Cripe Motorsports LLC.

Going to be a hot one today at Blue River Raceway with day temps expected to top out at a “feels like”
Temp of 107. We’re staying hydrated and hiding in the trailer/under the canopy when we’re not in staging. Time to get in the dirt!!!!

Two consecutive week heat race wins at Eagle after spending a month of “figuring it out.”

Driver did awesome with defending his position in both races. He also had a great save + recovery in last night’s feature where he got shoved and could have spun out.

The pit crew gets a solid A for both nights. We have the gearing nearly zero’d in, and are getting better at troubleshooting quickly and correcting. Our tire guy quickly recognized a slightly bent rim, resulting in a slow leak. He quickly swapped out rim and tire and got us back on track. The driver told us of troubles coming out of turns and I was able to review prior pics of detailed setups of the kart to find the issue and correct.

We’ve gotten more efficient at change overs, adhering to strict pre and post race routines as outlined in the OKT book, and getting setup and tear down so we’re not the last trailer at the track any longer.

Special shout out to Uncle Frank's 4 Cycle Racing, Dan Fay Plumbing and Tim Birch for keeping us in parts, tires and knowledge.

It’s so much more fun when he has the opportunity to compete….

*** updated - before and after

Happy Sunday race day! Let’s go get in the dirt!

We raced Friday night under the lights, then again on Sunday at a different track.

Friday night - driver comes off the first set of hot laps - “Mom, there’s something wrong with my kart.” This is when the anxiety increases and you “hope” it’s something you can easily troubleshoot and have worked on before. New engine seemed to have lower RPM’s, realized fuel line wasn’t completely open …. Ok, on the first heat he was almost a full lap behind everyone else - completely bewildered - and frustrated. Quickly realized one of his back wheels was turning independently of the axle - signaling a broken wheel hub. I had a spare but the damage was too extensive to just swap it out so we called it a night.

Saturday was wheel hub replacement day. One thing went wrong after another and what should have taken 30 minutes max took 6+ hours.

Sunday I was anxious to get it back out on the track - only for him to come in during the middle of the first heat dragging the chain. The engine had vibrated loose and displaced.

Everything replaced, tightened back up, cleaned and ready to go - and all of the other things that were going wrong masked that we needed to change out the gear, so still came in in an unfavorable position.

So since races are won in the pits - the pit crew gets a solid D+ for the weekend.

This continues to be a learning journey and every educational opportunity unfortunately comes with a short window to figure it out. We’ll Monday Morning quarterback it, swing by the local karting shop to pick up some additional spare hubs and get geared up for Friday.

Happy Sunday! Let’s go racing!!!!!