WE'RE GOING TO NEWTON !
for those of you who aren't familiar, Newton Iowa hosts, and has hosted since 1968, one of the finest Kart tracks in the Midwest. 1/8 mile, nice banking, great people.
"if you can be fast at Newton, you can be fast anywhere"
... We have had some time off at English Creek, with the nationals and so on, and somebody organized an Outlaw Dirt Kart show Saturday night, 9.1.07 to be run in conjunction with the regular weekly races. THEN Kelly of the Newton track announce that there would be money paid out ! TOO cool !
We can't wait ... this will prove to be a challenge, new track, some setup changes, different tire pressures, gearing changes, etc. We are just getting good at English Creek setup ... this will be GREAT fun though !
Ive been wanting to organize this, now I get to ride someone else's coattails... I'll post updates and pictures of how we do !
update ... on 10/20/2007 we went back to Newton, see results below the 1st story
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OK, we've been to Newton, and I cant wait to go back! WE HAD A GAS ! We went on 9.01.07 to the Newton Kart Klub facility, just so of Newton Iowa (now also home of the Iowa Speedway, designed by Rusty Wallace). We had a few weeks off, and were contacted by the parents of the #5 car of Katelyn Smith. The owners/promoters at Newton had been approached about letting our Outlaw Dirt Karts run there. They seemed receptive to the idea, so the plan was formed. We would take as many people as we could and put on as good a show as we could. Newton runs a full program with a vast array of kart classes, and we wanted to stand out in that crowd. These Outlaw karts really are neat, and I feel safer too. But still a lot of people, even those involved in the sport aren't real familiar with them.
Sign in at the track was from 4-6pm, hot laps started at 6. We got to sign in around 5pm, or a little after. Each class signs in on a different sheet. I was a little disappointed when I saw the sheet. There were 2 other cars in our class, the 5 of smith And the 1K of Watt. We made 3, and time was running out. We had tentative commitments from at least 2 others, and they weren't there. yet. We jokingly said something like "Oh no, you let WATT in ??? Now we cant win !" and the owner of the track, Dixie, laughed and said that was what Katelyn Smith said too. Funny ! Kelby Watt is really fast, they race a lot, and really have their program together, we have beat him, but it isn't as often as getting beat by him ! ... Anyway, we signed in and went looking for a pit spot. We were able to pit almost right across from Watt and Smith, the 125cc #8 QRC was a couple pits down, and when the 18 of Jake Strayer came in, they wound up next to us. There were a LOT of different karts around us, but we had quite a few familiar faces there close, too.
Newton Kart Klub runs 3 kids classes, we made 4. They run:
Kids Kart - ages 4-7, kid kart chassis, shorter with smaller wheels, stock 50cc Comer 2 cycle engine with restrictor plate, on gas with a spec gear, meaning they can only run 1 gear ratio.
Putt putt ages 4-7, 8 if 1st year racing - full size kart w/ stock Briggs and Stratton on gas with a 15 tooth clutch gear, and a few other things to help control the racing speeds. the races for these 2 classes start at a standing start at the flag stand.
Rookie animal class - 6 and 7 year olds,9 and 9 year olds if their 1st year, stock restricted Briggs and Stratton OHV engine, known as the Animal engine, karts must weigh 280 with driver in them.
our class - ages 5-9, blueprinted Briggs racing engine on methanol, minimum weight 245, any gear, racing disc style clutches, full roll cage and safety harness (5 point seat belts) .. no standing start, start from a rolling go.
We roll up for hot laps, go on the track, and go out to see what changes we may have to make. Our kart runs horribly, will barely stay running, sounds like a fuel issue. or spark. we make one lap at speed, but cant get up to speed enough to tell. The one lap we did run we seemed to be in the game, so we addressed the running issue. We had had a broken tube in the carburetor before the races that I fixed (racer-rigged), and I was sure that was the problem.
Fuel problem apparently fixed, we went out for our 1st heat race. MAN THESE KIDS ARE FAST ON THAT TRACK ! someone from another class standing by asked me how old these kids were, and when I told him the ones here were all 6 and 7, he was shocked. All he could say, was "they really came to RACE, didn't they ?" I said, "yes, that's the way we do it, there's usually nine of them, and that's a heckuva show" he said "I'll bet it is" and watched the race. We finished 2nd behind Kelby Watt and were dicing with Katelyn smith for our position most of the race. Fuel seemed to be working.
I decided not to make any changes, I wasn't sure how the track surface was changing, we should have changed gear a tad, but I decided to leave it alone and see if the track came to us. We went out for the 2nd heat and Kelby Watt won, Katelyn Smith and Joshua diced for the 2/3 spots again, this time she finished 2nd, we finished 3rd.
The feature, I decided to add weight to see if I could change the balance of the kart and actually speed it up. It didn't work as planned, Kelby Watt won, Joshua ran 2nd all but 3 laps of the feature, dicing again with the 5 car of Katelyn Smith, and finished right behind her for another 3rd place finish.
so, for the night, we ran 2-3-3 against some very strong competition. Kelby is fast everywhere. Katelyn ran this track as her home track for 2 years in the same kart she has now, before they added the cage. Her mom also races there. They are familiar with the track, and Joshua hadn't been there before. He raced a very impressive race. Nice job, Joshua, I'm always proud of you.
I didn't get any pictures of the kids on the track, I was busy watching Joshua handle the race car to see how that was working, but I did give him the camera and walked around with him so we could see the track through his 7 year old eyes.
(I will put captions with them if I know what they are)
announcer stand / scoring booth.
turn 2 (taken from about mid track) .. this is where some spectators choose to sit
pit bike for getting around, shows the #5 Smith and #1k Watt teams in the background.
electric motorized scooters are another way to get around.
there were some outlaw dirt karts on hand.
10/20/2007
WE'RE BAAACK !!!
Kelly Peterson of Newton is wanting to provide Outlaw Dirt Karts an alternate place to race in 2008. Our classes were all invited to The Newton Kart Klub on 10/20/2007. It is an 1/8 mile banked track, compared to our 1/6 mile Home Track at English Creek Speedway. BUT its a FAST 1/8 mile. We actually had to change gear considerably faster to get the engine to perform correctly. We had a BALL !
Our friends Katelyn Smith, Colton Roorda, Kelby Watt, and a new acquaintance from the Minneapolis area, Val Urman came out to race. We ran pretty well in the 1st 2 heats, and I felt like we had the feature under control, But a few laps in, Joshua running 3rd and running down the leaders, raced by my vantage point, sputtering. He was out of fuel ! HOW COULD I FORGET TO ADD METHANOL ?!?!?
Oh well, the weather was beautiful and there were WELL OVER 100 karts there, and we had an ABSOLUTE GAS ! (even if we "finished" last)
Hey, Josh picked up another 10 bucks, too !
Thanks Kelly !
you can see all the action in the pit area ... it was WAY more crowded elsewhere !