29 June - Correction
Yikes! It seems our account of the mishap that resulted in Jason Karr's accident last weekend was a little inaccurate. Admittedly, we got our version of the incident second or third hand in the confused atmosphere of the re-start grid but we thought we had it put it together correctly. Apparently not and although we don't claim to be a news agency (we just write this so we don't bore friends and family with racing stories very time we see them) verifying its facts or (several) sources we'd like to present our accounts as unerring. And our intention has never been to point fingers. So if you had read the 23 June entry earlier and it now seems to read differently, it is due to new facts.

23 June - More Power & A Flying Karr
Back at her home track and with fresh McCall Motorsports horsepower, Dana was able to run strong all day to a fifth place finish in the feature race (out of eleven entries) and stay in touch with the acknowledged fast guys.

Focusing on better starts, she never fell more than 4 seconds behind the leaders and in the final she held off a race-long challenge from Jacob Gearhart. The final had more drama than that as Jason Karr had a huge crash that brought out the red flag on the second lap of the feature. The Briggs Stock Medium class has gotten so competitive that any of about six guys (and soon gals) can win and in this class you simply can't win when you back off. Usually that just results in bent bodywork and hard feelings but every once in a while it gets spectacular.

In this case though, close, tight racing in a pack resulted in John Fox getting squirrelly and touching wheels with Karr and an instant later Karr was doing endos out in the grass. The tumble looked horrible but Jason was up and walking around before the dust settled. Later, he said it wasn't any worse than a hard hit in football. From the outside it looked more like a hard hit from the entire opposing team.

Dana was two karts behind this and besides Joe Fagan had the best view of the whole thing. As Dana put it, "these karts don't seem very big until you drive by one while it's in the air, vertical, and the driver is falling out." Karr's kart was too tore up to continue but everyone else was able to restart in the positions they were in before the accident.

The red flag meant two things: Dana would have to make another good start and the advantage she had over Jacob Gearhart had evaporated. It also meant that she would have to put out of her mind the very fresh and very vivid images of of Karr's monster crash. At the drop of the second green she made another great start and although Jacob had a couple good runs on her, she was able to hold him off for fifth.

Also for this race we had finally rigged up our cam-corder on the nose of the kart to record the action from Dana's perspective. There was a lot of interest in our video project and when we all realized that Dana had the camera positioned right behind Karr's spectacular exit, we could have funded the rest of our season by charging admission to see the footage. But, as often happens with these things, we have some bugs to work out and although we have some really cool footage from the second heat, the incredible G-forces the karts pull in the corners had the battery flexing on it's mount enough to break contact and shut the camera off in the first heat and the feature. When in the feature, you ask? About 8 seconds before the big accident.

But other than that disappointment, the day was marked with great driving by Dana, great motor by McCall and a great effort by the entire team in 95+ degree conditions.

21 June - Newsworthy
Conlin SpeedSports had the pleasure of being interviewed by freelance Hilliard writer Brenda Stevens about karting, the Scott Wolfe Moving Forward Fund and the experience of being female competitors in a predominantly male sport. Ms. Stevens hopes to have This Week Newspapers pick the story up and maybe have a similar article published in one of the young women's magazines. Be sure we'll let you know if and when these articles are published.

16 June - The Streak Is Broken
In our last journal entry we made the bold disclosure that we had gone over 50 races without a DNF (Did Not Finish). Must have jinxed ourselves because the law of averages caught up to us in Camden, Ohio.

The combined race with the Ohio Valley Karting Association at G & J Raceway challenged Dana with new twists and turns and our team with a new track to tune for. We would have liked to have spent the day prior to the race testing at G & J but family commitments had us tied up on Saturday. As it was we planned to attend the event and earn what ever points we could (double points to lure all the regulars to the "away" race) and gain some setup data on the Camden track. So having seen the track for the first time only five hours earlier and with only eight laps of practice Dana was on the grid for the first race.

A tentative approach to the first start had Dana drop back through the pack but at least she finished. Not so in the second heat: on the pace lap where Dana was on the front row and hoping to make a more aggressive start, the throttle linkage came apart stranding her at Turn One. That family commitment had reduced our team by half and it was no coincidence that our first DNF in over a year came on the day Tracy and Julie weren't there to work our checklists and look for problems between heats. It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow as since she didn't take the green flag Dana wasn't even entitled to last place points - she never started the race so she received no points.

In the feature Dana had a decent start and was chasing Matt Rice almost immediately. At about the halfway point of the race one of the OVKA regulars found an opening and dived down the inside of Dana at Turn Four. They both drove through the corner side-by-side and Dana seemed to be giving him room but on the exit the other driver pushed out, forcing Dana into the grass. Once back on the track though, she turned her best lap of the day and was very quickly back on Rice's rear bumper. On the last lap, she took her best shot at him at the end of the long backstraight but couldn't pull it off safely.

After the race we asked for a critique from Bob Strawser since he was watching Dana's battle with Matt from a distance of four feet for about five laps. He assured us that Dana had the track figured out and that she was doing everything right. In fact, he was waiting for her to make a mistake under braking somewhere so he could get by but she never made one.

Next week we're back to familiar Circleville with familiar drivers and with a fresh engine. And with the throttle linkage zip tied for safety. We're hoping to see gains there.

09 June - A Day Of Frustration
Our fourth race of the season was a particularly frustrating one as Dana could not catch a break all day long. In addition to getting accustomed to a new seating position and a fairly substantial change in the chassis set up, we continued to be down somewhat in power as our much anticipated new motor wasn't ready for this race. The weather was hot and humid putting as much demand on the crew's stamina between races as it did Dana during them.

In the first heat Dana's determination, despite a bad starting position (8th out of 10 entries), went unrewarded when she was punted off the track by a new driver at Turn 6. This forced her into a long, lurid spin across the grass and took what seemed like minutes to get back to the racing surface. But once back on she persevered to finish 8th.

In Heat 2, we were encouraged by her 3rd place starting position right behind poleman Joe Fagan, who always seems to get great starts and Dana was set to stay glued to his bumper at the green. But her luck, being what it was that day, found her stuck behind Joe as he faltered for some reason going into Turn One and she was one of the few who couldn't find a way around him before Turn 2, dropping her to the rear of the field. There she finished seventh.

In the Feature, Dana was gridded eighth but got a decent start and spent the first half of the race chasing Aaron Blue for sixth. About mid-race she had a run on him on the backstraight and pulled out to challenge. At the same time, Mark Rice found himself with a great shot off of four and looked to the inside of Dana.

Circleville regulars have learned long ago that Turn Five offers barely enough room for two karts to accommodate each other and that there is no way three will fit through there. Unfortunately Rice is still a little new to CRP and had to learn that lesson the hard way. As they rushed down the backstraight everyone held their breath. As it was, Dana back off her challenge to Blue since she couldn't be sure he knew she was along side of him. Rice on the other hand, hopelessly out of position what with being on the inside of three wide, tried his move anyway. Blue got through but Dana and Rice collided and flung themselves off the track. It was a big crash with Dana getting air again but fortunately both stayed shiny side up. Although for a moment all Dana could see was sky, her fears were not for her safety as much as for Rice's - especially as his helmet disappeared under her front bumper.

Somehow Dana was able to recover and limped the mangled kart home to finish 7th keeping our no-DNF string intact (something like 50 consecutive races - knock on wood). The kart is pretty tore up and we'll have a lot of work to do before next Sunday's race. Couldn't have happened at a worse time what with racing three weeks in a row and my out-of-town travel during the week but we'll do the best we can.

It would be easy to be upset about the whole thing but there are two points to we need to remember that keep it all in perspective:

1. At this entry level of motorsports we will always be racing with drivers early on the learning curve and may become involved in their mistakes. Those are the risks and we have to accept them and hope that when they happen, the new driver will learn from the experience.

2. You have to have the really rough days so that you can enjoy the goods ones.

More of Julie's pics from June 9 can be found here.

02 June - Grove City Promo
Over 50 curious folks stopped by our Start Karting display at Advance Auto Parts in Grove City. Just as in Hilliard back in April, many were delighted to learn that there was an active karting club right here in Columbus. Several said they planned to come out to Circleville Raceway Park for a closer look. Some were very excited about the affordability of racing karts locally and we may have the pleasure of racing with them someday soon. Many, many thanks to Rees Racing and M & S Racing for bring out their karts and to Mike Dillon, Brandon Rees and Eric Fagan for staffing the booth and answering everyone's questions. And to Carolyn and David at Advance for their hospitality. Click here for photos.


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