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Racing As A Family Since 1999

Tracy			Dana

Our first race is April 22 at New Castle Motorsports Park

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4 - 11 March - Spring Testing

If its Monday then it must be Jasper, FL. Dana gives dirt a try.

Plans for spring testing were hatched back in the dead of winter with the Oklahoma Motorsports Complex in Norman, Oklahoma as our chosen track. Neither Mike Unger or Dana had ever run the track even though it is one of the most respected tracks in karting. So much so that Stars of Karting (the very top level karting series in North America) will visit twice in '06. The average temperature for early March was mid-60s according to the weather service but watching the central Oklahoma weather leading up to departure indicated overnight temperatures in the 20s. This would create more maintenance for the motors and reduce the amount of track time as we waited for the surface to warm up. It was decided that Mike, Dana and I (Tracy couldn't take time off from Finals Week) would to go to northern Florida instead.

Bill Willis' POWERsports had our race motor rebuilt and ready to go right on time - we'd be breaking it and our new PRD Fireball in during the test week. The original plan was to get our new 2003 Biesse together to shake down and get to know but when my mom came down with a case of pneumonia and I lost a weekend to a killer cold, we dropped back to Plan B. Plan B was to just use Dana's 2002 Biesse which was nearly put together for a photo shoot for NKN. It was Friday afternoon that we discovered we'd have to go to Plan C. Problem was, we didn't have a Plan C.

Friday/Saturday Blur

The last of the '05 crash damage was discovered less than 24 hours before we were to leave.

With the 2002 done except for the alignment, we discovered the last (hopefully) of the damage from the practice accident the week before last October's TaG 200. That crash, which happened when a kart spun in front of Tracy a week before the Big Race bent a lot of stuff but we hadn't found the bent lower steering column carrier. We managed to get the kart aligned for that race and never really questioned why one tie rod was using more of the tie rod ends than the other. With more time to investigate now, we realized why.

The U-shaped brace was bent a fair amount with the powder coating kinked on one side. I was ready to pull or push it back but I was uneasy about doing that and just pronouncing it good to go. I couldn't be sure it wasn't cracked and as Dana would be hitting around 70mph at Ocala... and as there was no way short of Magnafluxing it I could be sure it was okay... I couldn't be comfortable with taking that kart on the test. The 2003 Biesse, leaning against the wall as a bare frame, would have to be assembled into a ready-to-race kart in less than 24 hours. Usually we allow for twice that. It would have never been ready had Dana and Todd not jumped in to help as soon as they found out about the dilemma. Todd, having grown up in a racing family, thought nothing of pulling an all-nighter to get a racing vehicle track ready. And that's what it took, working all night we got 99% of it done, the few last things would have to be done once we got to Ocala or Jacksonville.

Sunday in the Sun

The Florida Winter Tour offered big fields and good racing

Mike did most of the driving on Saturday while Dana and I caught up on our sleep debts as we rolled out of Ohio and through Kentucky & Ohio. Over nighting in Perry, Georgia, we were at the Ocala Gran Prix track in Ocala, Florida by a little after noon. Clear shies, temps in the high 70's. There we took notes and pictures for a NKN report on the last stop on the Florida Winter Tour. The FWT is a lot like SKUSA and the racing was good. Unfortunately there were a couple of squad runs including one transport to the local hospital. Even 800 miles from home we saw some familiar faces: James Willis of Willis Brother's Racing and John Giacomelli of J3 Competition. In fact, John joined us for dinner at the end of the day filling us in on industry, Kosmic & Tony Kart news from the inside.

Monday in the Dirt

According to oval expert David Rowland, Dana adapted well to the the dirt oval

National Kart News had arranged for us to meet with David Rowland of Performance Engine & Chassis at Crossroads Motorplex, a quarter-mile clay oval in Jasper, Florida. Mike and Dana were to get the feel of driving on a dirt oval, something neither of them had ever done before. Mike would do an article on that as well as the new Vega Oval tire that seems poised to create a massive upset in the oval kart racing world. Both Mike and Dana were shocked by how responsive the dirt kart was but both seemed to come to grips with it quickly. David even commented while Dana was out for her one session that she smoothed out the throttle very quickly.

