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

30 July - Finally!

Tracy broke our long winless streak.

Tracy broke our win drought by getting a perfect start and then running a perfect race to win the second Spec 100 heat during the Saturday evening race. She then ran strong in the feature to finish fifth right there with the leaders. Dana also ran strong in the first two TaG Senior heats and then was let down by her mechanic (me) who failed to tighten a rear wheel before the feature. Fortunately she became aware of it on the pace lap and pulled off before she had a big accident but the result was a DNS earning her no points in the feature towards the championship. Just goes to show that even at this level, racing is a team sport and if any team member messes up the total effort is affected.

The results of practice prompted us to go with new tires for the night but a shortage of club spec tires due to customs delays (damn terrorists) meant we only had one full set to use between the two karts. We would have to swap the tires back and forth between the 13 kart and the 99 kart. Normally there would be plenty of time for moving them kart to kart but the evening's event was on an accelerated schedule trying to beat the darkness. Circleville Raceway Park owner Steve Tatman had been transported to Columbus suffering from a possible stroke (prognosis was good with Steve expected to be home by Tuesday) and he was the only person that knew how to tame the CRP lighting system.

Dana was up first in TaG Senior starting on pole next to Chris Tatman but at the green Chris squeaked by into the lead. Unfortunately, Dana was soon in no position to retaliate as almost immediately a broken clutch spring was causing the brakes to lock up with the slightest pressure. That made entry into every corner an adventure and each lap a show for Len Bailey right behind her. She did manage to keep her second place in spite of the braking problem.

In the second heat, with the offending spring replaced Dana started fourth and found the braking to be much more predictable. Jim, Len, Chris and Dana ran pretty much nose to tail all race long. Len spent his race looking for a way around Jim Martin, Chris spent his looking for a way around Len and Dana looking for a way around Chris. She was convinced she had a run on him coming out of turn 8 but on the run down to 9 she was surprised by a a kart running slow, limping back to the pits. She had to check up and that was that, fourth she would finish.

Tire swap between Tracy's second heat and Dana's final, the sequence was interrupted somehow and I managed to only finger tighten the right rear wheel, it seems. As soon as Dana took to the track for the paced lap she new something was amiss. When she pulled off on the backstraight I had a sinking feeling the head mechanic (me) had missed something, Zero points from the DNS was the penalty for the oversight but I was just glad she noticed before she was up to speed. As luck would have it, both Chris and Len dropped out during the race leaving Jim to cruise to the victory. It would have been nice to be there to challenge Jim for the race win.

Tracy came back strong after having her own DNS at our last race starting ninth in the first Spec 100 heat and working her way up to sixth by the checkered flag. In heat two, she was starting from outside row one next to Eric Creech. Before the race I coached her that she would have to get a spectacular start and nail Turn 4 every lap because if she didn't, with as competitive as this class is, she could expect someone to be looking to the inside going into Turn 5. She knew this already but hearing it underlined the facts. To her credit she went out and did everything she had too. She surged ahead at the start and carved through 4 almost perfectly each lap. Not that it was easy, she had Randy Ridder right on her bumper most of the race even having his nose inside her rear wheel a few times. But late in the race he got busy defending second place from Charlie Hughes and that eased the nail-biting in our camp. She crossed the line first with a comfortable lead and gave Conlin SpeedSports its first win since Dana's TaG win on April 10.

The win combined with the earlier sixth earned her the fourth starting position in the feature. She defended it all the way to turn three where she had to give way and dropped to fifth when Vaughn Horvath found a way through. But she stayed right with the lead pack most of the race until under pressure from Mike Yoerger she almost threw it away at Turn three on the last lap. Whether it was something on the track surface or just breaking that little bit too late she was as far sideways as she could get and still save it. In fact, for a moment she didn't think she was. Neither did Mike, who backed off to miss her spinning kart only to put himself in a position where he couldn't respond when she straightened it out. She held Mike off the rest of the lap to finish fifth on the track but got bumped up to fourth when Horvath skipped tech since he wasn't running for points in the MSOKC series.

Even with the disappointment of Dana's DNS (for such a dumb reason) Tracy's win was a great boost to the whole team in the middle of what has become a difficult season. Hopefully we can get a few more of those.

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