True, it was two days with the practice session. But now its 3 days (1 day of practice, 2 days of racing).
I typically only ran at tracks I’d ran before, so I used to forego practice most of the time.
The ruleset changed to allow a new set of tires each day. Now all the sponsored teams running up front are gapping the weekend warriors that don’t have the cash to put new tires on each day.
So now, I need 3 sets of tires and at least 2 days of hotel to remain competitive in CKNA.
Never used to be that way. It was show up with one set of tires, choose to practice or not, but at least (as weekend warrior) you could run and be competitive with the sponsored teams . . . no longer the case in 2023.
Well, I guess we can say I had a good day. Lots of changes tested and ended the day P16/49 in Masters with a hand bent, horribly welded, home-made chassis running unknown age/use practice tires.
Need 1 second to close the gap to P1, but I’ll settle for closing the gap to .5
While I don’t run this series, I have many friends that do. I think that allowing new tires each day clashes with their attempt to be affordable regional racing.
The sponsored teams are running upfront because they have the best drivers. As this series has grown, you are seeing many of the best 2-cycle racers in the area sign up. As for grands, you’re getting the best of the best, and the weekend warriors are likely to struggle to keep up with the level of equipment and coaching/tuning they bring with them.
I texted my friend who is there this morning and said, “Just have fun and enjoy being part of this historic event!”
When you look at the overall cost of your weekend after travel, accommodation etc. the second set of tires is not really a huge percentage of the budget. Sure, an added cost is annoying, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt the event and while the big trailers etc are the most visible… there are LOTS of drivers that are weekend warriors too.
Is this the case for all of their events or just the Grands? If the latter then I’d say it comes with the territory of being a larger and highly competitive event.
Yeah they run really tight time slots. If your race starts at 3:24, and you show up on grid at 3:25, the grid is already gone. Something I’ve always appreciated, cause at my local racing starts at 11am, but they run loose so you might not get out to race for 90 minutes or so. Its kinda annoying to be honest, especially in Florida where half the day your watching the weather systems, as they blow in fast- but also blow out very fast. So half the time you don’t know if you should be on rains or slicks. Not an issue at CKNA, they run like well oiled machine. As their tech team is freaking AWESOME!
I got in my own head and started tuning the kart like it was a KA, didn’t work. Qualified 72nd, had more pace but messed up my last lap and couldn’t get the kart to come off the corner well.
Started 36th for the heat race, had a decent start and made up a few spots but got shuffled off track when drivers decided they can just shove the karts ahead mid corner instead of lift for a tenth of a second. Didn’t have great pace but would’ve finished decent if I had kept it on the track.
Resetting for tomorrow and hoping not to get caught up in lap 1 madness for the rest of the heats. Best I can figure is I need to average 18th between the last 2 heats to have a shot at not needing the LCQ. Had a lot of setup discussions and going back to neutral for the morning. Considered trying to switch karts to something I’d be more comfortable in but I’m sticking with the CRG for now.
LSR has been really helpful with trying to get setup stuff dialed in, just missed a bit doing what we thought we needed and going the wrong way, but that’s racing
Found some speed in the kart for the second heat, but got caught in the carnage ahead of me and had to go to the grass to avoid it. Somehow I still found myself in 31st after the first lap from 37th, and made my way up to 29th, 28th after penalties.
Heat 3 was 4 hours after, and we missed the setup for that heat. Kart was quick on the start but got tight and wouldn’t come off the corner by lap 5. Kept the kart on track but caught wheels with someone coming out of 4 which cost a few positions but I kept it going, finished 26th.
Rolling off 14th for the LCQ, probably right in the meat grinder. I should be able to make it in from there, but who knows how the racing will go. Personally at this point, I couldn’t care less whether I make the final or not. I’d be fine just hanging out and watching the races now, but I’ll run it if I make it in.
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