It’s not a race weekend unless you ride back into the pits on a trailer. More on this later.

With the help of Patrick and Christina, we were able to race at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in August. This race is only a single day race, so practice is on Friday, and then a race day on Saturday. Due to scheduling (Wine tasting the evening before.. I know), we left Rochester on Friday at 5 AM for a 4 hour commute to Pittsburgh.

Friday Practice

We arrived at the track around 10 AM on Friday and immediately started unpacking all of our gear. The consisted of setting up the tent, pulling some stuff out, and then getting the kart out. We had a very minimal pit space for this weekend.

Due to getting to the track late, we managed to miss the first practice session. It wasn’t too big of a deal because there were probably 8 more sessions for the rest of the day. The track was extremely technical so we needed as much time on the track as possible. For our first practice session out, we put down a 57.282 for a lap time, which was not that good. We should be around 55.000. By the end of the practice sessions, we managed a 56.560 lap time, but not without some drama… Engine failure.

Going down the straight the engine completely went dead. It made a weird noise and locked up the wheels briefly. This is where we had to ride back into the pits on a trailer as I alluded to earlier in the post.

We took our time and put the spare engine on and went out for the last practice session of the day. We ran the spare engine pretty rich as we knew that if we blew up another engine, our next move would be packing it up and going home. The practice session went well and then we went to dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube for some dinner and drinks.

Qualifying

With new tires on the kart, and a well crafted qualifying strategy, we put down a 56.758 for a lap time. That set us in 9th place for the first race. We had about 3 chances for a flying lap for the session, which was decent, but not as good as what we were presented with at New York Race Complex the month before (clear track the entire session).

Race 1

For the first race, I will admit that I was sleeping on the start of the race and a bunch of people passed me. We still had a good race however, finishing 8th for the start of the second race. The driver of the #1 kart had some issues with the kart getting up on two wheels into a turn, that was the perfect opportunity to make the pass.

Race 2

This race was pretty unexciting. I didn’t make any passes and stayed behind the driver of #92 the entire time. Still a success though, we finished the race without any damage!

Race 3

This is the race to watch! Starting in 9th place, we avoided accidents, made some passes, got passed, and passed back. After a hard fight with kart #621, we placed the kart in 6th place for the weekend! Again, no accidents!

Conclusion/Final Thoughts

This would’ve been the perfect race weekend for us, minus the small detail about the engine. We finished every race, had fun battles, and came home without much race-induced damage! The track was tough, and I can confidently say that there were a few corners that I did not figure out at all for the entire weekend. We will definitely be back next year if the race is on the schedule.

Here’s the estimate on how much it cost us to go to this race:

Tires: $200

Entry: $190

Pit Pass: $30

Kart gas/oil: $80

Transportation: $140

Hotel: $141

Food: $108

Engine: ???

Total: $889

Without further ado, here’s the pictures from the weekend: