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Dana			Tracy

8-10 June - Injuries, Cannibalism & Gnashing Of Teeth Amid A Few Good Runs

The 4th and 5th rounds of the 2007 Bridgestone Great Lakes Superkarts! USA Pro Tour at Concept Haulers Speedway in Norway, Illinois gave us some of the most satisfying performances we've had at this level of racing but it was mixed with driver and crew injuries, engine problems, a lot of bent pieces and an officiating error that prevented finishing a long, tough weekend on a high note.

The tone for the weekend was set when a pit area accident put Joann Creech's foot under ice on Friday and kept it sore for the balance of the weekend. Later that same day, a clutch failure on Eric's Vortex Rok TT and the inability to find a replacement ended his weekend with only practice to show for it. Then after missing all of Friday practice due to work, fuel delivery problems kept Dana (in spite of Eric donating his carb and reed cage to help solve it) from participating in any of Saturday's sessions except the Final. Tracy however had a great Saturday earning a 6th and 7th in the pre-final and final in a 15 kart field on a track she'd never been on until 24 hours earlier.

But Tracy's Sunday started with a hard crash when a kart spun in front of her in practice that sprained her thumb. She was lucky not to have more injured - the impact was hard enough to not only tear up the bodywork and twist the bumper to uselessness, even the the brake pedal was bent. The damage required cannibalization of Eric's kart to get back on track. In the pre-final she moved through a first turn multi-kart melee to move from 11th to 5th only to have the race red flagged and restarted. Dana had a more difficult time getting through the pile-up and bent an axle clipping a spinning kart. The axle was manageable and Dana continued. Tracy's kart on the other hand inexplicitly would not restart and as a result was a Did Not Start, when in fact, she did. Regardless of the bent axle, Dana had a helluva run moving from 15th (of 18) to 10th with a few daring passes one of which was a long wheel to wheel duel around the banked "Monza wall".

Based on that we had high hopes for her in the feature but those hopes were dashed as the green flag dropped. As the karts were release from the grid, her Vortex Rok TT wouldn't crank or start. We quickly diagnosed a loose ignition relay and was able to get her out about 15 seconds behind the pack. She and another troubled kart had caught up to the field by the time they were approaching the starter but there wasn't time to carefully make their way back up to their earned starting spots. Everyone expected the field to given the "one more" lap signal but instead the green flag flew demoting her 6 or 7 positions. Dana worked her way to back up to 11th by the finish, not quite where she was supposed to start. Tracy, meanwhile, worked her way up to 14th before engine problems with her Rok TT resurfaced and slowed her to the point she thought she was dangerous to the others and pulled off the track.

At the awards ceremony Race Director and friend Terry Riggins issued a sincere apology to our team and it was appreciated but it was really hard not to be discouraged by the whole weekend. Everyone on the team - Eric, Dave & Joann Creech, Brandon & Rick Rees, Todd, Julie, Lynn - all worked so hard to keep the ladies on the track and it would have been a morale booster to have Dana finish well. The Great Lakes SKUSA series is a very good series but it is an expensive series. A decent finish in the championship is a real long shot for Dana, Tracy or Eric at this point so we will be considering whether it makes sense to soldier on or cut our losses and race locally for the balance of the season.

Great Lakes SKUSA Rounds 4 & 5 photos by Julie

Tracy had been to Norway as a crew member but never a driver before Friday.

After not being able to get Friday off, Dana and Todd drove all night
so she could be on the grid Saturday.

Tracy had a good day Saturday, hanging onto the lead pack in the pre-final.

Things we looking bright Saturday afternoon.

Tracy waits to go out for Sunday practice
which would end with a bang.

Eric's clutchless kart was a shadow of its
former self by Sunday afternoon.

Even Julie was turning wrenches to get Tracy's
crashed kart back together.

With only 15 laps on the track through Saturday night, Dana made the most of Sunday.

The start of the TaG Senior pre-final - things are just starting to go wrong.

The result was a number of karts off and a red flag.

A rare sight, Tracy leading Bill Wolters after Bill
ran into trouble early in the final.

Dana worked her way up the charts after an unfortunate and unintentional penalty.

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