September 26, 2009

The racing weekend started a day early for us again this weekend with the "Moonlight Madness" event held at Route 106 Friday night. The Jack Walker Racing team attended this event with a bunch of racing friends. Jack himself couldn't race as the event was for those 12 years and up but he had just as much fun cheering on all of his friends and family. We had a blast and can't wait for the next event!!

Saturday brought the return of "Saturday Night Live" Racing. Since racing season has ended just about everywhere else in New England we always get a lot more karts at the end of the season. This week our kart count jumped from 8 to 14. This is the biggest field Jack has ever raced against in competition.
We went out for first practice and the kart was fast! Jack ran some pretty great laps and came off the track not wanting to change a thing!! With 14 Tigers out there we decided to skip second practice to avoid wrecking the kart in practice. This also gave us the opportunity to watch the other karts on the track since there was so many new ones out there we hadn't yet seen before. We had a lot of fun being able to sit back and enjoy some racing instead of being "on the go" all the time.
Since it's the SNL series we time trial instead of heat racing. Jack's clutch was acting up a little in practice but we thought it would be OK. Jack went out third to qualify and took the pole, but it was a slower time than we expected so we were a little nervous it wouldn't last once the 11 other karts went out. The pole position was short lived as the 28 kart came out and took over the spot. Though it was a nailbiter to wait for that many karts we did manage to hang on to second. We were the last SNL feature of the night but we were ready. Jack started outside pole. It's not always easy to start on the outside but Jack started beautifully. Going into turn 2 the 28 bounced ever so slightly and got into Jack on lap one and gathered up half the field. This would be the first of a caution filled race. After a quick clean up they restarted the race in qualifying order. This time the field took off without a hitch and Jack jumped out to a quick lead. The 82 followed him around the 28 on the outside and the two broke away from the pack. It didn't take long for them to come up on lapped traffic but they worked their way through it. Around lap 10 Jack went into turn 2 and caught a field of about 4 lap karts spread out across the track. Jack decided to go high while the 82 went low and came out ahead of Jack. The 82 lead for about 4 laps when he came out of turn 4 and drove straight into the back of the lapped 24 kart giving the lead back to Jack. Because of the number of karts in the race they decided to go single file on the restart. Jack jumped out to a big lead with the 15 of TJ Bleau following right behind him. The 15 was soon over taken by the 43 of O'Connell. The third caution flew on lap 16 when the 99 of Isaac Miskoe slowed down to a stop on the backstretch just out of turn 2. The fourth caution came on 18 when the 82 hit the wall just under the score shack.
This last caution brought out the use of a pace vehicle in an attempt to slow them down on the restarts. The 43 dove under Jack coming out of turn two and the two ran side by side but the 43 was unable to hold onto it through turns three and four when he bounced his way through the corner and spun all by himself. Thankfully Jack was far enough away from him that he didn't bounce into Jack and take him out as well. This spin brought out the fifth caution. At this point the track director stated that if there was one more caution they were going to go yellow/checker. The typically 6 minute race had already taken about 40 minutes with all of the cautions. They got about two laps in when the sixth caution flew as the 08 stopped on turn 4. They threw the yellow/checker and all hell broke loose below the flag stand. They decided that since the karts were running out of fuel due to all of the caution laps that they would restart the race on lap 15 and let everyone refuel. We had to take an intermission and let the rest of the show continue.
After the short intermission, with all of the karts refueled we started on lap 15. No pace vehicle this time. The front two broke away from the rest of the field with Jack in the lead. One lap in the 43 tried to make the move on Jack but failed and dropped back to fourth place. A seventh caution flew when the 29 spun out on the front stretch. On the restart just before the green flag was to come out the 43 pushed the 15 out of line coming around turn 4. They waved off the green and gave the 43 the black flag. The race restarted with Jack followed by the 95, the 15 and the 43. One lap into the restart Jack began to pull away from the rest of the field even while he was lapping karts. Jack finished the race a full second ahead of second place. He then went out to run a Polish victory lap to the delight of all of his fans. Jack pulled off the track with fists pumping and the biggest smile. What an exciting race made even more exciting by Jack's dominating win!!