Ramsay Kids Racing

Lindsay was a little chilly

2011-01-30T05:59:00.000-08:00

Lindsay was quite a chilly weekend. Things went pretty well but not as well as Rouyn. Patrick had some really great heats and qualified 4th in the Novice 2 finals. He had 3 fifths. Unfortunately we have burne a piston on the 550 - hopefully it will be ready by the weekend.

Rebecca had an okay weeknd. The mini was running well but unfortunately she was too tried on Sunday to keep it together in the qualifying - she had her mini heat right after 3 back to back heats on the big sled on the big track.

Next weekend we are in Barrie at Georgian Downs.

Rouyn rocked

2011-01-17T19:39:00.001-08:00

The kids had a fun time over in the belle province. The little mini rocked - 2nd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday. There is a little discrepancy between what we believed happened and the posted results. The first two kids were disqualified and Rebecca was 4th over the line so she should have come 2nd so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. On Sunday she clearly came 1st and got the big trophy. She also won Novice Girls on Saturday and had her usual 3rd / last place finish.

Patrick has some pretty stiff competition in all of his classes. He was racing well, had a 2nd place in one of his 550 heats and qualified 4th for the Novice 2 final on Saturday. He just doesn't have much luck in the finals. He was 3rd in both heats of Freestyle racing and got a third there. He qualified for all finals both days and just didn't have any great finals races on Sunday.

There were huge crowds there. The race was between two big (huge mountains of snow really) piles of snow. It was almost like those hill climb races from the west with all sorts of people watching from beside their sleds.

The funniest part of the whole weekend was the availability of booze. A lady was selling beer and shooters from a little sleigh in the parking lot. It's a different land over there.

They say the snow in the snowdump lasts until August and they might have a race there in June this year. Sign me up - we'll be there.

We're off to Lindsay this weekend.

1st race over

2010-12-13T17:36:00.001-08:00

Calabogie is now history. It was a far better weekend than we feared. The course was simpler than one would like due to the lack of snow. Rebecca raced the 380 for the first time and Patrick raced the 550 for the first time. Bill and Tom had the clutching set up well on the 550 and it had a decent hole shot so Patrick was able to stay with the leaders on each start. There are some pictures of him on DooTalk at the starting line.

The kids share the Freestyle and we saw by the end of the weekend it needs some love. It had a broken side panel and it was getting pretty slow by Sunday. Patrick actually had a 3rd on it on Saturday. Turns out the carb boot is shot and needs replacing. It wouldn't run at all this weekend at the cottage.

Rebecca had a great time on the mini. She won on Saturday and go DQ'ed for speeding on Sunday. She came 3rd twice in Novice girls and 3rd once in Novice 1.

We ended up with a great spot in the pits - they were too soft on Thursday and Friday when all of the big teams showed up. Saturday morning we got moved to within about 50 metres of the staging area.

My sister's family came out to watch for the first time. I don't think they were ready to sink the money into racing full time just yet.

The rear shocks froze up on the 380 on Sunday at the cottage. We're going to upgrade the track to a 1" while the shock is being replaced. Should give the sled a much better holeshot since the existing track is only about .7".

Our next race is Rouyn in the middle of January. We might be able to go over there to practice sometime over the holiday. We need to win the lottery to buy a property to put up a practice track.

Toronto Snowmobile Show 2010

2010-10-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

The weather was fantastic in TO for the first race of the season. Rebecca has decided she's going to race the mini again this year so it was a good start to come second on Sunday on the woodchips. Her track fell off in the qualifiers on Saturday so she didn't move on to the finals. Rebecca also had a blast racing McCoy's mod Saturday and Sunday morning.

We picked up some gear at the snowmobile show. Looks like I spent too much on carbides. We found out today that Woody's is going to sell us traction products at 50% of retail. We can't use studs on the 550, Freestyle or the Mini and Rebecca doesn't reallyneed them on the 380 so we'll just be getting carbide runners. Still, any help is good.

The first race is in Calabogie this year - it is over by Renfrew - a nice site. It should get out bigger crowds than Searchmont.

Season's over

2010-04-08T08:02:00.001-07:00

Horseshoe has been cancelled due to the complete lack of snow. Apparently days and days of hot weather have metled all the snow.

I think we are happy that the race has been cancelled. Our calculations show that Rebecca has won the 120 Improved Stock by 6 points. The results on the website don't show this yet because they have yet to drop the worst race from people who went to Gaylord and got points in all of the other races.

