Opening day for the 2008 race season for the NCK Road Racing Club. The season was to start at Buttonwillow Raceway. The configuration that we ran was Config 14 counter clockwise.



To get ready for this season, I had to freshen up the motor. The top end and bottom end were replaced. I finally got to replace my steering guide shaft. After installing the new one (thanks John @ Fastech Racing), the steering wheel was solid. Some final prep work was done and the kart was ready to go into the hauler.





In my mad dash to get ready for the season opener I opted to change out my tires when we go to the track. By the time we got down south, the sun was setting so we decided to check the motor and do tires later. We checked for squish as I put in a different base gasket. I was on the safe side after measuring. So the moment of truth. Track side with a freshly rebuilt setup.

Prime the carb...check.
Spark...check.
Choke up....check.
Buttonwillow Raceway in the afternoon is freezing cold....check.

With SVH manning the throttle and I rotating the rear tire, the motor roared to life and sounded gosh darn good. After it ran for tick, I shut it down and put all the gear back into the truck. We needed to check in at the hotel and get some food. As an FYI for those who will go to Buttonwillow in the future, do not eat at the BBQ restaurant (Willow Ranch) down the road from BW, the food was not very good at all. After filling up on mediocre food, we had back to get a good nights rest. Oh but wait! Tires need to get changed...



As I get 3 tires off, SVH asked if I had brought in the tires from the truck...

OH SNAP! Quick call home and the wife confirms that I have a nice set of YHCs in a box in my garage, and not in my truck 200 miles down south. So the tires get put back on while I mumble to myself. Tires are on and I am tired. Hit the rack with Discovery Channel and Man vs. Wild is showing. Off topic: Bear Grylls does some disgusting tasks in the name of survival. It was the camel episode. That's all I have to say about that.

After some much needed Zs, we head to breakfast and to the track. Another mental note:

Buttonwillow Raceway in the morning is freezing cold....check.

After getting tech'd, we head back to the pits for some final adjustments (air pressure, alignment, etc). Driver's meeting is being called right on time.

"Welcome to the season opener of NCK...."

Not sure how many have been to a season opener, but for me, it put a smile on my face. Knowing that I am fortunate enough to get in the seat of a kart and enjoy this great sport and to be able to compete in the season opener is super fantastic! After the information was giving out the novice meeting took place. After that, race 1 had first call. This was going to be a 30 minute race starting Le Mans style.

As we pre-grid for Race 1 I find my "shingle" and stage my kart. We were group 2 out of 4 for the start. Flag man signals and off goes group 1. Fifteen seconds later, we get the green flag to start the race and off to the races we go! This was my very first time on BW, but I did watch Erik Maxfield's video of BW. In his video, the bus stop was part of the track. This year, as you can see in the pic above, no bus stop for us. There was a stalled kart on the start and karts were breaking left and right to avoid the kart. Then karts were gathering back up to get the line into turn 1 (Sunset). As I settled in I started to go through the gears and the new motor was very angry. After splitting the Esses, I lifted going into the slight right before the Sweeper (FYI, by later in the day, I was full throttle through all the Esses until the Sweeper) and into the Sweeper I went. There were karts everywhere so line choices were slim. Here is where I started to get into the draft. The draft was something special for me as I had never experienced it in my kart. The wind noise changed and I could hear my kart singing. I also saw how quickly I was closing the gap between the kart in front of me. As this is happening, I am going up Lost Hill. This blind left hander scurred me. Went over and realized that I needed to turn left. I lost a lot of time there and had to play catch up. As I got up to speed I entered the high speed Riverside turn. This puts you onto the back straight as you can easily split the Dog Bone and not scrub off much speed.

Enter draft again. With a long "straight" on the backside, the draft was truly wicked here. Just tuck in and go! As the Grapevine comes ups, there is a "small" hill that got my kart a bit unsettled. I hit the brakes and head towards Cotton corners. Through the elevation change and turns we get onto I5 and the Off Ramp. There were patches of new track there were mad crazy outta control bumpy that I failed to avoid the first time around...Lost a bit of time on those sections.

Out of the Off Ramp I go and into Sunrise I go. The kart wanted to push here so I tried setting up the entry different ways later on in the race. From Sunrise to the front straight and we go again for another 12 laps!

During Race 1, I still had a bad shake in the front end. I "tried" to balance my front wheels/tires (big thanks to Bob Odgen for the lead tape) prior to the race. It didn't work. My hands and arms were borderline numb and my shoulder was not feeling good. We had 30 minutes before Race 3 so off to the pits I go to change out rims and tires for the WC 80cc class.

The T7 posing:




Pit row:


As the Race 3 was called, we did a rolling start this time instead of the F1 standing start. Whoever was at pole this year in Race 3 set our group up perfectly. The race director told him to keep us bunched up at around the 50ish MPH mark before the flag dropped. We were in a tight group and had a very clean start.

There were some cool moments during race 3. I decided that I wanted to audition for a WRC spot in my kart and went off track at Sunrise but was able to bring the kart back onto the track after the Atlantic turn but before the Pacific turn. Looked kinda like this:



Setting up a draft pass from Riverside to the Dog Bone. No video or pic, but it was great.

And of course, getting the checkered flag waved and thumbs up from the corner workers.

Here are some shot I took after Race 3 as I encountered more engine "issues". Water seeped into my cylinder again and I decided to play it safe and not run Race 7.

The ever amazing FKE class. Super duper way cool:

















The stock moto class:






SVH's chariot:


As alway, I have to give mad props y0! to the following folks for another great event.

1. SVH for getting me into karting.
2. NCK for putting on an excellent event.
3. Bob Odgen for his help.
4. Don from the Valley for helping me with my kart.
5. Don our pit neighbor - just being a cool guy.
6. Erik Maxfield - for lending some tools and giving me some video insight to BW.
7. Finally meeting up with Toddzilla.

Hopefully I'll see y'all at Sears. Need to get my cylinder fixed...

Mario-

 

looks like fun, I've always wanted to do something like this. I think you need a helmet cam.

 

Is this events only for experience karters or can noobs join too?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ejwan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Is this events only for experience karters or can noobs join too?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, new folks to the sport can get into road racing karts. Just check your area for the appropriate club. NCK is a Norcal based club.

Everyone starts off as a rookie.

m-