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Racing As A Family Since 1999

Tracy			Dana

Our first race is April 22 at New Castle Motorsports Park

31 December - 2005 In Review

PRD Fireball

Following two MSOKC HPV championships and a 2nd in the 2004 Super Can championship, we had intended to run Dana and Tracy in the same classes for 2005. But when our Super Can motor blew up big time in the last race of the 2004 season it was decided to move Dana up to TaG a year earlier than planned and have Tracy take over the HPV.

The TaGUSA rules equalize the various TaG motors with weight penalties. Bolting weight onto racing karts is always an undesirable thing: it has to be placed carefully to maintain the desired weight distribution; it's harder on the crews' backs; it makes the kart more dangerous to the driver in accidents. Because our drivers are so light, the engine we'd need to choose would have to allow us to run the lightest weight acceptable. The motors that would allow us to run the minimum were the Leopard, Vortex Rok, BM Jaguar and the PRD Fireball.

Of these, the PRD fit our budget the best. In researching PRD, or Pro Racing Design, I found that the company was well established as a kart engine & component manufacturer in Asia - almost a Pacific Ring version of Horstman. It used a Tillotson carb like on the Leopard and the same clutch design as on the Rotax. The engine was being imported by Grand Products for which our friends at J&J Racing were a dealer. When Mike Geissen drove a Fireball to 3rd in the TaG senior class amongst a herd of Soniks at first 2005 Manufacturer's Cup in Daytona, it seemed like we were running out of reasons not to go with the PRD. So with a call to John Giacomelli at J&J, we were officially a TaG entrant. More...

15 December - Catching Up On Some Press

We were so busy the last few months of the season that we never had a chance to post some press we got in the fall.

The Wednesday before the 200 mile endurance race our local paper, Hilliard Northwest News, published a very short mention of the fundraising we were doing for Habitat For Humanity in conjunction with the endurance race. But it was accompanied by a nice big picture of Tracy at speed so it would have attracted the right attention. You can review the October 18 article here.

Way back in August of 2004 Mike Unger asked us to do a Vega tire test for National Kart News using our Biesse Viper/HPV with Dana doing the driving. Vega had provided four sets of tires. With each set we'd bolt them on the kart and send Dana out for about ten laps. Back in the pits she gave her impressions of that set to Mike while I bolted on the next set.

The tests were a sidebar story to a total company profile Mike was doing on Vega Tyres and by the time Mike had the rest of the story and production schedules were worked out, it was September of 2005 before the words and photos of our role in the tire tests made the printed page. The September issue of National Kart News put us in pretty darn good company - we share one of the pages with none other than the great Alex Zanardi who, as the story points out was Vega's first test driver. The rest of the article is very informative and once again afforded us and our marketing partners some great exposure.

Check out the whole story here.

07 December - What? Do We Look Like Spam?

Well, we might to your computer.

We've had a few instances of regular readers not getting emailed notices of updates to the Conlin SpeedSports web site. If you used to be on our mailing list for news and updates but haven't received any lately (and you haven't told us to dump you out of the list), it could be that your anti-Spam software is diverting us away from your In Box. That's because we purposely hide your email address and everyone else's on the list for privacy. We don't want everyone's email address being "harvested" by an opportunistic marketer or virus writer. We want to at least make it difficult for them. But because your email address is hidden, it may also be difficult for your anti-Spam software to not regard our message as Spam when it reaches your computer.

If it seems like you should be on our list and haven't received an update for a while (the last three were Oct 5, Oct 9 and Dec 1) check your Spam folder for our address. Your anti-Spam software should give you the option to put our address back on the accepted list by clicking a "This Is Not Spam" button (or something like that) when you've highlighted our message. If you're not on our mailing list yet and would like to be, drop us a note. If you are on our list and just sick of hearing from us, drop that note too,

Look, we may be a lot of things but processed lunch meat we're not!

03 December - High Stakes At Speeds

Back before they were actually dating, Robert teasingly said he could beat Tracy racing karts at Speeds indoor karting facility on East Main. Now, he had the advantage of having driven the track a few times and Tracy hadn't but he may have underestimated how serious Tracy is about her racing. At some point they both knew that someday the matter would have to be settled.

Someday was December 3rd. Robert, Tracy and I (the rest of our crew were busy) headed over to Speeds for a three race match up. Speeds manager Elton, recognized me from a few weeks earlier when several of us joined Bob McConnel for midnight lapping after the MSOKC awards banquet. When I told him the theme of the evening he arranged for us to have the three best karts.

They were the best three but still weren't terribly equal and things got tense when Tracy had a "less-equal" kart than Robert in the first two races. Poor Robert, he didn't dare gloat as he was beginning to see fully Tracy's competitive spirit. But the reality was that it would be impossible to determine who was fastest in all our races between the three karts (although I was behind them both when Robert caught up to Tracy in the second heat and it was quite a show) and the only way to truly declare a winner for the night would be to compare lowest lap times in the fastest kart (#38) for each driver. Tracy had the fastest kart in the last heat and just disappeared on Robert and I almost lapping us before the red lights came on.

When times were compared, Tracy ran a quicker lap than Robert in the same kart. Nothing against Robert, but I'm glad she did because one of us would have been walking home if she hadn't (maybe me - I was suffering from trash talk overload). But at least it was all settled and they both saved face; Tracy won the bet and Robert did well against a "professional" driver. Actually, Robert did impressively well, running very quick lines and setting up for passes like a seasoned racer. Oh, and the fastest lap of our drivers in kart #38? The old man. That's right, when times were compared, my best time beat Tracy's by one-tenth of a second. Tracy, predictably, demanded a rematch.

Lord, what have I done?

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