2003 MSOKC HPV Champions

26 February - Florida Spring Training Day 6: Our Best Day Yet & Dana Impresses Montoya

When we got to the track Thursday morning the Easykart trailer was already there and setting up. Pablo Montoya (Formula One driver and future World Champion Juan Pablo Montoya's father), the importer of the Easykart was still en route somewhere between Palmetto and Miami. National Kart News owner, Curt Paluzzi cranked off a number of photos for the magazine while Mike studied the kart. Once again, you will have to read Mike's report when the article appears in National Kart News to see what he thought of it so I'll just say it is an interesting kart and an interesting concept.

Dana and I meanwhile picked up where we left off the day before switching to new Vega Blues. Even though it had rained more overnight and washed away any rubber we had put down, Dana immediately reported much more grip. We pulled the torsion bars out and went faster right away. But when Dana came back in she said the balance was good but that we may have given up too much grip . All we did then was put the side torsion bar back in and sent her back out (she never even got out of the kart). On Monday evening we decided a 49.50 should be a goal for us at this track based on what we saw that first day. With the new Vegas and the chassis dialed in like that, Dana went out and put down a 49.34.

Meanwhile, Mr. Montoya, who I introduced to Dana before we started our testing, was watching her in our kart as much as he was watching Mike in the Easykart. Shortly after she got out of the HPV Mr. Montoya came down and asked Dana if she would like to drive the Easykart. She didn't necessarily jump at the chance but she said she would. It turns out that she felt significant pressure to do well in front of Montoya - for no other reason than to not imagine him telling someone (Juan maybe?) "Si, there was a girl there and she was fast but made mucho mistakes."

Not only did Dana drive bueno and not make any mistakes, she beat Mike's best time of the morning by almost two-tenths in only 10 laps. Afterward, Mr. Montoya was more than happy to pose with Dana for a picture. Mike said that under no uncertain terms would he mention this (getting beat by a girl) in his article so we have to do it here. Sorry Mike.

So back to work we went on our Biesse Kart HPV feeling pretty good. The Easykart folks left about lunchtime and shortly thereafter a rogue storm came in off the Gulf and drenched everything. But it only lasted 15 minutes and the sun was back out a little after that. Most of the track dried very quickly but we had to squeegee off the big puddles. As for the little puddles that remained, I was given the assignment of going out in the 250cc Yamaha Exciter and drying the rest of the track. What a strange driving assignment: Go out and try to drive through the puddles - usually it is the other way around. After about 20 or so laps aiming for the wet spots (I felt like Stalone doing the stupid Quarter trick in that horrible Driven movie) the track was dry enough for Dana and Mike.

Mike used the rest of the afternoon to do Bridgestone compound comparisons which will be a National Kart News article. Dana went out worked on better lines through a couple corners. The result was almost another half second, getting us down to 48.90.

A pretty good dang day. A productive tuning exercise and a great performance in front of a respected name in karting and in motorsports. We fell asleep sometime during dinner and don't remember anything else from that night. Except that Mr. Montoya politely refused my donuts. Again.

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