I enjoy posting the long written stories or recaps for our customers that enjoy sitting back with a cup of coffee and reading about a race event.  This one was sent to me by Ken Schilling recapping his 2011 SuperNationals experience.

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Grab your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy!!!

Hello family, friends, business associates and fellow kart racers.

Please forgive the extended beginning of some of the videos as I’m learning how to edit them.

Please also forgive the length of this race report as I tailor it to non-karters who are unfamiliar with the sport. God has blessed me with this wonderful hobby and I want to be able to share it with those who show an interest so I include many details.

I say “David vs Goliath” tongue-in-cheek because I showed up at the SuperNats in my Honda Odyssey minivan full to the ceiling with karting “stuff” towing my teeny-tiny converted Harbor Freight trailer into the pits where there are huge tractor trailer rigs with multi-kart teams, tuners, mechanics, driver coaches, data collection evaluators, hospitality areas with tables, food and drinks, etc…  My little trailer draws a lot of attention and many questions.

One of the many things I enjoy about karting is that with the rules for the Spec Honda engine class that I race in is that it takes away much of the “I spend more money than you” factor and boils it down to driver, chassis and engine tuning talent (some luck sure doesn’t hurt!). The money does factor in where some of the drivers can afford to hire a full time mechanic, engine tuner and/or an “arrive and drive” program compared to myself where I do everything, except alignments. Doug Sorensen owner of Extreme Karting does those for me.

Let’s see…

Mechanic = me

Chassis tuner = me

Engine tuner = mostly me… SwedeTech helps a lot too!

Driver’s coach = me

Data acquisition engineer = me

Etc… = me

That’s one thing that I love about the SuperNats, everyone from a privateer like me to a top level international driver with a mega team compete on the same level.

The SuperNats is a once a year event, the largest and most prestigious karting event in North America and arguably the world, bringing together the finest karters from around the world to race each other to see who’s the best in their class from all different racing organizations and sanctioning bodies. As a karter, you hear about these drivers by word of mouth and read about them in the various karting magazines and online, but now you get to put a face to the name (not just a helmet paint job and drivers suit) and race head to head while making new friends in the process. While yes it’s extremely competitive, there’s a great sense of camaraderie and love for the sport shared by all who participate.

As a karter for the last nine years, this being my fourth SuperNats as a driver and previous to that, two years as a SuperNats corner worker, this was almost a solid week of karting nirvana. With ~530 drivers from all around the world, professional drivers from different car racing series, etc…  Even in these challenging economic times this year set an entry record breaking last year’s previous record by almost 50 drivers!!!

Two years ago SKUSA was extremely fortunate to have three current Formula 1 drivers race at the SuperNats including seven time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher. This year the Formula 1 schedule didn’t end until after the SuperNats so unfortunately no Formula 1 drivers were in attendance. The majority of professional auto racers get their start in karts and the majority of Formula 1 drivers race karts in the off season to stay sharp.

Here’s a picture of Michael Schumacher at the SuperNats two years ago:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/4191357280/in/photostream

This year, as well as the last three years, the SuperNats was held on a temporary track in the back parking lot of the Rio Hotel & Suites in Las Vegas, NV the week before Thanksgiving. This location is fantastic and affords room for the track and pits, though it’s an extremely tight fit. It’s just a short walk from the hotel and usually provides picture perfect weather with sunny and mild 50 to 60 deg temps. The SKUSA gang arrives the previous week (!!!) to start setting up the track, pits, timing and scoring, etc…  This is a culmination of almost 10 months of work to put this event together; in fact they’ve already begun preparations for next year. SKUSA brought almost 100 workers who worked tirelessly with little to no accolades up to 20 hrs per day to put on this great event. Some even worked through the night to maintain the track and facility.

My karting background:

Somehow not only myself, but my parents and two younger sisters, knew that someday I would end up racing something. I love fast cars, boats, motorcycles, etc… and watch Speed on cable TV constantly. In fact, when I was single, I owned both a jet ski boat for water skiing and a Kawasaki 1000 Ninja sport motorcycle capable of 180 mph.

I didn’t just start in shifters, though some do with varying degrees of success. I would never recommend it though as shifters are the fastest class: so many things are happening so fast that it’s very difficult to get up to speed in a shifter without some slower karting background.

Many years ago when I was in my early twenties I took my very first karting lesson at Adams Motorsports Park in Riverside, CA (www.adamsmotorsportspark.com ) with Dick Hansen who was the owner of Yamaha of America in Buena Park, CA. It was a ½ day lesson in a basic single speed Yamaha kart which I thought was the fastest thing on the planet!!!  I had an absolute blast, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t raise the funds to actually buy my own equipment to go racing at the time. Talk about coming around full circle, last year I was able to race my shifter at the same track.

Fast forward ~10 years…  I was in sales and the owner of the distributorship that I worked for had a couple of karts that he would take to the then open Amago Raceway in Northern San Diego County just for fun. A couple of times he invited me, or did I invite myself(?!), to come along for a day of fun at the track. He had both a single speed Yamaha and a 125 shifter. After driving the Yamaha for a while he asked if I’d like to try the shifter, he didn’t have to ask twice!!!  WOW, and I thought the Yamaha was fast, it felt like the Star Trek Enterprise going into warp speed!!!

Fast forward another ~5 years… I started indoor karting for ~1-1/2 years at the then open Dromo1 right across the freeway from Angel Stadium in Orange County, CA. The karts were powered by a Honda four stroke engine which put out ~9-10 hp. I learned that I was pretty fast and did really well. During this time I bought my own helmet because I didn’t like having to use a generic ill fitting helmet that who knows how many people used (even though they required balaclavas / aka: head sock). Now, my 15 yr old middle son takes great pride in going indoor karting at K1 (www.k1speed.com ) and sometimes beating me. I insist that the only reason he can beat me is that he’s ~50 lbs lighter than me!!!