The Vega Oval tire, we learned, was made of natural rubber and was about the same durometer value as the Maxxis synthetic tire after being treated with a witch's brew of chemicals. Early testing, according to Rowland, indicated they lasted many times longer than the Maxxis. So, between the savings in dangerous and expensive chemicals and the longevity of the tires, it sounded like a tire revolution was about to break out in the oval ranks. And as if that wasn't reason enough to go with the Vegas, there was one more significant difference: They were round. Believe it or not, Maxxis apparently couldn't get their tires to be round and just expected the competitors or the dealers to shave the high spots off of each tire. The things people will put up with.

We had found out that Ocala was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so once Dana and Mike were sufficiently covered in dirt (I stayed clean - not enough fuel for me to get in on the fun. Probably just as well, of the three of us I had the most oval racing experience and would probably made Mike & Dana look bad. Ha!) we headed out for the 103rd Street Complex in Jacksonville to get some Tuesday track time.

Tuesday On The Banking

If it wasn't for the laps she turned in Unger's ICC, Jacksonville would have been an agonizing experience for Dana.

We arrived at Jacksonville's 103rd Street Complex late in the afternoon Monday and had just enough time before dusk to do get the karts ready for running on Tuesday, find a source for racing fuel and get a little acquainted with the place. We'd heard a lot about it over the years and we awestruck when we read in Super Kart Illustrated that the Stars of Karting ICC shifters were exiting the big, banked carousel turn leading onto the 1000' long straight at 65mph. We estimated top speed then for an ICC in the high 90s. Sheesh.

Mike & Dana didn't find the track particularly technically challenging. This may have been because, in my opinion, it was designed for four cycle karts. Five of the nine corners were significantly banked which allows the low horsepower karts to keep their momentum up. For Briggs racers, this was likely a thrill in that the average speed would be higher here than anywhere else. But for karts with oodles of power, it was just a matter of having the banked corners change your direction and then squirting down the track to the next bumper.

Mike shakes down his new Kosmic kart at Jax

More interesting than the track layout was how it was ever built in the first place. It is a Jacksonville city park, devoted solely to karting. Sort of like how a skate park might be anywhere else. But one can certainly expect far more skaters than karters among any city's citizens. Beyond serving the 75 to 80 karters that gather there to race every other weekend, the track pulls in regional events several times a year and has been known to host the occasional national event but the economic impact doesn't seem like it would be so great as to have the citizens clamoring for a public go kart track. But there it is, free to anyone who wants to use it. We had the place to ourselves until about 5 in the afternoon. I would have liked to have been in some of those city board meetings. Probably would have been quite a lesson in salesmanship.

The 103rd Street Sports Complex in Jacksonville was fast and free but a little simple.

Mike was out on the track first with his new Kosmic while I put the finishing touches on our hastily built kart. Once it was done, Dana spent a couple hours going through the break-in procedures for our rebuilt PRD. Having completed that, I turned her loose to cut some fast laps on the new track but with only a handful of them in we managed to spin the flywheel off the crankshaft. The damage was too great to simply bolt it back up so we stamped that motor done for the week. By then it was late enough in the day that swapping to our spare motor and breaking it in didn't have us dancing with joy and anticipation so we just packed up and pointed the truck for Ocala.

Dana did get some fast laps in though, but only because Mike was gracious enough to let her take his ICC out while I tended to our TaG. If it weren't for that, Jax would have only been a slo-mo memory for Dana.

Wednesday In The Sand

Ocala was more technical than Jax

Ocala was open at 9 a.m. and we were there not much after that. While I did the engine swap to our brand-new PRD on our kart, Mike and the guys from TS Racing got a Sonik on the Extreme Kart and set it up for the NKN track test. In between all this wrench turning we had some very special visitors stop by on their way down to Miami. Mike and Barbie Mees, who know their way around a few race tracks themselves diverted the few hundred feet off Interstate 75 to say hello and see what we were up to. Unfortunately we weren't up to anything exciting. None of the karts were running. We were awfully grateful for Mike and Barbie running Dana into town to pick up some supplies that were running low. It would have been nice if Dana could have done a few laps so they could see how the track went but timing just wasn't right. Still great to meet Todd's parents. Just kind of funny to be 850 miles from home to do it.

The Extreme Kart is notable for its economical price: about $1600. MIke did the shake down run, another session to further learn the Ocala track and then a session of getting comfortable with the Extreme kart. Dana took the kart out after Mike had got his sessions in and they were her first laps of Ocala on anything but foot. She came to within .4 of Mike's time but was just stunned by the power of the Sonik compared to the PRD. The Sonik and other "booster port" TaG engines have been elevated to the "Expert Class" in TaG racing because they make so much more power.

