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Racing As A Family Since 1999

Tracy			Dana

09 April - Tracy Impresses In First TaG Start

Our 2006 season started unexpectedly, with a last-minute decision to run the first Mid State Ohio Kart Club event at Circleville Raceway Park. It was the good weather forecast that got us thinking about getting Tracy her first laps of the season. We reckoned with a day of thrashing we could get Tracy's kart raceable as it was 80% done already. Dana's kart, on the other hand, was hopeless. She'd have to wait until our first scheduled race.

Taking her first green flag with 28HP, Tracy was on pace with the seasoned regulars almost immediately posting 2nd, 5th & 3rd place finishes with a 2nd overall for the day. While we never got the handling quite right for the changing track conditions, the rest of the kart performed flawlessly. And after the troubles we had in Florida last month, this was a welcome change and a morale booster.

Tracy took her first rolling green flag with 28 horsepower under her right arm.

With frost still on the windows, we pointed the van towards Circleville uncertain of the day. We had not planned on participating in the first club race but with a few days to go we began considering getting Tracy out for her first laps of the year. The kart was hurriedly finished Saturday and loaded up. We approached the race day as a test session to see what would fall off and to get the new Biesse dialed in for Tracy. Her first session was strictly a break-in session for the rebuilt engine and we learned nothing of the handling in that one. There was only one other practice session so set up for the first race was based on that.

Tracy started the first race from outside second row and as soon as the green flag dropped we knew we had the bad starts that plagued us last year licked - a solution we hadn't discovered until the 200 Mile race at New Castle - after the MSOKC season was over. She stayed right in the hunt running in third for over half the race. When Chris Tatman's axle shifted in his new CRG and threw the chain, Tracy inherited second place following Tim Bussen to the flag. Not bad for not having been in the seat since last October.

Tracy placed as high as 2nd her first time out.

In the second heat she started from third spot but at Turn Four got bumped around a bit, ran wide and lost 2 positions. She made up the distance she lost and by the end of the race was stacked up behind Chris and Tim who were both trying to find a way around Jim Martin. Meanwhile Jason Stukey with his Sonik power disappeared into the distance. On the last lap Chris was able to break by Jim for second but not enough race was left for Tim and Tracy to get by. Ryan Boice and Matt Morrison rounded out the TaG Senior field.

Warming up for the Final.

Tracy's 2nd & 5th gridded her 3rd for the final but when Jason spun out of the lead at turn one it looked, just for an instant, like her race was going to end there. It was very close for her and Jim but both made it by. While she was taking evasive action Chris was able to hustle around the outside and claim second place right behind new leader Tim Bussen. Jason used the horsepower of the Sonik to recover and make up ground. So rapidly, in fact, that we didn't feel at all secure about the our 3rd place. But another problem late in the race opened the gap again allowing Tracy to take third place.

The event itself was very well attended (77 entries) considering it was a very early start to the season and that overnight temps were below freezing. The MOSKC Board Of Directors have implemented some changes that really made the races run smooth and kept everyone enjoying themselves. There were more new faces than I ever remember at a Race #1 and that is certainly due to the momentum the club has been building the last several years. President Mike Unger has a good team of dedicated and motivated members and it showed at this event. They should all give themselves a pat on the back. We'll try to make as many MSOKC races as we can this year.

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