Unknown to me during this time, my wife Kathy was squirreling away money which she gave me on my 40^th birthday for me to spend any way I chose racing related. I think she was secretly hoping that it would get it out of my system, but it backfired!!!  I used part of it for a ½ day Jim Russell open wheel racing class at Infineon Raceway in Northern California (www.infineonraceway.com ).

The remainder I used for an “arrive and drive” TaG (touch and go) kart race at Amago Raceway. According to the track owner I did really well in getting up to speed. I was doing great and having a fantastic time until the main…  About ¾ of the way through the main I was close to being lapped by the faster shifter karts on track (they ran the shifters and TaG’s on the track at the same time). For some reason I wasn’t shown the blue (passing) flag due to the lead shifter driver coming up on me. At the end of the start/finish straight, going into the really fast right hand kink, the lead shifter driver ducked under me, we touched wheel to wheel which caused him (and his complete kart) to flip right over me with him landing right on his head, knocking him out cold. The red flag was thrown, I came to a screeching halt, frantically jumped out of my kart and ran to his side. The track owner and medics were doing the same. He came to a minute or so later, the medics checked him over and fortunately he received no injuries except for a few bumps and bruises. Our karts weren’t as fortunate as they both received significant damage, plus he needed to buy a new helmet due to a crack from the crash. I had to tell my wife that I needed to pay another ~$600 to repair my kart which didn’t go over so well either…  Well guess what, that very same driver, Bill Cox (from San Diego), became my mentor when I moved into shifter karts with SKUSA. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Bill not only for being so gracious after the crash at Amago, but also taking me under his wing and teaching me everything he knows about karting. I then proceeded to beat him for the class championship that year!!!

Rewind a little bit…  Even after the crash, I was absolutely hooked on karting and began to look for a way to get into it. I began visiting the local kart shops and race tracks, pestering anyone who would listen with my ignorant questions. In fact, Tom Kutscher, then owner of Extreme Karting in Anaheim, CA became my kart shop of choice. Talk about a small world…  I found out that at the time Tom and Patti lived ~1 mile from my house a few houses down the street from where my kids went to Elementary School. Tom eventually sold the kart shop to Doug Sorensen and then bought SKUSA (more on this later). That’s how I got to know both Tom and Patti, then became their Data Administrator.

After much searching, I ended up buying a complete kart setup with trailer, chassis, single speed HPV engine (~17 hp) and spare parts from Tom Stephens, then owner of www.kartfinder.com . He was getting out of karting and gave me a great deal for the complete package. Tom is the one who built my current trailer up from a bare Harbor Freight trailer. I joined Tri-C Karters (www.tri-ckarters.com ) and raced HPV for two years at Moran Raceway. Man I miss that track…!!!

Here’s a picture of me picking up that kart:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/4406056241/in/photostream

I then moved up to TaG and raced a ~27 hp Leopard for two years with SKUSA’s local regional club ProKart Challenge in SoCal (http://www.superkartsusa.com/regional/pkc-south.html ). By the way, that’s me in the top right picture. After blowing up two Leopards’, I was ready to quit karting due to the cost and continual rib injuries. It got so bad that every time I had to sneeze I thought I was going to die!!!  I had to sit out twice for a couple of months each to let my ribs heal. Tom Kutscher pulled me aside and convinced me to switch to Spec Honda. I also switched to a RibTect seat and rib vest saving me from more rib injuries (www.ribtect.com ).

Physical fitness:

It may not look like it, but karting is a very physically demanding sport. The bumps, G forces, physical and mental strain combine to make fitness an important part of your overall success. Think about the G forces alone, with up to ~3 G’s trying to rip your head off. An average human head weighs 8 – 12 lbs, multiply that by three and you get the idea that your neck really gets a workout.

Arm pump can also be an issue for new karters. Most new drivers tend to put a “death grip” on the steering wheel trying to hang on during cornering and just from the overall excitement and adrenaline rush. They come off the track with their forearms in cramps from the effort. It takes time to be able to relax, allow the seat to hold you in place and relax your arms and hands to be able to gently steer and shift without strain.

Class/engine:

S4 is a Spec Honda shifter kart class for 30+ yr old drivers and 405 lbs minimum overall weight (kart & driver). The minimum weight must be met when you come off the track so you have to compensate for fuel usage. We add lead ballast to the kart if we are underweight. This can be cut extremely close, especially in qualifying as weight is a HUGE factor. The average S4 driver age this year was 42 with the youngest being the minimum 30 yrs old and the oldest 59. I’m 49 so I’m, uh,… on the more “experienced” side of the age range.

S4 uses a Honda CR125 water cooled two stroke engine off of a motocross motorcycle that has very tight rules regarding what can be done to the engine. There are enough things than can be changed to keep the tinkerers happy, make engine tuning one more factor in success and to help keep cheating to an absolute minimum. There will always be those that believe that “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” but I don’t buy into that at all. I take great pride in following all of the technical and safety rules to the letter which gives me even more satisfaction when I do well. There isn’t an on-board starter so we have to rely on a push start by having someone give us a push and dropping it into 1^st gear. However, when the kart is on the stand I can start it by myself by putting it into 2^nd or 3^rd gear (depending on the gearing), wrapping a strap around the right rear tire, pulling the strap really hard with my left hand while my right hand is on the throttle cable. About the only things that you can change are external: reeds, cylinders and carburetors (two each to choose from), fuel pump system, adjust the timing a little bit, exhaust pipes and silencers. Other than that, it’s “no touchy!!!”  This helps to keep costs down by increasing reliability as well as eliminating any internal engine modifications keeping the class a “drivers” class, not how deep your pockets are. You can tune the engine by: 1) Using an air gage to read the corrected altitude, temperature and humidity. 2) By “reading” the spark plug and piston. I’m told that ideally the carbon buildup on top of the piston should look like Australia!!!  3) Exhaust gas temperature (EGT). 4) How the engine runs both on the stand and track. There are a number of things in the carburetor that you can change: main and pilot jets, needle and needle clip setting for varying atmospheric and track conditions. Like the chassis, these combine to make engine tuning a “fine art”!!!

