We had another race this past Saturday (1-21-12), but things didn't go as well as last time. The track we were running on was the track around the football field at Northeast High School in St. Petersburg and it was great! It's fairly new pavement and smooth as glass. Unfortunately, my left front tire went flat about 10 minutes into the first race! I lost several minutes in the pits, so my chances for the day were shot. Also, I guessed wrong on gear ratios; I had both cars geared too high... My son was running good in the 13 car until about the last 10 minutes when the batteries started going away. He completed 98 laps; good for 4th place (1st place car turned 101 laps).

Between races I changed gears in both cars, but I went too far the other way (too low). Consequently, we had to dial the throttles up too much to keep pace and that puts too much draw on the batteries. The winner and I both turned 100 laps; he finished about 12 seconds ahead of me. My son turned 95 laps, finishing in 4th place again.

Final results for the day: The winner (Rodney Schreck) ran 200 laps, total. Jim Jr. ran 193 laps for 4th place in class and 4th overall. I ran 165 laps which put me 6th in class and 9th overall. Next race is a tough little road course at University of South Florida in Tampa on Feb. 18. I've had some good luck and some bad luck at that race in the past. Time will tell...