2003 MSOKC HPV Champions

20 June - No Wins But Good Points

In spite of the Father's Day Holiday, entry numbrs were decent.

The return of Barry Hatcher to the HPV Championship after missing a couple races meant Dana would have to be on top of her game but so too was Barry and a couple of second places was the best Dana could manage. Tracy also earned a second in one of her heat races and finished a solid fourth in her Feature. After claiming at least a couple wins each outing so far this year, we came up short today but still earned good points to keep us near the front of the HPV and Super Can championships as we near the half way point of the season.

Tracy turned in good performances even after discovering a bent axle.

With two race weekends back to back and my travel schedule keeping me out of town, there looked to be no time at all to work on the karts before Championship round number 6. Especially since we had a National Kart News test session scheduled with Mike Unger for Saturday afternoon. But when Mike called to say it had been cancelled late Saturday morning our karts were out of the trailer and getting a quick (5 hours) once over.

What we didn't notice until Sunday morning at the track was that Tracy's kart had a bent axle. Very slight but bent just the same. We couldn't think of any recent incidents in which the RR took a hard shot from another kart. However, in the second race of the season Tracy had a incident where she took a rough ride on the outside of Nine and got a lot of air. That was as good a possibility as we could come up with.

We had no spare so, bent axle or not, we got ready to practice. In the first session we, along with everyone else it seemed, found the track very loose. We thought it might tighten up as rubber got worn into it but it didn't seem to get better for the second or third sessions so we started making adjustments.

It looked like Tracy had this pass made. We were wrong (see entire sequence below).

As expected, the Father's Day Holiday reduced entries overall but not too badly. Tracy was gridded 10th of 12 and managed to get in ninth by Turn 2 behind Steve Sharp. Going into Turn 7 she was close enough to try him but thought better of it. Then, down the backstraight she drew along side and she and Sharp were even going into Turn 5 but in pinching her kart down to give Steve racing room she lost her momentum (see below) and he got around her again on the outside. But Steve lost time in 6 and Tracy had a run going into Turn 7.

From the crew observation platform near the grid it looked like she had the pass made but no sooner than we thought that things went nuts out there. Steve turned in, Tracy had no where to go and the two of them went from 38 mph (at impact - gotta love data acquisition) to zero in 79 feet. Brien Snyder tried desperately to miss both and just clipped the rear of our kart. Poor Ryan Estepp, also following closely, had nowhere to go and plowed into Sharp and Tracy breaking a tie rod and ending his race. Tracy and Steve resumed in 10th & 11th places, respectively. Tracy eventually finished 8th having gotten around Steve and another kart by the time the checkered flew.

Afterwards Tracy sought out Steve to apologize for the mess even though I advised that she needn't based on what I saw. She did, by the way, break Conlin SpeedSports Rule #1 which reads: "If you think you must apologize for something, apologize with your helmet on". Fortunately, what ever hard feelings there were didn't come to physical violence so the helmetless apology was okay. This time. We checked the alignment which seemed okay, but first assessment was that the nose had had it. We checked with Ryan and he had spare parts to make the repairs he needed so everyone was back in business.

Matt Rice leads the field into Turn 2 - Barry Hatcher is 5th.

In Dana's first Heat race she started 3rd with Barry right behind her. John Fox was missing from the line up unable to get his engine, damaged last week, repaired in time. That made this only the second time John has not entered a MSOKC event since the track opened 10 years ago.

By Turn 9 of the first lap Barry sliced by Roberto and into the lead completing a 5th to 1st run.

Going into 2 the first time it was Matt Rice, Roberto Zayas and Dana with Steve Tatman and Barry fighting for fourth. As they all flowed onto the backstraight Matt's motor seemed to just go flat. Roberto had to lift slightly and swerve left to avoid clobbering him. Dana was next in line and had to do the same thing, getting out of the throttle just a tick and followed Roberto's path. Barry, who had gotten around Steve at 4, swerved too but being back just that little bit was able to respond without the lift and shot past Matt and Dana by the end of the straight. Going into Turn 9 at the end of the first lap Barry outbraked Roberto for the lead, giving everyone else a lesson on how to go from 5th to 1st on the first lap. Dana also closed in on Roberto and tried him at Turn 8, but had to back out of it. She tried again on the main straight and just got by making it a little too close for me on the exit. But with a whole clear lap before Dana could take over second, Barry was already gone and on his way to the win.

Yeah, that's my big butt sticking out as I restart a stalled competitor on the track.

Super Can Heat 2 saw Tracy starting in P3 with championship rival Brad Carroll directly to her right. The pace was very slow on the pace laps and a couple of karts stalled as the engines loaded up with fuel. It's not very often that I get the spotlight these days but I was the hero on the track as I was the first to respond with a starter to get those karts going again. When the race was finally started Snyder jumped into the lead and Brad followed. Tracy got by Ryan Estepp at the exit of Turn 3 and set her focus on Brad. Meanwhile, Brad set his focus on Brien and got his chance going into Turn 7. In fact, Brad pulled the same maneuver on Brien as Tracy had tried on Sharp in Heat 1 but this time there was no pile up. Too bad since Tracy was far enough back that she likely would have missed it.

