IKF 2-cycle Grand Nationals report

So is Willie the only Kinsmen racer here at the Grands? I know he is the only kid kart - but is there any one else here? I haven't seen anyone else we know.

This is a big event! Lots of big tents with matching shirts running around inside! So where does that leave us? Molly and Willie wore their Kinsmen shirts today! I thought it would be more intimidating than it is, but we are having fun. Mark Rubino and Danny came down today to help me wrench - that was a big relief.

We've had two days of practice now. Yesterday, Willie was only .5 seconds off the the kid who set the pole here (Santa Maria) at the recent IKF - and this is his home track. So we were real excited, but then today - don't know what happened but we couldn't get within 3 seconds of our best time from yesterday and running mid field at best! Of course, I'm blaming it in on Comer.

Tomorrow is his big race! We only had about a 15 kart field in practice today - and it doesn't appear that too many others will come. So it will be a smaller field than I expected. The Kid Kart Lights are the first race of the Grand Nationals. We are not sticking around for the kid kart heavy class on Friday because we've got to get back. Wish us luck - I'll post results later.

Paul

We were in the news - well, not us personally. And I've gone through the clip closely - unfortunatley Willie is not seen in any of the footage:

http://www.myfox11.com/mediacenter/local.aspx

Paul,
Good luck to you and Wilson. He has what it take to do well.

Good luck Willie!!!!!!!!!!!


The Pettit Family

Go get em Willie!


The Hernandez Family

Good luck, guys! Go Kinsmen Kart Club!

go Willy!!! Paul, you guys have a great time !
remember the air changes there a lot due to being on the coast. its an ocean kind of thing.

GO WILLY!!!!
RICK & JESSIE

Good luck Wilson!!! Hope you have a great time and a great race.

Melanie

go willie!!=]

Well, it was an eventful day - full of highs with smiles and laughs AND many lows full of tears! An emotional rollercoaster!

We had two practice sessions in the morning. In the first one, he ran well but it was only practice and fairly uneventful. Then in the second practice session, his carburator body cracked in half on the very first lap. So he pulled to the side and watched everyone go by. (One corner worker came over to Willie, and of all things, she had a lit cigerette in her mouth while she bent over him and tried to restart him!) This wasted practice session led to the first of the day's lows.

Knowing that my back up carbs were not as good as the one that just broke, I asked around to see if anyone had a really good carb they would lend. I did get one and was told that it was really good. I strapped it on, and it showed very good numbers on the kart stand, so I thought it couldn't be any worse then the ones I had - so we went with it for qualifying.

He started the qualifying session in the back since he hadn't completed a full lap in the previous practice session. This position was a little bit of a problem because he caught the kid in front of him on his second lap (which slowed Willie down), but thankfully the first full lap was the best time he had turned in all three days! This was the best of the "highs" for the day. He qualified 8 out of 17, and would have been even higher had he been able to complete his second lap uninterupted. Needless to say, this qualifying position gave him big expectations for the heat and main event.

The heat race ("pre-main" in IKF lingo) was fairly uneventful. He dropped one position but did OK - nothing broken, bent or lost!

He started the Main in 9th out of 15 karts (two disappeared somewhere throughout the day). He got a fair start, dropped a spot by end of turn one and then sat there in 10th place for the vast majority of the race. Frankly, I think he needed to get a little more agressive and could have had 9th, but I think he was tired since this was his third straight day on the track.

Then the drama! On the 9th lap of a ten lap race, he got the white flag, and the kids running up front got their waving checkered flag when they came around at the end of their tenth lap. But, by the time Willie came around for his checkered flag, the flag man had rolled up the flag and was just holding it in his hand - not waiving it for when Willie came by. But Willie knew this was his last lap, so he came into the scales while other kids stayed out who did not know if the checkered had been thrown or not. Since I did not see a waiving checkered, I was yelling at Willie who was in the line for the scales to go back out because technically the rules state that "the race is over when the flagman actually waives the checkered flag, regardless of the number of laps." (IKF rule book, page 46, Rule 210.8..

Willie did go out - through the hot pits lane and took a waiving checkered the second time (technically his eleventh lap) and came into the scales. But, by now, he was so confused and frustrated about what had happened that by the time he got through the scales, he was crying and very upset. Being the good lawyer that I am, I filed a protest. Granted, it really didn't make any difference to his finishing position because he was going to be tenth regardless of that last lap or not, but I wanted them to know that their flagman screwed up and it had consequences on the emotions of some of these kids.

So, bottom line - Willie finished 10th out of 15. All I can say is that I am glad it's over and we are coming home! It has been a fun, eventful three days - but an emotional rollercoaster that I don't want to go through again any time soon.

And again - many thanks go out to Mark Rubino for coming down to help us with this stressfull event. It was very helpful just having another dad around to lend a hand and discuss matters with. Besides, Willie and Danny had a great time hanging out.

See you all real soon back on familier territory.

By the way - thanks for everyone's wonderful wishes of luck. I'll show Willie tomorrow, but for now, he is fast asleep!