Track Tac

Turkey Chase thanks

J

jacobsdad

Member
We made the trip to Lincoln this year to the Turkey Chase for the first year. We had a great time. My kids did as good as expected considering we ran the same engines they had been running all season, went with 2 sets of tires each, one new set and the others with at least a half a season on them. We are low budget! Our goal for the trip was just to experience a big race at a different track and get away for a weekend. It was a well run program. They put a lot of work into making this happen and keeping that many karts running smooth.
I do have to say, and this will get a lot of people worked up I am sure, but along with a great program and a fun race I also witnessed the biggest selection of dirty driving, entitled people, and childish behavior I have seen in a long time. None of this effected my kids finish in any of their races so it didn't bother any of us but it was entertaining! Whenever the classes would line up there would be a long line of karts waiting to set down and there was always a bunch of karts that would push ahead of everyone else just to get in line first. Rude but no big deal. I guess I taught my kids better than that, wait your turn. Often the ones that were so pushy were not even up right away. I saw drivers on the track ramming and banging other karts when it was not necessary. In cant even count how many times I saw karts with a clean pass but they would swerve and try to take out the other kart as they went by. I taught my kids if you have to rub a little to pass do it, but if you have a clean pass just get past them and run. We came home with more damage than we had all season, but that is why we ran the old bodies. We expected it to be rough, and it didn't effect the outcome of my drivers races so no big deal to us, I just found it entertaining how many were trying to take out other karts,. I saw guys yelling at the track officials, I even saw one guy in his 50's yelling and swearing at a kid that looked to be about 15. The kid must have hit the old guys kid so he had to go to his pit and yell and swear at him for a while. I had to wonder if that guy saw his actions later if he would be embarrassed by it, I know I would be. Another guy was yelling at his kid for losing a race because he didn't drive aggressive enough. I am guessing that kid wasnt enjoying the race as much as he should have been with that kind of pressure on him.
Overall it was a very entertaining weekend watching all of this happening. We had a lot of fun. We got away for a weekend as a family and spent some time with some good friends we don't see often. And the kids had a chance to experience racing at this level.
 
Sadly that has become the norm at any big race these days in my opinion. I see it any time we attend a decent sized money race, and witnessed my buddy almost get in a fight this past weekend from a guy in 5th place that couldn't pass him cleanly, so he beat on his bumper a few laps but couldn't get by. Accused my buddy of blocking and "costing him the race"

Then I watched my son get shoved from behind so hard on a restart that he wheel hopped another kid and almost cost him the race.
 
We are from Central Nebraska, so it was only a 3 1/2 or 4 hour drive. I asked my kids a few weeks ago if they wanted to go race, and of course they said yes. We talked about it and they knew they probably would not place very high, and we discussed the fact that if they were running a lot slower they needed to be careful to not mess up one of the faster karts race. In other words have fun, do your best and stay out of the way. We went, we had fun, they got the experience of a big race and we saw some friends that we don't get to see often. My drivers have the skills to handle a race like that but as I said in my earlier post we went in with one engine that we had ran all season, the other engine had a season and a half. One kart had 3 new tires and one tire with probably 5 nights running. The other kart tires had one full season running restricted. Our spares were all at least 2 years old and have been sitting on the shelf. So, equipment alone we knew we were behind from the start.
I just found it amusing and almost sickening watching some of the stuff that was going on. It made me think of last year one of my daughters races. She was running side by side with another kart fighting for first place. He would pull ahead at the end of the straights Through the turns she would pull ahead, they fought it like that for about 8 or 10 laps. After the race he came to out pits with a huge smile and shook her hand for giving him such a hard race. She told me she was tempted to cut into his rear tire and pit him to get the checkered flag, but she chose not to. I asked her why, she said she would have won but she would not have been able to feel proud of her victory. She said she would rather run a good race and come in second than drive dirty and win the trophy. She felt more pride knowing she did her best. He pulled ahead a few feet before the flag stand and won by inches.
Everyone has their own ideas of what a win is and what a win means to them personally.
 
I believe the best drivers are the ones that know when they've been beaten. Yes, you could cause a problem and hope it favors you in the end but the best realize when on that particular day they aren't the greatest and take their 2nd place driving professionally instead of carelessly.
I'd rather be 2nd and have the respect of the community over 1st and hated by all.
 
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