Good night Karts

Cleaned and ready for next year.

Vegas

So Vegas. hmmm well it went like we thought. Todd didn't finish the main and I didn't make the main. but it was a great experience. Will write up the daily stuff soon.

Thanks to Franklin Motorsports for hauling our stuff and being so helpful and Joe White racing for keeping the engines running strong.

Almost here

So I'm sitting at work writing this on Monday the 15th. Hard to stay focused. Really ready to get on the plan tomorrow and get to Vegas. Pretty nervous about the whole situation but in a good way. Its been kind of an odd year racing. We did a fair amount of practicing but only raced twice. Summernationals which did not go well and Rock Island. During that time we started with our backup kart, backup engine. Then switch over to my new kart, new engine. For Rock Island switched engines again to the ICC Maxter and then back to the Honda. Lots of dinking around it seems all year and not enough racing. This of course will be put to the test this coming week. I hope it goes well for both of use.

Made quite a few changes to the kart after rock island. With advice from Frank Bain from FX, I switched from the Ribtech seat to the tillett and moved it back a bit. The kart all year long was to stuck in front. Also removed the front torsion bar and went to neutral caster and camber. All of this helped a great deal when we tested with Franklin. Should have been this way all year long but better late then never. Todd is also switching from a ribtech to a Tillett both of use using the ribcage system.

Family life is also a bit of hard point for this trip. Leaving the kids, 4 years, 20 months and 5 months is tuff. Tuff on the wife also who has to watch them for a week. So getting all the family details arranged is key but also stressful. Kids woke up a bit sick this morning which is also a worry. That would be the last thing I need is to get sick.

Only karting I've been able to do since late October when we dropped the karts off was last Friday at ProKart indoors. Did two sessions just to at least try to feel Like I was in the kart. I put in the fast time of the day over Todd, he claims my engine must have been built by Tec-Sav.

Karts are dropped and ready for Vegas

Took the karts over to Franklin Motorsports on Friday. Nice 5 hour drive to Dousman where we meet Jamie Sieracki and did a track day with him. Great day, very helpful info on kart setup. I think we are set. Dropped the karts and all of our supplies with him so we are ready. Kind of strange to not have any of this stuff in the garage now. Its kind of nice because you end up always tinkering with them everyday or at least feel like you should be.

Vegas is a go.

Running the SKUSA Supernats is a go for team Bridgeman. We might be crazy but what the hell. Going to trailer our stuff out with Franklin motorsports and tent with them. Will go and drop off karts on October 22nd. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to get them scaled and make sure everything is good. First time ever doing a tent with other people. The pack job will also be interesting as we always have what we need in the trailer. Should be fun. Now its up to use to get some practice in and get in shape

Rio here we come.

Garage full of toys

My garage looks pretty good for toys right now. It almost rivals my kids toys that are taking way to much room. I need more stalls. New Kart vs. older Trackmagic that I'm refurbing. Also a 95 CR125 that I just sold.

Rock Island 2010

So a good weekend at the Rock. A lot of work went into getting this going this year. Had to switch over my kart from Stock moto to ICC which always take longer then you think. Didn't know if running the King of the streets as an S4 was possible so I made the smart switch to Masters. Ended up going to my brother Todds's back up Maxter. To add to the weekend my wife and son Sam also came out. Sam is 4 so it was fun for him to see an event like this. Even though I think his most fun was swimming in the hotel pool. My dad always makes the trip also to help push off. I think 14 Masters were entered. Todd finished 4th and I finished 6th. At the rock finishing and staying out of trouble is #1 and we both did that. No kart issues at all which we are happy about. I would have liked to make that next step in lap times as I didn't get any faster in the race which was disappointing. But still very fun.

Trackmagic Project

Got a 04 Diablo 4 cheap awhile back. Making it into a bit of a retro project. Will have a 100% legal stock moto engine, all new bodywork. Has the cool double rads Trackmagic used in 99-00. Kart is very clean, should turn out pretty cool.

