 By late August it was time to get ready for the Pre-Nationals at Goodwood Park track near Stouffville, Ontario. This was the the final race before the Nationals themselves the following week at the same location. As had become usual I went out to Hamilton on Thursday night to get the kart ready for the race on the weekend. There was a lot more work than usual to do this particular week. Glen Arnold had borrowed the kart and used it in the W.K.A. Nationals at Batavia, N.Y. the previous weekend. He ran the kart with Marilou's side pods and front faring. He also left the number 56 on in place of his usual number 2. He did remove the word 'MARILOU' that I had put on in capital letters at the top of the faring though. I guess he didn't want anyone to get any wrong ideas about him.  Glen had won one of the heats in the extremely competitive Yamaha class at Batavia using my old original Yamaha engine that I bought many years ago from Canadian Performance Products. Charlie likes to call it 'old reliable'. We had been using this engine as a backup for Marilou. That engine has won many races and a couple of championships for me over the years. In its best year it won eight races. It was the engine I used to win my first race ever at Georgetown and it also powered Marilou to her first ever victory at Point Pelee. The original cylinder head from this engine, which cracked and is no longer in use, and is now painted in Yellow Fin colours, sits in a corner of my living room as part of a small racing display. On this Thursday evening Marilou was inside the shop mounting a fresh set of tires. Gerald and 'buddy' Francis were also inside preparing engines. Francis was our ace Yamaha engine builder. Sometimes during these 'work' sessions we would all get a little goofy and bug one another. This night there was more work to do so unfortunately there was less time for being silly. I was putting the chassis back to our settings outside the shop in the alley. Before I was done it had become very dark where I was working. I could not see very well but I had put together that kart so many times I could probably have done it with my eyes closed anyway. I told Francis it was a lot like it used to be getting ready in the dark for the third heat for the North Halton Kart Club races at Georgetown on a Saturday night. I had taken my engine off the kart and I put Marilou's engine back on. The plan was to save mine for the Nationals the following week. On Saturday morning I met up with the Whalings on the 401 at Avenue Road. Marilou sprinted down the road so she could come and ride with me in my car the rest of the way to Goodwood. No 'Happy Hour' today in the back of the van, but then that story has already been written. Usually when Marilou rides with me to the races we talk about everything under the sun. Racing is usually one of the last topics to be covered. We catch up on the latest hot news, or check out some new tunes at high volume. At first it had been Heart and AC/DC Back in Black. Lately it was 54-40 and Transvision Vamp. We all got to the track, unloaded the trailer, and went out for a full day of practice. She was a little off the pace near the end of the day so Marilou and I decided that I would go out for a couple of laps to get a second opinion. Not too many drivers had a mechanic who could go out to see how the kart was performing to get some additional ideas on how it could be improved. We did not do this at all the races. Only on some occasions. Marilou had done many laps this day and was getting a bit tired. After I came in we made a few adjustments and put the kart away for the night. Things went fine on Sunday in practice before the race and then it was time for qualifying. In the first corner of her timed lap Marilou got a bit wide through corner one, her rear wheel went over the outside edge of the pavement, dug in, and she spun around. She kept going but with the resulting poor time she would have to start at the back of the field. As it turned out his would only serve to make the race more interesting. The race format being used for the O.K.R.A. races in 1991 was qualifying for grid positions, one shorter heat, usually 8 or 10 laps and a final heat of 15 or 20 laps. Only the positions in the final heat counted. Win the final and you were the winner that day. In the first heat Marilou worked her way up to third place by the end. In the 20 lap final kart number 56 was soon up into second place behind leader Bruce Twizzel. Marilou followed him for the first few laps before making her move and taking the lead going into corner one. For the last few laps there was great tension in the pits. Could Marilou hold off the challenge and take the win? As it turned out our fears were totally unfounded and the chequered flag was shown first to kart 56. A superb victory. |
||