Thunder Hill Aug 1st

[Michael LaGrone]

Thanks to all who attended the Friday Race at Thunder Hill. It was a HOT one, for those of you who dont think being in good shape to race karts just found out the hard way  I started the day weighing in at 428lbs and ended the day at 419lbs. lost 9 lbs of water weight.

Any way on to other topics, the 250 twin did not do so well as I quickly figured out what all the super kart guys go through on a regular basis. After a bunch of jetting/tuning. 1st lap: pulling hard to the right, way too much over steer. and after one lap fell flat on its face! front cylinder stuck… bummer. But WOW that thing was fast (for about 30 sec)

A couple fast guys showed up from oregon & Washington Mike Ray and Todd Olsen

Race #1:

2nd lap Mike Ray goes inside on turn 11 oops… dirt nap. Then Connor Sollis my self, Joe Hollinger  and Todd had a go at it. Connor gets the victory in the Formula class and Todd gets the win in the WC Stock moto class with my self getting 2nd place in the WC stock moto class.

Race 4:

Again its Connor,  Mike Ray and Todd up front with my self  with in 30 yards. With Mike Ray getting the pole, Todd 2nd and my self third in the stock moto class. Connor getting the win in the formula 125 class.

Race 7:

Mike Ray had trouble at the grid, at the last moment he noticed that he had blisters in the rear right tire… in that heat we all cook the rear right tire. Then he had trouble starting the shifter…So I by default move up one position and get the pole with Todd beside me. This race was much more competitive with Doug Ring and Joe hollenger in the mix late in the race. But at the end of the day Todd had too much for me and got the win by about 100 yards my self second and connor right on my rear bumper.
So Connor again gets the win in the formula 125 class Todd the win in heat 2 my self the 2nd place in heat two.

The over all win in the stock moto class goes to Todd Olsen with a 2/1 finish and myself 2nd with a 3/2 finish….Over all a great day of racing.

Lets all get ready for willow springs, perhaps another friday night BBQ? The last one was a good try but we need more support!!! Lets go guys, how about some beer and BBQ friday night? Who is interested? Ill bring the grill.
Mike LaGrone #16

[Bob Wilson]

Please allow me to make a correction to your post. While I am sure Greg Jaime is a fine

[Bob Wilson]

While I am sure Greg Jaime is a fine gentleman and an excellent competitor, the 82 you were refering to wasn’t him. Facts are also that the 82 in question was from Washington, not Oregon. Next time we are  down or you come north, lets make it point to introduce ourselves to each other

[Greg Jaime]

Yes Bob is correct, I was half way home having lunch during race 4 and on my couch during race 7 .I did hang out with the front group during race 1 until turn 5 curb got my axle.

[Michael LaGrone]

Bob, Yes Thanks for correcting me!!! I was not sure who it was so I looked on the sign up sheet… my bad… I will edit my post. It was you right?

You gave me a little :”love tap” in turn three :-)

[Bob Wilson]

No Mike, I am just a mechanic, a fan on the sidelines. I work for Todd Olson.

[Michael LaGrone]

oops I will edit the post again :-)

[Michael LaGrone]

Lets see if this Link works

 

Thunder Hill Aug 1,2014 Race 4

 

[Greg Lindahl]

Looking forward to WS next month.  Should be there on Friday and a BBQ and socializing sounds like great fun.

Will bring the CR80 Laydown again and plan to get more development done.  It’s a blast to drive and it would be great to have some folks to race with.  There is a group in the Northwest of about 25 of these karts.  The problem is that there aren’t many races up there that have good weather, and this racer has no interest in racing in the wet.

I believe there will be a contingent of CR80 Laydown karts at the October Thunderhill West race.  I plan to race my Modified CR80 Sprint there as it looks like a great track for a sprint kart.

[Michael LaGrone]

Greg,

We look forward to having you at WS. The lay down kart class historically in NCK has not had a great turn out, however we used to have a great 80 shifter class. There are still a few 80 shifter guys who frequently race with us. I used to be in the formula 80 shifter class, we all kind of elvolved into the 125 stock moto class. This class in the most popular / competitive in our club… But bring what ya got… we must race!!!!

Mike #16

[Michael LaGrone]

Race #4 Thunder Hill aug 1,2014

 

Mike #16

[Michael LaGrone]

Race # 1

 

[Michael LaGrone]

at 2:30 is when Mike Ray takes a dirt nap.

[Michael LaGrone]

@3:38 Todd gives ma a love tap… game on…

[Chris Hegar]

Michael,

Mr Ray rarely posts on here so I thought I’d let you know what actually happened to him. Race #1 he he got hit by a spinning kart which sent him off track. In race #2 he had an MG tire failure which has been common with the yellows in road race cik 125. In the NW even with cool weather I have seen many tires come apart, it’s a factory defect originally  thought to be a bad batch now known to be a continuous unspoken problem. In our personal group of 5 karts (3 srock moto and 2 ICC) we have seen a loss of 7 tires front and rears alike at Portland, Laguna, The Ridge and Oregon Raceway Park, all tracks high load high speed. Mr Ray did have a motor issue in the Thunderhill final which was solved by Sunday when he ran for the top spot all day in 2 different classes at ORP. Glad to see you guys had fun, hope we can make it down some time.

Greg, Dad’s working on an 80cc laydown as well. Rain… we don’t got no rain around here, it’s been 90 for 2 weeks! Come up next season if you can.

