We did our homework. Let's see how we stack up against the best Stock Honda drivers in the nation
November 14-18, 2007, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas
"All Pulp, No Fiction"
We Duke It Out With The Best Stock Honda Drivers at SuperNationals
XI
We did our homework. Let's see how we stack up against the best Stock
Honda drivers in the nation
I know it has been more than a month since the Supernationals XI was completed. It took about 80 hours to edit the video tape from the Supernats, and then I got sidetrack into putting some stuff onto DVDs. More on that later. I know all the timesheets in the story maybe annoying, but that way I'll be able to reference on one single page other competitors when we see them at the WinterNats, ProKart Challenge, or SuperNats XII. Always good to know who you are competing against. For those of you that haven't seen the SuperNats preparation chapter, here is the link to the prep chapter. I didn't post the chapter for the general public to see prior to the Supernats, but those of you on cc.com got to see it first hand, along with our predictions, the day before we left for the Supernats. The prep story is Chapter 139, and it might be good to read that before you read the chapter below, as it adds some context.
Anyways, here's the story:
Sunday, November 11, 2007
2Wild leaves The OC driving the Pulp Trailer, with about 8 karts and a ton of
extra parts, tools, etc. Wayne Kimball cruises into Sam Boyd Stadium that
night, with everything intact. Last year they took two trailers to Vegas.
This year
they were able to stuff everything into my trailer.
Trailer is jam packed with Go-Fast kart stuff
Monday, November 12, 2007
2Wild is trying to get the tent people to hurry up and put our tent up, so they
can start unpacking everything, putting up about 20 fluorescent lights fixtures,
pulling the karts and tools out of the trailer, etc.
Under the Big Top
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Jason
Steaman and I fly into Vegas. Dealt with the 45 minute long wait for a
cab. Man that sucks. I think next time I'll try going to the other
side of the building and see if I can grab a limo for about the same price as a
cab. Or even if it is $20 more, it is better than waiting 45 minutes in a dumb
ass cab line, lugging your baggage around. We catch a cab with one of the Swedetech guys to Sam Boyd Stadium. Being the Cheating Bastard that I am,
I immediately start quizzing him on Mike Drennan and Tom Dyer, both of who did
well at the Kart Sport Grand Prix. Dyer won the Kart Sport Stock
Moto class, and Drennan took 4th behind Connor De Phillippi and Bonnier Moulton.
I figure that Dyer is gonna be up front in S3, and Drennan seems like he could
be a threat in S4.
The tent guys are still assembling our tent, but at least we have shelter from the sun. Tent is looking cool, it is twice as big as last year's tent. We got about 10 karts running out of the 2Wild tent this weekend.
Wayne flies in a few hours later. He has Amy and the two kids coming down later with Amanda the nanny. Jeff and Sunni drive into town about the same time. We do a final check on the karts, apply the mandatory stickers, fill out the tech sheets, setup out pit area, and get ready for the chaos that will ensue over the next five days.
Later that night, we munch down on some pretty good steak sandwiches at the Hooter's Hotel steak restaurant. I have bad luck at the blackjack tables.......oh well, we'll try again tomorrow.
Home base for the Pulp Guys
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Definitely the busiest day of the entire week, as we don't have our whole
entourage of people helping us today, as most people are flying in later tonight.
We have Jason Hettervik of 2WildKarting tuning for us, along with Jason Steaman.
They are supporting our five karts (two for Jeff, two for me, one for Wayne).
The practice schedule is busy, but not impossibly busy. A lot of
people thought that Jeff and I would get burned out running two classes.
It wasn't that bad, as we are in good physical condition for karting.
Our schedule for the days is kinda like:
1. 7 minute practice for S4. When this is done, we
have 20 minutes to go back to tent, grab a drink, and get back on the pre-grid
2. 7 minute practice for S3. When this is done, we have 70 minutes
to get both karts ready for the next session
3. Repeat above procedure five times throughout the day
The Pulp guys go in search of victory and glory at Supernationals XI
To keep us organized, Jason Steaman starts taking notes about the setups of all our karts, so we don't rely on our bad memory as to what was changed from session to session. He also has a checklist to help us battle Raceaflais (The Greek God of Racing Chaos), and does a full nut and bolt check on both my karts before they hit the grid. If we can get through all the practice sessions and heat races without breaking or crashing, it will be a HUGE advantage. Practice sessions are short, so you must be ready to go and take full advantage of those 6-7 laps of practice you will get to help learn the track and determine your setup.
