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Dana |
11 September - A CSS First: Two Feature Wins In The Same Day
We did a lot of homework in the three weeks between races and it paid off. Both ladies were able to post Feature Race wins at the end of a long day of hard, exciting racing. Dana was able to hold off the championship leader Chris Tatman in TaG Senior - but just barely - to get her most gratifying win of the season. Tracy was able to stalk the 7 time Spec 100 champ Mike Yoerger until he made a mistake and took the lead 3 laps from the checkered flag. The two feature wins on the same day was a first for our team in three years of fielding two karts.
The first thing that helped was 8 new tires! We really got caught out on August 20th when we ran out of rubber and the club (the sole dealer for these tires) were out of stock on our fronts. We made use of the long break between race dates to do some general maintenance on the karts, move some weight around, get our flaky MyChrons sorted out by Aim Sports and even got a new laptop to download the data the MyChrons were collecting. We had a long spell of no data collection this year for technical reasons and that hurt us in getting to understand the new PRD and let us lose track of what the HPV was doing. We also got our motors freshened up by Bill Willis at Powersports. Central Ohio racers had been recommending Bill to us for sometime and we decided to give him a go this time - mainly because he was local and that mattered since I'm so short of time this year. But I have to say after talking with Bill for just a short time I was mighty impressed and was quickly convinced that he is the Patron Saint of Horsepower. In fact, when I picked the motors up, they sort of gave off a kind of incandescent glow, almost like an aura. I considered carrying them home in a specially built ark. But there really wasn't time to build an ark and in the end just threw them in the back of the van.
Sunday morning had to use the welding expertise of Rocky Johnson again. He has saved our butts at the track several times this year and when I noticed that the header on the PRD had broken sometime during Saturday's motor break-in, he was quick to TIG it up. If we get another PRD I'll just bring the entire exhaust system over to him along with a pack of tungsten and let him re-weld the whole dang thing. Thanks Rocky - if you weren't there and willing to drop what you were doing, Dana's kart would have gone back in the trailer.
With the header welded up Dana was able to get out for the second practice to get a least a little track time before the race and promptly ripped off her personal best lap around CRP, a 44.33. Still, she complained of understeer during the run and we felt we could improve on that. Tracy was able to get out for both her practices thanks to Dana filling in for me while I got the header situation under control. Tracy too set her personal best of 45.68 in practice after making a handling change after the first session. Based on those results we were cautiously optimistic heading into the day's racing.
Tracy had the first chance to show how we'd do as she lined up in 11th starting position for the first Spec 100 heat race. Once again we found the class so closely matched, it was difficult to pass anyone but within a lap or two she was up to 10th. She was helped out when, up ahead of her, Jason Stukey, Charlie Hughes and Marc Reifeis charged into Turn Nine three-wide. Often two-wide doesn't work there so it was no surprise when bodywork started flying and karts started spinning. The result was that Tracy picked up a couple positions as she went by Charlie and Marc while they were still facing the wrong way and another position when Jason retired at the end of the lap. She quickly caught Doug Hagge in 7th, trying to find a way by for several laps. Just when we thought we'd have to be happy with 7th, Doug made a last corner move on Eric Creech that moved Eric way off line and himself out onto the grass. Tracy was right there to seize the moment and was scored as 5th by a few inches at the line.
Dana was up next in the TaG heat #1 gridded 4th. She got a good start and was up to 3rd on the first lap. Luke Bailey, Len's son, was making a return to karting after a 15 year break. But in that time he had been road racing motorcycles but was considering moving back to four wheels. He didn't forget how to fight for position during that break and about midway through the race Dana found herself on the outside of Luke going through Turn 1. There was a slight bump between them as they both clawed for traction but the fight continued through Turn 2 and then Turn 3 where Dana had the advantage, By this time Chris was long gone so second was the best she could hope for.
