Yes!! I ended up racing today and this is how it went.
I started out by me and my Dad deciding to come down to the So-Cal sprinters race to watch.
We brought the trailer down as well WITH the new PRD we got. Everyone wanted me to go and race so thats what we decided to do.

We missed the first practice so we could only do the second one. We went out to go and try it out with old slicks and an engine that haven’t been used a while, as well a practically BRAND NEW Topkart Speedy that I had not driven before.

So we set off for our first practice, and it ended up being as slippery as ICE. The big problem in the practice was that the engine was to bogging out on me coming out of the corners and also at the top ends on the straights.

So after my first practice session, my dad leaned down the mixture to see if that would solve the bogging problem.
Then we put on our wet tired to cut the slipping problem and get more grip for qualifying. But yet, it did not!!

I finished sixth (last) in qualifying, five seconds off pole (#74, Max Ries). We went back to our pit to figure out what the problem was. My Dad had no idea what was causing this, so he called up Blake Craig from Tru-Tech. Blake said he thought our fuel might be a bit too lean, so we went out to see if that would do the trick, but still problems, and Ries still coming first. Blake came over to the track to see what the problem might be. He decided, no, he GUARANTEED, that it’s probably just a small problem with the carb, so we tried to see if that would help our problem.

This was the main race order: pole: #74 of Max Ries, second:#22 of Robby Melton, third:#99 of Corey Hoover, fourth:#20 of Kyle Tetzlaff, fifth:me (Henry Falls-Hand #78), and sixth:#5 of Lucas Podboj (starting in the back due to spinning out in the pre-main).

I was sent out and did two warm-up laps, it felt great! Eventually we got on the line up, and off went the green flag!

First corner, I kept my same position, but second corner, Tetzlaff and Melton had some contact and I passed. I ended up behind Hoover (him in second and me in third).

After about three laps behind him, he got a bit loose and I took my passing advantage. I took second place from him and kept it for the whole race, slowly catching Ries every lap.

Clawed up to 2nd place…

Main-race finishing order:1st: Max Ries, 2nd: me(Henry Falls-Hand) finishing 2.892 seconds behind, 3rd: Corey Hoover finishing 13.400 seconds behind, 4th: Lucas Podboj finishing 13.559 second behind, 5th: Kyle Tetzlaff finishing 22.994 seconds behind (sent back a bit more due to second corner contact), and 6th: Robby Melton (finished 8 laps behind due to first corner contact AND having to pull in on the 6th lap for carb trouble).

My kart was great in the main overall, so special thanks to Dad for putting together my new kart, Blake Craig at Tru-Tech for going out of his way and coming down and fixing my carb at tech, and Empire Karts for lining us up with the great new Topkart!

Looking forward to more great results next race, wish me luck!

Henry #78

Today (5 / 16 / 10 ) , was the PAK race at Apex .

In qualifying, I got the pole with the lap time of 42.559 sec, Robby Meltan 2nd , Kyle Tezlaff 3rd, and Trevin O’Cain 4th.

On the Heat Race, I pulled out to the lead, and kept the position the whole race.

The main race event, I pulled out to the lead like I did in the heat race, with the others behind me. On about the 3rd lap, I was quite far away and all the others crashed in a sharp hairpin.
I was all the way ahead of everyone and won, with second place being about nineteen seconds behind!

I actually got past tech scrutiny this time, and the race was officially mine !

I ran on a different motor that I had to borrow, because my engine had a loose crank.

I couldn’t believe I won using an engine that I had never used before !

I would like to thank all these people today for this race…….

Dad for all the support / crew chief / mechanic, Mark and Ryan Cansdale for the engine borrow, PAK for making this race possible along with David DiMond for letting everyone race on his track.
Henry Falls-Hand

This how the race at Calspeed went today  [Sat 5/8/10].

I qualified 4 out of 6, Willem Eldson 1st, Alec Karas 2nd and Tim De Silva 3rd.

The first heat race, I drafted Alec past Willem on the outside on the start, with De Silva and Eldson very close behind.  Karas right in front of me.