The track layout is awesome. We'll hit about 88 mph in a Stock Honda down the
straightaway.
Jeff's wife is cooking for us, so all week long we are getting fresh pasta, sandwiches, chicken, rice, etc. It's like we have a gourmet chef in our tent!
Luckily, we avoided major collisions and crashes on this full day of practice. Jeff is on top of the practice time charts for sessions 3 and 4 in the S4 Stock Honda class (older than 35 years old or body weight greater than 200 lbs, must be 415 lbs total weight of kart and driver). Jeff sits out of session 5, feeling that he is dialed in. Heh. I take fastest time in practice session 5, beating Jeff's fastest time so far today by 7/100th, so I'm on top of the S4 time charts for practice day 1! In S3 (Stock Honda, no age limits, weight of kart and driver = 385 lbs), I surprise myself by running the 4th fastest time of the day against the young guns. Hummm.....is it superior skill, or was it because I had double the track time of most of the competitors? You know what I think it is......and I know what YOU think it must be.....
Dana and Johnny drive into town late tonight, so we'll have some additional help in our quest for SuperNats glory.
S4 Practice Session 5 - Wednesday
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Bryan Eady and Jason Lee heading up the S3 heat races
S3 Practice 5 Wednesday
| Pos | No. |  Name |
Best Tm | In Lap | Best Spd (Mph) | Diff | Gap | Laps | |
| 1 | 2 | Tom Dyer | 55.762 | 3 | 48.420 | 5 | |||
| 2 | 30y | Bryan Eady | 55.957 | 5 | 48.251 | 0.195 | 0.195 | 6 | |
| 3 | 7 | Jason Lee | 56.181 | 5 | 48.059 | 0.419 | 0.224 | 5 | |
| 4 | 55c | Doug Hayashi | 56.247 | 5 | 48.003 | 0.485 | 0.066 | 5 | |
| 5 | 4c | Jeff Littrell | 56.271 | 6 | 47.982 | 0.509 | 0.024 | 6 | |
| 6 | 22d | Jeff Welch | 56.352 | 6 | 47.913 | 0.590 | 0.081 | 6 | |
| 7 | 387 | Jose Zanella | 56.442 | 4 | 47.837 | 0.680 | 0.090 | 5 | |
| 8 | 15e | Matt Zeis | 56.485 | 5 | 47.800 | 0.723 | 0.043 | 5 | |
| 9 | 51e | Derek Crockett | 56.556 | 2 | 47.740 | 0.794 | 0.071 | 5 | |
| 10 | 32u | Keenan Schmitke | 56.572 | 6 | 47.727 | 0.810 | 0.016 | 6 | |
| 11 | 22 | Matt Kistler | 56.643 | 4 | 47.667 | 0.881 | 0.071 | 6 | |
| 12 | 51c | Bobby Legate | 56.721 | 3 | 47.601 | 0.959 | 0.078 | 6 | |
| 13 | 41y | Curtis Cooksey | 56.879 | 4 | 47.469 | 1.117 | 0.158 | 6 | |
