April 6th Shifter Kart Test at Rimrock Raceway

I'm a little tardy on this post but wanted to give a recap of my first karting day of 2012. Joe, Stuart and I went to Midland back on April 6th for a practice day in our shifter karts. It was our first time driving the karts since the final SWRC race of 2011 last October. In summary, it was a very productive day. I started the day on heavily worn tires from the SWRC finale but made some rear stiffness changes to improve the balance which allowed me to lower my personal best at Rimrock to a 34.5sec (0.3sec improvement). First, I made switched to a stiffer axle, then I narrowed the rear track, and finally I added a rear torsion bar in the full soft position to improve rear grip and overall side bite. Until this, I was chasing a loose kart and knew there was time to be gained with improved balance.

After a few sessions, we decided to have a time attack lap time battle. We each got three flying laps around the regular long course and 6 laps around the short course (see video below). I switched so a less worn set of MG yellows which has significantly more grip than the previous set I was running. With the newer tires, I dropped my personal best down to a 34.05sec lap so in total I improved 0.7s from my previous personal best. I was the fastest of the group around the long track, but Joe clipped me by 0.07sec around the long course so we split the win. There is no official record, but I have heard through the grapevine that the track record at Rimrock Raceway is in the 33s. Running the elusive 33sec lap is our goal and Joe, Stuart, and I will be racing hard to see who can be the first to the 33s!

Here is some onboard video from our lap time battle: