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Dana |
17 & 18 June - Four Podiums In Two Days
Expert crew members Todd (L) and Eric were required to rest for two minutes every 5 hours- whether they needed it or not
Races 4 & 5 of the 2006 Great Lakes SuperKarts! USA Klein Tools Pro Tour were held at Circleville Raceway Park, a track where we have more experience than anywhere else. Dana and Tracy were able to use their familiarity from a driving perspective to their advantage but as the weekend wore on and more rubber was laid down on the track, it became more and more of a stranger for the crew to tune the karts for. By mid-Sunday CRP was the stickiest track we've ever tried to race on and it proved to be a huge challenge to tune Dana's kart for the condition. Tracy had her share of frustrations too spinning out of second place on lap 16 of Saturday's 20 lap Final. She also suffered her first DNS (did not start) ever when her kart refused to start on the grid for Sunday's Pre-Final. Still, we were able to come away from the weekend with 3 top-three finishes, a top-three qualifying effort and enough points for second and third in the Jim McCollough Racing TaG Senior championship.
But before the drivers or the team manager can take any credit whatsoever for the results, the crew has to be praised yet again. If it weren't for the skill and determination of Todd Mees and Eric Creech and later, old friend DW Route, the karts would likely have not finished any of the races. These guys share our passion for racing, it's obvious. Why else would someone get to the track at 7am, work nearly non-stop all day and leave at 9pm? And then, do it all again the next day?! Their energy, attention to detail and eagerness to do what it took to get the karts ready for the next battle was the main reason we were as competitive as we were. There were times in which everybody was on a task and I looked around and didn't have much to do. I felt like Roger Penske. I could get used to that.
Friday
We had not planned on practicing on Friday as we usually do for a SKUSA weekend since we knew CRP so well. We were also concerned that my mom, who was recovering from cataract surgery would still require some assistance. But when it looked like mom was good to fend for herself we made the decision to head out to the track and in the afternoon Tracy was testing a few ideas.
They turned out to be good ideas. Everything we tried made us faster and it wasn't just the track coming in. By late afternoon Tracy had done her best lap ever at CRP. But it came at a cost: By evening Tracy was worn out and that would come back to haunt us on Saturday. Dana arrived after work but still got a few good sessions in before we stopped to prep for the next days' racing.
Saturday
Our pits are like Grand Central Station some times. But that's how we like it!
As the sun began doing its thing over cloudless skies we were surrounded by all of our fellow Central Ohio SKUSA karters: Mike Unger, son Noah and dad Phillip; Brian O'Hara and his still new bride Emily; and Robert Zummallen. Later we also had a few very special guests joining us: Dana's friends Bobbi, and Tommy Dailey & son Grant and Tracy's friend Hillary & daughter Lilly. Later, DW Route showed up to help out a bit and get caught up with the family.
In Saturday morning warm-up Tracy was about .4 quicker than Dana in both sessions. It was during the second one that she turned a lap quicker than we'd ever done at CRP. Part of that difference was Tracy's newer 2003 Biesse chassis but part of it came from one of the changes we tried Friday but couldn't duplicate on the #13 kart. In qualifying Dana's day got tougher when the carburetor loosened up and became detached from the engine. Its hard to put in a quick lap when the fuel isn't even getting to the motor. But the second lap she did was good enough for sixth position of the eight karts entered. Tracy earned the fourth qualifying position behind Dale Bales, Tom Birchard and fellow MSOKC TaG racer Tim Bussen. Bales & Birchard were both using the 4-cycle Biland motors and they were quick, Bales lapping .8 faster than Tracy. The Bilands had a new exhaust system approved for 2006 and they've really come on.
By mid-day Saturday Tracy was nursing a dandy blister.
For the Pre-Final we made changes to both karts anticipating the changing track surface. We seemed to stay ahead of the track with the #99 kart but for some reason couldn't keep up to with the #13. Although Dana improved a position and finished 5th, one position behind Tracy, her times were slower. Tracy, on the other hand was happy with her kart - her best lap in the race was faster than her qualifying time.
