HPV

We have recently returned home from the IKF 2-Cycle Sprint Grand Nationals. Our team entered the Nationals with a goal of a top 5 in every class and 1 Duffy. Well we came up a little short but did get some very nice hardware for the mantle.

Day 1 - HPV 4
We qualified on the pole giving us the IKF "Screaming Eagle" award for that class. In the pre-Final the kart was just way too loose and we moved back to 5th. We started the final in 5th position. Well IKF makes you run these little gas tanks that are held in with a small bungee cord and either the cord failed or we forgot to fasten it but Todd ran the entire race trying to keep the gas tank in between the frame rails with his legs. Our axle change worked as the kart ran times as fast as the winner but he had to spend too much time adjusting the fuel tank and not enough time concentrating on driving. We still managed to finish 4th overall.

Day 2 - Yamaha Heavy
We had concentrated on this class all year so our hopes were high. We started off by qualifying in second place by .06 seconds. Now everything that could go wrong went wrong. In the pre-final the spark plug wire came off. Now we had to start the final in the back of the grid. We started to move up but by mid-way another unpreventable thing happened. All the teeth stripped off the clutch drum and we had no drive. This day was an extremely disappointing day for us as we truly thought we would win this class.

Day 3 - HPV 3
Again we qualified on the pole getting another IKF "Screaming Eagle". In the pre-final we finished 2nd in a very close race with 3 other karts. The kart got a little tight in the pre-final so we tried to loosen the kart just a little for the final. In the final we definitely got the kart a little loose. The kart was too loose in the beginning of the race and allowed the first 2 karts to get a nice lead. After the kart came in it was as fast as the leaders but it just took to long to come in. We ended up 3rd overall in this class.

The IKF Nationals was a learning experience for the team. We learned as much from this past week as we have our entire racing career about chassis set-up. We didn't always get the results we wanted but we still walked a way with 2 "Screaming Eagles", a 3rd place and 4th place trophy. Not bad considering the budgets that some of the teams we competed against had.