SENIOR MOMENTS SENDS A MESSAGE TO OPEN 2005! Cal-Speed 4 Hour Endurance Race at Fontana, 3/13 In a race featuring a mix of experienced and new teams including a team of MX/SX multiple national champions and long-time nemesis Team RMC (aka Boogity Boogity, etc), Senior Moments Racing proved once again that it has "staying power." Both the weather and the track were challenging for old joints. The former was unusually cold and misty for SoCal, the latter physically pounding with as many as 7 bumps a lap, lap after lap. A painful combination, ouch! For the race SMR split into two entries: Senior Moments 1 and Senior Moments 2 (Junior Moments). SM1 was made up of team vets Professor Silk, Snake, and Hughman. The SM2 contingent consisted of highly experienced racers Steve (Team T) Donald and Dave Leflang (of PerfectLaps) joined by Dr. Speed. In a display of consistency (a warning for the other teams) rather than outright speed, the two SMR teams qualified 5th (SM2) and 6th in the nine-kart field. Yet, after an amazing start using their new "no-push" start control technology (hint: it's all in the wrist), SM2 with Leflang driving had moved up to P1 by the end of the second lap and SM1 (driven by Professor Silk) into P4. One of the most important events in the race occured early in lap 2 when Team RMC and the the MX/SX team both spun after colliding in a corner. Things pretty much remained in that order for the entire race despite the track really "going away" in the last hour. Rarely the fastest kart on the track, SM2 laid down consistent times lap after lap for a P1 finish a lap and a half above Team RMC in second and the MX/SX team in third. Occasionally as high as P1 and P2, SM1 also ran a strongly consistent race to finish a close P4, one position away from the podium. In the end SM1 and SM2 crossed the finish line together in one of those rare displays of racing dominance. All in all, this was one of the most successful events ever entered by Senior Moments Racing. The next endurance race is the 6-hour event on May 15th, also at California Speedway.	May 2005 -- 6 Hour Endurance Race CalSpeed. Senior Moments gets podium double in Fontana 6-hour enduro 5/15/05 Senior Moments Racing won its second race in a row this weekend in the 6-hour Cal-Speed Enduro under sunny and warm (90 degrees F) conditions at California Speedway in Fontana. In an historic first, the Senior Moments II entry (Steve Donald, Dave Carlisle, and new driver and former truck racer Mark Cross) took P1 while the Senior Moments I entry (Gerry Florez, Steve Nakajima, and Hugh Robertson) finished third one lap down. After qualifying 5th, SM II used its patented “launch control” with good success for the second race in a row, moving up to 2nd place at the end of the first lap. After overcoming a slow leak in its right rear tire, SM II ultimately won by only 6 seconds out of 21,600 driven. Finishing second and closing by about a second a lap at the end was regular nemesis C&M Racing. After leading at several points in the early going, the SM I entry was stricken by bad luck, throwing a chain and spinning out of first place about half-way through the event. Nonetheless, the SM I drivers demonstrated their experience and resolve, battling back and easily finishing in third place. Senior Moments Racing thanks Rob Niles and the rest of the Karting Ventures crew for an excellent, incident- free event. 12 Hours of Las Vegas 2004 December 4th, 2004, Gerry, Hugh, Dave and Steve ran the 12 Hours of Las Vegas finishing 6th in a very competive field with teams which included racers such as Joey Hand and Marco Andretti (grandson of Mario). Racing was even more challenging in freezing 32 degree weather and a slick, dark track during a race which ran from 12 noon to 12 midnight. See pictures posted on the Ofoto website. 12 Hours of Las Vegas 2003 Team Senior Moments Survives to Reach the Podium in the 12 Hours of Las Vegas, October 25, 2003. Through the heat of the desert day and dark of the night, the team of Gerry, Hugh, Dave and Steve pressed on for another hard fought podium finish. Gerry Florez was presented with the inaugural 2003 Karting Ventures "Sportsman of the Year Award" for his exceptional and passionate contribution to the sport of Karting.
