29 November - "We Don't Mean To Toot Our Own Horn But...

...Beep, Beep."

We're paraphrasing our family friend Nick Leidinger there but anyway you say it, that fact remains if we don't, who will? So before the season gets too stale, we'll do a quick recap and highlight the highlights of the year. And to quote another great thinker, Mark Twain, "There are three kind of lies - Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics".

Fortunately, this was not a common sight for us in '03.

Well, we won't lie but statistically our season sounds even better than even a championship implies.

As a team, we took 88 green flags this year and took 83 checkered flags, failing to finish only five races. Of those, two were technical disqualifications (under weight for one and loss of the muffler on the other). That says a lot for the thoroughness of our prep and maintenance routines but it also says a lot about our drivers - Dana and Tracy just don't make many dumb mistakes and we can count on them to keep the karts on the track and pointed the right way. And when you consider our karts completed 578 competitive laps in the Mid State Ohio Kart Club and Great Lakes Sprint Series events that says a lot about the ladies' level of focus and concentration when they've got their helmets on.

Individually, each lady has highlights. On her way to winning the MSOKC HPV championship, Dana won 18 races including 6 of 13 MSOKC features for an average of 46.1% win rate. It was June 1st in front of the INFONETICS gang that Dana turned her season around. That race was the first chance for her to apply the suggestions of driving coach Brian O'Hara and it was from there on that Dana was able to claim a 54% win ratio the rest of the season. John Fox kept us honest all season as well as Roberto Zayas who kept getting closer every time he went out in his new Biesse kart. In all, there were 14 drivers that came out to race the HPV class and there was only one that we never managed to finish ahead of. That was Ryan Johnson who never returned after Dana finished a close second to him in June.

Our first Divional win was a combo of luck and prep.

In the Great Lakes Sprint Series we were up against a couple of the best HPV racers in the Midwest, Scott Rettich and Lance Hancock. But more times than not we were competing with the conditions more than the other competitors. We'll be the first to say that the GLSS win that Dana got at BeaveRun in August was a case of extreme good fortune but it was also the result of doing our homework on the wet settings and hard work in difficult conditions. We learned a lot from this series right up until the last race at South Bend.

Tracy entered the season tentatively, vowing not to become obsessive about it. But it wasn't long before Tracy's competitive nature revised that approach. She never became really obsessive away from the track but she was pretty dang intense on racedays. Unfortunately, we were so committed to Dana's program that Tracy was simply given the Briggs/Margay and told to go fast. No coaching, virtually no testing, just "you're fueled up, go get 'em". In spite of all this, Tracy persevered, learned from her competitors and started working her way towards the front. About mid-season we realized that Tracy had a shot at a top five finish in in the Briggs Stock Medium championship and we started taking her program more seriously. In all, she competed in 39 races (completing 92% of them) finishing in the top five 13 times (33.3%). Of the 13 feature races she ran, she finished 5 of them in the top five positions (38.4%) including a couple of hard-fought 3rd places.

By the end of the season it was a fight between Tracy, Marc and Jenna for a top 5.

It all came down to the last races and a fight for fifth in the championship with Marc Rice but he pulled things together better than we did in those final contests. We missed fifth place by only 10 points (1048 Vs 1058) finishing just behind Jenna Gearhart. Interestingly, it was the substitute drive that Dana did for Jenna in Race 13 that kept Jenna in fifth place, so in affect we supplied the driver that kept Tracy out of the top five. But as we've said before, the Gearharts have helped us out many, many times and if we were to beat them, we'd rather do it on the track than by Jenna missing a race due to work obligations. The 60 points Dana earned for Jenna were arguably the points Jenna would have likely earned had she been able to stick around for that final.

Had we been able to give Tracy the attention she needed earlier on, I'm sure she would have cracked that top five, maybe even better. In all, 18 drivers scored points in the Briggs Medium class in 2003 so a 6th her first year out isn't too shabby. And, I can't help but mention that the sixth was the official result with the three dropped races (your 3 worst finishes are disregarded) but had points been scored for all races like most championships, the raw points total would have placed Tracy 4th. Again, not bad for her first year.

