August 05, 2012 Pat's Acres Racing Complex
ANOTHER ROLLER COASTER WEEKEND!
For the second weekend in a row, Word Racing went through the full spectrum of the ups & downs of racing. No crashes this time, but a major engine failure and a dominant victory!
THE FRONT ROW BELONGS TO WORD RACING
In qualifying, Word Racing experienced a perfect result - first and second overall. It was a great experience for father and son to start the race together side-by-side at the front of field.
It was a much smaller field than the previous weekend (6 karts, instead of 14) due to Rotax Nationals taking place next week in Indiana. However that didn't stop the competition from being fierce as ever, as evidenced by the lap times. Randy hit a very impressive 48.938 second lap on the PARC long track, to take pole position.
The total number of competitors was around 50, as opposed to about 70 the previous weekend, but there were also a good number of spectators, mechanics, friends, and family looking for the best spots in the shade to watch the race as the temps soared and the action on the track heated up!
THE DAY BEFORE
After last weekend's crash, Ethan's kart needed a fair amount of work to get it up and running again. Dad was really proud of Ethan for taking care of nearly all the work himself! Ethan tore the kart apart, cleaned it up, replaced the broken parts, and fine tuned it all in less than seven hours. A very impressive task for a 16 year old.
MOVING TO THE FRONT
After making some adjustments, Ethan qualified his freshly rebuilt CRG kart in 2nd place in morning practice. A rewarding result for all the hard work.
In the first heat race, after starting on the front row, Ethan lost one position and finished in 3rd place. Randy took a commanding lead from the start and finished in 1st.
In the main event, Randy started in pole position with Ethan directly behind him in 3rd. Randy didn't get the best start, with 2nd place RPG's Max Mulkey, getting a jump on the rolling start, but in the end it didn't matter. Max went into the first corner ahead of Randy, but Randy immediately re-passed him going into corner two, and then quickly "checked out", leaving everyone several seconds behind.
Ethan also experienced a bit of a slow start, falling back to 4th place, behind Tim Moss. After two or three passing attempts, Ethan made one stick and moved back into third place. After the race, Tim said "I couldn't believe how fast Ethan came flying by me! It was really fun watching him drive."
Ethan started to gain on 2nd place, but then experienced an unfortunate moment when his $2700 engine "blew up" half way through the race. It is part of racing, since results depend on a mechanical device that is being pushed to the maximum limits. Ethan's engine spins at over 16,000 RPM! It's amazing they don't let go more often, but it was still a big disappointment for Ethan. It had nothing at all to do with the work he did on the kart, it was just the result of metal fatigue. He was obviously quite upset at first, but then looking back on the day, he said "Up to the point where the engine blew, that was one of the most fun races I've ever done." When asked how it felt to make such a brave pass for third, "Pretty awesome!"
OUR KARTS MAKE PEOPLE HUNGRY FOR JOY TERIYAKI!
We get many positive comments about the sponsors professionally represented on our karts, but this weekend we received what was probably the most humorous "Your karts make me hungry!", and they went on to say "I love Joy Teriyaki's food".
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
WORD Web Design | Shark Sport | RPG | Joy Teriyaki | Zamp | VOL-Tech
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