Florez and Robertson, tough battle at Adams Raceway, Riverside 9/27/03 Well, you still need to get up pretty early even for an "afternoon" race day at Adams! The fog was just lifting as the paddock came to life at the start of what turned out to be a warm southern California Saturday. The American Sportsman class saw 10 drivers make the practice and qualifying with a points battle going for the top 5 drivers. The Bearded-one still had the lead, but Professor Silk wasn't out of the hunt. I was able to follow Silk around for the first practice and was feeling pretty good. We weren't the fastest, but I was able to hang with Gerry while remembering the line and focusing on smooth. At the start of the second practice, the field was late and I was able to get out first and have an extra lap. I felt real smooth and faster, but my times were a second off the mid to low 55's of the quicker group which had me frustrated. Jim Campbell was behind me and give me a couple of pointers on the line. Silk trimmed a second off his first practice session and was in the hunt for the front row. Qualifying is always a bit of a mystery. Be smooth, be aggressive, don't try too hard, push it, slow in fast out...all the mantras running through my head! I was able to squeeze into the 55's but that had me in 7th while Silk was in P4. I was just having a devil of a time getting my kart out of the turns with a little vigor and wasn't being too successful with the slow in stuff...still had me slow out! Plus I took a little smoothness out while keeping up the rolling speed (trying the fast in..fast out). The premain was a bit chaotic at the start. My kart suffered from low end grunt and therefore I was lagging when the green dropped and the pack pulled away. The good fortune was that I could see the carnage developing ahead in Turn 1. I slipped under the smoke spinning karts to find myself in P3. Gerry ended up in the sand and spent the rest of the heat catching up. I was passed late in the session and finished in 4th with Silk in P5. My start in the main was better and came out of the Big Monza holding my starting grid position. My inability to get out of the slow turns quickly had me moving backwards at the beginning of the race. I did my best to make it hard on the challengers but had to settle in to P7 after Jim Campbell and Gerry got around me. Silk and I had some good side-by side action in some of the tougher spots on the track and I hope I made him work for the position! I settled into a rhythm and tried to keep Campbell in P6 in my sights. Prior to the main, Campbell was really playing the mind game, how he was going to leave me in his exhaust plume. I was looking for suggestions to pick up my pace which included stiffening up the chassis with the bar in the back. He chuckled all the way to the tool box while meeting my requests. He continued the chatter up to green flag. As Campbell began to slow ahead of me I began to realize I may be able to overtake him before the checkered. I tried too many time in the Little Monza to get around which only left me scrambling the remainder of the lap to make up what I lost in the unsuccessful overtaking maneuver. I decided to stay in his wake through the Little Monza and back chicanes and had a good exit out of 14 onto the main straight. The white flag came out and I slipped by going into the Big Monza putting me in P5. I was passed by Dan in the back chicanes to finish in P6. Meanwhile Silk was chasing down the leaders. Making good headway he was able to end of in P3 and continued the streak of Senior Moments podium finishes. Good racing at a classic track and good prep time for the upcoming 12-hour. Hugh Robertson	Team Senior Moments Wins Buttonwillow! Buttonwillow, CA (May 17, 2003) - In conjunction with Perfect Laps Kart Racing School, Karting Ventures, Inc. held it's first endurance race of the season at Buttonwillow Kart Track, Saturday May 17th. With a full house of ten teams of (mostly) four drivers each, the stage was set for a challenging four hour kart race. The main rule was that there had to be at least 7 driver changes during the race. The day began with 40 minutes of open practice, followed by 20 minutes of qualifying. Team Senior Moments did well to qualify pole position covering the field by over half a second. Lunch hour followed, allowing David Leflang of Perfect Laps to offer some lapping sessions, as well as to promote Perfect Laps Indoor. Most of the drivers did not know much about karting before this day, but after sampling Perfect Laps' 125cc electric start karts, as well as Karting Venture's Endurance Karts, over 40 racers went home with a great first karting experience. The start of the race saw Team Senior Moments driver David Leflang grab the lead, and never looked back. Handing off to Gerry Florez and Steve Nakajima, the trio set fastest lap of the race and won by over 1 lap. Karting Ventures put on a great event, and we all look forward to another great race on July 26th at Willow Springs Kart Track.