Barbie Mees (R) was one of two special visitors at Ocala

I'll leave Mike's and Dana's impressions of the Extreme Kart to the article that will appear in National Kart News in a few months. But we can give a little insight to the Ocala Gran Prix track in the meanwhile. The track was fairly smooth and the design challenging. The longish (700ft would be my guess) goes into a fast sweeper and big cahonies are required to keep the right foot flat as a TaG kart is turned at at 72 mph. By comparison, we're just hitting 72-73 mph at New Castle but immediately breaking into a 45 mph corner. At Ocala, your asked to do the corner at that speed.

Immediately following the fast left-hand sweeper is a right/left S turn that can't be taken at 72 mph. So as soon as the kart is stable exiting the sweeper, it has to be whoa'd down in a hurry for the right hander. That transition is complicated a bit by a nasty little bump (remember this nasty little bump when I review my laps at Ocala in Mike's ICC in the Thursday entry) right where everything is happening. The left in the S turn is very tight slow, about 37mph on our instruments. Mike ICC would re-launch from there and our TaG would have to grunt its way out while off the pipe. Turn four in the configuration we were running was about a 75 degree left which for Dana felt like nothing more than a kink seeing as she was still building speed. But about 2/3 through the corner the surface switches from asphalt to concrete making it slick and bumpy. She arrived at Turn 5 a.k.a. The Tree Turn (so named for the tree in the center of the radius ) at about 60 mph and had to get all over the brakes again for the 36mph right hand bend around the tree. That dumped her out on what could be called the backstraight where she was again flirting with 60mph before a tap of the brakes and a turn to the left into a long, flat 180 (53mph) that presented the driver with the main straight and a completed lap.

Nice, if a little sandy, facilities greeted us at Ocala

The track offered different lines through several of the corners (unlike Jax) and three distinct passing zones: using the draft at the end of the straight to slip inside going into Turn 1; outbraking into The Tree Turn, having set up the opponent in Turn 4; and an oval-style slide-job going into the last turn. The track grounds very well kept as the ample staff there did landscaping and clean up when they weren't tending to the concession karts or the kart racers there to practice. In fact, every time we headed out to the track, one of the staff would come up to the grid with the tow vehicle just in case we needed it and to generally keep an eye on things. The only thing we didn't like about the place was the sand. Set in a sandy area, everything had a thin layer of sand on it or, in the case of bearings, in it by the end of the day. There was no escaping the stuff but short of moving the whole track somewhere else, there was nothing to be done.

We didn't need the Ocala tow vehicle because Dana was back in boring engine break-in mode again for most of the day. By late in the day though she was able to let her horses loose and a few quick sessions. It only took a few laps for Dana was doing Turn 1 flat. We worked on handling and pressures a bit (there was still lots of rubber down from the weekend's Florida Winter Tour). And were eager to get started - after all - our test week was half over by this time) on some things we wanted to test. But when Dana came in with the clutch staying engaged and the track rapidly cooling as the sun went down, we decided to call it a day and pick up in the morning where we left off.

Thursday... Out Of The Seat

Upon arriving at the track we set about fixing the clutch, expecting the usual broke spring problem. Always expected the unexpected. The springs were fine, the failure was in one of the clutch shoes themselves, a failure we'd not seen before. We had the parts and were able to fix it but it was a little mystifying and discouraging. That fixed, we got Dana out for some warm-up laps and to put down a base-line for the day. During that run, the silencer broke off the expansion chamber. Although we had several in our supply box, our supply box was 850 miles away. TS Racing, on the other hand, was only 40 miles away and an impromptu road trip was in order for Dana & I. A couple hours later we were back with the replace silencer, other parts and lunch. In the afternoon we were able to do a little of the testing that was on our agenda but we were also sharing the track with the KTM motard team that was there testing.

Great lighting at Ocala allowed laps after dark.

During one of Dana's rests Mike offered his Kosmic ICC to lap in. I just happened to have my new helmet, recently purchased at Honda Northwest, and my old suit so I jumped in. Mike warned me that the brakes were unbelievable and as I warmed myself up, I respected his advice. He was right, the kart wanted to stop at the slightest application of the brakes. As I got more comfortable with the speed, getting into the throttle sooner and out later, there was on instance in which I found myself closer to the long last corner than I has intended and when I went for the brakes a little more aggressively, the kart slowed faster than I did. I actually scooted forward in the seat involuntarily. That was a situation to note carefully - I would know what to expect next time and brace myself more securely when using more of the brakes. I got a little faster, a little braver with each lap and I was happy to see that I was adapting to the power of the brakes as I used them more aggressively. But you can never be happy with your performance until you're in pitlane and are sure a perfect combination of conditions haven't conspired against you.

