A Rookie's Tale

[David LeBlanc]

John - great to hear that we'll have another Masters participant. If your rookie season is anything like mine, I think you'll find that you'll find that it is a great group of guys always willing to help a rookie. The same goes for the folks at F1 who have lent me a hand countless times. Hope to see you at the track
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David

[John Viveiros]

Looks there will be 2 new John's in masters....I picked up a used kart last week so if all goes well, I should be turning some laps soon too. I'm sure I'll need some help getting up to speed so any advice is welcome. From what I've seen at the track, seems like a great bunch of guys, which makes trying this as a newbie a little more comforting.
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J Viveiros

[David LeBlanc]

Thats fantastic. I'm pitted over in the storage sheds, third one in from the left. I'm probably too much of a newbie myself to be a ton of help but will certainly try to answer any questions you may have
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David

[Charles Kaneb]

After the April races, I had a relaxed couple of weeks. I got the kart really clean, lubed up the chain pretty well, and tucked it in the shed. My cousin gave me some new numbers from Decal Works, so at last the kart looked like it was really mine - big #101s on the front, back, and sides. Through EKN's classifieds, I bought an AMB transponder and mounted it - this'll save me some real money. There were also people giving good deals on rain tires but indecisiveness prevented me from buying any. I finally took apart the carburetor - the jet takes around 30 seconds to change and is easy, the circlip adjustment is a pain. The jet that had been in there all winter and this spring was a 172, with the richest circlip setting. I went down to 168/2 because it was going to be 60 and humid.

My brother and I got up late this morning, and by the time we'd loaded everything up and strapped down the kart it was 8:30. I've finally figured out how to tie it down with a reasonable number of straps (3, all ratchet) without chipping the paint or letting it get airborne over bumps. We rolled out and set off down to East Bridgewater, arriving at 10:00. Unfortuantely, the track staff wouldn't let me use the second half of last weekend's 2-day pass, so I had to buy a new band today. We then set up the tent, got the tire pressures set, borrowing someone else's gauge. Gauges you can actually put on without letting all the air out of the tires help.

The track was still damp in places with a couple puddles to watch out for. There wasn't much grip on the inside line - it was drier away from the apexes because most of the corners are banked a little. I spent the session having a lot of fun sliding sideways on every wet spot on entry, then straightening it out before the exit and chasing people down. Chicken-Out Chicane, the complex before the banked Daytona corner, was fun because it was wet all the way through and the exit determines where you go on the banking - you can go up but the chicane exit will deposit you into a lane on the banking that you can't go down from unless you lift (please don't!). The track got steadily drier as the session went on.

I was all set for the next session. The kart was flying and it wasn't even beating me up too much. Steve and I rolled it out to the grid and I put on all of my equipment, which now includes a pair of polarized "aviator" sunglasses to cut the glare down. I then went out for some fast laps, following the Zaccaria brothers. They got away a bit on the out lap (I don't go anywhere near flat out on the first lap out of respect to my motor) and then the unsuccessful chase was on. I was absolutely tearing it up, pounding over the bumps with the throttle on the stops and gradually reducing the amount of rear slip on exits. The 1:04.8 from last week was a bit of a fluke but this week it wasn't. Unfortunately, going this fast in practice means that you end up catching a lot of karts.

I got a pretty decent exit off of the last corner before the pits and ran down one of the GP karts down the straight. He left the inside clear into the Fountain turn and I steadily moved off the brakes and slowly steered in on the inside line. Unfortunately, since he was carrying less speed on a larger radius, he had more grip left. Therefore when he turned in, he tightened his line up a lot - right into me! We spun off and came to a halt in the dirt.

The damage looked pretty ugly. The rod end was snapped clear off, allowing the right front wheel to pivot around freely. The steering arm on the spindle bent, so that had to be replaced. It bent right at one of the crescent-shaped holes in the steering arm. The impact also bent the kingpin bolt so that had to be replaced. I straightened the arm in a vise, but there's no way in the world that I'd ever use it again. It'll make a nice souvenir. Roger didn't have the right kingpin bolt so I borrowed one from Ted Cook. I'll return it when I get the right part.

