September 5, 2009

It's been a couple of weeks since we've gotten to race with all of the rain that's been coming through here lately. On August 22nd we actually made it to the track in dry weather and it rained for a good 30 minutes but it came down so hard it took a a really long time to dry the track. There was weather all around us so the track opted to postpone the race rather than waiting around to see if it might stay dry. The 29th was a complete wash out with the hurricane coming through and racing was cancelled before we even left for the track.
September 5th was clear and sunny. No chance of a rain out and we were excited. A long time without racing makes you itchy to get back to it. It was a pretty good day all around. The sun was shining but it wasn't too hot which makes it a much more comfortable day for everyone involved. We went out for first practice and the kart looked good. It was running well and so was Jack. There weren't too many changes made to the kart from the previous week so we weren't expecting much of a change out of the kart. We decided to skip second practice and get some lunch instead.
It was a special night at the track, instead of heat racing we were doing time trials. Plus it was going to be an extra long race, 30 laps. Jack usually does really well in time trialing so we were really excited for him to get a good sarting position. Jack went out second after TJ so we knew the time we had to beat. Jack's 2nd lap was a 9.460, not bad for a qualifying lap. Jusitn came out next and pulled a 9.453. Jack missed the pole by 7 thousandths of a second. So we were starting outside row 1 in second spot.
Jack didn't get a good start and TJ got underneath him to take over the second spot. The three boys stayed together in a pretty tight pack until half way when TJ went for the lead on Justin and the two karts touched causing TJ to spin out. On the restart Jack started 2nd again because the kart that causes the caution gets sent to the back. Jack got a better start this time and was able to maintain second spot. Jack got right on Justin's bumper while TJ fell behind. Jack and Justin were able to pull away by quite a few kart lengths. With two laps to go Jack tried to make his move coming down the back stretch but didn't gain the position and scrubbed off too much speed trying to avoid wrecking into Justin. Justin was able to pull away by a couple of kart lengths. Running out of time, Jack wasn't able to reel him back in enough to make another pass attempt. Jack came home in second spot. The points race is now tighter than ever. With only 6 races to go Jack has just a two point lead over the second place of Justin Barry.