The engine, just under my right elbow,  puts out ~35-37 hp, revs to ~12,600+ rpm with ~3,000 usable rpm range to keep it “on the pipe”, has a six speed sequential manual gearbox and you can change the overall gearing ratio by changing the engine output shaft sprocket and/or rear axle sprocket. The engine doesn’t have a thermostat so we use duct tape (aka: “200 mph” tape) on the radiator to help regulate the engine temperature as the engine has an optimum operating temperature range. It’s just one more thing to have to watch on the MyChron gage, as you don’t want the engine to be too cold or hot so you have to watch the temperature reading and remove tape as necessary. I also program the MyChron to start flashing the water temp if it gets too high. I install multiple tape strips horizontally on the radiator (to my left) with the outside ends folded over onto itself making a “tail” which makes it easier to grab with a quick glance. When the temperature is pretty cool like at the SuperNats, I tend to start out with too much tape and remove it as needed. Being that it’s a shifter and that we have to use both hands, one for steering and one for shifting, usually there is no time other than the start/finish straight to do this. This is always fun at 80+ mph!!!  The chassis has four wheel disc brakes: one on each front wheel and one on the rear axle (there is no differential). The only time we use the clutch is for getting the kart moving from a standing start or to quickly grab in case of a spin to keep the engine from stalling. The clutch lever is just to the left of the steering wheel. It’s also sometimes used in very slow 1^st gear corners especially at the beginning of a race where the karts are very close together and slower than the usual race pace. We shift with a lever just to the right of the steering wheel, pull to upshift and push to downshift. We don’t use the clutch for shifting: just a little lift off the throttle will do the trick. The kart is capable of 0 – 60 mph in ~3 seconds, 100+ mph top speed which I’ve done ~110 mph personally (I’ve been told  ~115 mph in a draft on a long enough straight), can pull ~3 G’s in the corners and stop on a dime and give you nine cents change!!!  Many compare them to a Formula 1 car just on a smaller scale. All of this happens with your butt 1″ off the ground so you have an extremely high sensation of speed. With the high G loads, most drivers wear rib vests to help prevent a fairly common karting injury: broken ribs and/or rib cartilage injury. Rib injuries can be sustained without even being in a crash, just during normal racing conditions (side G loads and bumps). I wear a carbon fiber reinforced rib vest in conjunction with a specially designed carbon fiber seat which really locks me in place. Oh, by the way, there are no seat belts. In fact, you don’t want them because in a worst case scenario of a kart flip you want to be ejected from the kart, not have it land on top of you.

Chassis:

Kart chassis are completely different than cars in that they have no active suspension such as springs or shocks and are deceptively simple. Most chassis are now made in Europe and are CIK approved (http://www.cikfia.com/home.html ). The only suspension to speak of is the chassis itself, tires and the driver’s butt (hee-hee). The chassis is made up of tubular steel that is designed to flex and twist a little bit. While they may look extremely simple, there are many adjustments that can be made to suit different track conditions and driver preferences: front and rear track width and ride height, front end  camber/castor/toe, different axle stiffness’s, different front and rear wheel hub lengths, aluminum vs magnesium wheels, install/remove multiple seat struts, different seats (materials and stiffness / fiberglass vs carbon fiber), install/remove front/rear torsion bars, change seat position, tire pressures, etc… This allows thousands of different combinations to suit the track and weather conditions, driving style, etc…  OK, so you get the idea that it’s not as simple as it looks!!!

Also, weight is very critical, especially for the, um, “gravity challenged” amongst us. I went to great lengths to reduce as much weight as possible from the chassis by installing components made out of aluminum, magnesium and even titanium. I also go to the extent of using the shortest fasteners possible to save those pesky last few ounces!

Tires:

For the SuperNats we are issued two new sets of MG race tires that we can manage any way we wish for qualifying, the three heat races, LCQ if necessary and the main. The tires are stamped and numbered for each individual driver. You can use as many new or used tires as you wish during the practice sessions but you are limited to the spec tire for your class. This year SKUSA forged an even tighter relationship with MG by having a bespoke compound made just for SKUSA. This new compound, SK “white”, is slightly different than the previous FZ “yellow” in that it’s a little more durable and also doesn’t rubber the track in as much making a greater challenge for the driver and tuner.

https://www.mgtires.com/site/

Fuel “farm”:

SKUSA has a “fuel farm” which is just before you enter the grid area to go onto the track. There are two reasons for this. First, for fire marshal safety regulations that limit any extra fuel in the pit area other than what’s in the kart fuel tank and for any generators. Second, it helps control the fuel/oil to minimize any chances of “hanky panky” with fuel additives (no one would ever cheat in racing… would they?!). You must bring your fuel voucher card to the fuel farm to retrieve your fuel jug, fill your kart then return your fuel jug to get your voucher back. SKUSA uses a spec fuel (VP MS98) and oil (Motul Kart Grand Prix 2T).

http://www.vpracingfuels.com/page469676.html

http://www.courtneyconcepts.com/motul_2_stroke_oil.html

Tech:

