[Robert Lawson]

I sent a note to Dan Barth, to see if they would be interested. Told him I saw him pushing his kart up the pit lane at MIS (during his race) with a bit of a scowl on his face.

“Yeah, we had some trouble!!” he said.

Daniel is like me, can’t leave things undone! Not the way he wanted to finish the year so he got the word out and found a good number of guys. So, thank Dan for breakin down at MIS!!!! :)

We are planning on Friday, Oct 27th.

I’m going to take entry in advance, just like April, so if it needs to be moved to Sunday (Oct 29th) its already paid for. No entry at the gate.

You know, if you have done these in the past, you have nothing to lose. If we blow past both available days and can not turn laps, I’ll send your $$$ back! OR, if you prefer, I’ll pencil you in for April.

Its $175 per driver, I’ll buy Y’all lunch.

Send it here:

Robert Lawson 17731 Ivanhoe St. Roseville MI. 48066

And yes, you can google map us, street view, and see the trailer in the Yard!!

More soon!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Well, I tried!

The Nelson Ledges opportunity has become unattractive. After his meeting with the Owner, the Manager has informed me that the full asking price of a lease is needed which could cost each of us $300 (@ 20 ppl) or more.

I like Nelson, but not that much! There is obviously much more to this story but it doesn’t need to be spelled out here. Bottom line is, we are not going to turn laps at Nelson this October.

Where does that leave us? Don’t know about y’all but I NEED some track time! So, I called Sam back at Grattan.

We came to an agreement on the open available days: Friday, October 27th OR Sunday, the 29th. “Pencil in for Friday, and use Sunday as back up.” If it looked sketchy for Friday on Monday/Tuesday, we’d move it right away. If it snows the week before we know we’re done for the year!!!!!
Because its very late in the year he will allow me to cancel with no loss of deposit. So, there is nothing to lose….unless someone wants one of these days between now and then.

Is anyone interested/available in a Friday at Grattan? If not, how ’bout just shootin’ for that Sunday??

I need your feedback so I can make a call. Otherwise, I need to search google earth and find a huge vacant subdivision!!!!! (or industrial park, parking lot, deserted airfield, closed highway……..)  :)

RPM

forgot the e-mail: f-125@hotmail.com

[Robert Lawson]

Guys,

We have a nice little list going here for Nelson, thats a good sign! I really like that place and it would be good to get karts back in there on a REGULAR basis!

Have not heard back as of yet but…its just now lunch time! I’ll keep y’all up to date on what is happening.

Hey Brian, thank you!

We didn’t expect much, we were really there to learn. There was also just the 3 of us running so not a big field ya know. BUT, it did certianly become a race when my rev limiting/overheated ignition decided to slow things down. My best times were in the 1:26’s, not as good as we ran in 14′ but in the ball park. Also, it didn’t run the MPH it ran with the old engine from that same year. I’m learning the ratios in this gearbox. We had the right gear just needed to tweek the rear diameter to get spot on. We’ll get the MPH out of it once I get it all figured out. This engine/gearbox will be better suited for Daytona than the RVS.

In the race Saturday we ran 31 laps. 15 good clean running laps and 16 not so much! :)

It lost 13-15 MPH on top, would only rev to 12K and needed to be short shifted just to keep some kind of momentum. I figured if the times were really bad I’d just park it but it still ran 1:28’s – 1:29’s and I could see Al slowly closing in. Those 16 laps were tough, mentally it was the hardest race I’ve ever done. The machine is struggling and you are non-stop talking to yourself about being smooth, hit the marks, easy on the brake, don’t slide the rear, shift before it slows….. it was hard. The clock was telling me Al was going to get there, probably right at the flag.

We got lucky! Plain and simple. I was pretty wound up on the cool down lap. Crazy thing is, Chuck and I were super concerned about making 45  minutes on fuel. It was going to be so close we took the fuel jug with us in the wagon to the grid. I never stopped, but, IF it had run clean the full distance….. it wouldn’t have made it! We had less than 1/2 a gallon of fuel in the tank.