I still wasn't taking Turn 1 at anything near flat but I was getting a little better at the exit of the sweeper and the entrance to the S turn. That is until the timing of that section made the confluence of three tasks happen at once and make for an interesting moment. I had just passed Dana, running slowly as she warmed up the engine, on the main straight and lifted a little later and carried a little more speed through the first turn. At the exit I got on the brakes, flicked the lever down to a lower gear and at precisely the same moment, hit the bump between 1 and 2. The effect of the decelerating of the brakes and downchange while temporarily weightless popped me forward out of the seat! Actually out of the seat! The steering wheel was against my chest, the steering wheel uprights were in my crotch and my left foot was planted firmly on the brake pedal and compressed as I was, I was unable to lift it.

Yours truly in Mike's Kosmic ICC before doing an inertia experiment

So the kart and I went skidding aimlessly to the right edge if the track in an embarrassing haze of tire smoke. But not far enough to relieve Dana of a minor heart attack as she rounded that bend after me. And for each of the 3 laps she did while I waited for a restart, she must have wondered what the heck I was doing stopping there for a rest and chat with Mike, For a few seconds I thought I might concoct some story that I could substitute for the truth but I figured Mike would figure it out eventually so I just came clean. Still, it seems irresponsible to put brakes like that on a go kart. Somebody could get hurt.

This boneheaded incident aside, every time I drive a 125cc shifter I am astonished by the power of the things. Bobby Rahal once said there is no more difficult racing vehicle to master than a shifter kart and I imagine he's right. I did something like 21 laps and got within 2 seconds of Mikes time but I know it would take a year of practice to find those last couple seconds. And then, it would be another year before I could do it half an inch away from another kart or two. Then there is the whole issue of getting in shape. I was worn out after those 21 or 22 laps. As I told Mike after my run, "Let's see, that means I could almost do a Stars of Karting final, provided I have a three minute rest in the middle."

With the track lights coming on and our energy levels going down, we closed up our pit area and headed for the hotel. The next day we'd tune for Saturday's race.

Friday On The Move, Unexpectedly

87mph at Jax - the fastest I've ever gone in a go kart.

By 9:15am Friday we were ready for a long day of practice. But at registration we learned that track time would be very limited. Basically, between the Bobby Wilson private driving school and a corporate event in the afternoon, we'd be able to use the track until 10am, between 12:00 and 1:00 and after 6:00pm. That didn't sound like a very good use of our day. Further, the track management was telling us that Saturday's club race would be run backwards for variety sake. Okay, no problem there, just another track to learn but when they also said they didn't see any reason to move barriers and haybales around to protect the drivers from the wide variety of new things to hit by going counter-race, the club race didn't sound so appealing anymore.

We considered our options. The consensus was to connect up the trailer and head back to Jacksonville where we could get at least 6 hours of running in. We had the karts on the track by 1:00. And we managed to stick the PRD by 1:20.

Mike's spiffy new NKN graphics made their debut in Florida

We were grossly undergeared but for the first session I told Dana to attack the twisty bits and watch the revs on the long straight and we'd make a ratio change for the second session. The problem, we suspected, was that our low speed mixture screw, which was fine for the high speed Ocala track was too lean for the throttle feathering at high rpm that Dana was forced to do for the last third of the straight (since then we've learned from Bill at POWERsports that the piston to cylinder clearance from the factory was far too tight causing the seize). On the lap I was planning to call her in on, the engine went dead silent as she lifted for the turn at the end of the straight.

It was still early afternoon and I was willing to take the good cylinder and piston off our other motor but when I realized the 40mm socket necessary to change the driven gear on the clutch was back in Ohio, I threw in the towel. Mike had accomplished everything he wanted to for the week so he was game to head for home too. To take some of the gravity out of the situation, Dana and Mike suggested I do a few laps in the ICC just to say I'd driven a go kart at an ungodly speed.

Before I wore myself out I had gotten half-way up to a rhythm however all but the corner at the end of the straight were still coming at me awfully fast. After three sessions on two different tracks I was still having trouble looking as far down the track as I needed to in order to be not just reacting to everything that was happening. The people that actually race these beasts have my unwavering respect.

Once I'd caught my breath and cooled down a bit we loaded up and head for home a day early. An extra day at home would be well used to begin fixing all the stuff we'd broke.

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