When you come off track you first must go over the scales to see if you meet the minimum weight for your class. At registration you are given tags for both your chassis and engine which must be installed for qualifying and the remainder of the event limiting you to them alone unless you get approval to change due to crash or engine damage. SKUSA uses an “honor system” in that when you show up to the grid for qualifying you must turn in the SKUSA mandated pre-tech sheet filled out and signed by the driver. The driver is ultimately responsible to meet all of these requirements and is penalized or DQ’d if not. Some karting organizations do an actual hands-on pre-tech where you must take your complete kart/engine and all of your safety gear to tech to have them checked. This is impossible logistically at the SuperNats due to the sheer number of drivers. After qualifying your engine is “painted” on key items to show if they are changed or tampered with. After qualifying, heats and main the top five finishers (plus one or two in case of DQ’s) go through tech. Tech can also be totally random in regarding whom and what they check, keeping (most) everyone honest. After the main, tech can be very extensive including handing your engine back in pieces.

Safety, gages and transponder:

The only safety requirements in regards to the driver are a CIK approved driver’s suit and an up to date SNELL rated helmet. The helmet of course must be custom painted to get you those last few tenths of a second (hee-hee). Seriously though, very few drivers have a white (“cue ball”) helmet as it’s a way to show their individuality and look cool too!!!

There are a number of safety requirements for the kart that are too numerous to list here but suffice it to say, they are there for a reason.

I use a MyChron gage on my steering wheel which shows me lap time, lap count, rpm, water temperature and a shift light (you can really only see the shift light at night). Some of these gages can be had with GPS!!!  No, not to show you how to get to the nearest McDonald’s… but it provides an overlay of the track map onto your throttle, gear, wheel speed and other sensors which can be downloaded to a computer. There is also an infrared beacon which must be on the kart to trip the matching beacon trackside at the start/finish line, this provides your gage with lap time, but it’s not tied in with timing & scoring. That’s where your transponder comes in.

http://www.aimsports.com/products/mychron4/

My AMB MyLaps TranX 160 transponder has been developed for competition karting and is used internationally. The transponder must be mounted in a particular place on the kart and when it crosses start/finish, an embedded wire in the asphalt picks up the signal, matches it to your kart and logs your lap time, position, etc…  Timing and scoring logs your lap time to the thousandth of a second!  I also login online to view my results.

http://www.mylaps.com/index.php/us_eng/Websites/B2C/kart/home

http://www.mylaps.com/index.jsp

Rules:

Since SKUSA is the sanctioning body of the SuperNats, all participants must follow the complete SKUSA rulebook or risk penalties and/or DQ. Ignorance doesn’t count…!

http://www.superkartsusa.com/dmdocuments/2010-2011-SKUSA-RuleBook.pdf

Track:

While kart races are usually held on a purpose built kart track with dirt surrounding the asphalt giving some “oops” room, the SuperNats is held on a temporary track in the middle of a parking lot using a lot of plastic barriers to delineate the track boundaries. The plastic barriers are tough because if you aren’t inch perfect and touch one, most likely you will receive some sort of damage in return. The temporary track eliminates the possibility of anyone renting the track prior to the event for practice and having an unfair advantage. It also stresses tuning and driving capabilities starting out on a slippery track and adjusting to the track changes as rubber is laid down and the grip level increases (sometimes  very dramatically) as well as changing track conditions going from day to night. The slippery track really stresses throttle control and putting the kart on the knife edge of traction as much as possible. In the videos you’ll notice what might look like light throttle application but I’m right on the edge of wheelspin.

Schedule:

SKUSA (www.superkartsusa.com ), the sanctioning body of the SuperNats and the nationally growing ProKart Challenge (PKC) regional race series in which I’ve raced the last number of years, runs the SuperNats schedule with morning and afternoon groups (I was in the afternoon group). With this schedule it was great being able to take my time eating breakfast and have plenty of time to do any work needed on the kart or just walk around the pits talking with fellow drivers and generally just taking in the experience before our first track session of the day.

http://www.superkartsusa.com/dmdocuments/snats-xv-competition-schedule.pdf

In the weeks prior to the event in my spare time, I spent many hours prepping my brand new chassis by tearing down my trusty five year old chassis to the bare frame, transferring the components to the new one, replacing all the fasteners, routing hoses and wires, etc…  For many karters a two year old chassis is ancient so mine was considered a dinosaur. I was very excited as this was the very first brand new chassis that I’ve ever bought, until this point I’ve always bought used chassis. Karts look really simple but trust me: they can take a lot of time to prepare, especially for me as I’m extremely anal when it comes to details!!!  I think I should buy stock in “zip ties” as I go through them constantly… They say that your kart looks its best the day you bought it, the day you sold it, and right before the SuperNats!!!.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6289860259/in/photostream

My karting over the last year, until a few months ago, had been seriously hampered by a herniated disc in my lower back which was pinching my sciatic nerve (L5 / S1) causing me tremendous pain in my left hip, leg and back requiring me to use a cane just to get around. It got so bad that I couldn’t even dress myself. After months of trying physical therapy and pain control I finally had Microdiscectomy surgery. The surgery was a great success and gave me immediate relief!!!  In fact, immediately after the surgery in the recovery room after I woke up, the nurses had me stand and walk a little bit (amazing!!!). Now the hard part began…  For months before the surgery I was prescribed Hydrocodone and Oxycodone which are stronger versions of Codeine with Oxycodone being even stronger than Morphine!!!  Unfortunately I was never told(!) by my pain control doctor that both of these drugs are very addictive and are extremely hard to come off of. Not knowing this, immediately after the surgery I went off of them “cold turkey”, only taking Advil when needed, and proceeded to go through a week of withdrawal HELL!!!  I wouldn’t wish what I went through coming off of those drugs on anyone. In addition, during my back problems, I put on ~15 lbs and was in the worst shape that I’d been in years.

