Race #4 of our season may have had familiar results but there were new adventures and high drama getting them.

Preparations

As far as preparations for this race, nothing special had to be done. A week earlier I ran unopposed in Briggs Super Heavy. That just means I had no one to run into. So wear and tear was minimal and there were no cosmetic repairs to make. We spent a little more time on the clutch than usual, but other than that, it was routine maintenance. As a matter of fact, the most notable act of prep for this race was Dana removing her rookie "X" from the back of her helmet (right).

Dana had spent the week nursing a badly bruised elbow sustained in her practice session spin the week before. Apparently during the rough ride over the curbing and dirt, her arm got flung against the corner of the engine's head. She also managed to take a shot to her rib cage at some point last time out and that was bothering her, too. But being a racer, she was ready to work through the pain and get back behind the wheel.

Jim's Practice

After days and days of torrential rain in Central Ohio we were fortunate to have clear skies for raceday. But I felt that all that rain had likely washed most of the grip off the track so I opted to not go out for the first practice session. I am still fighting some tendonitius in my arms and have to be sure not to use them up early in the day. So I sat out the first session and let everyone else put down some new rubber before I went out.

In the second session I simply shook down the kart, made sure everything seemed to be working and checked out the handling. We were back fighting the oversteer again. The stopwatch was kept on Dana, who was out in the same session. I had no intention of going for time, mine was more of a seat-of-the-pants test anyway.

Dana's Practice

Dana found the track to be green and slick, too. And to illustrate that, she spun in both sessions. It looked like she and Butch would have another day of handling class.

Jim's Heat 1

Race 1 had Lee Griffith on the pole with Sean Wilson next to him. Bob Strawser was inside row two and I was behind Sean. At the green, Sean drove around Lee and I kinda just followed him through. After my practice session we made some changes to the chassis to make the kart handle better, to keep the back end from stepping out so much, but it wasn't enough. A couple times a lap the kart would jump sideways and Sean would gain another kart length or two. With the kart handling as it was, mounting any sort of challenge for first was out of the question. I finished second, Lee was third and Bob fourth.

Dana's Heat 1

For Dana's first race of the day she drew the last starting position, position 4. Bryan Rose (left) and John Fox filled out row one and Jason Karr was on row two with Dana. Dana began losing touch with the other three almost immediately and at the end of her first lap the reason was obvious - her engine was sounding very flat. She finished where she started and brought the ill machine in for Butch to diagnose.

The diagnosis was not good. It wasn't something simple and soon Butch had made the decision to take us up on our offer of the spare engine. Kind of a tall order given that Heat 2 was less than an hour away. I abandoned the between race maintenance on our kart to Tracy and did what I could to help Butch make the change.

Jim's Heat 2

I had to bail on the engine change on Dana's kart and made it to the grid with little time to spare. I really have to thank Tracy (right) for getting our kart completely ready to go for the second heat while I was helping over at the McCall compound.

I was on the pole with Lee to my right, Bob behind me and Sean behind Lee. I was hoping that I could get a bit of a lead going and that Sean might get tied up behind Lee and Bob. That's exactly what happened and for four glorious laps, I was in the lead clear and simple. I kept pushing but was really trying to stay within my limits because I knew Sean would be coming up and any mistake would be costly.

On lap 4 the kart got too loose in Ten and I lost some momentum. It is crucial there because the speed you exit Ten with you build on all the way to Three. Sure enough, on the run down to Two, the red nose of Sean's kart crept up the inside. I gave him room to race but still beat him into Three. But now the pressure was on, I knew he was right there.

I slid just a little in Four and although it wasn't much, I knew it could be enough if Sean had exited perfectly. Right on cue, his kart came up the inside and he claimed the line into Turn Five. On the exit it was a little close but we got through it without exchanging paint this time. In fact, after the race, Sean said he had hoped he had given me enough room on the exit. He had. By the time it got tight on the exit, it was up to me to keep us separated anyway.

Dana's Heat 2

Dana's race was two heats after mine and when I got back to the pits, Butch was still working on the engine. But by now about five other racers were helping him. That's what I love about the racing community. Even as arch rivals on the track, off the track there is a sense of fraternity that will see those same competitors drop what they're doing and help you out of your problems.

Even with the additional help, it seemed that there was still a lot left to do as Briggs Medium was called to the Pre-Grid. Not convinced the engine would even start let alone be completely connected and ready to race, Tracy and I sprang into "Plan B". We rolled the Conlin SpeedSports kart, still hot and ticking from my race, up to the grid, refueled it and converted the number from 32 to 13 with black duct tape. If the McCall kart wasn't ready, Dana could jump into ours and still make heat two. I wasn't sure what the rules were for changing karts from race to race but with no time to look it up, we decided to work the plan and find out later if it was legal.

