of the Americas the Jocelyn racing team had a 5 hour car drive to Phoenix, heading out after Cameron finished his semester finals Thursday.
Saturday morning they awoke to rain showers that left the track wet for the morning warm up. Cameron went off the racetrack and into the mud- they had to clean the kart... a lot. In a field filled with champions, Cemeron went into qualifying with high hopes, he had a good run that put him 4th out of 20 entries that came in from Canada, Texas, Oregon, New York and California. When the green flag fell for the heat race he kept on pace and was able to stay with the lead pack, the top 4 ran away from the field, some very fast guys had problems and would become a factor in the final. Cameron stayed in 4th place the entire race. Going into the main he knew he had a chance at the win. "I had a decent start and stayed in 4th but after the 1st lap I was encountering a problem coming out of the corner and quickly fell back to 15 when my mechanic signaled me to come in". After inspection "We realized the grub screws had come out of the axle and the brakes were rubbing".
In Sundays warm up Cameron was able to chase down the driver that won Saturday. "I felt great going into the qualifying session. I had few shots at clean laps to get a good lap in, but timing was not with me and I failed to get a clean lap". At the start of the heat Cameron passed 5 cars in the 1st turn but, due to track blockage they had to restart. He didn't fare as well on the restart. He came out in 11th but picked off the leaders one at a time and was catching 5th on the last lap. Unfortunately he but got drafted by two people down the straight away finishing 7th.
In the main Cameron made another great start and came out in 5th and made a pass for 4th. "I was catching 3rd I felt great- the kart was working and we got the jetting right. Four laps in the motor started to get hot and was loosing performance". Cameron received a signal from his crew to pull in. The radiator had caught a rock and lost all of the water ending his day.
