July 29, 2012 Pat's Acres Racing Complex

AN UP & DOWN RACE WEEKEND

Word Racing went through a wide variety of emotions during an exciting weekend of racing. From crashes to mechanical problems, and all the way up to 1st place in the main event!

DAD STRIKES BACK

Recently, Ethan has gained confidence, and with his new found speed has started to beat his Dad on a regular basis. Randy decided to step up his game to a new level so he can push Ethan to achieve new heights. In his effort to improve, Randy had a rather dramatic crash during practice a few days before the race! Full throttle coming out of a corner, Randy expected the worn rear tires to slide some, but they suddenly "hooked up" and sent Randy straight off the track into the barriers. After the dust settled, Randy was surprised the damage was fairly minimal and his rib protector did a wonderful job of preventing injury. The rear hub was jammed in about 1" on the axle, and Randy had a sprained wrist, but otherwise was fine.

On race day, the determination and practice paid off. Randy started the "heat race" in 4th, but dropped to 5th in the first corner. Then, he managed to work his way up to 2nd before making a late braking pass for 1st place on the last lap! This put Randy on the pole for the main event, where he managed to lead the entire race and take a commanding victory.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

After several great races and first places, Ethan struggled through a rough weekend. In morning practice, Ethan's kart was slightly down in power in the mid-range. We tried different settings, but nothing seemed to help. We did have time to rebuild the carburetor between practice and qualifying; the rebuilt carb worked beautifully, and Ethan's kart had full power just in time. But, his troubles didn't end there! The power was there, but the handling was not. The balance of the car wasn't right for the conditions and Ethan was frustrated to only manage 10th on a very competitive grid.

We continued to chase handling problems the rest of the day. Ethan moved from 10th to 9th in the heat race, but struggled to pass the next competitor. In the main event, Ethan passed on the inside of a corner, but the other kart caused an accident, sending him a couple feet in the air before landing on top of the side pod of another kart. Fortunately, Ethan managed to continue, but fell back to about 14th place, as his kart was partially damaged. Driving furiously to catch up, Ethan became tangled up with another kart in a 60 mph corner and went spinning off the track at speed. Surprisingly, he managed to get right back on track. Despite all the setbacks Ethan managed to stay on the lead lap and finish in the top 10! There were only three TaG karts in the race, so this also gave Ethan 2nd place in class and he was able to salvage some State championship points out of the weekend.

NO REST

Ethan's next race is this coming weekend, so on Monday we headed out to Shark Shifter, in Newberg, to purchase the parts needed to fix the crash damage and get Ethan's kart handling correctly again. As always, thanks to Mike at Shark Shifter for having everything we needed in stock and helping us get going again. We're looking forward to the next race.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Randy Word #71, and Ethan Word #77
WORD Racing
Portland's Father & Son Racing Team
Web Site: WordRacing.com
Phone: (503) 869-4970

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