NBoundZ

NBoundZ Motorsports and Christian Ministries made it’s first appearance on August 23, 2008 at PKRA in the Formula 125 Heavy class with Clayton Peck at the wheel of the #35 NBoundZ livery kart. The weekend started on Friday night at Innovative Karting with Curtis Ruth changing the clutch cable and housing and getting new rubber (MG Yellows). Practice went well, but Clayton wasn’t comfortable with starts, which would become painfully apparent on Saturday. Saturday started again at Innovative Karting getting some last minute things for the race, such as fuel and numbers for the kart. The number had to be changed from 350 to 35 due to club rules on height of numbers. Clayton got to the track early to get a good spot with Innovative, get the kart ready and save a spot for always late Chris Fosso, NBoundZ newest friend and rival in the Formula 125 class. After getting set up and organized in the blazing temperatures of the Arizona desert, a sweat soaked Clayton had to rush to grid for practice where clutching abilities would become even more painfully obvious. Clayton runs a Pavesi 125cc with a wet clutch, which typically has issues disengaging when cold. This problem resulted in Clayton not being able to keep it at idle and stalled in the grid, after getting restarted, his practice went fine, but he noticed an unusual high pressure in the front right wheel after 4 short laps, that was easily solved, but could have been costly if not checked immediately.
Qualifying was next and the sun had gone down and it was starting to cool off (less than 100), Clayton had a very clean run and surprisingly qualified 2nd with a 49.587. Eric Wuestenhoefer on pole and was more than 2.5 seconds faster at 47.059, but Clayton was humbled to be starting the heat race on the front row. Generally, all rookies would start in the back, but since their was only two veterans and the remainder of the field was rookies, Clayton started on the front row anyway due to Kyle (veteran shifter racer) having issues with his tire going down. At the drop of the flag, Clayton stalled the kart and Todd Snyder went airborne climbing over his kart. Clayton and Todd got the karts seperated and Clayton was able to push start the kart and get going, Todd unfortunately had to retire the heat race. Despite his horrific start, Clayton ran his best lap time running alone, due to mechanical failures of other karts, Clayton still finished 4th. Clayton apologized to Todd for his error on the start and fortunately Todd handled it with grace and was able to repair minor damage and still make the main. Luis from Innovative pulled Clayton aside and explained what he was doing wrong on the start and gave him a idea on how to solve the problem. That advice was golden!
Again in the main, Clayton had trouble getting out of grid, the kart would not start. Luis ran to his rescue and gave him a good push and got the kart to fire. Unfortunately, Todd was caught behind Clayton again and showed extreme patience in waiting for Clayton to get out of grid. Due to showing up to the start late, Clayton had to start in the back with Todd. This time Clayton got a clean start and immediately made a pass in turn two. Clayton followed Chris Fosso closely for the first lap and made his move between turn two and three of lap two and immediately picked off Wayde Bloedorn (changed his jet between heat and main) in turn 5 with an aggressive move to the inside, causing Wayde to bog the kart. Clayton was in third, but in one full lap, Eric Wuestenhoefer and Kyle Hathcox had put considerable distance between Clayton and the remainder of the field. Kyle Hathcox put down an impressive 46.772 for the fastest lap of the day, but wasn’t able to get Eric Wuestenhoefer. Eric’s smooth driving style paid off for an impressive win in the first race of the Fall series. Kyle battled through flat tire issues during qualifying and the heat race and also came from the back to get an impressive 2nd place and even challenged Eric for an exciting end to the Main. Clayton finished third, posting a personal best lap time of 49.188. The evening was capped off by Innovative Karting hosting a cookout for it’s team members, a super nice touch to the evening.
Even though the experience was an awesome one for Clayton, he realizes there is so much work to do before the next race in September. Clayton is encouraging everyone and anyone to get in their shifter or get a shifter and come out to race, we need to build this prestigious class back to what it was a couple of years ago.
NBoundZ wants to thank everyone at Innovative Karting, the PKRA volunteers and everyone that came out to race or support our local club, especially the families, friends and fans.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Track News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.