[Michael LaGrone]

Chris,

Yes I cooked my right rear yellow MG as well in race #4!!! I am glad you posted this because I will contact Axcelleration Karting and see if they will credit me for a brand new tire !!!. I have been running MG yellows/whites/greens for several years in Road racing and I have never had an issue.

I did not know exactly what happend to Mike but I knew he was very fast as I was running with him. I can only think that some one hit him from behind as he tried to go inside on 11. It may have been Connor??

[Bob Wilson]

No one can seem to open the first race video as it is listed as private. I would sure love to see this love tap  you are referring to.  Fix your video so all can make their judgement as to what happened, if anything.

[Doug Ring]

Mike/Chris,

I took Mike Ray out in R1, as I tried an unsuccessful dive-bomb on the inside of T11 on L1.  He and his dad graciously accepted my apology afterward.

Interesting comments on MG’s and road racing.  Joe had a pretty bad separation by the end of R7, not sure if it was a front or rear.  I have never had this type of issue with MG yellows (in fact, by the end of R7 that particular set of yellows had four races on them – both races at Laguna and two full races at Thunderhill – and I still got second fastest lap), but I think that I tend to run a bit higher pressure than normal, and I flip the front tires between races.

[Chris Hegar]

We tested all kinds or pressure with the same results. This issue was also common among some runners in the mid west. At first our thought was that some curb had a sharp edge because that’s the kind of tear it tends to look like but after more than one track it was obvious and the fact that MG replaced more than one set for free proved a factory issue. For us we will not risk tire failure, an instant flat at speed can put you on your head and we do not need that possibility. My brother and cousin both went off at over 100 in high load corners, no more MG for us.

[Bob Wilson]

We were getting some wild wear on our right front. Wear like I’m not used to seeing. Then again, we don’t run in this kind of heat. Since we haven’t had catastrophic failure, we are going to chance it with MG’s.

[Greg Lindahl]

Chris;

Nice to hear that your dad will be joining the 80 roadrace group.  Now, let’s get Bill to take that TM off and put an 80 on his roadracer!

I look forward to racing with the NW 80 group at Thunderhill West in October.  If they come down I may have to race with them, especially if your dad is with them!

The starter on Dave’s 125 shifter worked great at Laguna Seca.  He’s already VERY spoiled and expects the kart the just start and idle like a Toyota!

Greg

[Michael LaGrone]

OK I fixed the Video for race one…however it happed beside me in lap 1 at 2:30 you cant see much..Doug… please post your video

[Bob Wilson]

That wasn’t a love tap, you came across our bow. That is the only way that kart would react like that. It looks as though we were attempting to take the inside line, a line you wanted as well and there was some incidental contact. There was certainly no malice or intent. I’m not sure why it was mentioned. Let’s remember that save for the bench race sessions over a couple of cold beers!

[Michael LaGrone]

Bob,

It was mentioned as a fun comment with a smile :-) “come acroos our bow”? I was clearly in front with the line. in fact Todd apoligised to me after the race. I am not sure why you are making an issue out of nothing… it is racing and I am OK with it.. I will gladly accept your beer(s) :-) carry on :-)

[blair]

Greg,

What’s this you are going to race your SIT-UP 80 at Thunderhill West?  LAY-DOWN and take it like a man!

You’ve threatened to bring that LD machine around a couple times and i haven’t seen it.  Not sure it actually exists…

 

[Greg Lindahl]

Hi Blair.

Stop the rain up there!

You coming down?  If so, I’ll bring the LD.  It has life!

Raced it at Sonoma last Turkey Day weekend.  Heavy crash with an errant superkart kept testing to ~30 minutes.

I took it to Willow Springs earlier this year and worked out some development issues.  Cooling wasn’t large enough.  Cockpit not comfortable.  Stuff…  Total time was ~35 minutes.

Will be taking it again to Willow Springs next month, on the 20th.  The track is really rough at one end, but the rest is pretty smooth and very fast.  A good spot to test.

Raced the modified CR80 sprint shifter at Laguna last month.  Ran out of talent and speed after ~20 minutes of total time.

Our races are dry and warm.

 

 

[Doug Ring]

My version of race 7:

https://vimeo.com/102982178

Another fun race with Mike, Joe, and Connor.

[Michael LaGrone]

Great Video Doug!!!

[Bob Wilson]

Not only are these GoPro videos very cool, especially for a ‘wall guy’ like me to get a sense of what you all experience first hand, but they are a great teaching tool for those teams like of us who like to travel a little but don’t have a track like this readily available. It was nice to re-aquaint with the racing line before we set sail south. Regrettably, we hadn’t visited Thunderhill since the 2003 Grands, and even then it was in a Rotax, so it is obvious how helpful all of you GoPro pilots in our class structure are to the rest of us technically challenged competitors. Please post your videos of the West layout as I don’t think we are going to make it in the fall to see for ourselves. Yes, I am a little jealous of those of you that will be there to christen the new track! And FWIW, our first RRGN was at Thunderhill and it was awesome! If there was ever a chance to run for a Duffy at that track again, well,  I’m just throwing out hopes and wishes……..

[Doug Ring]

Hi Bob,

 

Not to get too technical, but I shot my TH video using a Garmin VIRB camera.  I tried one of the early GoPro’s a long time ago, spent 2+ frustrating years using Contour cameras (worked about half the time…), but so far I’ve been very happy with the image quality and consistency of use with the VIRB.

[Author]

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