The 2023-24 season kicked off on September 16th at Hillsborough Community College. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go. My collapsed left arch decided to flare up and keep me off my feet all week, so I didn't have my E-car ready to go. The second race was at the Kirkland Ranch Academy in Wesley Chapel, Florida. I didn't attend that one either - it's a 3-hour drive to get there and almost 4 hours to get home because of afternoon traffic in and around Orlando. It's just not worth it to me...

This past Saturday, November 4th, we had a race at Plant City High School. I took my Open Class car. The racecourse is set up in the front parking lot. It's a long narrow space, so the course has two long straights connected by a hairpin turn at each end. The backstretch has a double chicane in it to make it more interesting for both drivers and spectators. The surface is relatively bump-free, but it's old sunbeaten asphalt that is very hard on tires.

There were 11 cars entered, but only 3 in the Open Standard Battery class. The first race went smoothly. I hadn't driven since last April, so I was taking it easy and getting re-acquainted with my car and its "feel". Rodney Schreck won it by 4 laps over me and a new entry from Florida State University. I got second by a scant half lap. For the second race I picked up my pace a bit and was running with the leaders. The FSU car dropped out at about 15 minutes with a flat tire, so I thought it would be an easy run to second place. At about the 30-minute mark, the FSU car rejoined the fray with a new tire. We were red flagged a few laps later because the scoring apparatus had come unplugged and laps were not being counted! After a 6-minute delay we continued. All was going well until about 19 minutes to go when my rear tire went flat! I limped to the pits and became a spectator. In the end, Rodney Schreck won our class by 20 laps and the FSU car beat me by 4 laps. Maybe next time...

During the previous week, I had switched motors in my E-cars. My Open Class car now has the Motenergy ME-909 motor. It has a higher power rating than the Etek I took out. Because it runs at a different rpm, the ME-909 requires a lower gear ratio. The end result is faster acceleration when needed and better efficiency overall. The Optima Yellowtop batteries I have are 7 years and 9 months old! I wasn't sure they could even last a full hour, but they did. However, they do start showing some weakness after the 35-40 minute mark; I guess it's time to replace...