A real nice ass-kicking

Well to say the Summernationals at Shawano didn't go well would be an understatement. Both Todd and I did not fair well. Never fun being at the tail end of the grid. A few things are part of this crappy weekend. At the beginning of the session we both told ourselves we needed to lose 20 pounds to be ready. Well during the weekend we both scaled in at 433. almost 30 pounds over. We also haven't raced really since 08. We did a few practices this spring but clearly wansn't enough. So mainly it was just not being in kart shape and racing again some fast competition. You have to hand it to the guys in G1 and S4, they are a fast group that has been racing hard all year. So now we need to get in better shape fast to get ready for Rock Island which we will fair much better for I hope. From there we will make a call on the Supernats. Won't spend all that money if we aren't ready but hopefully we can get it done.

I will say SKUSA puts on a top notch event. I can't believe why more people would not choose to race with them. Also very little local shifter drivers should up which I can't understand.

Finished Kart, Ready for S4 action

I need a RibTech!

Well I guess I'm old. Got out on the new chassis to brake in the also newly built CR and found the Tillet isn't going to work anymore. Felt horrible in the kart. Will put a Ribtech in before our practice at Shawano in a few weeks.

Todd ended up going very well this day on his Maxter. He also has a new chassis and a basically stock maxter.

Cylinder clean up with Acid

I Have a 99 cylinder that had a bad stick. As I looked at it it appeared no damage was done to the Nykasil but just left the aluminum on the cylinder. So I did some research and found a way to get that off. So I gave it a try yesterday. Bought some Muriatic Acid from Ace hardware. Cheap, I think $4. Then got some long Q-tips from our Peds office when I took my kid in for the doc. It was pretty simple. A few things to know. I had the garage fully open so there was good air flow. Some thick rubber gloves. Simply just took the long q-tip and dipped it into the acid and then applied to the aluminum deposit. Once applied it will bubble and smoke a bit. Left it on for about 20 seconds then wiped clean. Took a few times to get it all but onces done it was gone. Then took some WD-40 and some fine grit sandpaper and cleaned it up and it looked good as new.





Not sure if you can see it but there is some smoke coming out of the cylinder. Do not Smell.

Sometimes They Come Back!!!!

Bought a CR125 off Craigslist for cheap from a guy down south. Got to looking it over yesterday and it was very dirty, no biggie it can be cleaned up.


So this is intersting deal.

Once I started cleaning it up I find "Rocket" stamped into the engine which means it was a Dave Talbot engine. Engine turns out to be a built 1999 engine. All good so far as far as condition of everything. As I start to clean the cylinder I find something Crazy. BRIDGEMAN was written on the cylinder! Which means it was either mine or Todd's engine from back in 2000 when we had Birels and bought them from MRP. Couldn't believe it! What are the chances.



New Clean version!

Second practice Day! A success!

Got out last Saturday for our second practice in the backup mule. Since our first practice in which we had a bunch of carb or electrical issues we made some changes. Changed Carbs. I have two pump around set up PWM's. Also changed out the coil and added some longer wires from CDI to coil and coil to spark plug cap. So we where off to the track hoping for the best. After the first two corners I knew we were good to go. Kart ran great all day long. Where running on two year old tires and rich jetting but where able to put in some good laps. Not sure which one was causing the issue but I'm guessing its the carb. Will have to take a look at that and see what the issue was.

After all this work at the end of the day we put the backup engine on the shelf. Todd will but his backup Maxter on the backup chassis for the next round and I will finish up the new kart and get that ready for next practice. I have a fair amount to do and a child on the way anyday so it will be intersting.

Taking the Boy to first Motocross

Got to take same to his first motocross at Millville on Sunday. He had a blast. Millville is a national level track but the number of entries and quality of the fields for a typical club race was pretty amazing. Here is Sam with his uncle Todd.

First Practice day

Had our First practice day last Wednesday. Didn't go so well. My fears of having carb issues came true. Been on ICC engine for a bunch of years and they never have issues. I know we ended up with the correct jetting. 172 main, 52 pilot and the DGJ needle middle clip. Started with a 185 main, 55 pilot and the DGJ in the middle. Kart would not run coming out of right hand corners. Would stumble until it cleared out or so I thought. Next practice we will come with a different carb, coil and CDI to make sure it wasn't electrical. We even switch the pump around and the lines but no work. Very frustrating. We will do an all day practice this Saturday and hopefully we can get it running right and get some good laps in.

Family Tree on the (67 year I think) Rupp.

Dad runs vintage events now and has since refurbed it. Now runs with a Mac engine. Todd won the very first race he entered as a youngster. Me in our back yard back down on da farm!