| 14 | 33d | JD Mobley | 56.902 | 3 | 47.450 | 1.140 | 0.023 | 5 | |
| 15 | 14u | Eddie Olpin | 56.908 | 3 | 47.445 | 1.146 | 0.006 | 5 | |
| 16 | 27t | Nick Lucido | 56.934 | 4 | 47.423 | 1.172 | 0.026 | 6 | |
| 17 | 3 | Cam Egger | 56.950 | 5 | 47.410 | 1.188 | 0.016 | 5 | |
| 18 | 9b | Scott Barnes | 57.207 | 3 | 47.197 | 1.445 | 0.257 | 5 | |
| 19 | 99 | Carter James | 57.243 | 5 | 47.167 | 1.481 | 0.036 | 6 | |
| 20 | 6j | Joe Janowski | 57.254 | 5 | 47.158 | 1.492 | 0.011 | 5 | |
| 21 | 77 | Steven Reasoner | 57.286 | 3 | 47.132 | 1.524 | 0.032 | 5 | |
| 22 | 113z | Cameron Kingsley | 57.309 | 4 | 47.113 | 1.547 | 0.023 | 6 | |
| 23 | 111c | Clinton Schoombee | 57.448 | 2 | 46.999 | 1.686 | 0.139 | 5 | |
| 24 | 9z | Christopher Barkley | 57.555 | 6 | 46.912 | 1.793 | 0.107 | 6 | |
| 25 | 7u | Wyatt Lloyd | 57.564 | 3 | 46.904 | 1.802 | 0.009 | 5 | |
| 26 | 1nz | Daniel Eggleton | 57.623 | 5 | 46.856 | 1.861 | 0.059 | 5 | |
| 27 | 25c | Kyle Zirkle | 57.785 | 6 | 46.725 | 2.023 | 0.162 | 6 | |
| 28 | 10z | Ted Pyle | 57.841 | 4 | 46.680 | 2.079 | 0.056 | 5 | |
| 29 | 40c | Curtis Ruth | 57.873 | 5 | 46.654 | 2.111 | 0.032 | 5 | |
| 30 | 800c | Wayne Mello | 57.885 | 4 | 46.644 | 2.123 | 0.012 | 5 | |
| 31 | 12d | Ian Koentges | 57.912 | 3 | 46.622 | 2.150 | 0.027 | 4 | |
| 32 | 46x | Flemming Tranberg | 58.390 | 5 | 46.241 | 2.628 | 0.478 | 5 | |
| 33 | 22u | Oliver Crenshaw | 58.537 | 4 | 46.125 | 2.775 | 0.147 | 5 | |
| 34 | 27u | Patrick Cushenberry | 58.761 | 4 | 45.949 | 2.999 | 0.224 | 5 | |
| 35 | 56 | Matthew Trott | 59.061 | 6 | 45.715 | 3.299 | 0.300 | 6 | |
| 36 | 15 | Kristina McKnight | 59.691 | 5 | 45.233 | 3.929 | 0.630 | 5 | |
| 37 | 56x | Ellie Nash | 1:01.134 | 2 | 44.165 | 5.372 | 1.443 | 5 | |
| 38 | 70 | Chad Allen | --:--:--.--- | 0 | - | 0 |
I think the red stickers look better than the glittery green stuff
Thursday, November 15
Final Practice session in the morning, and then we go to qualifying. I
throw down some good laptimes in both sessions, ending up 3rd fastest in S4, and
3rd fastest in S3. Hey now, I think I might be able to podium in BOTH
classes, if I can avoid the wrath of Raceaflais. Tonight, Jason Trumpio
flies into town with some new camera gizmos. (most of the pictures on this page
are from him).