Jim Russell A&D Series Senior Moments Report: Race #4, August 9, 2003. By Dave Carlisle, "Dr. Speed" Race day at Infineon was beautiful: sunny with a slight breeze. It was just hot enough to make the long stints tiring and hydration an issue. Aspiring racer Aimee Carlisle was on hand to check out the proceedings. There were also several drivers who were new to the series. The Russell folks had updated the TM karts with new graphics packages. They had also redone all the engines, both top and bottom ends. Finally they had switched to a new compound tire: Yokohama Advan. The changes in the karts were felt immediately with stronger engine response exiting corners, making the first stint with the new tires especially tough with the cold track. Nonetheless, the two Senior Moments drivers, Snake (Steve Nakajima) and Dr. Speed (Dave Carlisle), acquitted themselves well, heading the timing sheets during the two timed practice sessions and holding off the youngsters, Tristan, age 13, and Jason, age 15 and sporting a new Sparco driving suit, followed by Russell regular Phil. In qualifying, Dr. Speed got lucky with a clear track and posted a pole-winning time of 53.7sec (down from a fastest lap of 54.7 the last time this configuration was run) with Jason and Tristan right behind. Snake was unluckily held up by traffic during the entire session, qualifying 5th at 55.4. The heat race was dramatic. Unfortunately Snake broke his sprocket on a curb during the first lap and had to park it. The battle between Tristan and Dr. Speed for the lead was intense throughout the race with some slight rubbin’ going on at one point as they exited the hairpin. In the end, despite half a dozen passing attempts during the last two laps, Tristan held off Dr. Speed as they crossed the line bumper to bumper. Jason finished third. Dr. Speed was heard to say, “I showed him ALMOST all of my moves but I’ve got a couple left that I’m saving for the Main.” In the 15 lap Main, Snake started last in the field of 11 due to his mechanical DNF. The first three drivers (Tristan, Jason, and Dr. Speed) immediately got into it when the flag dropped. Jason passed Dr. Speed under braking almost immediately, totally collapsing his (Jason’s) sidepod in the process, and set off to attack Tristan three kart lengths away. Passes and re-passes ensued with all three drivers leading at different points. While this was going on at the front, Snake was fighting his way through the field, passing kart after kart, all the while fighting an increasingly severe leak from his fuel tank overflow tube. On about lap 6, with the top three karts running bumper to bumper, Tristan attempted an admittedly ambitious move to wrest 2nd place from Dr. Speed entering the hairpin and helped the Senior Moments driver off the track (Tristan showed his sense of decorum by immediately apologizing after the race). After re-starting his engine (thank goodness for those little green buttons!), Dr. Speed rejoined the race in 7th place. At this point Snake had progressed all the way up to 4th position behind Phil. The pass-repass drama up front continued between Tristan and Jason, with Jason riding up over Tristan’s bumper at one point. In the end, the finishing order was Tristan followed by Jason, then Dr. Speed (successfully fighting off a really bad case of “red mist”), with Snake in 4th place. Snake’s run, the drive of the race after starting dead last, was all the more impressive since his suit was now totally soaked with irritating gasoline (in theworst possible location – of course!). All in all, it was a great event topped off by having barbecued sausage and tri tip available for sale in the pits. The Senior Moments drivers seem to have made some progress in closing the gap to the “racing teenagers” Tristan and Jason. Word from Russell though is that next year, drivers in the TaG class will have to be at least 16 years old (and no we didn’t have anything to do with this decision). The karts were very stout, definitely benefiting from the compound change and the engine rebuilds. Aimee enjoyed the event saying, “the mechanics were very nice,”and can’t wait to try out some new moves at the RPM track. Dave Carlisle	TEAM SENIOR MOMENTS AT RUSSELL The San Francisco Bay mist was heavy over Sears Point as the Senior Moments drivers converged at the Infineon Raceway kart track this last Saturday. They had come from northern, southern and central California to compete in the first race of this season’s Russell Racing arrive and drive series. The sun wasn’t to be seen for a couple of hours which kept the racing surface damp and very treacherous. David “Schumacher” Carlisle took the group on a track walk passing on tips from his experiences at the Russell karting school driver’s development program. David