Steve and I replaced the busted parts. It took forever because we had to try every possible combination of washers and radial bevels on the wrong kingpin bolt to try to get it to fit right - but that wasn't going to happen, the bolt just wasn't the right diameter. After borrowing the bolt it went together pretty quickly. Roger then set the toe and we loaded up the kart and headed home.

That was a short, expensive day.

The drive home takes just as long as the drive there, only this time you're wrecked. I think I'll leave that to whomever comes with me from now on, because I was so tired that I forgot to return the shopping basket to Price Chopper after buying Gatorade!
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[Charles Kaneb]

Somehow Sunday was worse than Saturday.

Steve and I unloaded the kart, then rolled it out for the warmup. The starter wouldn't turn, until Tim Hannen wiggled the starter wire to get it to go. Then I went out for some quick laps to make sure the kart was all right after yesterday's repairs.

The corners felt good but the kart was dogging it down the straights, even though 168/2 was about right. Therefore I thought that something was wrong with my corner exits and pressed harder and harder to keep up with the faster karts. I started experimenting with different lines to gain time by keeping the engine wound up over 7000, even if it took a little wheelspin. Some of these worked pretty well. One of them didn't.

We have a very large banked turn at F1 Outdoor. The banking is unlike most. First off, there's no wall around the outside, so it goes completely flat and onto gravel before the barriers. I sincerely doubt this is safe; I'd rather hit a wall traveling somewhere between forward and sideways than to have the kart spiralling through the air before impact as the outside wheels drop off. Second, instead of the banking being taller as you go outside, it flattens out! I guess this is to try to pin everybody to the bottom to prevent overtaking on a corner between (potentially) the two longest straights on the course. Unfortunately, this causes the problem that the higher you run on the banking, the less cornering force you have available. I tried coming through the Chicken-Out Chicane by almost straightlining it, carrying a ton of speed onto the banking. When I started climbing on exit it was all over. I spun into the outer barrier and bent the bumper.

Steve dismantled the rear bumper while I got to work fixing the sidepod that we still hadn't repaired from Saturday. I made another contribution to the Grant Hargens college fund and replaced the outer/upper tube, and then bent the lower tube back into shape with the vise. We missed qualifying and I had to start the race from the back.

Starting from the back isn't so bad if you're not sure how you'll do. I passed a couple karts on the track and gained the usual few places from crashes. I think I was around 10th, but one thing worried me: I was barely running sub-1:07 in conditions that were as good or better than yesterday. It was still slow on the straights, and it took me a while to clear backmarkers because of this, as passing around corners when you're this far back in the pack is really problematical. A drainage grate started to come up, and then it bounced up and hit someone, causing the race to be red-flagged eight laps in.

Then came the feature race. The engine was difficult to start again, and then I spun on the warmup lap and started last again. This time I wasn't coming through the pack though! I knew I had trouble as soon as the green flag dropped. I didn't catch anybody at all and the field was already getting away by the hairpin. No chance, so I just rolled along for eighteen laps, with engine speeds going into turn 1 dropping from 13000 all the way below 12000. I lost a lap, first to the frontrunners, and then humiliatingly being lapped by people I had been able to pass on demand Saturday. I beat exactly one other finisher. Finally I rolled into the pits to a disappointed little brother and a pit canopy that had fallen apart.

I got home and like the guy in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" instantly knew what was up. Normally, you can spin the rear axle and only the chain friction will stop it, and now it takes a lot of effort to turn it one-handed. A more careful look reveals that the two outer axle bearings aren't turning - the inner race is sliding on the axle and the bearings are seized. Grant's going to at least UMass Amherst at this rate.

Two weeks until I put on my big 92-tooth sprocket and hit the 1/8 mile oval at Pomfret. Wish me luck...
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[Jason Harris]

I am in my first season as well and going through the same things to some extent and it is not only great to hear I'm not the only one but your story telling is great.