For Tracy's second Spec 100 heat she started on pole and she and Eric fought all the way to Turn 3 before Eric used the inside line to his advantage. Once in the lead, he just checked out. Tracy cycled through the rest of the laps largely unchallenged to finish second. But the combination of 5th and 2nd place finishes would earn her a front row starting position in the feature.
If Tracy's race was a little boring, Dana's race made up for it. Starting from the 2nd spot, next to Jim Martin, Dana couldn't beat Jim to Turn 3. Going into Turn 9 on the second lap Dana had a run on Jim but as they entered the braking/turn-in zone, Jim moved to the right and Dana was forced to the inside edge of the track. Out of track, her left rear tire ran over Jim's RR as they turned into the corner. Dana got launched, spinning around on top of the Merlin kart. She came down hard, facing the wrong way but at least with all four wheels down and lucky come away from it with only a sore neck. Jim was able to carry on in first place while Chris, Luke and Jason Stukey scattered to avoid getting involved. Once she got pointed the right way again she set off after them.
A lap later the same thing happened at the same spot as Chris attempted the same move on Jim. Unfortunately, this time the results were much more violent with Jim doing the launching and his kart NOT coming down on all four wheels. He and his kart ended up about 10 feet apart with Jim laying motionless in the grass outside of turn Nine. The track was red flagged as is routine in such a crash. But after a short spell with the EMTs we were relieved to see Jim get up under his own power and hitch a ride back to the pits on the rescue cart. During the red flag session I walked out to Dana's kart, talked a little about her view of the incident (she saw it all happening about 100ft ahead of her) and looked over the kart for damage from her crash.
The red flag allowed her to make up the distance she was adrift after her spin and was back in the thick of it after the restart. And the excitement wasn't over. Dana got around Jason and was gaining on Luke while Chris again lengthened his lead. At 5 Luke went off and through the grass at the exit. In his rush to get back on the hard stuff he managed to clip Dana as she went by. That put her off the track and into another spin. Again she got pointed downtrack and set off to finish third. However, officials saw Luke's return to the track as a little aggressive and docked him two positions, moving Dana up to 2nd.
On the outside of Row 1 for the Spec 100 feature, at the green Tracy couldn't get ahead of poleman Mike Yoerger but she was sure to slot in behind him before Eric Creech could. Mike, Tracy and Eric ran nose to tail for six long laps. On the 3rd lap it looked like she was going to win the drag race with Mike from Turn 4 to 5 but at the last moment had to concede the corner. But two laps later Mike made another mistake in 4 and Tracy pounced and pulled off the pass. As soon as she was around Mike she began to pull out a lead and feel less pressure - she knew that Eric would have trouble getting around Mike too. He did, but only for a lap and once by quickly began to make ground up on Tracy. Had he had another lap he would have been in a position to challenge her for the lead but as the timing worked out, Eric had to settle for second and Tracy was able to rack up her first ever Feature win.
There was little time to celebrate her big win though as Dana's Feature loomed. Also lined up on the outside of Row 1, Dana got a much needed lightning start and beat Chris to the exit of Turn 1. But, modesty aside, Dana very rarely makes mistakes when in the lead and though glued to her bumper for lap after lap Chris found himself waiting in vain for a mistake to happen. On the last lap at Turn 4 Chris himself made a rare mistake and gave us our only breathing room since the start. From there it was just about over unless the kart failed in some way. It didn't and Dana crossed the line about 2 seconds ahead of Chris for our team's first ever double Feature win.
Thanks to Matt Tyson for joining our team for the day as he learns what this karting business is all about. We were glad to have him around (and NOT just for the help he lent us in packing everything up at the end for the day). Many, many thanks to everyone who came by to congratulate the ladies and the team. It was genuinely appreciated. And lastly, our apologies for the lack of photos in recent months. Our team videographer, Julie, has been back at school the last few races and before that, she has been helping out with scoring. Julie we need you back behind the camcorder!!!
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