characterized each turn and usually concluded with “a lot is going on here” and “you have to keep your foot in it”. Steve Snakijeweema then followed by adding his observations from also driving the track before. “This turn is really scary and I don’t keep my foot in it”. Both Professor Florez and Hugh “what’s my kart number” Robertson knew they had their work cut out for them after walking the high speed off camber and blind apex turns. Both were concerned about the short three practices to learn the line before morning qualifying. The playing field was leveled as Renn from Russell Racing took the 10 driver field on a track walk. The configuration would be different that Dr. David or the Snake had driven before. All agreed passing would be very tough on the new circuit. The first practice on the damp track was to everybody’s advantage, forcing the drivers to be smooth and concentrate on the new turns. Luckily other drivers practicing for the Sunday pro race sped up the process of drying the track. By the second practice session the speeds were coming up and different techniques were tried on the 9 turn track. Given the world class facility, Robertson was surprised that there wasn’t a jet dryer. At the end of the third practice session, times had been posted and the head game started before the upcoming qualifying that would start just before 1:00. After posting the quickest practice time of the Seniors, Snake “I’ll do anything to win” was getting into Carlisle’s head and was looking to extend his successes out qualifying the gifted Carlisle. Gerry and Hugh were trying to get Steve to eat more. The opening qualifying format had all the drivers looking for open space to get in a flyer without getting tangled up with slower traffic. Robertson wasn’t so lucky. He blew his chances when his frustration at not being able to get around slower traffic sent him wide coming out of turn 1 and off on an agricultural excursion. “I hadn’t planned on taking soil samples this weekend” he was heard mumbling as he picked the grass out of driving suit. When the dust had settled, David had just out-qualified the pesky Steve for another race followed close behind by Gerry. Carlisle had a brilliant start in the 10-lap prefinal and battled the entire race with the young gun Tristan, and Phil, a rookie out of the Russell school and a real sleeper hot shoe. Excellent racing saw the three battling to the last lap when motor problem allowed the two to get around Carlisle. The three top drivers posted fast laps under 56 seconds and within less than 0.163 second of each other. Super clean passes, side by side racing through the daunting “tic-tac-toe” turn, and swapping positions characterized the battle between Nakajima, Robertson and Florez. Coming on the white flag a bobble by Robertson coming out of turn 6 allowed Florez to edge him into turn 7 and Nakajima took advantage of the wheel contact to get around the slowed Robertson before the main straight. The three had fast laps between 56.014 and 56.445 seconds which was pretty respectable considering their time on the new track. The rest of the field was made up of Russell graduates. The 15-lap main event had Carlisle starting in P3 with Florez, Nakajima and Robertson filling out the middle of the grid. Steve had to give Gerry a bump to get him properly aligned during the parade lap and snap him out of a senior moment. Again another brilliant start by the crafty Carlisle popped him into the lead ahead of the quick front row. Although David posted the race’s fast lap of 54.974, he was not able to hold off the kid and stood on the podium in the second spot. Traffic had the other three Senior Moments drivers strung out, and unable to repeat the battle witnessed in the prefinal. When the checkered flag dropped Nakajima had bested Florez and Robertson but all three had shaved 0.1 to 0.6 seconds off their best lap times of the prefinal. After a deli sandwich and tailgate racing in the parking lot, the always ready Senior Moments men headed south for more karting. Continuing Carlisle’s quest for the perfect indoor karting facility, the boys traveled the hour and 45 minutes to Santa Clara and the Speedring facility. Younger drivers would have been in bed by now, or at least having a beer in the City, but the die hard grey-haired karters started practicing at 7:45 in the evening on the twisting slick track in the 4-cycle karts. Complete bumpers keep the four Moments men from heading to the pits for repairs as they literally beat their way though the less experienced field of drivers. The 9:00 pm race was a bit behind schedule but after qualifying the four Seniors found themselves filling the two front