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

22 May - Not Our Finest Hour

Even with a kart possessed by evil spirits, Tracy was able to hang on for a win. But the rain took it off the books.

And an hour was about all there was to the May 22 race since rain moved in just after both ladies completed their first heats. Driving karts that, in the final analysis, were possessed by evil spirits, both Tracy and Dana just barely hung on for good finishes. In fact Tracy won her heat but she had a pile of karts right behind her looking for a way around. John Fox was right behind her and a little faster but not enough to make a pass stick. Frustration must have been great among the 11 karts behind them.

Dana led with her demonic kart for a couple laps until Len Bailey found a way by. Then she had Jim Martin, Jason Stukey and Chris Tatman stacked up behind her. Her evil handling kart contributed to a scattering of those karts on the exit of Turn One when she had to check up as she understeered out of road. She managed to stay in second but it wasn't pretty.

The arrival of the rain may have put us out of our misery had we not found what we thought was the cause of the lack of grip at the front of the karts. As it was, we were anxious to get out again and redeem ourselves and get back on pace. But the track got wet and stayed wet the rest of the day. MSOKC doesn't race in the rain to save our members the abuse the wet does to the karts so the entire day was rescheduled for October 2. Unfortunately, that means Tracy's first win of the year and fourth of her career does not count. But, that is racing. Photos and more details later this week.

Len Bailey and Dana fight for the lead. A little later in the lap Len made it stick..

Prep for Sunday started with practice on Saturday to get back into the swing of things a bit after having taken a few weeks off for family. Dana's day ended early when the silencer broke off on the PRD's exhaust pipe. A replacement was procured once again courtesy of Roger "Fastest Man On Batteries" Schroer late Saturday night. Thanks to Roger and to Mike Unger who met me late at a dimly-lit, undisclosed location to make the transfer.

Sunday morning we got with Rocky Johnson in an attempt to get the original silencer welded into place. Rocky is know far and wide and certainly within MSOKC for his ability to weld anything. And it was a heroic attempt, using his TIG welder for the first attack and when the Taiwanian chrome and brass resisted that he made a full frontal assault with Steve Tatman's MIG welder until the it died with about 90% of the job done. Roger's pipe it would be. It is interesting although a little discouraging to note that Roger's PRD package was delivered to us before being forwarded on to him and now, as the season progresses, it is coming back to Hilliard, piece by piece.

Sunday looked like a nice day at 7am. By the time practice rolled around the clouds had rolled in. Practice gave us the first indications that it would be a long day. No matter what we tried nothing seemed to get grip into the front end of the karts. Going into the first rounds of heats we were not optimistic at all despite Tracy being on the outside of row one in Spec 100 and Dana drawing the pole in TaG Senior.

Tracy got a spectacular start jumping ahead of Eric Creech in his '05 Biesse and pulling John Fox along with her. For six long laps she stayed just ahead of a snarling pack struggling at each corner to make her kart go where she wanted it to. As John would later admit, he was faster in some places but not enough to get by. We were proud of Tracy for resisting the urge to block throughout the even though she could hear the engines right behind her. Only on the last lap did her kart widen to let John know he was out of chances.

Whenstrips of rubber are missing from your tires, that is a signal that they're done.

Dana jumped out to a good lead too at the start of the TaG heat 1 but that was the result of Chris Tatman's bad start. And Chris was the victim of unfortunate circumstances. A very late green flag had just about everyone thinking starter Bob Strawser was waiving it off. Everyone except Dana and Jim Martin. It didn't take Len Bailey, with his 30 years of racing experience, to be on Dana's bumper as she fought to keep her kart on the road. Len tried her at turn One and after making room for each other there Dana pulled back ahead going into Turn Two. But later that same lap our kart pushed out of Turn 9 and Len was able to take the lead in 10.

Shortly thereafter she was under attack from Jim Martin. To keep her kart on the road she was forced to slow down mush more than usual and caught Jim by surprise one lap going into Eight. Dana was punted wide with Jim drawing up along side. But in an uncommon gesture of fine sportsmanship Jim indicated his displeasure with the way he got by and signaled for Dana to retake the position. But a lap or two later he was probably regretting that gesture. Turning into Turn One the 13 kart was even slower to respond and Dana found herself on a trajectory that was taking her off the track. Backing out of the throttle was the only option to stay on the track. She ended up using all of the new curbing but pulled so much speed off that Jim suddenly found himself rushing up on her. On the brakes, the impact was was still great enough to jerk Dana's head back and punch a hole in the nose of Jim's kart. It also sent him spinning which scattered Chris and Jason behind him.

Jason was able to find a way through and after a wild half spin Chris was able to get pointed the right way in the Turn Two grass and rejoin the race. Jason hung onto our bumper the rest of the race but couldn't get by finishing third.

With the karts back at the trailer we began to understand the problem: The front tires were completely shot. We we trying to read these new Vega NordAm tires like we had the the Vega SL5s but as we found out, the tire is worn out with much more of the wear dimple left than with the SL5s. In fact, we pushed these so far they began to delaminate. Nothing like seeing the cord showing to finally get you to realize you have a tire problem.

Having finally ID'd the problem, we showed Race Director Tom Hickey our damaged tires (rules say you must race all the day's races on the same set of tires unless they become damaged), we mounted up new sets and were looking forward to being competitive again. But Mother Nature wouldn't give us the satisfaction. The rains came and because the first rounds of heats were never completed, the wash out meant that the day never happened. We'd have have to start over on October 2nd.

The wash out also meant that Dana's friends, the Jordan family - Jay, Stacia, Alina and Brent - got to see only one race before the sky started dripping. We're hoping they can come back out another time when the weather and the karts both cooperate better.

After a month and a half of rough outings, poor weather and missed races, were we really looking forward to getting our confidence back with a good outing at our home track but it looks like we'll have to wait until June 4.

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