1st day in the shifter.....not like I planned it

I picked up my new shifter kart from Kevin Adds and Mike Jones of The Kart Shop, Inc. The chassis is in great shape with only 2 races and 1 practice day on it (not bad for a 2007 chassis) and the motor fired up instantly. I took it back to my girlfriends parent's house in Dallas (where I will be staying on race weekend in Dallas) for further inspection/prep for my first practice session on Sunday. Everything looked in good racing order.....except for the fact that we forgot to turn the choke off after starting the engine on Friday night.


I got out to the track about 10 AM on Sunday. The main goal was getting used to driving a shifter and to set a baseline lap time for future driver/kart improvement. This plan was hampered however by only getting 10 laps in before the throttle cable came loose leading to the RPM dropping to idle leading to the motor stalling because I was running WAY too rich with the choke still on. After an hour of trying to unsuccessfully re-start the engine, I had to leave for the track to start my journey back to San Angelo.

The engine is fine and is producing good spark, but it was just too flooded to refire even with a new spark plug so I didn't do any damage - I just screwed up my day. However, my ruined day was kind of recovered when I got to drive a Factory Five Cobra replica with a Ford 5.0 engine and eat delicious Mexican food at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth. I will be back at the track in two weeks for practice at Rimrock Speedway in the home of Chaparral Cars - Midland, TX.


NOTE: Yes, the kart does have a Jeff Gordon Dupont decal scheme. The previous owner does business with Dupont and Jeff Gordon, so he threw on some flame-filled Dupont Chevy graphics. I will be removing them for something slightly more under-stated and non-NASCAR.