It was Good Fun!!!! Al will give me a whippin at Daytona…. I’ll try to stay in his vapor trail as best I can down there!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Price is what I’m waiting on. Fred mentioned contacting a Sprint racer from Pitt who may be interested and could bring a few friends out too.

I know what kart guys will pay, and what they won’t pay. We’ll have to wait and see what they come up with. If I can talk them into letting us camp out the night before I may be able to get more interest. It makes for a very long day from here!

[Robert Lawson]

Got the kart torn down a bit today.

All it has done is motivate me to get back out again!!!!

The engine is in good shape, everything looks perfect inside. I have a plan to alter how the rad sits in the kart and rig up a temporary box to direct the air through it.

I won’t be done for PittRace so….. Nelson anyone???? :)

 

I spoke to Fred this afternoon about a Saturday in October, as early as possible. Sent him an email that he can forward and talk to the Owner about. They are meeting tonight, I hope to hear what they can offer by the weekend. At MIS I spoke to a few guys that want in on a day at Nelson but we need at least 15-20 I would think just to get them to consider it.

I’ll be burning up the satelite towers and giving myself a tumor trying to get this thing going. If you are interested please leave a note or email me here: f-125@hotmail.com

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Yep, looking at our data, it was definatly H2O temp that caused the problem. Dang, I thought we fixed that! I was so focused on jetting, and NOT blowing it up, that I didn’t really look at water other than on the oval. When checking max numbers it was ok, problem is those numbers were from 8 minute runs!

The level was down just a bit, that could have been fron expansion. I have not checked to see if the Rad airbox had any debris in it. The pump and flow were good, many guys commeneted on being able to hear the water in the tank.

Well, looks like its time for an all new system instead of upgrading what came on the kart! I smell TEST!!!!! :)

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

I must say, its nice that MIS is SO close to home. We stayed until all the races were finished and I still made it home for evening Church service!

The weekend seemed to go a bit smoother this time compared to others so good job to the MKC. Had a great weekend, lots of laps equal lots of notes!  Weather was perfect and there was a good number of people/karts there.

There is an issue to work out with the engine. At 21 minutes in BOTH races the engine developed what I thought was a weather induced rich condition. Now, I’m not sure about that. I think its ignition.

We had a similar issue with the old engine. The water would reach a certain temp and it would overheat the stator, and start to miss. PVL confirmed it in a bench test they did to the ignition. On that engine it was literally at the 17 minute mark. You could practically set your watch by it! We bought C&R rad cores and built our own coolers, that fixed it. There has to be the weak link in this ignition too, we’ll have Penton check this one out and see what they find.

So, there is work to do. The upside is, for 21 minutes, it was fast!

On another note, I had a few guys asking about Nelson. Maybe we can still get some Org folks to come out and look into it AND the rest of us can turn laps???!!!! We’ll See.

Back to work!!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Wow, some “out of season” racing weather coming our way….

MIS weather this weekend: Partly cloudy 80 Fri, 82 Sat, clouding up/muggy and 84 Sun.

Frank Dawley dropped off a few Main jets so we have the entire range covered for this weekend. Rich is coming for the day to help out but will not be running his kart. Tony is coming out with his 250 too so we are looking forward to having some fun with the rest of the boys! Larry, Dave Sean, Paul, Mike and maybe Christian too…. all the Rumsey Racing team guys!!!!

I just wrote, and deleted, an epic rant on how pissed I am about the ridiculous BAN on helmet cams.

So, I will say this: At our Track Days you are welcome put cameras ANYWHERE your little heart desires. :)

See you this weekend, safe trip Y’all!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Hey Guys,

Some of the late season Testing opportunites are working themselves out. Grattan for instance, is OUT. All the weekned dates are gone straight through October so that will not happen. Getting enough numbers in the Fall has been rough anyway besides looking at a weekday, so, no Grattan.

