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Category: Motorsports

The thing from California that wouldn't end

Isn't California supposed to be filled with sunshine and tree-hugging environmentalists?

Yet, rain and swirling clouds of litter and some tremendously bad decisions dampened NASCAR's effort to run a race in the Granola State on Sunday.

Still, almost nothing can stop this sanctioning body when it has lights and a tight schedule.

So who won?

The Simpsons, No Country for Old Men, and after making those of us in the Eastern Time Zone wait until 2 a.m., NASCAR did what it should have done at 6 p.m. -- postponed the race until 1 p.m. Monday.

The Academy Awards actually finished more than two hours before NASCAR pulled the plug, and that annual festival for the sleep-deprived was held in the same time zone.

Between cold rain showers and wrecks caused by water oozing out of cracks in the track surface, trash from a never-ending day of waiting in the grandstands caused cars to overheat.

Denny Hamlin said his wall-slapping incident early in the race was caused by hitting a slick spot. Casey Mears' crash that took out teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. probably was caused by a weeper too. A frustrated Earnhardt said in the garage that the track was dirty and wet and they shouldn't have been racing at all. Now, Earnhardt gets to come back after a little sleep and drive a broken race car through the remaining 163 laps of the two mile oval.

This always is a tough call for NASCAR, which wants to please ticket holders and television viewers by getting a race run on the right day. The drivers also called for the start -- then complained when they got it.

But, this maniac obsession with getting a race finished or at least half-way so it can be called complete, even if it meant forcing drivers to risk their lives by racing at more than 200 mph into the small hours of the morning was insane.

I know it was only 11 p.m. out there in LA LA Land, but it was 2 a.m. for the bodies of the drivers and crewmen who came there from North Carolina. And us too.

The Fox broadcast team did all they could to fill in the long empty spaces by making noise with their faces for hours and hours. Some of it was really dumb -- like asking every driver to name the cartoon gopher that shows up on the screen every time the director cuts to a fiber optic lens glued to the track surface.

Of all those interviews, the best was Dr. Dick Berggren's friendly exchange with Tony Stewart. Smoke's long hair was soaked in the rain when he looked up toward the grandstands to say how impressed he was with all those folks braving the wet and the cold.

Oh, and how come Auto Club Speedway has lights, but sister track Michigan International Speedway doesn't? Lights at MIS could have prevented the three-day delay we suffered through last summer. MIS has a larger spectator attendance and is owned by the same company. I suspect it has to do with the need to hold the California track's September race after dark because it's so incredibly hot there during daylight. Still, it seems like special treatment for a lesser facility.

K2K's new karts will be very fast

I got to take a few laps this weekend in the amazing new electric go kart being developed now at Kart2Kart for the long delayed opening of the new Apex Conference and Karting Center in Madison Heights.

The machine is very quick, but there's a lot of work to be done before the kart and the new karting facility are ready for public consumption.

The massive replacement for K2K's indoor karting facility in Sterling Heights originally was slated to open late last year, but it remains a work in progress and the opening now isn't expected until late April.

That means Kart2Kart's facility on Van Dyke will remain in operation with its dependable gas-powered karts while staff continues to develop the new electric replacement and construction crews turn the old Sam's Club on 14 Mile Road into a restaurant and twin quarter-mile indoor road courses. Although the British go kart manufacturer sells turn-key operations, K2K is making major modifications to their prototype to be certain the machine provides the higher level of performance that local customers have come to expect.

This certainly is no kiddie arcade go kart. Although the prototype I drove was limited to about the same top speed as the current gas karts, the electric motor delivers immediate power so acceleration was far more impressive. The clocks weren't on, but I'm certain those were among the fastest laps I've ever turned on K2K's track.

The real racing forces and feel were there. And I didn't miss the loud gas engine because the electric motor makes a satisfying whine that increases in pitch with speed. The whole idea of switching to electric karts is about eliminating the need to ventilate the new building -- thus making the new track warm in the winter, cool in the summer and not so stinky that your girlfriend refuses to let you get close until you get rid of those exhaust-soaked clothes. Hey, wait a minute. That was a good thing.

After my laps in the prototype, a quick battery recharge allowed an old friend, Grand Rapids Press photographer Lance Wynn, to also try the new machine. My teammate in this weekend's endurance race at K2K gave a thumbs up on his return to the pits. When he noted that you can tell it's a heavier machine (almost 400 pounds more than the current karts), we were told steering geometry is something the staff also is modifying.

"The steering is heavy, but feels good and it's very fast out of the corners," Wynn said.

And then he smiled. "There's a lot of response to the accelerator pedal. A whole lot! They might have some trouble keeping the tires from burning off of these things."

Kart2Kart plans to continue its current competitive leagues and occassional 2 hour endurance races with it's gasoline karts in Sterling Heights until the new place opens. Then, plans call for a whole new series of competitive events that won't include endurance races because battery discharge and recharge will happen in about 20 minute cycles. But regular customers will earn licenses based on their own past performances that will automatically program karts for greater speed. There also is a proposal for a sprint race series that could offer cash prizes and an opportunity to drive real race cars.