Next year we'll try to capitalize on the successes of this year for an even better one in 2004. Dana will defend her title in MSOKC HPV and we'll see if we can use some of what we've learned this year to make a better showing at the GLSS races. Hopefully our plans to move Tracy into Yamaha Can in another Biesse kart will work out and we'll be able to do for her next year what we were able to do as a team for Dana this year.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Dana, Julie and Tracy were all honored during the MSOKC Awards Banquet

22 November - Celebrating With Our Friends

The MSOKC racing season concluded in style at the Gala Events in Grove City as about 170 kart racers and their families and friends converged to celebrate the 2003 champions.

Dana was the first of our crew to be honored. As HPV Champ she received the First Place trophy, the HPV Champion's jacket (great design & style and provided by Sound Investments) and a new set of tires. Tracy was up next accepting the sixth place trophy for her first year in Briggs Stock Medium class. Julie too was honored for her service to the club as Pointskeeper for two years.

We were very pleased that Brian O'Hara and his girlfriend Emily were able to join us in celebrating our first karting championship. It was the one on-one coaching that Brian gave Dana that last weekend in May that was the turning point in our season. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Emily during dinner and soon learned that she too is a Barenaked Ladies fan and that we'd both seen our first BNL show about the same time. It was also nice that my Mom was able to share the moment with us. Mom's be around racing for several decades too and knows how much effort a championship season requires.

To cap off the evening, after dinner the door prizes were distributed and we're set up in several areas for next year. Many thanks to Erin Dillon and Beth Hopkins for a lot of dedicated effort to pull the whole affair off. Well done.

22 November - Julie Wins Ashland Scholarship

Only hours before Dana and Tracy were to get their championship awards at the Mid State Ohio Kart Club awards banquet, we learned that Julie too had been rewarded for years of hard work. Ashland University, Julie's first choice for continuing her education, awarded her the President's Scholarship, one of Ashland's most prestigious scholarships. Based on her high school academic achievements and SAT scores, it provides a significant resource for her tuition. The rest of Conlin SpeedSports is incredibly proud of the determination and focus Julie maintained through high school to earn this recognition.

16 November - Counting Our Blessings

One has to be careful what one says to our Pastor Bell at Atonement Lutheran Church. You can never know what simple comment will volunteer you to be addressing your Atonement church family on a Sunday morning. It was a comment after attending one of the Monday night services back in July that got me up there. Pastor Bell asked me to speak about the blessings we are made aware of through our hobby. It was a chance to talk about karting and our team but more importantly talk about how our faith influences our racing and vice versa. We've made the transcript of the speech available here for those who'd like to see what we shared with our church friends.

Scott Rettich, Lance Hancock, Dana and Kristy Snell.

15 November - Celebration in Fort Wayne

Our team made a quick run up to Fort Wayne for the Great Lakes Sprint Series to see Dana personally receive her 3rd place championship trophy for HPV Senior Light. One of of only two women racers honored, Dana accepted her award along side Scott Rettich (one of four championship titles he claimed that evening), Lance Hancock (2nd) and Kristy Snell (4th). During photographs after the presentation, Lance commented that he wished he got the cheers and whistles Dana got when her name was called. Dana suggested he wear a skirt next time to which Lance responded he didn't want it bad enough to shave his legs for. The evening included a buffet dinner and door prizes afterwards. Other MSOKCers making the trip were John, Janice, Jacob and Justin Gearhart and Bob Strawser.

6 November - We're Almost Famous (Again)

Our pal Mike Unger got us wedged into the September issue of National Kart News, making it two issues in a row that our efforts have been chronicled in that top karting magazine.

Mike was one of the first guys to jump up to help us do the big Mid State Ohio Kart Club promotion at the Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Fortunately, he brought his camera with him because when he mentioned the promo to his National Kart News editors, they immediately said they would like to report it. So Mike pounded out few quick paragraphs and sent in some pics and, presto!, we're (almost) famous (again).

Mike has been writing technical articles for National Kart News for several years and it is a kick to see ourselves in the premiere U.S. karting magazine by hanging onto his coattails. Mike is writing another article for National Kart News that documents our use of data acquisition to improve a driver's skill. Dana's progress through the season is the focal point so we should be well represented in that issue as well. No word of when that one hits the newsstands though. But when it does you can be sure we'll let you know.

2 November - Instant Kart Team For Sale

We've decided to get Tracy up into the 2-cycle ranks so we've got all our Briggs stuff on the market. If you're interested in getting started in karting, this is everything you need and then some. Check it out here.

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