The 10 lap Pre-Final gave the drivers a taste of the challenge that awaited in the Final. Ask any kart racer that has raced at other tracks and they'll tell you Circleville Raceway Park is one of the most physically demanding tracks in the Midwest. I wonder if Terry Riggins and his Great Lakes SKUSA crew remembered that when they set the race lengths. In addition to the fatigue issues, Tracy was already nursing a badly blistered hand from all the steering wheel work she'd done in the past 24 hours. Don't dare tell her you think racing a go kart is easy.
The Flopping Head - always the first sign of trouble
The ladies started 4th & 5th for the Final and ran that way until lap four when Bill Walters in another Biland took over 5th spot from Dana. On lap six Tim Bussen retired allowing Tracy to move up to third place. On lap 12 Birchard only made it as far as Turn Five and either spun off or pulled off. This elevated Tracy to second and we were thrilled. But it was also about then that we began to worry. The heat, humidity and all that testing Friday afternoon was catching up to Tracy. The first sign of trouble was her helmet no longer tilting into the corner she was turning into, but leaning out, surrendering to the inertia. Remember, an object in motion tends to stay in motion... until the neck muscles are stretched as far as they can stretch. After a couple more laps, Tracy began resembling a rag doll in that kart and we could tell she was really struggling to hang on. But I knew she would not give up. She might pass out and crash, but we knew she would never give up. It's just not in Tracy's or Dana's nature.
Dana shares her first SKUSA podium with Dale Bales and Bill Walters
Meanwhile Walters and his Biland were closing in. As her fatigue had set in, Tracy's lap times dropped off as much as .8 from her earlier laps but as depleted as she was, when given the signal that another driver was gaining, she was able to find another half-second somewhere. But with only four laps to go she came up to lap David Joseph and although he got himself out of the way and pointed her through and did all the right things, the alternate line through Four while under pressure from Walters got her crossed up on the exit and the kart looped around. And as it bounded across the curbing on the exit of Four, the sprocket was destroyed. So close to our best finish in the SKUSA series but it wasn't meant to be.
With Tracy stranded on the backstraight, Walters and Dana moved up to 2nd & 3rd respectively so a Conlin SpeedSports driver still made it to the podium. But Dana was not happy at all with the handling of her kart, fighting massive understeer all day. We'd have to make some drastic changes over night to give her a fighting chance for Sunday's races.
But prep'ing the karts for Sunday was not our sole priority: The Saturday night Great Lakes SKUSA cook-out was not to be missed (although I did arrive too late for the bratwursts). The regular cookout really give the SKUSA events a family feel and is just another reason why we enjoy this series.
Sunday
Dana completed all her laps but her ill-handling kart made it a long day.
The changes we made Saturday night on Dana's kart seemed like an improvement in early Sunday morning practice - although it didn't show in her times. The track was actually slower for everyone Sunday but Dana wasn't as far off as Saturday. In qualifying she was only .4 behind Tracy who qualified in spot three. So it was an all Conlin SpeedSports Row Two. And Tracy was less than .2 out of the second qually spot in spite of a reported engine miss.
But when the Jim McCollough Racing TaG Senior karts took to the track for the Pre-Final, there was only one CSS kart and a giant hole in the grid where the #99 should have been. Back on the grid there wasn't panic but there was some frantic action in trying to find a reason why Tracy's kart wouldn't restart after being fully warmed-up minutes before. A check of the fuel delivery and a change of spark plug did nothing to change the situation. After her best qualifying run ever, Tracy dejectedly had to climb out of her kart and watch her sister defend the team's honor.
Frantic, not panicked on Sunday's Pre-Final grid
That heat race saw Walters get the jump on Bales with Dana watching from third. But that only lasted a lap or two and Bales found a way around the other Biland motored kart and then worked on disappearing. After taking a little heat from Dennis Trzeciak in the early laps Dana pulled out an advantage and settled into a consistent rhythm to stay in third. Still it was a long frustrating race for Dana because the handling continued to go off as the day progressed. In the debriefing we decided to do a few radical (for us) things to see if we could get the kart to do what she wanted.
