Some of you probably don't know Jake (or me anymore since we've not been to
many autocrosses in the past couple of years). He started out at eight years
old autocrossing a junior kart here in the SF region. About three years ago he
started sprint racing at the Sears kart track. This year he has earned a slot
to go to the Champcar Rotax Kart Challenge Grand National Championships in
Denver, CO. http://www.rmaxchallenge.com
This year he has been running in the Rotax Junior class (detuned 125cc 2cycle
centrifical clutch). We've struggled this year running a kart chassis that was
just not designed for the higher horsepower of this new engine package. Not to
mention his mechanic/tuner (me) wasn't up to par either. :?
A couple months ago, he was invited to join a local kart team, The Circuit
Group, where he began to get some expert tuning and coaching advice from the
team's director Wes Phillips. I was (thankfully) relieved of my
tuning/coaching duties and relegated to be the wrench! Things improved and
most recently through the sponsorship of The Accounting Offices of M.Weldon
Moreland http://www.mweldonmorelandcpa.com, Jake now has a new (and
competitive) Birel R31 chassis.
Testing this past weekend was encouraging and even before we had the kart
fully sorted, he was running times equal to two of the kids that are the class
leaders.
So off we go to Denver next week. This will be a big learning experience for
him and while I always have high hopes, the field is large (53 entries) and
there are a lot of very experienced juniors (kids that have been racing w2w
since they were 5). He has his work cut out for him. We'd appreciate you all
keeping him in your thoughts next week.
Thanks all,
Pete Mottaz
Though it needs updating, this is Jake's website: http://www.jakemottaz.com
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