June 25-26, 2016 - Agricenter Showplace in Memphis, tenn.

 

We were at the Blues City Kart Nationals in Memphis, Tenn., for the indoor race put on by Warren Parker and Doug Layton and their crew. The track held up very well for a temp track and the crew did a great job! There was a technical issue on Saturday that they had nothing to do with and it slowed things down a bit but they bounced back and by Sunday evening at 6:30 I was dozing in my recliner.

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Saturday

Qualifying
Franklin was first to qualify in Pro Clone Super Heavy

and wound up in the fourth spot. We made a drastic

gear change and we killed the engine's straightaway

speed. We knew what we messed up so we knew

what to fix.

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Elliott was next to qualify in Clone Light. This was his

first race on an indoor track so his learning curve was

steep. He qualified in tenth mainly because he

overdrove the kart a bit. Once he refined his throttle

pick-up point, we were sure he'd be fast.

 

Races
Franklin started in fourth when the green flag dropped and raced hard to find himself on the rear bumper of Gary Pugh who was running in second at the halfway mark. The leader, Cody Hayes, was long gone. Franklin couldn't find a way by Pugh because he was running a low line off of the corner. Finally, the white flag came out and Franklin pushed Pugh into turn one and forced him up the track and got underneath. Franklin and Pugh raced down the backstretch and into turn three. Pugh pinched Franklin down low into turn three and Franklin bounced off an infield hay bale and into the dirt berm as the two raced side-by-side into the corner. As they came off turn four headed to the checkers, Franklin cleared Pugh with some help from Baker Hillard and finished second.

 

Elliott had the big job starting in tenth. We weren't sure if the issue was Elliott's inexperience or the tires. We changed tires and put on a new set of Maxxis compliments of Boulton Motorsports to see if that helped. The green fell and it took Elliott a few laps to figure out his throttle point but with a tweak to his Tomar clutch and perfect timing, he was rocking off the corner. The race saw a few cautions, one when Elliott spun into the hay bales and put us in the back, but Elliott was determined. On a restart, Elliott was moving through the pack (it's hard to pass on an indoor track!) and was up to sixth with two laps to go when the leader hit the hay bales off turn two and spun and Elliott was there to greet him. Elliott hit the leader and spun down the length of the track to rest in turn three. The caution came out, Elliott looked the kart over and decided he could keep going. So, lined up in fifth with a green, white, checkered restart looming, Elliott got up on the wheel. The race resumed and Elliott took the white flag in fifth. The kart in front of was a friend, Daniel Valley, and Daniel got a little loose in the corner and Elliott stuck it in there and cleared Daniel down the backstretch for fourth. Meanwhile the second and third place kart had been battling going into turn three and as they got together, Elliott jumped into the mix and as the karts raced off turn four for the checkers, Elliott captured third spot!

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We were very happy with our finishes and learned a lot. But, there was still Sunday to go and Franklin was running Clone Super Heavy.

 

Sunday

Franklin qualified poorly. We tried to use the Maxxis tires that Elliott used the night before but we found them to be about 0.2 seconds slower than the tire we used on Saturday so we switched back to the other tires. The green dropped with Gary Pugh on the pole and Drew Layton in second and Franklin in third. Gary was rockin' for the first three laps but then Drew and Franklin gained on Gary and the three karts raced nose-to-tail. Drew went to work on Gary but couldn't get the run he needed to take the lead and Franklin was trying to get past Drew but couldn't get a run. The three karts ran nose-to-tail to the end with Pugh taking the win. Afterward, Franklin said the kart was handling perfectly but he just couldn't get the run on Drew becasue the engine was running out of power just when he needed it but that was a result of a gearing issue. Had we geared the kart a little differently, the finish would probably have been different. The tire change was definitely the right move - we picked up 1/4 second from qualifying only by changing the tires.

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Overall, it was a good weekend and we got some KILLER GoPro footage from both of the boys' helmet cameras and we'll get that video up in a next few days. Warren and Doug did a great job and we look forward to next year's Blues City Nationals!