2003 & 2004 MSOKC HPV Champions
2004 MSOKC Super Can Runner Up

05 March - Both Ladies Move Up For '05

PRD Fireball - our TaG engine of choice

When our Super Can engine suddenly went silent on lap 13 of last year's "Money-race", it turned out to be quite a failure. In the process of battering the bottom 2/3s of the piston to tiny pieces, the cylinder and the connecting rod were rendered useless. Those things combined with a crankshaft with just too many racing miles on it made the repair bill more than the price at which we bought the motor. But at least the crankcase escaped serious injury. It was the solid crankcase casting that made this ex-Casey Neil Yamaha so strong. Over time we'll acquire the replacement parts and build it into a strong can motor again someday.

But faced with a large repair estimate we began weighing the merits of just buying a new motor. It has been in our plans to work our way up to TaG (the new, popular Touch and Go class) and, although a little ahead of our plan it seemed as though the time was right. We knew we wanted one of the engines that allow a lower minimum weight because our drivers are so light. This ruled out the Soniks and pointed us in the Leopard direction. The Parilla Leopard, though popular, was pricey especially when we hadn't budgeted for another big capital investment this year.

Everything needed to go TaG racing is in the PRD kit

We also learned that TaGUSA (the body that devises TaG rules in the U.S.) had just approved a new engine for 2005. The PRD (Pro Race Design) Fireball was designed in Australia, manufactured in Taiwan, could run at TaGUSA's lowest weight, was $400 to $600 cheaper than the Leopard and is imported by Grand Products, for which our friends at J & J Racing are a dealer. When a Fireball came third ahead of two Soniks at the Manufacturer's Cup race in Daytona Beach, it seemed to us like an easy choice. Today we took delivery of a brand-new Fireball from J & J.

So with the Fireball in our arsenal, Dana will move up to TaG Senior running MSOKC, WKA Manufacturer's Cup and some divisionals. At a rated 28 horsepower, Dana will nearly double the power under her right foot. The only place she'll be able to go for more speed in karting will be ICC (125cc Shifter). Tracy will have the HPV bolted onto her Biesse kart and will run the Spec 100/HPV class under MSOKC, and HPV Light in the Cup races and divisionals.

So it will be a new game for both ladies. More learning and pushing ourselves. It is too early to make any sort of bold predictions (other than we'll get spanked at the nationals). We need to get the karts together and start testing. We'll let you know what we learn about TaG and Spec 100 right here. Stay tuned.

© Copyright 2000 - 2005 Conlin SpeedSports. All rights reserved.
Server space for this website graciously provided by Infonetics, Inc.