Just a little update #keepkartingfun

So, it’s been a little bit since I’ve done an update. So what have I been up to?

For the last three months, I’ve been working with Ched Follis and Leonardo Borrego to form a karting team. We called it ‘Ched Follis Racing’ and we’ve been racing and testing in LO206 (Really,  the class name is just 206 now, but I keep calling it by the old name) at a few of our local tracks. It’s been a complete blast.

Honestly, it’s been one of the best experiences racing that I’ve ever had. The three of us meet weekly to prep and setup the kart and do testing between races to fine tune the setup. (We try to take the tips and tricks from practice days and apply them wherever we can.)

I really like the way we go racing, because it’s smart. Everyone has a role to play, so we’re not stepping over each other, which lets us work better as an actual team. *gasp/shock* I drive and tune, Leo drives and does the mechanical setup work. Ched is the team owner and spotter while both of us are on the track. We call him ‘Mr Gannasi.‘

( Sidenote: I’ve now realized how important it has been to have a spotter at the track while we’re racing and testing. Someone who is able to watch the behavior of the kart trackside, and either validate what I’m experiencing or give me new information that I’m not aware of like how the kart is handling, or how another kart is going through a corner compared to me.)

We’re always trying out new ideas to try to see if we can make the kart faster in different ways, which is helping us learn more about how to get better results.

Right now, our focus has been on the 206 class, which I think is a really good move. (IE: See earlier article, where I’ve became enlightened to how great running LO206 is.) The simplicity of the 206 has made it so that we can step into races with a reliable engine package, that is simple to understand.

Typically, the only thing that we really have to pay attention to is if anything is vibrating loose. The 206 does vibrate a lot, so we make sure that we quick check all of the bolts every time we come off the track. Otherwise, all we do is setup the chassis, tune the clutch and go racing with it.

It’s simple and fun, so we can spend more time focusing on the racing, rather than running around trying to fix stuff. Motorsport in general, needs more formulaic engine packages like this one.

My teammate Leo and I at the last club race.

On the flip side, I’ve been doing more writing for KartPulse. We’ve started selling some swag, which has been pretty cool, (Go here to check that out), and I’m working on some podcasts and videos around karting and data acquisition, so stay tuned for those.

I also picked up a new EP3 Civic, (I’m naming her ‘Rei’) so that’s been a fun daily project. I’ll do another post on that later.

Anyway, that’s it! Talk to you later!

-D