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Eric Franzen
Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 31
Location: United States, Washington, Seattle
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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:24 am Post subject: Ryan Hunter-Reay drives 75hp Briggs kart! |
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I saw this article posted over at SpeedTV.
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HUNTER-REAY: Fire And Ice
Written by: Ryan Hunter-Reay
http://www.ryanracing.com/ Date: 06/08/2009 - 01:50 AM
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
I started out the Milwaukee weekend at Road America of all places. I’ve had a long and healthy relationship with Fred Stratton and Briggs & Stratton over the years. Fred has an annual “track day” at Road America where he invites his closest friends to bring whatever toys they have to what is in my opinion the best road course in America.
After driving a few Porsches, Ferraris and a few others we went to the kart track at the infield of Road America, which is sponsored by Briggs & Stratton. We played around for a couple hours in there 15hp 4 cycles, then they rolled out the highlight of my day. Briggs & Stratton are working on several development projects solely for kart racing and this was the latest and greatest. All I can say is the motor put out 75hp! By far the fastest kart I have ever driven, it had my full and complete attention the entire time.
The power to weight ratio of this thing tops an F1 car! After a few too many laps the power was too much for the chain. The chain split and hit the oil cooler cracking it at its base and the day was done for our development project kart. What a blast.
Milwaukee was a tough weekend for us to say the least. This track has been fire and ice for me since first racing at the oldest race track in the word in 2002. I was racing in Atlantics and qualified on pole and led every lap of the race until my engine blew with about 20 laps to go. 2003 ended in the wall with light contact. 2004 I sat on the pole and set a series record for leading the most laps ever in one event, an incredible night where we lapped up to 3rd place.
2005 I was really loose and ended in turn two wall. 2008 and ’09 were similar where we struggled with balance through the race. The Milwaukee Mile is a track unlike any other. I love it. It is a short one-mile oval that races more like a road course than anything. The difference between a good race car and one where you find yourself 3 laps down is a very fine line. Imperfections and mistakes are magnified around this place and when you get it right it really rewards you. Fire and ice.
Seems like most my visits to Milwaukee include a trip to Miller Park to watch the Brewers play. Last year I threw out the first pitch and watched from the “Gehl Club”, which is one of the biggest suites I have ever seen at a sports complex. Friday, the team squared around tickets for anyone that wanted to go and we had most the team there about 20 rows behind home plate. I bought all the guys a well deserved round of beer, it was a good time.
The start of the race went well for us, I was able to get around 4-5 cars in the first corner around the outside and we settled into a pretty good rhythm. In T2 I was really having issues with a loose rear and had several huge saves as the rear slid to the wall in traffic. The guys did a great job in the pits, but we just couldn’t quite get the balance right on the track. Unfortunately the left front wing end fence loosened up and took the wing flaps with it, so our handling issues were thrown another curve ball. We salvaged the day, got some points and rolled the car back in the truck with all four wheels on it. At times during the race it didn’t quite look like that was going to be the outcome.
That was definitely the hardest I have ever had to work for a 12 place finish. Every lap was a challenge—that’s Milwaukee.
Monday morning I went down to Ft. Lauderdale to visit with my Mom who is in a huge fight with stage 4 (advanced) colon cancer. It was great to see her again after a very long month of May. I’m very proud of her, she’s fighting very hard and has a positive attitude, which is the toughest thing to maintain when battling cancer like this. I have recently been speaking with the folks at LIVESTRONG and we are looking to work together very soon. Hopefully more on that in the coming months.
Still doing lots of catch up from May and constantly in contact with the folks at Vision Racing as we are in the thick of the season right now, especially on the oval side. It was a very short week, I arrived in FL on Monday afternoon and it was right back out to Texas Thursday morning. TMS is huge and the IndyCar Series puts on a show here like no other. If you watch an IndyCar race here and watch a NASCAR race here, I’m not quite sure how you couldn’t jump on the IndyCar bandwagon.
I have un-finished business here at Texas. Last year we qualified 10th and ran in the top 4 all night. I was passing for 2nd on Marco with only two laps to go last year when we came together in big way, so we’re going to be working very hard to make our car good in traffic so that we can move up through the pack all night. Get ready for a crazy race…
Ryan
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/hunter-reay-fire-and-ice/
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Chad Stapleton
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 4403
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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Hmmm ? .. my guess is they are working on a rotary motor. ! 
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Chad
"Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do !!" |
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Karl Cleeton
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 117
Location: United States, California, Benicia
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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There's a thread on this over over in the General Discussion http://www.ekartingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=83286
You can find a link there to a short video clip of the kart in action.
Dave Klaus wrote: | Quote: | The kart was a French manufacturer called 'Go-kart'. It was designed for our V-twin which was previously a stock class in Europe. Pump this kind of HP through it and the chassis sounds like it is screaming for mercy. -laughing- Look closely and the line around the track is layed out in rubber.
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Paul Williamson
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 1638
Location: United States, California, Frazier park
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| Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:48 am Post subject: |
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 That's quite a lawn mower engine!
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