On the down side, Patrick is only 6 points out of 2nd place in Novice 1 and he usually does well at Horseshoe and might have moved up. He is still quite happy with his 3rd place. The other disappointment for Patrick was that he was going to get to race his new 550 in Novice 2 and now he'll have to wait until next year. Maybe we'll get enough snow today that he can go for a ride at the cottage on the 550 on Saturday.

Kirkland Lake and Kitchener and New Liskeard.

2010-03-31T16:13:00.001-07:00

We have now had the races that start with "K". The kids had a great race in KL. Rebecca had her first win in Novice Girls on Saturday. She had a second on Sunday as well. Her mini racing was okay with a 6th and a 3rd.

Patrick also had a great weekend. He had a 2nd and a third in Novice 1. He really is racing well on the 380.

After KL we were looking forward to 3 weekends of riding at the cottage and practicing.

Rebecca raced at the mini race in New Liskeard. She was 2nd behind Micah. Mr. Mik Mak seems to have really gotten that old Ski-Doo a rockin'. Patrick got to be the finish line flag man. Just like Johhny Adams.

The snow ran out about 1/2 way through March Break so we found a 550 in the Auto Trader and went down and got it for Patrick for next year. He'll likely give it a try at Horseshoe.

To everyone's surprise Kitchener was not cancelled. There was enough snow. The pits were a little rough though since they were just gravel.

Saturday in Kitchener wasn't great. Rebecca was 5th on the mini and 4th in Novice Girls. Patrick was 6th in Novice 1.

On Sunday Rebecca was 3rd on the mini after a hard fought battle with Alexie. She was 4th again in a photo finish in Novice Girls.

Right now Rebecca is still in the lead in the 120 Improved Stock by about 6 points. Patrick is in third in Novice 1. He is 6 points out of 2nd. It's going to be interesting to see how things work out at Horseshoe the weekend after Easter. That is, if there's any snow left for the event.

Sarnia

2010-02-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Ramsay Kids Racing had quite a weekend in Sarnia. Rebecca was 1st on the mini and 3rd in Novice Girls. The Novice Girls final was in the middle of the big ISOC show so she got her trophy on the podium. The announcer interviewed her -

"how old are you?"

she replies, "8"

then, "how long have you been racing?"

"5 years"

"since you were 3?"

"no, 4"

"I guess I'll have to check my math," he says with a chuckle.

It really is her 5th year - 4,5,6,7,8

Patrick was a little off on his 380 on Saturday and came in 8th. I think this still keeps him in 3rd place overall. Patrick's goal is to win or come 2nd in KL this weekend. His machine has been into Maille's for a complete once over and a new drive shaft was installed. We also had to replace the oil container on the Freestyle after he crashed on Sunday.

Rebecca moved ahead a further 3 points in the lead for the 120 Improved Stock class. She is now almost a whole race out in front.

Owen Sound

2010-02-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

As I feared the drive both ways was atrocious. Otherwise we had a great weekend.

Patrick is really enjoying driving the 380. he had some fantastic heat races and showed real racing spirit. I think he wore himself out because his finals weren't as good. We had a good chuckle when he was racing the Freestyle and the seat fell off. Fortunately there was no damage.

Rebecca had a great weekend results wise. She won on the mini on Saturday and was 5th on Sunday so she came home with a medal and trophy. She was 2nd and 3rd on the Freestyle in Novice Girls. She's still in the lead in the improved stock and by more points than last week. She's still not way out so we're going to have to go for consistency to keep it up.

We've got this weekend off. Next week we're off to Barrie, then Sarnia and then KL.

Come on out and see us race.

Lindsay

2010-01-26T18:12:00.001-08:00

We had a great weekend in Lindsay. The weather was fantastic with no rain until the trip home.

Patrick had his best weekend of racing ever. He was 3rd both days in Novice 1 which is 10 - 11 years old up to a 380cc. He raced far better than he ever has. Changing the gear on his sled has meant that he can be right up front at the start. He made the front row for the finals both days in the Novice 2 - 550 class. The Freestyle racing hasn't been going so well for him. We realized on Sunday that the spacers we put in to stiffen the springs made them so stiff that there was no movement which made the sled impossible to steer. We're also getting a lower gear put in to see if that helps with starts.

Rebecca also did very well. She was 2nd on the mini on Sunday - it was a very close race with Alexie but she just couldn't get past her. Lots of the minis were DQ'ed for speeding. On Saturday she came 6th which was good since she got T-boned in the first corner and spent most of the rest of the race trying to catch up on a very rough track. She was 2nd in the Novice girls on the Freestyle (out of 5) on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday. She's enjoying that class. She didn't do very well in the Novice A class for 8-10 year ods on the Freestyle and came 2nd last both days.

