It's been one of those years. Last June 2008 I tore my Labium and Biceps muscle and ignored the pain. This spring I saw a Shoulder Specialist and got the bad news. He sent me to Physical Therapy to see if we couldget it to heal up. The pain got worse and I had an MRI done, Much to my dismay I was told that I needed surgery as the Labium tear was quite large and the Biceps muscle was pulverized.
That pretty much ended any chances of racing in the Great Lakes series this year. I did however ask the doctor if I could try to kart through August and have the surgery done after the Indy Moto GP race which Karoline planned on attending. He agreed that I could give it a try and so Karoline and I headed to Red Bud for the AMA National Motocross over the 4th of July weekend. After an awesome weekend at Red Bud that saw some killer Motocross we headed over to MRP Raceway in South Bend for a day of karting with Rusty Hibbs an old motocross friend of mine who wanted to try karting.
The weather was awesome and Marshall had a CRG/Rotax kart prepared for Russ to test.
I had not been in the seat since October of 2008 and it took me a while to get up to real speed. More than anything in karting it is finding a good setup, getting the jetting right and bring down your brake zones. It took me the better half of the day to get the setup and jetting where the kart did what I wanted it to do and from there it was working on my corner entries and finding the edge of the track.
I have to than Marshall and Al Menting who helped me all day. Al spent the morning prepping my kart and everyone helped with the lifting it on and off the stand. The understood that my shoulder was pretty much a mess. I was just hopeful that I could run all day.
Rusty, his girlfriend Sue and I rented the Honda 4 stroke karts that MRP offers and spent an hour running them on the limit. They are great for getting yourself up to speed and searching out the limit because they aren't light switches like the 2 stroke Rotax which requires a bit of skill to run on the limit. The Rotax can be very evil when you least expect it. The Hondas are just fun to run and race around with your friends in.
All in all it was a good day, my shoulder held up dispite the beating. I was sore as hell but drove the 5 hours home. Rusty had a great time and discovered that you don't just climb into a kart and run up front. Having said that it did a stand up job. He claimed he was hooked and wanted to buy a kart at the end of the day.
Of course Karoline shot tons of pictures and we are planning one more run before I have my surgery. Hard to believe I'm only goingto get on the track twice this year. Ah, life throws some curves at you and you have to work with them.
If I haven't said it enough, I will say it again. If you have not tried karting and you are a gear head, get to a track and rent a kart. Even if you just rent the Honda you will have a blast and it's very cheap fun. And for the many who ask me, outdoor karting is not in anyway like indoor karting. It is miles fater, you have far more grip and I liken it to running a Formula car.
If you are in the midwest MRP in South Bend Indian has a nice selection of 4 stroke and 2 stroke rentals.