S4 Final Practice - Thursday Morning
| Pos | No. | Name |
Best Tm | In Lap | Best Spd (Mph) | Diff | Gap | Laps | ||
| 1 | 4c | Jeff Littrell | 57.086 | 4 | 47.297 | 5 | ||||
| 2 | 45c | Fernando Diaz | 57.155 | 6 | 47.240 | 0.069 | 0.069 | 6 | ||
| 3 | 55c | Doug Hayashi | 57.373 | 4 | 47.060 | 0.287 | 0.218 | 6 | ||
| 4 | 2nz | Steve Brown | 57.460 | 5 | 46.989 | 0.374 | 0.087 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 32j | Jason Ewers | 57.748 | 6 | 46.755 | 0.662 | 0.288 | 6 | ||
| 6 | 42u | Ryan Pool | 57.832 | 6 | 46.687 | 0.746 | 0.084 | 6 | ||
| 7 | 89x | Paul Russell | 58.396 | 4 | 46.236 | 1.310 | 0.564 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 161c | Jim Lewis | 58.593 | 5 | 46.081 | 1.507 | 0.197 | 6 | ||
| 9 | 42y | John Espinor | 58.766 | 6 | 45.945 | 1.680 | 0.173 | 6 | ||
| 10 | 1nz | Snow Mooney | 58.852 | 5 | 45.878 | 1.766 | 0.086 | 5 | ||
| 11 | 15c | Michael Mihld | 58.884 | 6 | 45.853 | 1.798 | 0.032 | 6 | ||
| 12 | 31x | Marty Henderson | 58.959 | 6 | 45.795 | 1.873 | 0.075 | 6 | ||
| 13 | 45u | RJ Edgington | 59.212 | 6 | 45.599 | 2.126 | 0.253 | 6 | ||
| 14 | 16 | Matt Alcorn | 59.363 | 6 | 45.483 | 2.277 | 0.151 | 6 | ||
| 15 | 64u | Scott Clark | 59.392 | 6 | 45.461 | 2.306 | 0.029 | 6 | ||
| 16 | 23u | Todd Edgington | 59.485 | 5 | 45.390 | 2.399 | 0.093 | 6 | ||
| 17 | 27 | Craig Finer | 59.485 | 6 | 45.390 | 2.399 | 6 | |||
| 18 | 95x | Tommy Baker | 59.615 | 4 | 45.291 | 2.529 | 0.130 | 6 | ||
| 19 | 12j | Eric Chappell | 59.644 | 3 | 45.269 | 2.558 | 0.029 | 6 | ||
| 20 | 28e | Rick Freund | 59.659 | 5 | 45.257 | 2.573 | 0.015 | 6 | ||
| 21 | 5z | Andy Sole | 59.725 | 5 | 45.207 | 2.639 | 0.066 | 6 | ||
| 22 | 65c | Grant Westmorland | 59.735 | 5 | 45.200 | 2.649 | 0.010 | 6 | ||
| 23 | 58 | Brad Johnson | 59.830 | 6 | 45.128 | 2.744 | 0.095 | 6 | ||
| 24 | 75z | Steve Perdue | 59.838 | 6 | 45.122 | 2.752 | 0.008 | 6 | ||
| 25 | 23z | David Jones | 1:00.074 | 5 | 44.945 | 2.988 | 0.236 | 6 | ||
| 26 | 36c | Bill Cox | 1:00.097 | 5 | 44.927 | 3.011 | 0.023 | 5 | ||
| 27 | 45z | Craig Sender | 1:00.157 | 4 | 44.883 | 3.071 | 0.060 | 6 | ||
| 28 | 110c | Tom Levenberg | 1:00.192 | 5 | 44.856 | 3.106 | 0.035 | 6 | ||
| 29 | 53c | Dave Van Gordon | 1:00.388 | 3 | 44.711 | 3.302 | 0.196 | 6 | ||
| 30 | 3x | Mark Black | 1:00.530 | 5 | 44.606 | 3.444 | 0.142 | 5 | ||
| 31 | 6x | Matthew Maas | 1:00.682 | 3 | 44.494 | 3.596 | 0.152 | 3 | ||
| 32 | 24 | Lloyd Putnam | 1:00.693 | 4 | 44.486 | 3.607 | 0.011 | 6 | ||
| 33 | 49c | Rob Whitley | 1:00.999 | 5 | 44.263 | 3.913 | 0.306 | 5 | ||
| 34 | 50z | Tim Davison | 1:01.613 | 6 | 43.822 | 4.527 | 0.614 | 6 | ||
| 35 | 39 | Chris Rapp | 1:01.686 | 6 | 43.770 | 4.600 | 0.073 | 6 | ||
| 36 | 68y | Mark Drennan | --:--:--.--- | 0 | - | 0 |
Wayne using same red decal set as me
S3 Final Practice - Thursday Morning
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Ugliest helmet vs. Derek Crockett's coolest looking helmet
Thursday, November 15
Qualifying
I had this Cheating Bastard strategy of how to get a good laptime. I was
figuring that since we mount new tires for qualifying, and usually the 2nd or
3rd lap on new tires is when you can throw down the best laptime, I wanted to
use both of our allocated two sets of new race tires in qualifying. I figured
I would go out on new set #1, throw down a good lap, then come back into the hot
pit area, have the pit crew do a Formula One style tire change, put on the
second set of race tires, and take another wack at getting a good time within a
couple of laps. I couldn't get any knowledgeable person to agree with me.
