@nikspeeds wouldnt you know it… the moment they institute weights I gain 20lbs.
I’m literally 187 now as opposed to the 167 I weighed in at. Grr. (The cookies were excellent though).
I was standing there and pretty positive you weighed in around 180 with gear on. It was enough that your 4 pegs only sent you over a few lbs.
If it was 167 you would be due extra weight lol. So I wouldn’t that feel bad about the cookies
Also if you gained 20lbs in a month you might need a doctor 
I was 187 buck nekkid. I think the several moths of Lyme treatment ending inspired some appetite.
Week 6 done, time to find somewhere else to race
We finished up 2024 season 2 last night. @nikspeeds stole the show, winning both heats and being a boss. Me, I got decent karts and managed a nice 6th and 4th to close things out.
A good pair of heats, getting progressively faster each lap as track evolves. No big mistakes, thanks to many laps over the past year.
I asked Will about the spring and summer and he says that they are not planning on running league until fall. Warm weather means less folks doing indoors. Indeed, that seemed to be the case with this season, as we only had 3 splits. As weather got better, less interest. Sort of a bummer because it was one of the few accessible mid-week options. Will says they will likely do speed 4 practices and stuff. TBD.
The league has been very engaging and fun. I have driven a ton, and weekly driving certainly is nice if you want to improve/stay sharp. Here’s all my heats lol.
https://scedison.clubspeedtiming.com/sp_center/RacerHistory.aspx?CustID=MzI3NzUxMw==
The league really is fun and has a nice friendly vibe. Folks are competitive, of course, but we seem to be mostly supportive/friendly. Given the nature of rental racing and its variability, that’s for the best. Big egos don’t mix well with slow karts, when it’s your turn to be the turtle.
There’s been a very noticeable falloff in laptimes as the series have gone along. This series we were relatively slow. We used to be able to do 48s on T2 and 44s on t1. Now, we aren’t seeing those times.
I can’t figure out why. @Artis_Daugins tells us that it can’t be the engines crapping out as they get older. Perhaps it’s the karts getting bent up or worn. Perhaps it’s tire? With these hard dunlops, while they last forever, perhaps at some point they fall off. They do seem impossible to overheat, though. A big mystery, but for whatever reason we are slower. No one beats 50s on t2 this week, for example, although @nikspeeds got close.
Regardless, even a bit slower, the karts are very fun and engaging. This really is a must do, imo. The way electric karts work and the way the tracks are designed makes it very different than sprint racing with gas engines.
We dont use brakes at all and modulate throttle instead. This is because the karts have big torque on the bottom end and very powerful, instant, throttle response. Also, the karts don’t seem to “coast” and lifting results in proportional speed reduction. Basically, reverse trail with throttle instead of brake.
So, you have to change things up a bit. Smooth, like in gas is rewarded, but putting down power needs to be thoughtful if you don’t want to lose any potential to axle hop. Trying to figure out what minimum speed is efficient is part of the battle and it evolves over the entire heat as tires and track warms.
I think the experience has been fun and instructive. I think I learned a lot, here. I also think I am continuing to learn, and that the next step is understanding what line to use for the current track condition, how to approach line choice given grip that evolves at a very different pace than on asphalt. I’ve certainly learned how to extract more from the kart in tight turns and about being more efficient, in general.
From here, we find another league. In the meanwhile we have the 6 hrs of NY at OVRP Saturday. We will be fielding two teams: Rebel Scum with Marc Coltelli, Andre Lafond, Master Elias Shirley (from up the Boston way) and me. The other team will be experiencing @Chris_McCoy series for the first time: Nik Trenchi (@nikspeeds ), Andres Lourens, Randall Cogar (@RandallC) and Vanya.
Wish us luck and see you at the races!
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really nice track would like to try it sometime!
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It’s very swanky being the newest in the area. About 1.5 yrs old now, I think.
I am sure someone will outdo them and make an even longer/crazier track!
yea got confusing mid watching the onboard
Sorry don’t understand! What was confusing?
