2003 MSOKC HPV Champions

08 May - Off To A Great Start!

Brad Carroll looks for a way past Tracy. He found it a lap later.

The first race of the 2004 season rewarded us for our pre-season work and gave us encouragement for the balance of the season. But it also wasn't too early to learn another lesson the hard way.

Not only did Dana pick up where she left off last year by winning her first heat and finishing in the top three in all events but Tracy also showed that she can run up front by leading half her heat race before giving way to last year's Champion, Brad Carroll. Unfortunately, her hard earned second place in that race was taken away when she crossed the scales .5 of a pound light. Yes, that's right, half a pound.

A sight we could get used to: Tracy (yellow sleeves) leading the 11 kart Super Can field .

The weight was lost when we removed the torsion bars from Tracy's kart and although we tried to offset that with more fuel, she burned a little more fuel than we figured and Tracy's first second place was null and void. But she did serve notice that she'll be in the hunt this year because even though Brad got by her, there was no one else even close. At least in that race.

The track was really fast for practice and both girls set their personal best Circleville Raceway Park laps. We had heard other drivers were getting their best times too. All went well and we felt set for the day's racing.

Setting her sites on Ryan Estepp.

In her first heat, Tracy started started 9th out of 11 karts and, being her first race without full bodywork, played it cautiously and only passed two karts to finish seventh. She felt that the track was starting to get stickier as we were expecting and we decided to remove those torsion bars that got us into trouble.

And working on Jason Stukey.

In her second heat race Tracy started from the pole next to Brad and managed to jump him at the start. Brad shadowed her for three laps, making a stab at her going into 10 at the end of lap two. Same place, next lap he made it stick. I was able to give Tracy the HUGE GAP (to the kart behind her) signal the rest of the race as no one could come close to the Carroll/Conlin combo up front. Then we hit the scales.

In the feature Tracy started eighth because of the disqualification. She worked her way to fourth with a nice pass of Ryan Estepp going into Turn Five. She and Ryan went into Five side by side and Ryan ended up doing a little "agricultural racing" as they say and we were a little worried that Tracy's move wasn't a clean as it should have been. But after the race Ryan assured us that everything was cool, he just got out onto the marbles and pushed off the track.

Tracy got by Karl Hans for third in the Feature but couldn't make it stick.

Tracy herself was dealing with a push that had developed as the track cooled late in the afternoon. She was managing it well, even gaining on Karl Hans for third. On the next to last lap Tracy pulled off a textbook perfect pass going into Turn Nine but once inside the kart wouldn't turn. Karl, meanwhile, with 30 years of karting experienced just watched as Tracy understeered off the road and to a rough ride on the outside of Nine. She lost two positions before she could get back up to speed finishing 5th. Had we not incurred the penalty in Heat Two and started further up the grid Tracy would have had a sure third place or better.

And Tracy had extra incentive to do better as her boyfriend Chris and his family rushed over to the track after his Bishop Ready baseball game. Having Chris there took a little of the edge off the DQ from Heat 2. As usual, I was obsessed with readying the karts and made for a horrible host for Chris' parents Jim and Angela and his brother Nick. Hopefully Lynn and the girls covered for me and it was nice to have the Bowman family support.

Dana leads a big HPV field to the first green flag of the 2004 season.

Dana started Heat #1 from the pole position next to Roberto Zayas having drawn the lowest number of the HPV drivers. She moved out to a comfortable lead immediately. Behind her Barry Hatcher and John Morely were moving through the field from their starting positions at the back of the grid. Eventually both made it up to 2nd and 3rd respectively. It felt good for the whole team to win the very first HPV race of the year but Barry and John made their point in that race.

We had a bit of a scare after this race when our fuel didn't pass post-race testing. Neither did Barry's. When I learned that Tracy's kart had passed no problem, I knew something was wrong since both our karts were filled from the same Shell pump and same fuel jug. As a member of the club's Board of Directors I have to be careful not to appear to get any preferential treatment but it was obvious to me that the test was flawed. I wrote up a protest (first time I've protested anything in 30 years of racing) but before it could even be considered, widespread complaints were being heard from other racers experiencing the same inconsistencies and Race Director Tom Hickey issued a moratorium on fuel DQs for the rest of the day. Whew.

Heat two had Dana starting dead last while Barry and John quickly moved out front in a field of ten karts. Dana had a bit of help moving herself through the field with a number of drivers getting into trouble but she also sliced her way by several fighting to retain their position. Her efforts netted her a third place finish.

Dana (L) was helped by others' misfortune in Heat 2.

For the Feature Barry, John and Dana were tied in points based on their heat race finishes (Dana, 1st & 3rd; Barry, 2nd & 2nd; and John, 3rd & 1st) so the grid was determined by the morning's random draw giving Dana the pole again. We knew it would come down to the first turn and Dana knew she would have to be there first. But just like last year, in HPV the pole seems to be a disadvantage and Barry edged ahead at the green.

This was about as close as Dana could get to Barry in the Feature.

When the pack got to Turn Two, all hell broke loose as Morely got together with someone and with the track blocked for a moment about half the field ended up going off the track, many driving straight across from Two to Four. John Fox for one was doing everything he could to get his kart whoa'd down before he skidded out in front of Barry and Dana as they raced into Four. Steve Tatman, owner of CRP, later said it felt natural to be driving across the green part since he's been mowing the CRP grass for about 11 years anyway.

Things settled down after that with Dana chasing Barry, Roberto chasing Dana and Morely chasing Roberto. Dana was able to narrow the gap late in the race but was simply never in a position to attempt a move on Barry. John Morely eventually got around Roberto to finish third.

It should be quite a year for HPV if this race was any indication. It was great to see the big field (and we were missing Don Wilbur and Chris Allman!) and we have our work cut out for us in racing with Hatcher and Morely. Both of those guys have competed successfully at the national level and to run with them this year we'll have to be on top of our game. That is also true of Super Can. We've got a ways to go until we can truly challenge Brad but we're gonna try to get there.

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