I insisted to Alex Barron a month ago that this would be the best way, but he
disagreed. I tried to convince Jason Hettervik to let me do this, but he
also insisted that ain't the best way, that I should save my 2nd set of tires
for the main event, when everyone will be running on new tires. Jason also
said it would be best to just do a set of hot laps, then come into the pit area,
check tire pressure, see what the other competitors are running for laptime via
this goofy I-Card/Gameboy wireless gizmo, and then go out again. In the
end, I agree with Jason, as so far every piece of advice he gave us seem to be
working.
Jeff looking fast in S4
Qualifying S4
So we grab our spots in the hot pit area for qualifying. We got Johnny
checking the Gameboy gizmo for updates on how we are doing. I go out on
the track, run a couple of what I think are fast laps, and then into the hot pit
to see how I did and to check tire pressures. Johnny says that I'm 15th
on the grid so far. What? How can that be? I've been top 3
in practice the past two days. Am I running with a lot of Cheating
Bastards that were sandbagging? I go out again and run some fast
laps, and comeback, and they said I'm way behind again. Damn. I go
out for one more session, do some laps, and then park it. I end up
qualifying 3rd. It appears that the I-Card Gameboy gizmo wasn't really
doing realtime updates, so I was getting all panicked for no reason, and
probably put on 6 more hot laps on those tires than I should have.
So much for using Cheating Bastard Technology. Jeff takes pole, Fernando takes 2nd, and I am gridded P3. I'm pretty happy
with that P3 spot, as I don't think I'll get involved in any first turn melees.
Qualifying - S4
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Qualifying S3
So I go out, blast some laps, come back in, check tires pressure, go back out,
blast some laps. I'm thinking maybe I should come into the hot pit one
more time, check tire pressure, and take a 3rd shot at improving my time.
I decide to do one more hot lap before coming in, and on that lap, I bonehead and
hit the plastic barrier with my left front tire. Which is like hitting a
brick wall at speed. It spins me around, throws the rear axle into the
wall, and shoots me across the track. MORON! Rear axle is bent at a 45 degree
angle, my qualifying session is done for the day. Damn. I was just
getting warmed up. I was hoping to go through the entire event without replacing
an axle, so much for that. So my qualifying time is cut short. I
knew I shoulda done that Formula One style tire change! Jeff
also has a problem, and crashes into the wall. We both end up getting 8
laps of qualifying, but if we had another 4 laps, we
might have been able to improve our grid positions. I end up taking 9th,
which isn't too bad. Jeff takes 15th, which is bad, as he is in the danger
zone where there are a lot of crashes. Wayne has a bad qualifying session,
and is 23rd, so he's really going to have to deal with a lot of traffic and
crashing. Instead of leaving the track early today, we gotta spend time
fixing axles, steering columns, tie rods, etc. Sucks. We are at the
track until 7:30 p.m, which is about 3 hours later than we planned on leaving.
Wayne rags on us for crashing, as he hasn't hit anything. Yet.
Qualifying Results S3
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Friday Morning, November 16, 2007
S4 Heat Race 1
So now we begin the first of 3 heat races. You start each heat race
according to how you qualified on Thursday. After all three heats races
are over, then your finishing places (points) for the heat races are added
together, and that determines how you grid for the 25 lap main race. It is
key to make sure you have three good finishes in the heat races, as one mistake
can put you back in row 6 for the main if you DNF. All I want to do is
finish in the top 4, so I have a good shot at being on row 2 or better for the
main event. Lights go on out on the starter tree, and we go flying into
turn 1. Jeff, Fernando, and Mike Drennan are racing pretty close, I hang
back a few kart lengths observing the action. Jeff wins the race, with
Drennan, Fernando, and me 3+seconds behind him. Behind us, Matt Alcorn
heads up the next group, 10 seconds behind Jeff.
S4 Heat Race #1 Results
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