rows for the 20 minute race. Nakajima had come out on top this time around and proudly lined up on pole. Rough driving was the order of the evening as they all had to get around assorted wing-nuts and clutch-heads that would park their kart on track or in a turn. Yellow flags were common and no the passing rule was strictly enforced. “White hat” Florez found himself black flagged not once, but twice because he wasn’t playing by the rules. The other team members were a little embarrassed by the behavior of the typical mild mannered Florez. Carlisle and Robertson both visited the pits in response to black flags and all were surprised that Steve “bump and run” Nakajima avoided the “com’on in, we wanta talk” flag. Steve and Hugh were pleased to have bested David and Gerry but would not have wanted Jim Hall to see their techniques to get through the constant traffic and back markers. The evening ended at 10:15 pm with four exhausted but satisfied drivers looking for the Advil. Hugh Robertson
Karting Ventures hosts 4-hour enduro at Buttonwillow Senior Moments team takes home glory Buttonwillow, CA (May 17, 2003) - Karting Ventures, Inc. held it's first arrive and drive endurance race of the season at Buttonwillow Kart Track, Saturday May 17th. With a full field of ten teams totaling nearly forty drivers, the stage was set for a challenging four-hour kart race. All karts, safety equipment, insurance, and even catered meals were provided to all drivers for this show-up-and-race format. Teams consisted of mostly four drivers each and were required to perform a minimum seven driver changes for a total of eight driving stints. Also, teams were required to switch karts at every driver change to share equally in the strengths and weaknesses of every kart. The day began with a brief drivers meeting over breakfast to discuss rules, strategies, and driving tips for the Buttonwillow Kart Track. Drivers then took to the track in the 390cc Stratos karts for a 40-minute team practice session. A 20-minute qualifying session immediately followed which set the grid for the 4-hour competition. Team Senior Moments topped the time sheet early in the session and secured the pole with an impressive 1:01.099 lap time for a 61mph average speed around the .69-mile circuit. RWR Racing grabbed the second spot in their maiden event, with The Wannabees sneaking into P3 by a mere .05 seconds. With the field set, karts were lined up on the straightaway for a traditional LeMans start. Drivers anxiously awaited the drop of the green flag to sprint across the track and jump in their idling machines. With the field shuffling and passing three wide through the first few corners, drivers soon settled into a quick pace. Team members remained glued to the scoring monitor throughout the race to track positions gained or lost as teams pitted for driver changes and fuel refills. Team Senior Moments set the pace throughout the 4-hour race with team members Gerry Florez, Dave Leflang, and Steve Nakajima perfectly executing every driver change and on-track maneuver on the way to their first victory. Pressing hard all day and finishing just one lap behind the winning trio was the Mid-Life Crisis NOT team of Randy Buck and John Knudsen. And, in the most impressive run of the day (as well as the 3-year history of Karting Ventures endurance racing) was the third place finish of Vito Racano's solo entry, Hans Solo, which saw Racano perform all seven driver changes by running the length of the pits from one kart to another. After four hours of intense on-track competition, the final results were: Pos. Team Laps 1 Senior Moments 225 2 Mid-Life Crisis NOT 224 3 Hans Solo 222 4 RWR Racing 221 5 Motorsports Rentals 220 6 Wannabees 218 7 Team Irwindale 218 8 JCS Racing 213 9 Martini Time 212 10 Yuppies Gone Wild 207 Karting Ventures will host its next event July 26 at Willow Springs Kart Track. The 6-hour enduro is open to teams and individuals with all racing equipment provided, including meals and safety gear. Registration information and forms can be found at http://www.kartingventures.com. Or, contact Rob Niles mailto:niles@kartingventures.com directly for more information. CONTACT: Rob Niles mailto:niles@kartingventures.com Karting Ventures, Inc. http://www.kartingventures.com/ 866-584-3575	Endurance Kart Racing League, Round 3: Buttonwillow 4hrs. 9/7/03 Let’s put it this way, Dr. Speed’s buying dinner again. The Senior Moments team showed up a day before the race to getin some practice. We were joined by a corporate group driving the Stratos as well as a mixed group of JHR racers and enduro competitors driving the Rotaxes. After getting in some morning practice, we hung around