I had my second race this past weekend (3rd time on a track & in my kart--my first day out i was running on a snow covered track with white out conditions on slicks (not rains)-i wasn't going to let it beat me-couldn't figure out why i was the only one on the track??) and it was a mess. Great day for learning (about the kart and about patience) as if it could go wrong it did. Another good lesson I learned is that what happens in the pits has to stay there and problems with the kart on the track must wait for the pits. You can't drive when you have your head wrapped around everything that is not going right.

I may post my day here just for a good laugh for those that have been there and for those that will come.

Keep up the great stories.

Jason --Arrow AX-8/Rotax

[Tim Hannen]

Chuck

Try to use break cleaner and an airhose to "blow" the crud out of your bearings. Then use WD40 and the air hose to soak the bearings in lubricant. I then use a different lube to finish them off, but WD works great.

Have your bro spin the axle as you spray air and solvent into the bearings. Usually this works without having to take the shield off of the bearings and I would only recommend this if you have decided there is no other option than to replace the bearings.

I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts.

TH

[Chris Crome]

Keep the stories coming. They're a great read, and now I don't feel so bad about "minor" repairs. I know how the repairs can be frustrating. I recently went out with a friend in our Rotax powered TAGs prior to a group rental event. Within 3 laps we had both our karts on stands replacing bent sprockets after getting our right rears off the track. 5 mins racing, 25 mins wrenching.

The thing I like is how you have already learned so much in so little time, and aren't afraid to get in there and do it yourself. Keep up the reports!

[Charles Kaneb]

Tim,

The bearing trick worked. The bearings are now clean and free-spinning.

I also learned something else - it takes a lot more chain lube than you think to make your chain actually run well. Use the Alisyn chain lube, and as you spray it on say to yourself "This chain lube is $7 a bottle. HTK Panther kart chains are $90 each"
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[Francis Amargo]

Charles,
Where did you get the Alisyn lube? On-line or cycle shops got it?

tnx

[Charles Kaneb]

[Charles Kaneb]

Good news. I can now lend out a tire gauge rather than having to borrow one. I bought a Longacre 30-PSI gauge with a built-in hose today. If you need it come to the #101 pit, it's the one with the Subaru station wagon.

Steve and I went to the Woodstock Fairgrounds today. I thought I'd get some testing and setup and tuning done today in a more relaxed atmosphere than at F1, and with laps taking only seconds, I can know whether a different line or setup change worked or not pretty much instantaneously.

The Woodstock Fairgrounds track is tiny. It's a tenth of a mile, which sounds small, but it's not until you walk around it that you realize just how short 528 feet really is. A quarter-mile track is big enough to fit a football field inside. as anyone who's ever competed in either sport knows. I'm not sure if a basketball court would fit inside of this one. However, as soon as you get in the kart you're two inches off the ground any way you look at it, and a lot of the driving experience remains the same. You're still choosing your brake point, braking just barely not hard enough to lock up, trading it off smoothly and steadily into cornering force, choosing how much speed to carry and to what apex, then applying as much power as the tires will handle as you drive away. It doesn't really matter whether you're turning right or left...

We got there around 9:45, as we usually seem to do (Steve doesn't start easily). Apparently the town of Woodstock was promised that we wouldn't start practicing until 12:00 because we couldn't. I had lots of time to check out the oval karts and talk to some other drivers about how to drive on an oval. The main theme seemed to be "don't hit the wall" which I guess is sensible. They did warn me about some bumps on the track.

About 11:30 I went to start the kart. Hit the switch, pushed the button, nothing. Wiggled the wire, pushed the button, nothing. Swore (under my breath, there were a LOT of kids at this event, I may have been the oldest driver there). Murphy's Law guarantees that there's no hole in my sidepod for a starting gun. As we all know, TaG starting systems are completely reliable and capable of starting even the most tempermental engine. I take off the sidepod, borrow a starting gun, and crank it up. Then I go to refit the sidepod... and the engine stalled.

