Rock Island GP

Dear friends,

In a few hours I will be heading to Rock Island, Illinois for the Rock Island Grand Prix the largest karting street race in the world. This will be my fourth year to compete at the 'Rock,' and with 3 top five finishes to show for it, you can all believe I am expecting a win this time!

On Friday afternoon the roads of downtown Rock Island will be shut down and the streets will transform into a 7-tenths of mile road course with 6 corners. Although there aren't many corners on this track it is still very tricky due to the curvature of the street, bumps, and high speeds (the slowest corner speed is 58 miles per hour).

The race weekend is very fast natured without a lot of track time. We will only have one ten minute practice session on Saturday before the ten minute session in the afternoon.

After the track shuts down a truely unique aspect of the Rock Island Grand Prix comes out. The race participants and fans who have lined the streets all day get to mingle at a cocert Saturday night by a Beegees cover band. For many this night is known to be a crazy night, but don't worry friends, I will be turning in early for the race on Sunday.

In the morning we will have a five minute warm up session (not enough time to warm the tyres) in the morning before the 20 lap final race. With 34 karts starting in the final qualifying position is absolutely critical. You can forget winning (bar a miracle) if you don't start in the top 3 rows. Weather reports show a good chance for rain on Sunday so perhaps we will have a rain race!

Hope everything is going well for you! With some luck hopefully and a blessing from the racing gods by this time on Monday I will be returning to Texas with an infamous Rock Island Grand Prix 'Rock' trophy.

Best wishes

Michael,
www.mjdrive.com

For a video of some of the thrills and spills of the Rock check out the Rock Spin Video on kartweb.com here: http://www.kartweb.com/2005/RIGP/RockSpin.wmv

Race updates should be available at www.ekartingnews.com I am running in the Tag Senior category and will be racing the #7 Rotax Max powered Arrow kart.

 

We are heading home after what was to me the most dramatic Rock Island Grand Prix I have ever participated in.

Thank you Jim for the post. It was entirely accurate. Saturday qualifying provided a 5th grid position out of the 55 entries however catching the 'slow pokes,' proved more detramental than I would have ever immagined.

http://www.ekartingnews.com/news_info.php?n=6758

The pole went to an english driver Martin Pierce, a factory driver for Wild Kart, an italian based kart manufacture. I was very concerned that he would get away on the start and hope would be gone for a win. My concerns grew even more at the start of the race when my engine loaded up and refused to accelerate at the start. My coveted fifth starting position quickly slipped to tenth after the first corner.

With only 20 laps there wasn't a lot of time for anything from 10th position. The quick math told me I needed to pass a driver every other lap to be in the top spot by the end of the race so the only thing I had time for would be head down lap record speed every lap, while pasing karts, so thats what I did.

<skip exciting racing action>

By the time the white flag (final lap flag) I was in second position, less than five kart lengths behind the british pilot. I knew as we passed the start/finish line the passing zone at the end of the straight was out of the equation so I would have to overtake him in the corners. Perhaps by even contemplating this I was getting ahead of myself, one obstacle I hadn't planned for was a lapped kart (one of the drives not comfortable with the imminent danger of barriers at the edge of the race track.)

From my perspective all I can assume is when the brit passed the other driver he simply lost all control of his motor skills as his brain saw the microsoft blue screen of death. In the excact moment I was directly behind his kart he careened into the crash wall, launching himself directly into my path. I did my best to avoid the spinning kart and was snagged only my right rear tyre. My kart was launched and I did a 360 in the air. (please see video in first post and use your immagination)

I was only able to proceed far enough before I stopped the kart on the infield with a broken axle. As I took off the helmet the crowd was kind enough to get me applause for my efforts and I could still hear the announcer (obscured from view of the accident) shouting that I might have enough to pass the leader after passing 9 drivers in less than twenty laps.

In the end this is why we love to race. You never know what is going to happen, even on the last lap. It is a very reassuring thing to not only match the pace of such a talented driver like Martin Pierce, but also to run him down, through traffic. Maybe next time there won't be a 'slow poke' to get him the way!

Thank all of you for the support, pm's, and phone calls.

See you at the track

Michael,

 

Back home in one piece. As it turns out we accidentally met up with Rob Lay who was returning from an SCCA national race in Kansas. It sounds like he had a succesful event from the quick run down he gave me.

FD: Our karts dont use any restraint devices. In case of the worst it is typically better to get away from the sliding mass rather than being attached to it.

CRG: I would really love to make the supernationals this year but my engine is not suitable for the TAG category in the track layout they run. If a ride/sponsor became available I would be there in a second. What class are you going to be running there? Did you hear Scott Speed will be racing in the Pro ICC category? It looks like it is going to be an awesome race.

Cheers