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

17 July - Dana Gains Much Needed Points, Tracy's Troubles Continue

Still fighting for good starts to lead to good results, both ladies had an up and down day during the fifth race in the 2005 Mid State Ohio Kart Club Vega Tire Championship. Dana persevered through the heat and humidity all day to take a second place in the TaG Senior Feature looking pretty much on pace with championship leader Chris Tatman and at times a little faster late in the race. She gained valuable points on second place man Jim Martin. Tracy on the other hand suffered through a horrible start in her first heat, a great start but bad run in the second and didn't even make it out for her feature scoring the fewest points on an outing this season. The full story in a few days.

Remnants of Hurricane Dennis promise hot and very humid weather and did not disappoint. In fact the last dregs of showers from that storm system sprayed the track as the gates opened and caused practice to be delayed about an hour and shortened. For us practice went well once it got started.

Tracy lined up in 3rd position for the first Spec 100 heat but a slow start lost her about three positions immediately. But in this case I don't believe it was tuning, setup or driver error. When combining HPV into Spec 100 was proposed before the start of the season it was widely acknowledged that the HPVs, with their spec'd low-engagement clutches, would be most venerable at the start and it was widely agreed that the Spec 100 starts would be fast (coming up to the green at a higher mph than other classes) to avoid this and keep things fair. Over the months that resolution may have faded from the memories of the drivers and starter. Could be a reminder at the driver's meeting may be in order. At any rate, in my opinion, the start was a non-HPV slowish start and Tracy was shuffled back to sixth before turn 2. She stayed there a couple laps and then lost another position to finish 7th. We have a lot of time on Tracy's engine since the rebuild and knew that going into this race. In fact we had ordered a ring set for her engine from Franklin Motorsports with the intention of installing them before this race only to learn on Friday that Franklin's server was not processing orders and ours was stalled out for three days. Still, we didn't think we'd be that far off the pace.

In Tracy's second heat she got a great start, one of the best of the year, and picked up a position from her sixth place start before the first turn. But again she became a victim of diminished horsepower and lost a couple positions again. In the Spec 100 feature she was the victim of her own misjudgment as she clipped the canopy post on the edge of the grid on her way out to the track. Unfortunately the damage was significant enough that she was a DNS for the feature making this a drop event for sure. I, for one, didn't do a very good job of hiding my disappointment. I've developed a mindset that makes me prepared for anything that might happen out on the track but I guess it never occurred to me that we could end our race in the grid area. Every experience is a learning experience and now I'll be prepared for that too.

Dana also struggled with her starts in TaG Senior heats 1 & 2 earning only a 4th and a 3rd respectively. We chased the set up and engine tuning for the heavy, humid air and may have gotten it right for her feature race. Pushing pole man Chris Tatman across the start line was a good indication of that. Tim Busson, who started outside front row was able to keep Dana from slinking through on Tatman's coat tails. Dana never found a way by Tim until the scale house where he was DQ'd for using non-approved tires. The official finishing order helped her gain in the championship points race.

The race followed a racing-themed week at the Goddard School in Dublin and many of Dana's class brought there families out to experience kart racing. We were very pleased to have the families of Steve, Zack and Ben Sparks; Steve & Michelle Brenner with their kids Olivia and Owen; and Carla & Renee Dedula and cowrokers and friends of Dana's, Bobbi Daily & son Grant; Amy & Doug Twilley and Natalie Auch join our day at the races. Thanks for coming out everybody.

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