and got to play “pace car” for the afternoon sprint races. Best part of this was mastering the Eric C “spin stop” in the middle of the pits without hitting anything/one. Sunday was the “best day of the year” in Buttonwillow: only around 100F. A total of nine teams made the race. The motorcyclistas were out in force on the big track entertaining us in their usual way (I don’t think any one got seriously hurt fortunately). Hughman earned the job of full-time “picker” by drawing the fast #8 kart for qualifying. With a time of 1:01.7 we picked up third position behind the Sierra Racing (ex-Boogity Boogity) and “My Dad Joe” teams. Vito (the guy who soloed before) was with the latter but brought a relief driver (Joe) after trying to amputate his leg the day before with a carpet knife – he nearly succeeded too and needed paramedics and an ER vascular procedure to bail himself out. Wow. After the usual Le Mans dash, Dr. Speed ended up driving most of the first session in P1 with Vito right on his bumper (quite literally, multiple times). After several smooth and fast sessions, Senior Moments was running a solid 2nd to Sierra Racing. The latter had used a combination of (lack of) size, speed, astute kart selection, and two-way radio communication to pull out a lead of nearly a lap. After the race, Rob let on about ow Sierra’s Chris had been calling him continuously asking “how can we beat those old guys?” My Dad Joe was another lap down. Sierra had been running fast laps in the mid-1:01 range compared to our 1:01-1:02s. About halfway through though, Professor Silk threw down the gauntlet with a fast lap of 1:01.3, the fastest lap of the race so far (and fastest of the day for Senior Moments). Sierra immediately noticed this and notched things up to the mid-to low-1:00s. With just over an hour to go, Hughman had finally put the Senior Moments kart back into first place and then pitted when the fast #7 kart became available. Dr. Speed jumped in - too fast as it turned out - and left the pits without his helmet collar, a real “senior moment!” The ensuing fracas: pitting again, grabbing the collar, putting it on, and changing karts again (to the slower #4), put the Senior Moments team back out in 3rd place. The good news was that this gave the team credit for its last driver change. The bad news was that there were still 65 minutes left in the race. Recognizing that another stop would drop the team down another position, Hughman and Professor Silk gave Dr. Speed the rest of the race to agonize (literally)over his error. In the end, the order was exactly the same as qualifying: Sierra Racing, My Dad Joe, and Senior Moments. The rest of the field had driven solidly and without incident, making room for the faster karts. One of the drivers, Kelly out of Fullerton, had never driven a kart before but she demonstrated excellent progression of her racing skill by the end of the race. The next race is in Las Vegas, October 25th, 12noon to midnight. Considerable interest was expressed by other competitors so it looks like Senior Moments will be making the trip to Sin City. Rob did indicate that the rules will be changed to factor in weight differences by holding lighter karts in the pits after driver changes.
Senior Moments Dominates Infineon Podium! Russell Race Series – 9/20/03 Senior Moments Racing team drivers finished 1st and third at the Jim Russell Race Series event held at Infineon Speedway Saturday, September 20th. Dr. Speed (Dave Carlisle) took the win in the 15 lap final, his first of the series, and Snake (Steve Nakajima)came home in third place. The outcome of the race was all but decided on the second lap when the racing teenagers, Tristan and Jason, came together resulting in Tristan’s kart being parked. Jason was knocked toward the back of the pack but came back strongly to record a 2nd place finish. The setting was again beautiful but it was the hottest event of the year at Infineon with a peak temperature of over 90 degrees. This made the driving very difficult, especially given the track configuration. Unfortunately the beauty of the setting was marred early in the morning by a multi-fatality accident on Hwy 121 just outside the Infineon gate. The Russell folks had to dispatch their paramedics when 911 couldn't be reached from the location. The race was run over the reverse “tight” course featuring the demanding and extremely fast downhill reverse entry into the Tic-Tac-Toe complex. This is probably the most physical of the Infineon kart track configurations, especially given the growing bump into the sweeper onto the straightaway. Despite the tightness of the track, the Russell racers were able to run average laps of 