Nelson Ledges is holding their last open track day for Cars this Saturday. I’ll call Fred tomorrow and find out what, if anything, he is willing to offer in the order of track time for karts and get back with you. I have not had much interest an a late season visit to Nelson, the WKA has not returned that earlier call either.

I did try working a single day test with Gingerman last Fall if Y’all remember, but, they want a rediculous amount of money for that place. Again, Fall numbers make it too difficult.

The new topend parts will not arrive here until Saturday (Monday!) so a G-man engine break-in is also out. I have been working on the kart for a  few days now, found some things that needed attention so its all good. Will use MIS for testing since there is no Friday track time. Having to break-in a topend will spoil any attempt to get all I want to try on the engine/chassis in AM practice. We’ll have to use the F-125 race/group to make adjustments and compare changes. Depending on how it works out, we may run the bonus race in Unltd late in the day, or, race on Sunday. We’ll see.

Running Gingerman this weekend? The weather looks perfect for racing, almost like April test weather! All sunshine and 68 Sat/70 Sun, upper 40s ovenight so dont get off in AM practice or you’ll be gettin wet!!! Good luck, race and travel safely boys!

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Hey Mark!

Good to hear from you! I spoke to Jerry this evening, he mentioned the new kart and the need for testing. I’m working on the options right now. As always, if there are enough guys we’ll do something….. somewhere!

Jeremy,

We have not gotten that far yet. We have 2 races in Sept here in our region and the AKRA season finale Sept 30 – Oct 1 to be mindful of. Not to mention other Club/Series events finishing up at the same time.

This I DO know:

1. Nelson Ledges wants a karting day before the season is over.
2. At the request of Management, I have left a message with the WKA liason whom made contact with Nelson, to inform & invite them and any of their partners to this possible opportunity.
3. I have called CES and gave a report on my trip to Nelson last week and to extend to them the same invitation.
4. As a return favor to Mr. Wolfe at Nelson, I volenteered to do anything I could to help get karts back to that facility now that they have repaved. (I may have even offered to bring a weedwacker :) )
5. Any opportunity for the Management to offer a Kart Day, in respect to ALL Orgs, should be done after the racing season has concluded.

I have not reached out to DKC personally about this, but I don’t need to. Those guys know they are always welcome and someone is looking in here regular.

I’ll be honest here, this is a financial loser for the Facility. I know what the asking price to lease is over there, even in what would be considered the “off” season. They won’t be able to get that from this Kart Day, from experience the October gigs are always tough to finance.

But when has that stopped us from trying!!!!! :)

I’ll get more details to you as they come guys…..

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Hey Y’all,

In trying to gain attention for AND participation in a “karting day” at Nelson Ledges, I’m posting a link to all 5 clips from my trip over there.

 

I’m working with the Management for a Track run/promoted/sponsored “kart day” for anyone interested in getting something going at Nelson. I don’t care whom you are, WKA, AKRA, Dart, Woodbridge, MKC, CES….. I am trying to help this FACILITY get karts back in the rotation on their season schedule.

Although the former Management is gone, and I had a very good relationship with them, I want to help Fred Wolfe the Track Manager (former grounds keeper!) get Nelson Ledges back in the mainstream. The facility will continue to be upgraded, actually, the plan was to do ALL the upgrading before repaving. But, some very convincing and persistant groups were relentless in requesting the repave get done asap. There were MANY vollenteers from these group that helped remove the great deal of rundown junk out there I talk about in the videos.

Now, some of you may be saying “When did karts ever race at this place before????” I hold in my hand a flyer advertising an IKF Enduro race from September 1968! Thats right, I said 1 9 6 8 !!!!! The track was called Steel City International Raceway, the Club was Competition Karters Inc. and your $13 entry included 1 pit pass!!!!

This is a Historic place, its finally been repaved and deserves our patronage. Again!

Bonus video:

I have a lotta more…

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

074 is going to make nice wallpaper, thanks Bob!!!!

