NTK Spring Race # 3 Recap

Using the Kerbs in the NTK Chicane

I raced with the North Texas Karters this past Saturday in Denton, TX. It was great karting weather and Ali and her family joined me for the day which was a huge help. To keep the budget down, I am trying to save all of my used SWRC tires to use for NTK club races. Oklahoma Motorsports Complex has high tire wear, so my tires were close to the wear bars at the start of my event. This worked OK, but I could have used some new tires as I had to keep mounting and swapping tires to keep four decent ones on the kart. Despite this, I was able to lower my personal best time around NTK by 0.2s.

I ran about 45 laps during the day which will be good preparation for the SWRC race at NTK in May. Qualifying started at 1PM on Saturday and I was able to secure pole position for the heat race with a qualifying time of 37.74. This was a few tenths off of my fastest practice lap, but still got the job done. In the heat race, I was passed by Andrew Perkins in the CRG kart on Lap 2 of the 8 lap race and he checked out. With two karts directly behind me for the whole race, it was an exciting race and I was able to cross the line in 2nd place.

I lined up 2nd on the grid for the 12-lap feature race, but things went downhill from here. As I entered Turn 2 on the warm-up lap, I felt the rear-end start to walk out, and then I did a 360 off-track into the tire barrier. As I sat in the grass, it was immediately apparent what the
culprit was as I saw my right rear tire folded up in the center of the wheel. At mid-corner of a 2G 50mph corner, my right rear tire de-beaded causing me to lose all rear grip and lose control. Luckily, I was fine and the kart was not damaged, but my race was over. It was a disappointing end to a fun day these things happen in racing.

Right Rear Tire Failure during Feature Race

More photos from the race:



photo credit: Charles Rutherford