It probably could have been anybodys race, but it was a little pushy between me and De Silva, so with a few laps to go, De Silva tried to go for the inside but clipped my tire and went up the right side of my kart, then he spun out.

Eldson past me in the second to last corner and tried to go get Karas on the straight but lost by .361 of a second and me third.

The damage from the De Silva’s up on me accident, cost us a dented down pipe, a cracked header, a bent out of shape exhaust tempature gauge, messed up exhaust springs for the holder, and a few more things, but we still fixed it.

Second heat everything was smooth until the second to last lap when De Silva went up Karas, and De Silva got down quickly, still going, and while De Silva was up on top, Eldson tried to go up to the lead, but got a little sideways, which let me pass Eldson.

The finish was Karas again, De Silva second, and me third with Parker Stanway trying to get me on the straight but couldn’t.

Main race, the start it was this order – Karas , De Silva,  me .

I was right behind De Silva and he went a little too slow into the corner,  so I couldn’t slow my down in time because I was right behind him.  I ended up giving him a little bump and he got a little sideways losing just a little bit of ground on us.

Stanway was behind me and had to slow down, but that caused Eldson to go up him and Stanway got spun out .

The little bump caused me a rolled black flag ( warning on my driving ).

It was just me and Karas up in the front until De Silva passed me on the straight and Eldson passed me in a corner, but I was still behind and then De Silva nudged Karas causing a big spin with Eldson spining to a stall, De Silva a spined stall, and Karas kept going .

I got in front of all that but I still got off track, and on my way back on the track, I went over a big bump on the apex and that bent the sprocket and caused the chain to get really tight.

But I forgot about Robby Metan who wasn’t running too well but was catching me and did all the way to the end.

The finish was Meltan, me, Stanway 3rd, and Karas 4th. Top three went to tech.

Robby got DQed over his win, that became a loss, 3rd place Stanway, ok, and me ? ….DQed also.

So the finish became Stanway 1st and Karas 2nd , and thats it.

I was DQed for the port timing being  2 thou off !!!

I don’t know how that could be possible because my engine was just sent to Pitts this week. My Dad says that when De Silva went up me earlier it messed it up, and I agree with him.

Better luck next time.

Henry

PAK Schedule:

Saturday, January 30, 2010 Pacific Karting – Media Day - Free Kart Practice on Saturday with paid registration
Sunday, January 31, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #1(Day)
Sunday, February 21, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #2(Day)
Sunday, March 28, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #3(Day)
Sunday, April 25, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #4(Day)
Sunday, May 16, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #5(Day)
Saturday, June 19, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #6(Night)
Th, Fri, Sat, July 8, 9, 10 Summer Kart Kamp
Saturday, July 10, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #7(Night)
Saturday, August 14, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #8(Night)
Sunday, September 5, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #9(Day)
Fri, Sat, Sun, September 10, 11, 12, 2010 IKF Regional hosted by PAK
Sunday, October 3, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #10(Day)
Sunday, November 14, 2010 Pacific Karting Race #11(Day)
Sunday, December 5, 2010 backup rain date (Day)

I got 3rd place on Saturday at the Tri-C Karters Calspeed race.
Qualified 2nd, heat 1 =2nd, for heat 2 the “mechanic” decided to get
creative with the axle width and I dropped to 4th. For the 14 lap.
Finally I got the old man to reset the original chassis settings and then
I flew with the pack.
Despite a poor start. I made a couple of good passes but then had to
brake as two karts in front of me got tangled. Parker Stanway hit me
hard in the rear putting himself out of the race but also breaking the
exhaust support cradle on my kart. So nearly put me out as well!

The #0 & #37 karts who had, tangled cut across track and re-joined ahead of
me, putting me back at 4th, I passed #37 and moved on #0 but I started to lose power.
The hard rear end crash had broken my exhaust bracket and the exhaust rotated
around so the outlets were being blocked. Bye-bye power…
I got 3rd place though and I was pleased to have had a good
challenging race. Still, I don’t think people cutting across the track
and illegally gaining position should be allowed to keep it. Judges??

Henry