Party Night wrap up info
Well guess what?? We are choosing the fun option! Next Thursday, 5/16 we will be hosting the Thursday League Awards Night. Below is a short itinerary for the night:
5:45-6:15pm Arrival - Check-in at POS 1 in Guest Services
6:30pm Trophy Ceremony - Located in back dining room of restaurant upstairs
6:30pm Food - Food will be brought out ($4 Beers is also still available with membership card)
7:30pm Racing Begins - All drivers will be given one race ticket for free at check-in
the track getting warped
You can’t really appreciate it from the video but there’s a lot of banking. When you get stopped on track mid bank you get a better sense of how much there is.
I suppose it’s also possible that the track has gotten worn. You can see plywood through the paint in some areas.
yea I can see some parts of the track paint is gone, is it slippery in some corners? like is grip less in some turns never been into an indoor track mostly outdoor
There’s two surfaces… wood and asphalt.
The wood is what they use to make the elevated track parts, the asphalt is the “ground” level.
The asphalt behaves like normal, is grippy.
The wood is painted and is slipprier than the asphalt.
There are some turns that begin on one surface but transition to another, mid-turn, which makes for interesting driving!
The paint on the wood must have some sort of grip additive. The light marks on the track are where the paint has been worn through and you are seeing raw plywood. There’s not enough unpainted bits to be able to tell how it changes grip.
The “kerbs” that are painted have a different (lower) grip level than the black paint. Tires make a high pitched whine on the kerbing paint.
The thing that is different is how the plywood heats up. The wood surfaces start very slippery and as heat is added to tire and surface, it gets better and better and better.
I have yet to have the opportunity to do very long sessions but, in my experience, the tires keep warming and grip keeps improving past our normal 12-14 laps. I have yet to experience tire fall-off due to overheating.
As it turns out… wood tracks have been around a long time and race promoters used them in the early days. There were these crazy motorcycles that raced on wooden banked ovals in the 20s-30s I think.
Folks would come pay to watch the daredevils race at high speeds at tracks built around the country. It was horribly dangerous though, and eventually the body count got too inconvenient and messy.
yea makes sense probably would push harder on asphalt than wood
It’s a wrap!
Well, season 2 of 2024 has come and gone. Fun was had. @nikspeeds closed strong with a double header win, both heats, final week. Congrats, Nik!
Season 2 was less well attended, compared to the seasons up till now. We had only 3 splits my night, compared to the 7 or 8 splits earlier.
The powers that be tell me that there won’t be any more league stuff until the fall. When the weather gets nice, apparently they see less traffic indoors at SC. There is the super track to try, however, which is now open Tuesdays, I think.
The entire league got slower this time. It was very odd but we just weren’t able to break 50 on track two and 45 on track 1. I wonder what changed? My guess is it’s time for new tires. It’s also possible that the karts are getting all bent out of shape. The fleet now is obviously unbalanced, with some very slow and very fast karts (relatively).
Personally, the kart situation makes the league a bit less interesting, but it’s still a blast. Getting a bad kart is more of a thing, now, but it is what it is. They are doing so well with this business, I have hope that they will replace karts eventually or something.
I’ll definitely be back, once the leagues start back up. The driving is really different than our usual asphalt outdoor stuff. The power curve necessitates a different approach than your usual gx270. This is good stuff, all right foot driving… which reminds me a bit of the single pedal electric cars these days. No brakes!
I think I have learned a lot doing this league. The electric karts on the wood banked stuff is quite instructive! It’s still karting as per usual (maintenance of momentum, etc), but the implementation of the technique is a bit different. But, even though you won’t touch brakes ever at SC, you will still be rotating the kart like a crazy man. Its good fun!
In the interim, as we await the resumption of the league, we shall continue rebel scumming endurance races and the odd rental wrangle. I shall resume this next league!
See you at Pitt and NJMP!
-Dom (Rebel Scum Grand Poobah)
How did we finish?:
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Raced management during party night. It seems to be a tradition where the race director joins us for a few laps!
I went and did speed 3 pub with Nick and oddly, the karts felt pretty strong. I found that despite the big weight diff, me and Nick were essentially even on top end always.
I wonder if the karts at speed 3 are more equal since they are only working at 50% capacity.
I did see a lady in the speed 1 crawl have a kart going speed 2 at that stage. It was odd watching her toodle to the front.