A few months ago my wife and I joined a program called Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP). She and I had been talking about making some changes in our lifestyle regarding our diet and this was an exciting program to help us take that step. CHIP’s basic premise is changing to a vegan lifestyle as much as possible, as least vegetarian, which will help in many ways. The great part about this program is that you can eat as much as you want!!! After only about 8 weeks I lost the 15 lbs I had gained, my cholesterol dropped ~75 pts and my blood pressure dropped as well. Also during this program I committed to regularly working out at the gym which has helped me get back to even better shape than before, especially aerobically which helps during karting. It was great to have to keep adding lead to the kart to make the minimum weight!!!

http://www.chiphealth.com/

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=194574277249392&set=a.160892927284194.29317.100000904621545&type=3&theater

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/back-surgery/microdiscectomy-microdecompression-spine-surgery

Oh, did I mention that I’m a budget racer on a shoe string budget…?  Here are some of the things that I do to help keep my SuperNats costs to an absolute minimum:

• Bring my own EZ-Up instead of renting a tent.
• Bring two of my 4’ long fluorescent fixtures from my garage to provide lighting for the second half of our afternoon session which goes into darkness. A long roll of extension cords help to reach the generator that Doug brings.
• My hotel room has a small refrigerator so I bring my own breakfast and lunch food.
• I bring my own coffee maker and coffee so I don’t have to visit the Starbucks on the way to the track and pay $3(!) for a cup of coffee.
• I bring a flat of Gatorade to drink in the pits. I don’t bother bringing ice as it gets into the 40’s during the night.
• I found free wi-fi internet access at the Starbucks downstairs on the way to the track keeping me from having to pay $15 per day access fee in my room. I’m sorry, but that’s crazy…
• Subway has great Veggie Delight subs. Hey, you can’t beat the $5 foot longs!!!

Tuesday (arrival and check in):

The big teams with their huge tractor trailer rigs and tents began moving in the Sunday prior to the race with smaller teams the next day or so.  I’m used to arriving at a race and seeing about 75-100 drivers pitted in everything from the bed of small pickup trucks to large enclosed trailers behind 30′+ diesel pusher motor homes with multiple chassis and engines. When I show up at the SuperNats I’m amazed looking at the paddock with mega dollar big rigs, huge hospitality tents, multiple sponsor and vendor tents, it’s incredible!!!  Even though with this being my fourth time as a driver and sixth overall at the SuperNats, I was still awestruck when I arrived. After a four hour drive from SoCal I arrived Tuesday, made my way through the pits and dropped off my trailer and other stuff at the Extreme Karting “compound”. Extreme Karting (www.extreme-karting.com ) owned and operated by Doug Sorensen, is my local kart shop of choice and distributor of the GP-10 chassis with the latest ceramic brakes that I use (www.gpracing.it ). We comprised a team of two drivers (Peter Abba/S1 and myself/S4) and we take up two 10’ x 40’ pit spots. One of the pit spots is taken up by Doug’s shop/team trailer. The other pit spot is occupied by Peter and I. My little trailer is extremely easy to get around and I was able to store it in my pit area for easy access.

Van & trailer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401484745/in/photostream

My humble pit spot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401483473/in/photostream

The Extreme Karting compound and hospitality area (please note the cooler: hee-hee):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401483663/in/photostream

One of the biggest team tents with ~20 drivers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401483289/in/photostream

One of the nicer team hospitality areas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401482545/in/photostream

One of the larger transporters. There are even larger ones just like you would see at NASCAR races:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/4148060499/in/photostream

Here’s a picture from a couple of years ago showing me starting the main in 7^th:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/4148056635/in/photostream

After setting up my pit I made my way to the registration desk where Tom and Patti Kutscher, the owners of SKUSA, are greeting everyone. Over the last 5 years or so Tom and Patti have allowed me to help behind the scenes by having me be SKUSA’s Data Administrator which is a fancy title for someone who types a lot. In my spare time I process all of the SKUSA memberships, SuperNats/Pro Tour/ProKart Challenge race entries, championship point’s spreadsheets, etc…  I am extremely fortunate and grateful for this because if I couldn’t help, I couldn’t afford to race. I check in for the race, get my race tires and fuel from the tire and fuel farms respectively.

I also check in with SwedeTech who is my engine builder (www.swedetechracingengines.com). Reine Persson, SwedeTech owner, brought their own trailer from Northern California and three(!) people to support all of their customers. Throughout the course of the event they are continually offering tuning advice, parts availability and hands on assistance.  GREAT SERVICE!!!

Wednesday (practice / Group P1):

The last three years there were 40, 40 and 68 S4 drivers respectively but this year there were ”only” 60 (including 12 drivers from Mexico and Venezuela!!!). Even though there were fewer drivers than last year the field was deeper than ever with a fantastically high level of driver talent. Due to the large number of drivers there were two S4 groups (P1 and P2) with two subgroups in each after qualifying (A, B, C and D), 30 each for practice. 40 is normally the max allowed on the track at one time. For Wednesday SKUSA randomly split the 60 drivers into two groups and I happened to end up in P1 (there is no difference between P1 and P2 at this time). Each group had four practice sessions on both Wednesday and Thursday.