So I borrow the gun again, start it, and then fit the sidepod with one hand half on the throttle cable. If you remember the game Operation, this is it, with higher stakes because the crank bolt is now turning at 2500 RPM and the clutch is taking up and letting go. Finally it's back into place, and now it's time to hit the track. I pull the kart down to the track, setting it down while making sure I don't get run over, because my Rotax's hot idle speed is right around where the clutch starts to take up!

The organizers probably realized as soon as I showed up that a rookie in the wrong sort of kart with 30 horsepower and what looks like a foot wider track is probably better off running alone; forget wondering whether he can avoid the moving hazards, let's see if he can at least dodge the stationary ones. I head out onto the track and it takes me about three laps to get any heat in the tires and realize that left turns are just like right ones, what's different about driving here? I can't say I noticed the bumps at all, but compared to a caged oval kart mine is a Cadillac. I drove fifteen different lines in fifteen different laps and found about three worth driving in the next session. The kart seemed to be very tight unless I applied a lot of power or locking the rear wheel a little bit going in. Most laps were in the high 8s with the best being 8.35.

Naturally, since this is a test-and-tune day for me I didn't bring the Arrow chassis setup guide. I had to solve two problems before the next session; the entry tightness and the time it took to get the tires warm. I solved the tire heat problem by leaving the kart out in the sun, but saw a better solution that I'll unleash at the next event... I decreased the track up front and went out for a largely uneventful next session.

Steve's getting impatient, he doesn't like ovals in the first place and I seem to not know what I'm doing at all. He tells me that we're going to leave after the next session. I really wish he hadn't stayed up till 4 AM, but I don't know what to try and it doesn't look like I can change the setup much without having additional spacers to put on and take out. The setup guide says "increase rear track" or "increase front track", but how am I supposed to do this? I know how to decrease the front track by moving spacers from the inside of the wheel to the outside but I don't know how to adjust the back at all.

I looked at my tires and decided to get aggressive. Up to now I had been running a completely symmetrical setup, with 11 PSI all around. However, it looks like I'm not using half of my outside tires - or any of my inside ones. I confirmed with the driver in the next pit that they stagger* their tire pressures, and lowered the inside tires to 6 PSI and the outsides to 8.

With so few participants (maybe 25 karts there and no more than 4 on the track at any given time) there weren't many people watching the practice session on the track. However, when I headed down again about fifteen people came down to see the road-racer in the sprint kart fire himself into the tires.

It worked spectacularly. I now had a kart that turned in instantly and soaked up the transition from apex to power in a very forgiving manner. I went from a kart that had to be featherfooted the whole way around to one that could take full throttle by the time it was going straight. In addition, the MAX was turning 7000 at midcorner so I didn't have to worry about the power suddenly coming on, it was easy to regulate.

The other karts were running either a "low groove" or a "medium-high groove". I was running a "dirt to dirt to dirt" groove, because I had so much power available that it was almost silly. I had a couple reasonably big moments when I locked the rears up a little but the last five laps I was flying. I got down to 8.0 even (8.02 on Mychron) which equates to 40 MPH average speed and I was doing 10000 RPM entering turn 1 which equates to over 50 miles per hour.

Up to now, I've just been "releasing" the kart as I add power coming off the corners. However, if what works on a lightly banked left turn on an oval works on a lightly banked left turn on a road course, it seems to be better to drive the kart out of the corners, deliberately getting the inside wheel back on the ground to be able to apply more power without having the kart hop. Has anyone else tried/noticed this?

I went around to see what everyone else was turning and the #33 Medium Animal was next fastest at 8.8 seconds so I guess that a vastly overpowered wide-tracked kart with a greenhorn driver who doesn't know how much hitting the tires can hurt can be pretty quick. Unfortunately Steve hauled me back home after this. I don't think I can run tomorrow, the WKA oval program doesn't appear to have a class for "two-stroke engines not otherwise classified".

Has anyone else had my problem with the starter motor? If so, how did you fix it? My engine runs like a champ but really really doesn't like to idle with the water temperature above 90 degrees. Is this normal? I've got the idle air control screwed almost all the way in.

