Senna Podiums Again But Not Without Drama
Intro:
We started off Sunday morning a leg behind, as we were just returning from a four-day camping trip from Camp Dakota (www.campdakota.com). We were able to take the trailer to the race track on Saturday evening and left it there to unpack upon our return in the morning. I had prepared Senna’s kart before the camping trip, so this left us with little to do to the kart before the race. This meant that most of our morning was spent setting up our pit area and helping others get ready for a day of racing. The track layout for the day was the shortest version ran in the clockwise direction. What normally is the “short shoot” or an access road for the out-lap before a race, became part of the track which had lap times at an all time low of around thirty seconds.
Practice 1:
Senna was sent out for practice one with a multi-class of drivers, ranging from LO206 Junior One, and Junior Two. Immediately, we noticed that there was an issue of slower drivers from the LO206 Junior One class being caught and lapped causing overcrowding. We discovered that there was no possible way to get a clean lap and therefore not able to get good data for proper kart setup. The biggest problem is that we were putting our kart in a high-risk situation of crashing or breaking parts with very little return. The session ended and we, along with our fellow pit mates vented our frustrations of the session.
Practice 2:
Senna’s kart returned from the session unscathed, however, some of our other friends didn’t fair as well. My focus turned to Andy Oki, who has helped us on several occasions, and had bent a rear axle. We immediately jumped on the kart and started working on ways to straighten the rear axle. After grabbing a crowbar, hammer, and a tool that measures an item of how much wobble there was, we started straightening the axle. With lots of hammering, jumping, and measuring, we got the axle drivable, even with a small bend that still caused vibrations for Andy’s steering wheel. During this time of working on Andy’s kart, we missed Senna’s practice two session. However, all of our pit mates decided not to participate in the session as it was too crowded and the risk was too high to do the session.
Qualifying:
Qualifying was a better session because the organizers allowed the groups to run without other groups running at the same time. Senna went out and he was driving well. Since it was morning, fairly cool, and somewhat of a short session, I decided to run his tire pressures a little higher than normal so they would get activated sooner. This seemed to help as he ended the session in fourth place, beating out some of the competitors that are normally faster than him. This was a good sign and shows that he’s moving in the right direction. The more interesting part though was second place through sixth place were only separated by a couple of tenths of a second! This means that these races today would heavily rely on drafting and taking advantage of only one passing zone. Senna placed well, but he had a lot of work to do.
Heat 1:
If there ever was going to be drama for the day, then heat one was where it was at for Senna. On the way out to the track, leaving the pit grid, Senna brushed his rear wheel with the fence post causing an immediate retirement from the session with a bent axle. Before Senna could make it back to the pit area, I was already headed to CMC for a replacement axle but unfortunately, Don didn’t have any available for purchase. A couple of other teams looked around and had nothing available. As I picked up the kart, I had to ask Senna what happened and to see if this was a mistake that he did or if he was forced. When it came down to it, this was an accident that landed on his shoulders. We all make mistakes, the questions are: can you learn from them, and can you recover and race again after we fix the repair?
Finally, at Word Racing they had an ItaliaKart rear axle that would match with the OTK Kosmic Kart axle and it would fit perfectly. Over the next hour, our friends Vinny, Marucio, Randy from Word Racing and I, worked frantically to get the bent rear axled removed and the new one replace. A dejected Senna, stood there watching with his helmet still on, in shock from what he did. Eventually, I had to tell him to go to the trailer to get out of the sun and cool off and refocus; that we would get the kart ready in time for the next race. We did get the kart ready but only within the last minutes before the second heat. High-fives were given and we were still in the race!
Heat 2:
Senna started in the third position because of the reverse grid. This gave him the opportunity to have a better position if he finished well, in the final. We could only hope and pray that the new axle was going to work well for him and his driving style. This heat would tell us that. Senna had a fantastic start and seems to be one of his strongest abilities. He immediately jumped into second place before turn-one and held it there for almost the entire race while putting pressure on his friend Enzo. Senna was faster through a majority of the track except for turn-one where all the passing needed to be done. Both Senna and Enzo were pulling away from the rest of the field but Senna just couldn’t get around Enzo. Eventually with all the fighting between Enzo and Senna; third, four, and fifth place drivers had closed the one five-second gap and Senna would eventually get past while trying to make a move for the lead. With this being done in the final laps of the race, Senna ended up third for the heat and more importantly, we knew that the kart setup was good as he was able to stay with the leaders the entire race. Senna was and is improving!
Final:
Before heading to the grid, I made a last-minute decision to change Senna’s rear gear from a 56 tooth to a 55. This would give him a little more room at the end of the straight before hitting the rev limiter. Now, if there wasn’t already drama before with Senna’s bent axle, then there was drama going into the final. Immediately heading out onto the track, the pole sitter, Cameron Hill had a clutch that froze on him and retired him before heading out onto the grid. This improved Senna’s grid position from fourth to third. At the race start, Senna had another great start and almost improved his position again but the angle made it impossible for a clean pass, and had to lift to keep from a collision. The entire race was nose-to-tail racing as the top three pulled away from the rest of the field. Eventually, another fast racer, Marcus Carrasco, would retire from a carburetor failure. Any one of these top three kids could have won the race as the difference between them was 0.3 seconds. The next place back was over a half-a-lap back (16 seconds).
Conclusion:
Overall, today was a great day. We did have our drama with his bent axle but going into the final and what ensued was probably one of the best, if not the best racing I’ve seen Senna race to date. There was no distance between first and third for the entire race and you could see Senna thinking and trying different things to make the pass. He became aware of his kart and also of the other racers. I feel that we had even more improvement than being able to keep with racers that have pulled away from him has sparked new life in his confidence.
As it stands right now, Senna is placed third in the championship. It will be difficult to catch second place as Senna missed the first three races and his competitors have a point gap on him. He is closing that gap though! Our next race will be on September 18th at the McMinnville fairgrounds. If you’d like to come and watch, then please let me know so I can get you pit passes! We would love to see you there.