In the past SKUSA has posted the SuperNats track map online shortly before the race, but not this year!!!  The last two years the track has been identical but it turned out that SKUSA completely revised the majority of the track this year which made everyone throw away their race notes and start over. No one had seen the track until it was completely done and fine tuned Tuesday night. Everything was new from gearing, chassis setup and having to come to “grip” with the new MG spec tire. After walking the track, I made a highly engineered and calculated gearing choice (aka: “SWAG”) taking into consideration the last turn onto the longest straight, longest straight length and other factors. The SuperNats puts a premium on getting up to speed quickly and making changes to keep up with the changing track and environmental conditions.

One challenge of running in the afternoon session is that there is not only the complication of running in both daylight and under the artificial lighting at night but also the tremendous variance in ambient temperature and track conditions. Also, the Rio Hotel blocks the sun relatively early making when to change from my normal dark charcoal tinted helmet visor to a clear one sometimes tricky as well as throwing the track into shade complicating things even further.

My first session on track was just to get used to the track layout and see if my gearing was close. I placed myself near the back of the grid for the practice sessions and a number of the other “fast guys” did the same (there was one woman in our class). My strategy was to just lay back, find open track and get up to speed without “racing” anyone.  In the first session my initial impressions were that the track was very slippery and my gearing was off a little, but I would learn more as the sessions went by. After making gearing and other changes I was faster in the second session as I got to know the nuances of the track, braking and shifting points, etc…  The third session I was quicker yet (11^th in my group) but many of the faster drivers hadn’t put on their transponders yet to keep their pace to themselves. Keep in mind that I’m still on used tires left over from the last race of the season, the Lancaster Grand Prix.

http://www.streetsoflancaster.com/

Wed – Practice #4

As strange as it may sound to non-karters, you have to adjust the grip level of the chassis for new tires as you can sometimes end up having too much grip (aka: “overstuck”) which actually slows you down. So far during the day I’ve made a number of gearing and chassis adjustments and felt that I was going in the right direction. All drivers were required to have transponders on and be totally tech compliant for the fourth session as it would dictate the new P1 and P2 groups for the rest of the event, including qualifying, with P1 being the faster of the two. I used this session as pseudo qualifying as many other drivers did.  I mounted a new set of practice tires, made a few adjustments, gained ~.7 sec and was 20^th quick in my group which put me in the P2 group for the rest of the event. This was disappointing as last year I was 3^rd quick out of 68 drivers at the end of Thursday practice but goes to show the depth of the field. I was also struggling with chassis setup as my new chassis wasn’t liking the changes I would make to my used one.

Here’s a fantastic onboard video showing what it’s like to drive a shifter kart (really well!!!)

p.s. – It’s not me: it’s Patrick Cushenberry / S2 / #27u who’s one of the faster S2 drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnWmCEcsjLg

Here’s one of me that’s similar for comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5t3BV_i7kg&feature=plcp&context=C3916d5dUDOEgsToPDskJpRlpvMo-bFOtmd71-xiuM

Thursday (practice / Group P2):

I took most of Thursday morning before the afternoon sessions began and made wholesale changes to the kart because it was obvious by my lap times that I had a lot of time to gain. I’m typically ~½ sec off the fastest drivers but I was struggling to stay inside 1 sec of them on this ~47-48 sec lap track. Thursday’s practice sessions were pretty crazy as I was making a lot more changes but so far I hadn’t touched a barrier or another kart. I was solidly in the top 10 in my group through the four practice sessions using the tires from the 4^th Wed practice session (1^st, 8^th, 9^th and 4^th respectively) and ran my fastest lap of the event so far.

Friday (Group P2 / the trail of tears begins…):

Warm-up:

Friday morning I did a complete once over on the kart as well as a complete top end of the engine. Piston, piston ring, wrist pin, wrist pin bearing and C-clips were changed to give me the most power possible. I love the simplicity of two stroke engines!!!  I did three heat cycles of the engine on the kart stand and used the warm-up session to finish breaking in the engine and scuff my qualifying tires. Just a few laps to wear the glaze and mold release off of the tires and put them through one heat cycle.

Qualifying:

Unlike ProKart Challenge where after you qualify you can move up in each of the two heats: you start H2 where you finished in H1 and you start the main where you finished in H2. At the SuperNats you start each of the three heats where you qualify regardless of your heat results. This makes qualifying absolutely crucial!!!

So far, I had used two new sets of practice tires during pseudo qualifying sessions and found that I was slightly quicker on used tires. Remember what I said about being overstuck?  A few tenths quicker, which could end up being more than a handful of grid spots (sometimes more than 10!), on scrubbed vs new tires?…  Just for reference: on average a human eye takes between 3-4 tenths of a second to complete a single blink. So imagine standing at the start/finish line and blink, more than 10 karts would’ve gone by. That’s why timing and scoring goes to the thousandths of a second!!!

The gamble is ultimate lap time vs whatever tire wear and a heat cycle you lose scrubbing them vs new tires. Well, after much discussion with Doug, I decided to “roll the dice” and qualify on scrubs. This was a huge gamble as most everyone uses one brand new set of their two race tire set allotment for Q, H1, H2 and H3 then uses their second set for the main. I had plans on using this tire management strategy but just added the qualifying on scrubs. Once I arrived at the pre-grid for qualifying I found that I wasn’t the only one who chose the scrub strategy which made me feel much better… whew!!!

Doug and I also discussed qualifying strategy: going out early vs late. The practice sessions have been pretty short at only 7 min each but qualifying was 12 min, seemingly an eternity!!!  With 30 karts on the track at once, finding an open piece of track can be very difficult. I decided to go out late for the first time in my SuperNats experience.