 

[Robert Lawson]

This is ALL fantstic news Linda. Thank You and the Fam for keeping us updated!

Although the Karting family HERE may not have hit this thread as often as we would expect, there are folks out there whom are now extended karting Fam through heartfelt prayer! ….. and thats cool!

BE blessed Y’all!

[Robert Lawson]

Nelson Ledges, repaved:

 

 

I have a ride-around video in Bobby’s van with Chuck and Fred where Fred explains the different colors of pavement. They are not patches but intentional compound difference, purposely laid. Genious! I’ll see about editing it down for time.

The track had no rubber down so the tires were absolutely clean coming off the track and I had tire dust on my legs from the fronts. Regardless, the surface had decent grip on very used tires. A new set would have been a better evaluation but I didn’t get them balanced in time!

This is a last minute run at the time limit for the day. Fred was nice enough to let me go right back out after finding a new but faulty spark plug after cutting off the only long run of the day. I’ll post up a video on that too!

 

Enjoy the ride, I have much more comming about Nelson!

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

That was a tremendously long day.

Chuck and I headed out at 6:00am and got back here at 7:30pm. We did 450 miles of driving and about 16-18 laps on the track!

I did get video, it turned out well! I’ll see about getting it uploaded to YT then on here tomorrow.

Bob, thanks for helping! Looking forward to seeing your photos!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Was intending to briing you a cam test of the new unit. Unfortunately, it has even worse video break-up than the cams I already have!

Not sure why, the replay on the cam is fine but download to the DT and its unwatchable!

 

DONE! Back it goes!!! Y’all will have to deal with the ole Go Pro and the bit of video disturbance that unit is creating. I’ll be sending my POV HD back to get diagnosed and repaired first of the week.

The forecast for Garrettsville OH on Friday couldn’t be better for a day at the track! Although a brief day, still can’t ask for better than this:

Hi 72°, RealFeel® 78°, Precipitation 25%

Pleasant with sunshine and some clouds

Sounds good to me!

I will be talking with the Management about doing something this fall to get karts out there. Maybe sharing with cars and bikes, like the old “Fundays” the former Management used to put on.

Will share everything we learned back here on Saturday.

[Robert Lawson]

Again, ^^^^ call that number if you are interested!

Looks like there will be a strong T storm on Tuesday in the Garretsville OH area. My new cam won’t be here until then anyway (everything happens for a reason!) so Friday will be my next opportunity. Right now the forecast shows a perfect day for it.

I’m going to mount and bring a new set of tires just in case I get some overtime over there!!!!

New cam test coming soon!

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

I have been posting the updates to our chat.

8 days ago this man was busted up and the outlook was not at all good. It just makes me smile because I have seen the miracle of Prayer and this…. this is just another of those moments that prove faith is bigger than all of us.

I hope I can meet Mike and his family one day, until then… BE blessed Brother!!!

GODSPEED Mike!

[Robert Lawson]

I have to get my EGT bung welded on the pipe this weekend and some new springs for the exhaust and the kart will be ready.

Spoke to Nelson Ledges 4 times today working out a plan for track time this coming week that is not threatened by weather. I have 2 days picked out, 1 early, 1 late. I’ll be shopping for a camera this weekend, the result of that along with the forcast will determine which day I choose.

Spoke also with PittRace today too. Unfortunately they can’t get me out there in the next 2 weeks. We did talk about heading over there early in September. I will be in contact with them in the next couple weeks, the possibility of a “Track Sponsored” Friday/Event practice is now in the hands of the Management. They will talk it over and make a decision. That is the best I could do, its too late in the year and short notice makes the chances of this happening a financial mess.

If you want to influence this, call the Track Office and leave a message that you would attend. You never know, it may help! (PittRace: 724-535-1000)

More to come….

 

RPM

[Robert Lawson]

Here you go, the events of the day:

…..and a follow up:

[Robert Lawson]

Sorry guys!!! The Wife said nay-nay to hitting the garge on Sunday!