As it turned out, it wasn't necessary, Dana's kart arrived with minutes to spare. Dana had drawn the pole with Fox (right) next to her. Karr was behind her and Rose was starting fourth. She was a little nervous about being the meat in the Fox/Karr sandwich but getting around traffic is part of racing and it was Karr's problem not hers.

What with barely enough time to get the engine installed, no attention was paid to the jetting in the carb and even I didn't have any idea what was in there. Whatever it was, turned out to be wrong, her engine never came completely up to temperature. But the teamwork to get her back out on the track earned her fourth place points. Thanks everybody.

Guests

Nana and Grandad (left) came out to cheer us on claiming perfect attendance so far this year. There was some discussion of painting Nana's electric kart in the team colors for next year. It was a beautiful day although maybe a little warm and humid but it was a shame not more guests made it out. We'll say it again folks: We'd be thrilled to have you out and be a part of the team for a day. Click on the "Join Us At The Races!" button to the left for directions and what to expect.

Jim's Feature

Once Dana's race was run, things settled down again and Tracy and I turned our attention to making our kart less loose. We didn't have any real certain ideas but we knew if we did nothing, the result of the Feature would be a foregone conclusion. That appealed to neither of us. So we made a few more changes, not really sure if they'd be for better or worse but at least we would know we tried something and didn't give up. Never, ever give up.

At the last moments before our feature Butch offered a different set of tires and wheels, the characteristics of which he felt would help the oversteer in the kart. The outside diameter of these were an inch bigger than the tires we were using so not only would there be a difference in the handling but it would have the effect of changing the final gear ratio. This muddied the set up even more in our simple minds but desperate teams do desperate things sometimes and we bolted them on.

Sean was starting from the inside of row one with me on the outside. Lee was inside row two with Bob (pictured at right flagging Briggs Medium) next to him. As we circled around on the pace lap Sean appeared a little panicky as he looked at his engine and messed with the spark plug lead. "Ignition troubles Sean? Oh, too bad. I can't tell you how sorry I feel about that" I thought, my evil grin hidden inside my helmet.

After the race, Sean explained that he thought the engine was missing a bit, like the plug lead wasn't on all the way. But I think it may have been just a psych job because try as I might I couldn't stay next to him for the inside line into Three. By there he slipped into the lead and held it until the checkered. But I was able to stay with him throughout the eight laps and didn't lose much ground at all. I stayed close enough to see him shaking his head to himself about something and get my hopes up again. In fact, I had one of my best runs ever trying to stay in touch with him. I ran very clean, made very few mistakes thanks to the improved handling the changes and tires provided. Best of all, in pursuing Sean we turned four 51 second laps, the first time our kart ever ran sub-52s. I was delighted even if Wilson Racing did claim another 8 points on us.

Dana's Feature

The big news on the Briggs Medium feature race grid was that Karr had withdrawn and already left. Nobody I talked to seemed to know why. So that meant Rose moved up to second staring position and Dana would start third.

Anyone who may have been disappointed that they wouldn't be able to see this weeks Fox/Karr battle got a decent substitution in the form of Dana and Bryan Rose racing for second place.

Dana fell back a little ways at the start but soon had clawed her way back up towards Rose. She caught him but couldn't find a way around him. She fell back a little again when she pushed too hard coming out of ten and got sideways giving up several mph onto the main straight. But as Bryan's mother said as we watched the race progress, "those two make the race". She was right. Fox just streaked away so all eyes were on karts 56 and 13.

Tracy's practice

We were out of tech inspection in a few minutes, only the pipes and mufflers were being checked. We were able to get everything buttoned up for Tracy (left) to go out shortly after the last race. She was hoping to pick up where she left off last week and register some more 52 second laps. Unfortunately she was, in her own words, having an off day. Although she had a few very pretty controlled slides through Turn Nine, she balanced those with some oddly late turn-ins and missed apexes. All part of the learning process I guess.

Feeling a little out-of-touch with the kart not withstanding, she was encouraged by putting together a string of 53 second laps, an unattainable goal until the week before. The newfound speed was the result of Tracy studying the lines around CRP. Between her sessions we walked several of the corners and discussed where she should be and when. That helped her find a couple tenths but she still couldn't break into the 52s again as she hoped. The three tenths of a second that separated her from a 52 may as well have been an hour when trying to eliminate them.

Tracy's 1st practice session times

So at the end of the day Dana posted another third and I posted another second. Someday we'll break out of this rut. The rut was exciting though this time, what with trying to get Dana into the second heat with a new motor. Bryan stretched his points lead over Dana another 8 points to about 30 and Sean gained another 8 points on me. I still have about a 300 point lead over Sean which may sound like a lot, but it should be remembered that Sean has missed two races, one to run another event and a second to do his required work day. I can't afford to be too confident with that lead since I will have to do my work day too (July 22) and our family vacation will keep us from racing the make-up race on July 1. So by mid-summer our points race may be a lot tighter. Hope you can check back to see how it plays out.