Mid Term Exams

The racing gods intervened and Dana inexplicably had a Friday off from work - the first in months. So, we jumped on the opportunity to do some "classroom" work with Dana and Tracy. Tracy has been begging for some instruction and critique (time and climate having been working against us). Dana was game on the promise of finding a couple more tenths.

The weather couldn't have been better: clear and low 80s - quite a relief after the last few outings. Nice for a half day of vacation too. Unfortunately, Butch had business matters to attend to and couldn't bring Dana's ride out. Her lessons would have to be taken in the Conlin SpeedSports kart and applied to her regular kart.

The session was meant to be solely a technique exercise, it also served as a mid-season shake down, or more importantly, a shake down for the Ohio Sprint Series race August 4. While not a points earning race in our usual club, MSOKC, it is a chance for us to complete against drivers and karts from outside the Columbus area. A chance to see how we can do against a wider variety of talent. During our practice on this Friday evening we managed to find three items that would have fallen off or broken on August 4th.

Working with Dana, we were able to find a couple corners where she could carry a little more speed. She also tried and liked a completely different technique at Turn Five that rewarded her with gobs of speed. In the end, she not only recorded her best ever time in our kart by almost half a second, she managed to post eight 51 second laps along the way.

Tracy, too, put tips to good use. She was able to tame Turn Six and run a line closer to the apexes of Seven and Nine by the time she was done and posted her personal best lap too. And she did it with only a handful of laps. And whereas Dana's run through Turn Eight was nothing short than awesome (turned in, held a drift to the apex and power out to the curbing), Tracy had Turns Three and Four nailed and textbook perfect - lift slightly, turn into three, touch the curb, drift out, head to the right side of the track, turn in late, apex late and be making power early as she dumped onto the backstraight.

A special thanks to Julie who timed every lap that our team turned that evening while I wandered the course studying and making notes of what her sisters were doing on the pavement. Julie might not get mentioned as much as the drivers in this website but she is always in the background and provides critical support. Thanks Kiddo.

Me? Oh yeah, I ran a few laps too. I suffered yet another blow to the old ego when not only Dana beat my best time of day but Tracy did too. Yes, I was trying. It was one of those days where I just couldn't get my act together. But, like the kart, it's good that I fall apart on practice sessions and not racedays.

We've come a long way. To see how far, check out our progress page.

Tracy's Session 1

Tracy's Session 2

Dana's Session 1

Dana's Session 2

Dana's Session 3

Dana's Session 4

Jim's Session 2