We had my niece’s Wedding at 3pm and she would not allow me to get out there and get dirty!!!

Ah but there is good news…. I shot the video today! 2 of them actually!

What happened?? Why 2??? Oh no you don’t…. you’ll have to wait for the YT uploading to finish!!!!

It seems BOTH my cameras are botched! Even the VIO cam has digital break up in the video!!??? I’m looking at a Go Pro “Sessions” cam, for 150 bucks. Thats all I’m willing to spend as easily as these things get shaken apart and trashed! The VIO cam is remote! It was in my suit with no vibration, last time I used it the video was good???!!!!?????? Could it be the card?

Anyway, there will be some “technical difficulties” to the video’s.

Can’t wait to get on the track at Nelson!

[Robert Lawson]

Linda,

If you dont mind I’m going to copy and paste your notes above to my prayer group chat page.

Mikes condition sound very serious and we all know the power of prayer, these folks will lift him up!

LORD bring healing to Mike and peace & comfort to the family!!!!

[Robert Lawson]

Reeds arrived Friday and Rich finished welding the pipe. I have what I need to get it fired up now, but….

The carb won’t go on!

The bowl cap is contacting the front motor mount and the carb is not fitting in the intake flange. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll modify that mount for clearance but the bit welded to the chassis that the mount bolts to may become an issue as well. A couple added links to the chain should move everything forward enough so any geaing option will keep it from getting close.

At least the Pipe fits!!! I did forget to give Rich the EGT bung but I can get that on myself later in the week.

With any luck I’ll post up the running engine video tomorrow afternoon!

[Robert Lawson]

That was a long day!

Just got home from Grattan. The Family held a Memorial Service for their Dad EJ. There was a big crowd, 200 or so folks. Everyone the family ever met seemed to be there! They had a nice catered lunch under a huge tent with lots of pictures and memories to go around. I got to spend time with each of the Boys, a few of their kids, a bunch of their friends, and Corner Marshals!

EJ had a history even I didn’t know about! In his late teens/early 20’s he was buff! He looked like Jack LaLane!!!! Bright blonde hair and fit he did some kind of acrobatics!!!! Really cool pictures of him through out the years, and, all the kids & grandkids. When you have 13 kids you will collect a few Grand’s too!!! I snapped pics with my phone, as many as I could. He was also in the Navy! The Navy color guard was there, did the flag ceremony and 21 guns. Then the bugler played Taps….which rang off the hills and trees and was awesome! EJ’s grandson read a poem and scripture then Sam spoke to the crowd.

What he said was very emotional for him and his Family. He said what helped and made them feel better were all the calls they received and how these callers would explain how the track and facility gave them great memories and many friends over the years.

EJ’s Wife, Mary, is not doing well. Her health is also in question. The Family was rotating sitting with her at the House in the paddock, they fear she may now give up after taking care of EJ for the past few years of his illness. She did not feel up to joining the crowd. I waited for each of them to come out to the tent, with such a large crowd you had to wait your turn but they really appreciated speaking to everyone.

I told Huey that my parents ashes were buried out there, I had not shared that with all the Boys. He was emotional, as was I, and said “There are a lot of ashes out here!”

Grattan is more than just a race track, and the Family more than just good friends. The work they did way back in the day, to clear the land, by hand. The old Tower, the drag strip & christmas tree! The old paddock, the lower was our playground and was nothing but grass! The 55 gallon drums filled with sand on the front straight that made a pit wall!!! Each of the Boys have left a piece of themselves out there, and carved out a legacy.

A bunch of years ago my Brothers and I brought our Family movies out there and had a showing in what is now the MX garage. 8mm movies with no sound, but plenty of now historic scenes of EJ’s pride and joy. He loved that place as much as we do.

Godspeed EJ, enjoy your rest. You have earned it!!!

[Robert Lawson]

A Little update:

 

 

 

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