After sitting on the grid for a few minutes warming up our engines, our group was released onto the track for qualifying. A large group of karts went out immediately with a few stragglers lingering behind. A couple more minutes passed and I found myself all alone on the grid…  Oh boy, I started to get a little nervous: either I was going to be a genius or an idiot!!!  Our strategy was to let most of the karts in our group do their qualifying in the first half of the session then they would hopefully come off track thus opening up track space. Typically you only get a handful of “golden laps” with these tires so timing is critical. Doug had his smart phone setup with real time timing and scoring and kept track of the time left and sent me out with about half the session left.

My strategy was to use the first two laps as a warm up while doing my best to stay out of the way of any fast drivers still putting down fast laps (this is on track courtesy), lay down a couple of fast laps, cool off the tires for a lap or two then do a couple more hot laps. At this point I’m feeling pretty good as the track is opening up but only just a little, not nearly as much as we expected…  Turned out that it’s taking longer to get the tires up to temperature and pressure as well as finding a clear lap. Typically you can get your fastest lap within the first 3 – 4 laps but it’s taking more like 6 – 8 laps. Some drivers were up to 13 laps(!).

I ended up with a few seconds gap between me and the kart in front of me so I put my head down and started my hot laps thinking that I had plenty of space. Turned out that I ended up behind a driver who I was almost 2 seconds a lap faster and had been out since the beginning of the session. Each time I tried to put down a hot lap I ended up catching up to the driver before finishing my lap costing me at least ½ second. I dropped back a little further each time but by this time I had run out of time and laps and had to come off the track. ARGH!!!  After looking at timing and scoring I found that I could have been the fastest in my group but ended up being 16^th. I was very frustrated with my results and decided right then and there that I would never go out late again.

Friday Heat 1 (12 laps / Group A vs B):

First, let me explain that the accumulation of points from your finishing position in the three heats dictates the grid for the 40 kart main (I’m in Group A for the three heats). Twenty drivers in our class of 60 won’t make the main on “Super Sunday”. Our first heat started early in the evening at 5:30pm with the sun already set behind the Rio Hotel. With the time change and the hotel position, the sun sets right behind the hotel at ~4:00pm. The track got dark quickly and changed a lot due to the quickly dropping ambient temperature so I made some chassis and tire pressure changes to compensate. I usually race with a dark smoke face shield but with the darkness I switched to my clear face shield. SKUSA rented a number of portable light stands with generators to provide illumination for night racing. The SuperNats is the only time I get to race at night: it’s surreal as you feel as if you’re almost in a tunnel and the speed and depth perception change dramatically.

Shifter karts use a standing start just like Formula 1 with two rows of karts staggered slightly to give more room once the lights go out. Once the grid is set, the lights come on and within 5 seconds the lights go out signaling the start of the race.

The driver’s mechanic(s) can stand along the fence while their driver is on track to give them hand signals to show the gap to the kart(s) behind. This is very helpful as it keeps you from having to look behind you and helps you decide on your strategy of either being able to attack the driver in front of you or having to defend from the driver(s) behind (or both!!!). Sometimes you can hear the engine of the kart behind you and/or take a peek behind you as you go around a tight turn. During a race I normally don’t look behind me because I don’t want to let the driver behind me think that I’m rattled by them being there. During practice I tend to look around more frequently trying to find clear track space.

I was 12^th in my A group meaning I was starting 24^th out of 30 and 12^th in my row. Since you are in the same group for all of the heats you get familiar with the drivers that are in front of and behind you. This doesn’t hold true though for the row next to you as that changes for each of the three heats as you have to cycle through the other three race groups. We had 1-1/2 laps as a warm-up, I did a couple of practice starts and pulled into my spot on the painted starting grid. After a few moments the grid was set, the lights came on, revs came up and “green, green, green!!!” off we went in a cloud of two stroke engine smoke.

The starts are very challenging to get just right with the combination of engine revs and clutch slip. You stand on the brake, rev the engine like crazy and load the engine with the clutch. The kart starts to shudder with the clutch trying to move the kart forward against the brake making it feel as if you’re on a thoroughbred horse in the starting gate!  This creates a preload effect on the drivetrain giving you a good launch once you let off the brake and feed in the clutch while keeping the throttle pinned.

The first couple of laps of any race are especially tricky: the tires aren’t fully up to temperature and pressure and are a little bit slippery, there is an “accordion effect” as the karts are very close together, especially coming into braking zones, drivers are jockeying for position swerving left and right trying to find a gap…  Also, starting near the back, I’m a little bit quicker than most of the drivers around me and not only myself, but the other drivers are racing with a certain amount of desperation trying to make up positions and points to try and make the 40 kart main event.

I made it through the first lap of carnage and made my way forward finishing 18^th. OK, so far so good because a DNF really hurts your chances to make the main.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otzgVwrZdZQ&list=UUIQnA__TdyyOVLXoJXQRjQQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Saturday Heat 2 (12 laps / Group A vs C):

I “flipped” the tires on the wheels meaning the inside of the tire is now on the outside. This gives me the most rubber on the inside of the tires for more grip and wear. This is part of that tire management that I mentioned earlier.

I got a good start and immediately jumped to the outside for turn one. I definitely didn’t want to be on the inside as I figured there would be a lot of carnage. After turn 1 I moved to the outside for turn two thinking there would be some bumping and grinding on the inside. My plan worked great until the driver in front of me spun. I reacted instinctively and chose to go to the right which turned out to be the wrong way!  I lightly bumped into him and the barrier and was then unceremoniously run over from behind ending my race. Oh well, there’s my DNF hurting my chances at directly transferring to the main.