Bill Willis to the rescue (hat bill to the rear means its serious)
We were ready to scramble to not only make those changes on Dana's kart but we knew we had to resolve the mystery of Tracy's engine so that she could just start the Final. But before we could move from frantic to panic, we had a vision. An apparition. Through the 2-cycle castor haze and commotion of the grid we saw a familiar face. A face of wisdom and knowledge. A face of calm and security. Personally, I'm pretty sure he was illuminated where he stood by a shaft of light from above and I recall a choral fanfare rising above the revving motors (although the rest of the team refuses to confirm either of these observations). But there in our midst during our darkest and most uncertain hour (of the weekend anyway) stood none other than Bill Willis, our motor builder, a.k.a. POWERsports.
Trzeciak, Dana and Tracy early in Sunday's Final
It took a while but Bill systematically eliminated possibilities until the problem was narrowed to weak spark and then to a faulty spark plug wire. Repaired, Tracy's engine snapped to life and was ready to redeem itself. Over on the #13 kart Todd and Eric were making some drastic changes to the rear of the kart to allow Dana to carve through the turns instead of plowing through them like a new skier. And all this was happening in front of another full house. DW was back for more abuse and Todd's folks, Mike and Barbie Mees came out to support the ladies (and later we were delighted to have Mike & Barbie join us for our post-race dinner - Mike co-drove endurance races with Dick Greer and they both have good racing stories).
Tracy aborts an attempt to get by Trzeciak at Turn 9
And the ladies were going to need all the support they could get for the Final - Tracy would be starting from last and Dana had no guarantee that her kart would begin to behave. At the green flag Dana got a bad start while two karts back Tracy got a good one, edged ahead of David Joseph and pushed Tri Gaffney and her sister freight train style into Turn One. At the end of the first lap Tracy moved around Gaffney began closing in on Dana. It didn't take long for Tracy to get on her bumper - it was obvious Dana's kart was still a handful. They both managed to reel in Trzeciak and on lap eight Dana got a better run out of Four and was by Trzeciak going into Turn five. On lap nine Tracy tried to find a way by too, once going into Turn Nine (getting a blacken nose for the effort) and then again going into Two and giving us all a scare when she got it crossed up. But two corners later she was able to slip inside and take over fourth place.
Tracy redesigned her nose on Dana's LR tire
At the point in the race when Tracy passed Trzeciak, Dana was a straightaway ahead. But she was struggling so much with push that it only took Tracy a little over a lap to make up that difference. For several laps the two were fighting for position but on lap 12 it got a little too close. Dana's handling was deteriorating with every lap requiring her to brake more and more to stay on the track and at Turn Eight she had to go for the binders more than Tracy was expecting and in an instant the 99 kart was climbing over the back of the 13. The ladies know there is only one team order: "Don't take each other out" and it looked for a second that order was going to be disobeyed.
Tracy and a freshly stuck BGR decal take to the podium
Dana only had a moment of correction to stay on track but Tracy was off the track and sliding across the grass to Turn Ten before she was back in control of her kart. In a heads-up move she simply pointed the kart towards Turn Ten and then waited for Dana to come by to avoid improving her position unfairly by going off the track. Once Dana was by, the chase was back on. Three laps later Tracy got by for good and at the finish it was Bales, Warner, Tracy, Dana, Joseph, Trzeciak and Gaffney.
So each lady had a turn for the podium ceremony and pictures over the two days, which seems fair and balanced. They were both equally unprepared for the photos too! SKUSA protocol seems to be that the driver has his or her helmet with them for podium photos and on each day it was a scramble to get Bad Goat Racing decals in place before they went up. Of course, we'd had all season to do this (I'm only in charge of the karts - driving equipment is the drivers' responsibility) but of course it is another last minute crisis. In Tracy's case the red Bad Goat head decal was slapped on as she went up to get her award.
Now, if we could just limit all our crises to the awards presentation part of the day, that would be fine with me.
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