51mph with lap times in the 53 second range (about 1-2 seconds quicker than when the same course is run in the other direction). The day started with four practice sessions. Although Dr. Speed was given the ideally sized #24 kart, he experienced engine problems throughout the first three sessions, running only 3-4 hot laps. Finally, after an engine change followed by a carburator change, #24 came up to speed resulting in a pole-winning time of 52.9 seconds. The rumors were flying: was it the fresh engine, the new shoes, or the new RibTec? Dr. Speed wasn’t saying but wasn't comlainin' either. Snake qualified fourth behind Jason and Tristan despite having never raced on this configuration before. These times were considerably faster than the 54-55 second laps Dr. Speed and Snake had run in a practice session earlier in the week. The heat race was basically decided in the first turn when Tristan, getting a good run at the start from P3 got inside of Dr. Speed and Jason who had entered the corner side-by-side. Tristan was unable to hold his position and ran wide out of the corner allowing Dr. Speed to tuck inside and forcing Jason out towards the marbles. Seeing this, Snake had to lift allowing several racers by while he came back up to speed and had to fight back to take a 5th place finish. At the end, the “racing couple” Mary Beth and Jerry were subjected to some humorous “counseling” by the Russell race officials after a very close finish at the line. Mary Beth had managed to pass Jerry exiting the last corner but spun after crossing the line, a penalty in this configuration with Turn 1 only 50 feet from the finish line. The result was that Mary Beth had to give her hard-won finishing position back to her husband. You can imagine the jokes (all good natured of course)! In the Main, Tristan tried to reproduce his move entering Turn 1 with essentially the same result: no gain. After Tristan and Jason came together on lap 2, the race for the lead was essentially over, with Dr. Speed repeating the “no mistakes, no mistakes” mantra for the next 13 laps. In the meantime, Snake was having a hugely competitive race, dropping back to 8th in the near carnage at the start, working back to third, experiencing an engine bog to drop to 7th, and then making a last lap pass to secure third position at the end. Although Russell hasn’t released season points, this result nodoubt tightens things up a bit since Tristan had probably entered the race in first place followed closely by Jason in second and Dr. Speed in third. Another interesting finding from the race was the effect of “steering wheel bracing” which was much easier to do in the #24 kart. In addition to stabilizing the kart entering fast corners, two hand bracing under heavy braking really seemed to keep the rear wheels planted well. by Dave Carlisle	Gerry's Win at Riverside I thought I would try to write a few words about the race on Saturday at Riverside (Adams) with the So-Cal kart club. Steve and Hugh had planned to attend, but schedule conflicts prevented them from attending. Jim Campbell (I think no relation to Eric) has several American made karts (Emmick and Track Magic) that he has agreed to rent to the senior moments drivers. The class is American Sportsman 4-Cycle. Weight 365 pounds. American made tires (Burris), motor and chassis. Most of the drivers are 40+. The kart I had was able to qualified pole for the pre-main grid. There were five drivers that had similar lap time. Held off the pack to finish first for the pre-main. Jim found a mechanical problem that was fixed before the main. The main was a "dog fight", the lead changed hands almost every lap among the top three drivers. Fourth and fifth place drivers were waiting for a mistake to take advantage of the race. Some of the lead changes were made in the same lap. Example: I would lose the lead in the little monza, only to take the lead back in the big monza. To make more challenging, we had slower driver to get around that made it a little tricky. Next to the last lap, I decided not to make the pass in the big monza, I tucked in behind him and stayed on his rear bumper all the way around the track. White flag lap I made the move in the big monza, but the leader stayed right along side all the way through the big monza turn and through the left hander and quick right hander (next to scoring shack) with my kart taking the lead. (Oh only some minor bumping of side pods.) After completing the sandbox turn, I was able to hold the kart to an inside line going into the little monza. Going onto the final turn to the straight away, I looked over and could not see the second place kart. The checkered flag felt good. Gerry