Doug was great back in the pits helping me to change the steering column which was the only thing bent other than the silencer support. The brand new silencer that I just bought received a decent sized dent too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA3SLpNpFyw&list=UUIQnA__TdyyOVLXoJXQRjQQ&index=3&feature=plcp

Saturday Heat 3 (12 laps / Group A vs D):

I get another good start but am stuck on the inside for turn 1. Please don’t let there be carnage!!!  I made it through turns 1 and 2 cleanly and approached turn 3 on my “tip toes”, a really tight 1^st or 2^nd gear 180 deg right hander. A couple of karts got together at the apex in front of me but I was able to miss the incident and continued on while the field strung out a little, whew!!!  Now we could really go racing. I played it a little bit safe in this heat as I already had a DNF and didn’t want to risk another one. I also didn’t want to risk crashing as I would have very little time to fix it for the LCQ!  I spent much of the heat behind two drivers who were really duking it out so I laid back just a bit, ready to take advantage of any mistakes they made. As in H1 I finished 18^th, set my fastest lap of the event so far and had no contact garnering what I hoped to be enough points for me to transfer directly into the main. Well, it turned out that I missed a direct transfer to the main by a couple of positions and would have to try and make the main through the LCQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cOxwTqRylo&list=UUIQnA__TdyyOVLXoJXQRjQQ&index=2&feature=plcp

Saturday LCQ (10 laps)

OK, I’ve “qualified” to race in the LCQ. This is the last chance to make it into the main. The top 34 out of 40 spots in the main had already been determined by point’s accumulation through the 3 heats. That meant that there were 20 drivers that were going to fight it out for the remaining 6 spots!!!  Six drivers were unable to make the start of the LCQ for various reasons. I was gridded 11^th, 6^th row on the right side. I had already mounted my 2^nd and last set of race tires on the kart to try and help me as much as possible. I was optimistic that I would make the top 6 and brought my tools with me to be prepared to go through post race tech.

Oh boy, you thought the heats were crazy… wait until you try racing in an LCQ putting everything on the line to make the cut!!!

We got 1-1/2 laps of warm-up before each of the heat races but for some reason we got an additional lap(?). I got a good clean start and made it through the first half lap with no issues. By lap 2 I was already in 6^th!!!  On lap three I made it to 5^th and was right on my good friend Todd Scholta’s bumper (#66x). Todd is in the white helmet and black with white and day-glo orange accents CRG driver’s suit. Trust me, I was counting karts making sure I knew exactly where I was on the track!!!  I made a run on Todd going into turn 7, made it alongside and took the position, but only for a moment as I overshot the corner just a little letting Todd back into 4^th. ARGH!!!  OK, relax, I’m still in 5^th and am in a good position to transfer into the main. Todd and I hold station but I was able to reel Todd back in but not get around him. Todd and I are slowly catching the 3^rd and 4^th place karts when on lap 8 perennial fast guy Chris Jennings (#175) gets by me relegating me to the “bubble”, 6^th spot. OH NO!!!  I’ve got a HUGE target on my back now!!!  My plan is to stick right on Chris’ back bumper and try to follow him around Todd.  Chris is able to make his way by when Todd makes a small mistake coming onto the straight but I’m too far back to capitalize. So, for the last lap I’m “protecting” the inside line trying to keep some knucklehead from dive bombing me. Errrr, too late…  I left less than ½ a kart width (~2’) coming into the last corner but was unceremoniously punted out of the way. The offender was penalized two positions for avoidable contact and didn’t make the main either.

I ran my fastest lap of the event, nothing like having incentive right…!!!  In fact, I finally made it back to my normal ~1/2 sec off of the fastest drivers!!!

Enjoy!!!  The GoPro camera has an extreme “fisheye” lens that doesn’t accurate reflect distances so when I get punted it looks like I’m further away from the apex than I state above.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kens9140?feature=mhee#p/u/0/uKuYRzPAMqw

On “Super Sunday”, when all of the main events are held, SKUSA organized a special memorial for Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon who was killed in an Indy Car race just over a month prior to the SuperNats at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dan had participated in a number of SuperNats and was always quick to say that “karting is the purest form of motorsport”. All karters hold a special place in their hearts for Dan as he was truly a great karting ambassador. For the memorial, SKUSA arranged for 33 karts in the same class that Dan was scheduled to race in (TaG Senior) to mimic an Indianapolis 500 grid. The Indy 500 was his crowning achievement, which he won twice, his second win was just this last May in a dramatic last lap last-last corner overtake of his crashing teammate. The 33 karts slowly lapped the track for 2 laps with all of the corner workers waving their flags. At the start/finish line on the first lap the white flag was shown and the last lap double checkers were waved. On pole was Dan’s kart (#98) that he was scheduled to race with Nick Neri doing the driving honors. The remaining two spots were karts from his previous SuperNats races driven by fellow current Indy Car drivers EJ Viso and Martin Plowman. Every SuperNats driver was given a special memorial commemorative sticker for their kart of Dan’s “Lionheart” emblem that he had on all of his helmets. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house…  God speed, Dan.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37962185@N08/6401484439/

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dan-wheldon?before=1321589337

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUZ9B2B8S48

I would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who helped me. While the actual racing on track is an individual sport, there are many people along the way that help to get you there (in no particular order):

My wonderful wife Kathy – She understands my “need for speed”.

SKUSA / Tom and Patti Kutscher – Allowing me to help behind the scenes and race!!!

Extreme Karting / Doug Sorensen – Great kart shop and fantastic service!!!

SwedeTech Racing Engines (Reine, Jason and Vince) – The best quality, service and support you could ask for!!!

Brian McHattie of DB Motorsports for the beautiful custom sticker kit (www.dbmotorsportsonline.com)

Please take the time to watch this great video compilation of this year’s race that really brings the overall feeling of the event.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/32652899?autoplay=1

Cheers!!!

Ken Schilling