(Always save your blog posts on a regular basis. I didn't. I suck)
Last weekend's race was my first race this season. After waiting wayyy too long for my engine to come back from the shop and finally finishing the set-up last weekend, I was ready to run!
Sunday was one of those days that reminded you why only the hardcore race. It was one of those days where the weather and mechanics conspired to make you show your mettle by making you work like a dog.
The 0545 wake up time wasn't too bad since Careca wore me out the day before in Capoeira and I slept very well on Saturday night. Expecting the probability of rain, I spent the drive debating whether I would race or not. I had my rain rims in my trunk so it wasn't a matter of equipment but whether I had the will to run in the rain.
Once at the track the racing bug bit. So race it was.
The track was still wet from rain from the night before. There were puddles of standing water and the track was still moist, so while I could run slicks I needed to change the kart setting for a wet track. Widened my front end, narrowed my back end, upped my gear, filled the Red Beast up with fluid and started her up. Two and a half hours after arriving at the track (okay so some of that was spent setting up the trailer, shooting the sh*t, etc.), the Red Beast was good to go.
... and just as I was pulling into pre-grid for practice, the started failed to turn. Suspecting that it was a battery problem (the Rotax battery is notoriously shoddy), P and I switched it out and it seemed to fix the problem. So yeah, I got to race.
SKC was running the Sutton track in reverse configuration (clockwise) on Sunday. It was my first time running reverse so I was concentrating purely on learning the track. The reverse configuration is a lot of fun. While the chicanes and the corners at the end of the straightaways are slower than the regular configuration, your entry speed (and therefore ultimate top speed) is much faster. With the wet track the kart was a bit tailhappy but nothing I couldn't fix by smoothing my driving out.
Then it started to rain.
So now I had to switch to a full rain setup. This meant buying rain tires, mounting them, switching them onto the kart, flipping the airbox to rain setting (and creating a new airbox brace since I couldn't find my old one) and mounting a water blocker for the brakes. I was able to complete this work just in time for the qualifying session.
... and the starter failed to turn again. This time switching the battery didn't work (I suspected it wasn't a battery problem in the first place since the original battery still had a full charge). There was no way I could have made it out to the qualifying session and I predicted there was going to be a lot of work to do to find and fix the problem. There was a good possibility that my race day was over after just one practice.
At first I thought there was a break in the wire between the starter switch and the starter motor. Unfortunately I left my spare wiring harness at home. Fortunately it turns out I just had a bad reading on the multimeter. Unfortunately this meant that the problem was in the starter itself.
To get at the starter motor on a Rotax, you need to take the engine off the kart. To take the engine of my kart you needed to: disconnect the wiring harness from the engine, disconnect the exhausted, disconnect the airbox (since it was hard mounted to the chassis for the rain) and since I was not thinking straight, I disconnected the carburetor and the fuel pump as well. With the starter motor out, I first tested for engagement (successful) and then powering the motor directly from the battery (failed). Taking apart the starter motor, it turns out the brush on the positive node was disconnected due to a break in the wire (fatigue). A problem that's easy to fix with a sodering iron.
Unfortunately a sodering iron is not one of the tools in teh standard arsenal of a kart mechanic. Fortunately ONE person at the track had a sodering iron and soder wire (one other person had a sodering iron but no soder wire).
I was able to repair the brush with the soder. While re-assembling the starter motor (with P's help) some parts fell out; and not knowing what they were I just chucked them into my spare parts bin. It's an electric motor, so a missing seal here or there shouldn't be a problem. Completing the assembly, I tested the starter motor with a direct connection. IT SPINS!!!
So now I have to re-assemble everything. Not only that, the weather has changed dramatically since the qualifying session so now I have to reset everything back to dry weather racing condition. Mount and replumb the engine, connect the chain, reconnect the wiring harness, strap down the wires and hoses, flip the airbox, change the jet and pin setting on the carburetor, change the sparkplug, flip the airbox, narrow the front end, widen the back end, change the tires and add more fuel (I was underweight). I missed the pre-finals, but at least I was able to make the final race.
My race results were mediocre, which was okay considering the lack of practice time. My front end was probably too tight since the kart was a bit twitchy and I was running two teeth too high on the gearing. But I was happy: I found and fixed a major problem without any help and still manage to do decently after nearly ten months of absence at the track.
The next race is at Shannonville for the Honda Crystal Cup. I'm still deciding if I want to go but hopefully this time I won't have so much work to do!