Carroll tried the same move on Snyder as Tracy did earlier on Sharp but got a much different result.

As it was, Brien was forced out into the marbles and lost so much momentum that Tracy was able to follow Brad's tracks and was in second by Turn 8. Once there she didn't seem to gain any on Brad but didn't seem to lose any either. Behind her Jerry Gardner had moved up into 3rd place and was running strong. At the line it was a spaced out Carroll, Conlin, Gardner order.

Dana's first in-race spin for about a year.

Entries were up to seven for HPV this weekend and for Heat 2 two of those were really eager to get a jump. Several attempts were required before Flagman Bob Strawser was happy with the line up - Barry and Marc Reifies taking turns jumping the other for the green. Once the green was out Dana fell in behind Marc with Barry taking an immediate lead. Marc was racing the HPV4 pipe at the higher overall kart weight (MSOKC rules allow the 4 pipe at 360# or the 3 pipe at 340#) and was getting used to the additional top end power and increased braking distance. When he slowed sooner than Dana anticipated, she was forced to lock up her brakes just as she turned into Five. Our kart snapped around immediately and for a moment looked ready to block Turn 5 all together. In that moment Steve barely kept his kart on the road and Roberto faired worse, spinning to the grass on the outside of the turn. So rare are mistakes like that for Dana that none of us could remember the last time she had spun or gone off the track in a race. She carried on in sixth place and moved up two positions by the end of lap six and had to settle for fourth, her worst finish in 30something races.

Tracy closed right in on Jerry Gardner in the feature but had to settle for 4th.

Despite the crash and poor finish in the first heat Tracy earned the fourth starting position for the Super Can Feature, smack behind Jerry Gardner and next to Bob McConnell a fellow Biesse Kart driver. Of course Brad was on the pole. At the green Bob and Jerry fought for 2nd until Turn 4 with the Biesse edging ahead. Meanwhile Karl Hans managed to get inside Tracy's kart just briefly at Turn 3 for 4th. Tracy kept the inside line for 4 and took it back bringing Ray Bazar along through. The first four karts immediately began to pull away from the rest of the field and although Tracy closed up a fair gap Jerry had over her, she couldn't get close enough to challenge for third. Fourth was all we could claim.

Hatcher Racing had us covered in the Feature.

The HPV Feature turned into a kind of Celebrity Race what with Matt turning his kart over to Mike Unger as he had to leave early for North Carolina and Steve having John Fox drive his kart just for kicks. Steve is notorious for his minimalistic approach to race prep and John demanded that the kart go through a second safety inspection. Once the things that revealed were fixed, John inquired as to the tire pressures and learned that Steve more or less uses the Thump Method for setting tire pressures, that is by thumping each tire like a watermelon and listening for similar reverberations. Assured by Steve that all his tires were ripe, John took to the grid expecting an adventure.

The fourth place finish in Heat 2 demoted Dana to P3 for the start of the Feature. Barry had Pole with Mike in Matt's kart in P2. Dana couldn't improve on her position immediately but on the backstraight Mike seemed to suffer the same motor bog as Matt had in the earlier race and the #13 kart was in second place half way down the back straight. After that, the Hatcher team, Barry and his dad Tom, just made us look silly adding a few kart lengths to their lead every lap.

For the feature I made a crew chief decision to make a change to both karts based on the data readings we were getting and general gut feeling. Hindsight being 20/20, I think it was one of those things that are true in theory but don't produce the results in application. We usually have more for Brad and we've always been pretty close to Barry so I think our lackluster performance in the features falls squarely on my shoulders. But it only emphasizes that motor racing is a true team sport requiring every member of the team to do their job perfectly. Four other teams did theirs better today. But we'll try again in a few weeks.

Special thanks go out to very important members of our team that often get over looked. Julie, who is in charge of taping every minute our karts are on the track for later analysis and the pictures that appear here on the website, jumped in late in the day to take over official scoring when Bethy had to leave. Thanks, Jooge, for helping to keep the whole event running smoothly. And thanks to Lynn for taking over the video responsibilities and providing the photos to use here.

More action -

Tracy gets a run on Steve Sharp down the back stretch. Side by side in 5, Tracy gives way to avoid a crash. She regains her momentum sooner than Steve and tries again going into 7. It looked like a typical Turn 7 pass then suddenly it all went wrong. Brien Snyder and Ryan Estepp also got involved.

Dana fights with Marc Reifeis at the start in Heat 2.

Having recovered from her spin, she catches Marc at Turn 9.

Tracy sticks to Estepp's bumper on the pace lap as she been trained to do. Non-racers often don't appreciate the value of inches at the start of a race.

Dana leaves Roberto less than an inch after passing him at Turn 1. Little too close this time.

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