Dana's Day In The Sun

Another hot and humid day awaited us when we showed up at Circleville Raceway Park. But unlike two weeks prior, only Dana would have to endure those conditions behind the wheel. I had chosen one of the July race dates as my work day back in the winter. All adult drivers hoping to claim championship points at the end of the year would have had to do their share of the corner working and I figured a date in the dead of summer might be a good idea. It was but, stuck out on the corner all day as I was, it felt awfully strange to not be a part of Dana's race day except for the few seconds when she'd zoom by each lap.

Practice

Steve Tatman, owner of Circleville Raceway Park, had informed us when we arrived that he had put down some patching material on the rough pavement in some of the corners. You my recall from an earlier report that the Shifter Kart Series, with their wild torque and super sticky tires, had pulled up a lot of the asphalt when they visited the track in June. He warned us that there no rubber had been put down on it yet and it would probably be slick. We walked the track before practice and got a feel for it.

In Dana's first practice she seemed overly tentative about Turns Five and Six. The lack of rubber and the smooth sealer was making her kart loose and uncomfortable to drive again. But there were no mis-cues - she didn't spin or fall off the track - just slow laps.

In the second practice her confidence level looked like it was up a bit. Butch had tightened her kart up and they found about half a second although part of that may have been the result of some rubber being worked into the groove during the first practice sessions.

It might have also been the result of an impromptu race between her and new Briggs Medium competitor Heath Tatman. Tatman had caught her about halfway through the session and although he gave her a few good bumps from behind she managed to hold him off for several laps. When he finally did get by he seemed to do a little celebratory dance in the seat. As soon as practice was over, Steve Tatman came over to Dana and suggested that next time Heath does that, she go ahead and give him a slap in the head. She wasn't sure if he meant next time he bangs on her bumper again or next time he does his little happy fanny dance again.

Later, Dana and I had a talk about racing during practice. Ahh, young, impetuous racers.

Dana's Practice 1 Times

Dana's Practice 2 Times

Heat 1

Dana had a good start from the outside of row one, staying with Clayton Cook right up to the start line but once on the power, Cook had noticeably more power and moved ahead. John Fox followed him and was by Dana by the time the were rounding Turn Three. Tatman was trailing her closely though Three and Four but Dana got a better exit onto the back straight and pulled out a bit of a margin by Turn Five.

But even though she had come to grips (no pun intended) with most of the track, Dana was still having to lift in Five and Six and by the time they got to Turn Seven Tatman was having a go down the inside. She was able to hold him off though and in the process, open up a little breathing room. But a couple laps in he knew he could capitalize on her troubles with Turn Six and was able to get a better run into Seven and got by for third. Nevertheless, she found another .4 of a second since practice so things were looking up.

At the flag it was Cook, Fox, Tatman and Dana.

Dana's Heat 1 times

Heat 2

Tatman brought the starting field around for a fast start. Dana was caught out a bit. In contrast to her start, John got a great start and headed for moving around Tatman on the outside of Turn One. But by Turn Two, Tatman's inside line kept John at bay. Cook with plenty of power to spare followed Tatman. By the end of the backstraight Cook had just driven around into the lead. Dana was hanging onto the pack nicely and John set his sites on Tatman.

John tried Heath several times and finally took him at Nine. But Dana stayed right with them during the Tatman/Fox squabbles and was all over the #47 kart once John was by. For several laps she stayed right on his bumper without touching it. About midway through the race she found an opportunity and ducked down the inside at Turn Seven. Turn Seven had been the scene of the two earlier passes Heath put on Dana (practice and heat one) and I imagine it felt good to even up the score there a bit. She did resist the happy fanny dance though.

Once by Heath, John set out on what turned out to be a futile attempt to chase down Cook. So he was long gone by the time Dana disposed of Heath. The finishing order for Heat #2 was Cook, Fox, Conlin & Tatman.

Feature

Coming up to the green flag, the field was tighly bunched but all was not as it seemed. Heath Tatman had qualified for the feature race start but, only noticed by a few people, it was none other than Bo Strawser behind the wheel as the karts took to the track. A clear violation of the rules but not a big deal among the low-key fun racing we race with MSOKC for.

At the first corner Dana had stayed with John as Clayton moved ahead into the lead. Coming out of One Dana drifted towards the edge of the track but was not quite clear of the white kart behind her. The contact with Boheath gave her a big moment and she had to react fast to keep herself from spearing off into the grass on the right.

The rest of the lap saw Boheath all over her, tagging her occasionally from behind to let her feel the pressure. At Nine he tried her on the inside forcing her a little wide. They went through there more or less side by side but Dana was able to keep up more of her speed through the corner and still led as they carved around the west end of the oval.

On the next lap she was under attack again at Eight and that fight carried into Nine for the second lap in a row. Again Dana got the better of the exchange as Boheath ran a little wide at the exit and dropped a wheel into the dirt. But it didn't slow him down much and at Turn Three he took a late apex line that allowed him to get to the inside of Four in a rush. Dana could do nothing at that point other than try to keep her speed up and get a faster exit. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

But the strain to get around the McCall Motorsports kart apparently took it's toll as Boheath retired on Lap Seven placing Dana into third where she was when the checkered flag fell - behind Cook and John. Then when Cook refused to go to tech, Dana's finishing position improved to second. The second place points were nice but better was the 51.83 second lap which was Dana's personal best in either kart and a half second improvement in the McCall kart.

(As an interesting aside, if you compare Dana's average lap times for heat 1, heat 2 and the feature, they differ by only .03 overall!)

Tracy's Practice

We had brought our kart along with us as the open track at the end of the day would offer Tracy a chance to lap without the wear and tear of the day working against her. Nevertheless, it had been a long, hot day and 52 second laps turned out to be elusive for her.

Since the kart hadn't run earlier in the day, her first session was just to check everything out and get the engine up to temperature for us to check it. Another session was devoted to watching her lines and and getting a few photos ops. As it turned out, we timed only one of her sessions before she was ready to call it quits.

Tracy's Session 1 times

Overall, a pretty good day for Conlin SpeedSports' up and coming drivers. Despite the not getting into the 52s, Tracy seems ready for the next Powder Puff race - whenever that is - and could be following in her big sister's tire tracks. Dana scored 148 valuable points in the championship and clicked off her best time around CRP.