We're off to Owen Sound this week. The hope is that the Freestyle does better and we can move up some positions on it. Patrick should be more competitive with a better start.

1 trophy and 2 medals

2009-12-15T17:37:00.001-08:00

We had a great weekend in Searchmont. The weather was great with sunshine both days. The trip over was a little exciting with the trailer swaying in the gail force winds around Lake Huron.

Rebecca had her 1st race weekend on the Freestyle. It went well Saturday until she missed a corner in her last race and went over a 10 foot embankment - she was fine but the sled needs a little love. New skis and a kill switch as well as straightening out the steering.

Patrick really loved racing his 380. He had a 3rd and a 4th place finish on it. We're hoping for a top three overall in that class.

Rebecca was the one to beat on the Mini. On Saturday she led from start to finish. On Sunday she got a poor start and was in fourth place for the first 1 1/2 laps. On the second lap the leaders were swapping paint on a corner - Rebecca saw that they were all wide and snuck by on the inside and held the lead for the rest of the race. This was the first weekend that she has won both days.

Alexie Berthelette won both of her 120 races as well. These girls were a force that could not be reckoned with.

We've got quite a break now until the race in Owen Sound in mid-January

Sault Ste Marie rescheduled

2009-12-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

Because of the disgustingly warm weather in November there was no snow at Searchmont last week when the CSRA had to call the 1st race of the season.

Friday at around noon they listed that the race is a go for the 2nd weekend of December. I'm not really all that disappointed that the race was postponed because the sleds weren't ready. Patrick's slipper gear needed more parts and neither of them are properly decalled. Everything should be in place by Wednesday so we can take off at the crack of dawn on Friday.

The new trailer is working great once we figured to reduce the tongue weight. It is now around 10% of the total trailer weight.

The mini is all tuned up and ready to race. Hopefully this will be Rebecca's year to shine.

I wonder if we can talk Mom into using the 380 in Trail Sport Women?

Phooey

2009-11-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

We only had a few small things to get ready for the Sault Ste. Marie race next weekend. Then Mother Nature decided we didn't really want to race after all. Gives a little more time to get the stuff ready.

The trailer only needs one more light installed. The globe was shattered when it showed up and the replacement won't be in until just before or after Christmas. We even have the fire extinguisher mounted properly.

Rebecca's springs have been upgraded on the Freestyle. The mini is still getting it's final touches and should be ready by about Tuesday.

The trailer looks great - I put the Kal Tire decals on myself and one of them is a little crooked - don't look very closely.

Patrick's 380 is in the shop right now getting the new shocks and springs put on. It is also getting a slipper gear installed. Because the track jams sometimes on a jump landing the chain can break - this is especially bad because it usually breaks the chaincase when that happens. The slipper gear 'slips' when this happens and saves the chain and stuff. It is the same idea as the hub on a propellor.

We are hoping that the race will be rescheduled for before Christmas.

At least the little snow here is keeping our spirits up.

Toronto Snowmobile Show

2009-10-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

We went to the Toronto Snowmobile Show last weekend. Rebecca raced her mini on the woodchips and we all shopped. The racing went quite well. Rebecca was 2nd on Saturday and 5th on Saturday. Her machine ran well - the kids who beat her were going more than 15 mph on the woodchips - that's fast.

We purchased some interesting racks for the trailer. It pulled quite well and it really showed up in the pits. We'll be easy to find.

One of the other highlights of the weekend was tailgating it for lunch. With so much more space in the trailer there is lots of room for the barbecue, table and chairs. This should make it lots of fun for our visitors too since they won't have to spend an extra $30 on lunch at the races.

The final schedule is not yet posted on line. It seems that the Gaylord race will be a points race. Kitchener was on the schedule handed out by the CSRA for the end of March.

We're going to take the sleds in soon to get them decalled up. I'm not sure what to do about colours for Rebecca since she has a bare white hood right now.

We are looking for upgraded shocks for Patrick's 380. I had no idea that little shiny metal cylinders could cost so much.

new stuff

2009-09-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

Just got a new trailer for the racing team.

We need to get it decalled up soon and get the Rhino Lining done. It is all aluminum and has no screws on the sides.

Patrick has a new sled for 2010 - a 2006 MXZ 380 - he can race it in Novice 1 and 2. He'll probably race Rebecca's Freestyle in Novice B.

Rebecca is going to race her Mini in improved stock and race her Freestyle in Novice A and 1 and maybe Novice Girls.

We're going to try to keep the blog up to date since it is much easier to do than edit the website.