2010 Philadelphia FJC Champion!!

Yes you read that right, Logan is the 2010 Philadelphia FJC Champion in only his first year of competition!!! We are so proud of him and can't wait to see what the future brings. He's continued to improve and has shown some great speed.

2010 Philaldephia SCCA Region results

Can't wait for the 2011 season! He'll be competiting in the FJC class again with the SCCA as well as competing at NJMP's F1 kart track and Englishtown Raceway's kart track as well in several different sprint racing classes.

NJMP F1 Avenger kart track 11-14-10 practice

Logan and I made our first trip to NJMP's F1 kart track, the Avenger configuration, on November 14th for a practice day. We got a TON of seat time for a nominal amount and was worth every penny!

Logan was first out during practice and was having a blast. Passing other karts on the inside and had a good line for his first ever dedicated kart track. I worked with him throughout the day and he continued to impress me with his speed but, also his understanding of the racing line.



I also ran my Italkart as well with a few other of my buddies and had a blast as well. I was setting very respectable times throughout the day, which I was really happy with considering it was my first time ever on a dedicated kart track.



Logan and I really looking forward to the 2011 season as we both plan to do kart sprint racing at NJMP as well as Englishtown's kart track. We also hope to compete a few races with the World Karting Association to see how we stack up against the best in the business.

The 2010 season was a very exciting but, somewhat disappointing season for myself. I campaigned the LeGrand throughout the season, both regional and nationally but, I never really had a good chance to exploit the performance of the car as it was constantly breaking or giving me issues. Of course, after buying the Italkart I ran the LeGrand one last time and it performed flawlessly but, it had rained so the track was slippery. The last few events I ran the Italkart and had a blast! I had more fun in those last few races in the kart than I did all year in the LeGrand. I honestly wish I never sold my Top Kart....



Logan on the other had had an awesome year! He improved immensely throughout the season and was going much, much faster from when he began. He really is starting to understand the correct racing line and how to read a course as well as to set him self up for elements on course. He's shown a tremendous interest in racing and absolutely can't wait for race day to come!



For 2011, both Logan and I will be campaigning our karts - Logan in FJC and myself in F125 with SCCA's Solo program. Logan will be competition regionally and I will be competing both regionally and nationally. There is no national FJC class unfortunately otherwise he'd be competing nationally as well. We also plan to do some sprint racing with the karts as well at NJMP and Englishtown's dedicated kart tracks. We both are really excited to get into wheel-to-wheel racing!!

Italkart

Here is a link to my new toy - Italkart:-) Its a 2008 Italkart Supersonic V chassis with a TM ICC K9B engine. The chassis is very, very adjustable and has been meticulously maintained by the seller (Bill Isaacson) as well as Cameron Karting out of Sonoma, CA. It is a great package with an unbelievable amount of spares.

I am really looking forward to getting back into karting! In all honesty I wish I never left....

Moving on....

So I decided to sell the LeGrand. I have a lot of mixed emotions about the whole thing and have thought long and hard as well as talk with friend and Angela (plus my sons) the best decision at this point in my life is to sell the beast. As much as it kills me to do so, deep down I know its the best thing to do for myself and my family.

The LeGrand has been sold to Howard Sharf of West Palm Beach, FL. Howard is a National level Solo competitor, which makes it a little easy to sell since I know the car will stay in BMod and will be in some good hands. Plus it seems like the car will be developed like I would have liked - the car is headed to SFRE for the differential conversion that seems to be a must for the class (although I still feel its not entirely needed to be competitive in the class).

Check out my Facebook page for a ton of cool pictures and video me in action in LeGrand.

I am going back to karts and F125! I've recently purchased a 2008 Italkart Supersonic V with a ICC motor and can't wait to start campaigning the kart!! I should have it next week sometime and hope to debut it at an AI event in Waldorf, MD.

Paradigm Motorsports air shifter

Man this is one cool ass piece of equipment. Thanks to Dave Cook and his hard work, I have made the switch back to an air shifter system with steering wheel mounted paddles. I had tried running what the Haddocks gave me but, never could get their system working properly.

Paradigm's system is an entirely different world. It sports an innovative paddle system that incorporates a hand clutch with the downshift paddle. The initial tug on the paddle initiates the clutch than I pull it further and it initiates a downshift! Really cool. I haven't hooked the clutch feature up yet as I have to convert the trans back to a cable clutch from its current hydraulic system so that the clutch can be activated using a solenoid.

Another cool feature is that the upshift/downshift intervals are adjustable! Haven't played with that but, as is it shifts retarded fast :-) Dave has also come up with a control box that has even more features such as flat-foot shifting (no-lift-to-shift) among some other top secret things!

2010 Northeast Divisional - DC

The weekend of May 28th - 30th I competed in the Northeast Divisional in the Washington, DC region at FedEx Stadium. The WDCR recently lost 2 of their large lots and have been moved to one smaller lot but, the lot actually has a ton of useable space and turned out to be pretty grippy, although is bumpy in spots. I was really excited to be finally competing against another BMod as Joe Gonzales made the trek down from upstate New York with his early 1979 LeGrand:



Friday was practice and I bought 8 practice runs. On my 2nd run though the engine started bogging. As I pulled into paddock the car stalled out :-( I pulled off the fuel cell filler neck flange and shook the pump feed line as well as the wiring. Once I did this the pump started moving fuel again!!! I got through practice ok and seemed to be setting decent times.

On Day 1 the car was a handful. I was nearly 6 seconds off of Joe with Justin a few tenths behind me. The car was bouncing all over the course like a pogo stick and bottoming the chassis out on the asphalt. The motor was bogging out as well near the end of the runs. Not a good first day.

After the day's competition I took the body off to address the fueling issue where Joe and I noticed the front control arms where sitting at an inclined angle from horizontal. The rear control arms where found to be the same way. This isn't good for the suspension geometry and expains why the car was handling the way it was (and has been so far) also explains why the chassis was bottoming out. As for the fueling issue, I found that the cell bladder had begun to deteriorate but, I didn't realize how bad until a few nights ago.... More on that in the next blog.

So I got the cell situated and raised the ride height. Day 2 came and went and man what a difference!!! My goal entering day 2 was to get within 4 seconds of Joe... I ended up within a second!!! I was ecstatic to say the least. The rest of the time was in gearing. I had switched to a 13 tooth front gear, down from a 16 (with a 44 rear) but, still was able to do the entire course in first gear, which was killing me time wise. I just ordered a 12 gear and am looking forward to feeling the difference.

Here are a few videos from the event:




Here are a few pictures from the event as well: