Birel karts

[Rick]

What a way to start off our relationship with Birel karts. Dale and Jesse Seeley took a brand new kart, that was put together Thursday nite, and raced Saturday morning. After only minor changes, one front and rear tire movement, Jesse was able to win both Saturday and Sunday events.
I guess Dale got what he wanted by buying a Birel c-28.
Way to got Dale and Jesse....guess I will need to find a new kid to work with any takers?

[Dale Seeley]

Not really sure how to take that.. The box arrived Wednesday at the shop I think, I couldn't make it down until Thursday evening after work. You already had the majority of the important stuff together, we mounted the seat (ignoring the recommended settings of course ) did a quick alignment, bolted a bunch of weight to it, installed the bodywork and a couple numbers and loaded it up in the van.

The first guess at setup was pretty damn good, but I suppose all those years of making decent kids fast had something to do with it. I just set your air pressures, and ended up just one pound higher in the rear at the end of day one, after a .6 second lead in qualifying and winning the prefinal. We got 'lightninged out', as it didn't actually rain but we watched a wicked storm form on three sides of the track before it headed off to Daytona.

Today was a better day for racing, won qualifying, the prefinal, and both finals. Today, the Birel suffered from running Florida Winter Tour tires, and the left side needed adjustments, a half-spacer in in the front, and a 1/4" in at the back to get around the carousel corner.

Micro continues to be exciting racing in Florida, as we learned the D2 tires grow to exceed the max diameter allowed in the class (and Mini) on a hot day. We weren't DQ, but the rest of the Micro class, and a handful of Mini's were until a call to SSC resulted in an extra 1/4" allowance which made everyone legal again. We also checked things like transponder height (do you know where your transponder is?), rear track, restrictor sizes, and other minor items. This time we didn't disassemble the carb, but we did inspect/install new muffler packing and seal the pipes during safety tech.

The Birel is everything I hoped it would be. It's not a magic chassis, it still requires paying attention, but it's not even close to as finicky as the CRG is. Racing alone, with no testing, no corner weighting, tires from March, and and RM baseline setup made the weekend a lot more comfortable. We actually had fun racing, I even managed to get a couple naps in between sessions.

It's nice to be home by 8:30 after two races in Florida, it didn't even get really hot yet today.

Thanks again for all your help Thursday night Rick, and for the phone support this weekend. It sucks that the Georgia and N. Florida Rotax schedules cover each other up. Someone needs to make sure that doesn't happen next year, it would be cool to be able to run both series in their entirety (spelling?).

[... moderated ...]

Dale

[seanmac]

BIREL???? Man it feels like I have been gone for along time! Rick I need all the help I can get!lol