I learned a lot today, but not really what I wanted to learn. I guess I've got to get better as a kart mechanic before I can concentrate on setup, it would've been a lot better to just run a lot of laps and change nothing but air pressure.
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[Gavin Newman]

Charles

One of the most important tools in a Rotax driver's kit is a multimeter. When your starter fails to turn at all you need to start following the wiring from the battery down to the starter to find the point at which your voltage disappears.

Set the meter to DC voltage and connect one probe to the negative terminal on the battery. Leave the ignition switch off (the starter circuit will operate without the ignition switch being on). Then its a matter of checking for voltage on both sides of the starter switch (obviously with the button pressed). If there's voltage on one side but not the other then the switch is suspect.

If that all works the next place to check is the connector in the wiring loom that connects the starter motor flylead to the loom. This is a white clip connector near the starter motor. Disconnect the connector and check for voltage in the female half (again with the starter button depressed). If there's no voltage there then the loom is at fault.

If that works then plug the connector back together then follow the short thick red wire to the starter and pull back the rubber cover over the terminal and check for voltage there with the button pressed. If there's voltage at that point then you know that the fault lies within the starter.

There are two main things that can go wrong with this component. Sometimes the the brushes stick in their carriers and don't make contact with the armature, this can sometimes be cured temporarily by giving the starter case a thump with the handle end of a large screwdriver. The other more common fault is that the flexible braids inside the case that connect the terminal to the brushes can fray and go open circuit. If this is the case then the starter needs to be rebuilt with new brushes and braids.

I infer from your posts that you have an Arrows chassis. If this is the case and you have one of the angine mounts with the plastic isolation inserts there's a very remote chance that if the earth lead on the engine coil (at the rear of the engine near the power valve) is dodgy it may not pass enough current for the starter but provide enough earthing for the ignition system. Unlikely but it might be worth checking.

Hope this helps. Rgds - Gavin

[Charles Kaneb]

My uncle and I rebuilt the starter the Thursday before the race. Everyone's suspicions were right - the brush wire fell off. Stupid $200+ drill motor.

We headed out to the track and unloaded. I went out in the first session, and turned some lousy laps - the kart had no pull at the top end. I was being passed by everyone in sight and then some.

Dad and Steve got some sandwiches from Roche Bros., and they were awful. The meat was dry and the bread was hard and stale. Better and cheaper to go to McDonalds, or make them at home and bring them.

I went out for the next session and pressed the starter button. "Ding" then silence.

Tried it again. "Ding" then silence.

Tried it again. Silence.

Hauled the kart off the track. No idea what the hell was wrong. The starter switch was shot when I tested it but that means it probably got fried when I tried to start it.

I took the motor apart (it is MUCH easier to take the engine out of a kart and reach the starter motor that way than the seat). Naturally, the only screw that hadn't been touched in the rebuild was the one that fell out and shorted the starter.

My uncle and I put it back together, this time coating each bolt in nail polish (works about as well as Loctite on small fasteners and dissolves in acetone). We checked it this time with some jumper cables and it spun readily.

A roll of paper towels costs $1.79 and is worth every penny. Karts get very dirty especially around the engine, and eventually with a rag you'll just succeed in moving the dirt from the really dirty areas to the clean ones. Paper towels can go in the fireplace afterwards, but you have to wash rags and can't leave them sitting around. I finally got everything clean and hauled off a couple pounds of dirt reinstalling the engine.
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[Salvie Zaccaria]

Charles the early starters had a small problem. The braided copper lead from the brush to the positive bus bar would fall off. We put a little solder on it 4 years ago and have not had a starter problem since then. We have not had a starter problem with our new engines since we bought them 2 years ago. We run both old and new engines quite a bit. I always use blue LocTite on all our parts as there is quite a lot of HEAT and Vibration at 14,000 RPM. As for the sandwiches I think the food in and around Boston is amongst the best in the country. Try Marcello,s
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Salvie Sr, Zanardi #7 and #8
F1 Boston