Same old story

We are on our way home.  Mason is bringing a 5th place finish with him.  Once again, we shouldn't be disappointed with that, but it eats away at us because we know he has more talent than a 5th place driver.  The trip down was fairly uneventful and after blocking the driveway with our big rig, the event promotors decided they better get us parked, against their initial plans to not allow anyone in once Friday night racing started.  We felt good going up to the grid for practice.  Right up until a fellow competitor from Michigan pointed out that we were not running the correct clutch.  Our hearts sank.  Especially considering it was a clutch and gear issue that had us so far off the pace in South Carolina.  Luckily the father/daughter team we drove down with had the shoe clutches we needed.  Shame on us as we read the rules and asked our fellow competition about it before we left.  Obviously we asked the wrong people.  Lesson learned.  From now on we will question top authorities when it come to equipment and rules. There was still a problem, however, as now we didn't have the drivers and gearing to try different setups.  We endend up scraping the borrowed clutch and buying a used one off another competitor.  This gave us more options so once again, we were feeling ok about the situation.  That quickly went south after we tried and tried and tried different setups and gearing than chassis adjustment to get the kart to go.  It refused.  Poor Mason came off the track wanting nothing to do with this new clone engine.  He told us before we left that it was slow and he didn't like it.  We don't really know what the real issue is, whether its the engine or the chassis.  All we do know is something is going to have to change.  We can not keep going out of state trying to better Mason as a driver if his equipment isn't competitive.  There was a huge difference though as far as the competition goes from the Pro Kart Tour (southern states) versus the Burris Thunder Tour.  When we went down south, we felt so completely out of place, mostly due to money, or lack thereof.  Here we fit right in and there were mostly just family teams running.  DonKt getme wrong, there were still big dogs here, but nothing like what we experienced in South Carolina.  What a difference in the kids too.  The kids here came off the track humbled rather than angry.  It was nice to see, but at the same time, seeing kids crying because they tried so hard and didn't achieve the results they wanted was heartbreaking.  I certainly can feel their pain but wwe also have to give it to them for sticking it out and finishing the races.  We were up at 6:45AM Saturday, after just a few hours of sleep.  We worked our tails off all day long, non-stop in 90 degree weather.  Our pit area was what seemed like miles from the starting grid and up hill both ways. :) The feature race finally started around 1:15AM.  There was a point when both Rick and Gary told Mason thd Victorya that competing in the race was up to them.  They were so exhausted.  Mason told Rick he would stick it out and not 5 minutes later, he turned and told Rick he couldn't do it.  Rick took his helmet off of him and  to allow he to get some fresh air and he went out and finished the race.  Victorya, on the other hand wasn't as fortunate.  She drove two classes all day long and was set to start the Jr. 1 Clone class with Mason.  She was lined up in 3rd place position and her kart stalled.  Several other dads and officials tried and tried to get it to fire and it refused.  In all reality she had a top 3 kart but didn't get a chance to try.  The problem ended up being an issue in the fuel line.  Mason ended up winning $60 for his 5th place finish.  I sure hope we can get this figured out.  Looks like now that I am done with getting my degree in business management, I will need to check into getting my degree in kart chassis dynamics.  :P

Burris Thunder Tour Results