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Dana			Tracy

13-15 July - Home Track Advantage

TaG was the biggest class of the Great Lakes Superkarts! USA weekend at CRP

While continuing back problems sidelined Dana and made Conlin SpeedSports a one kart team for the 7th & 8th rounds of the 2007 Bridgestone Great Lakes Superkarts! USA Pro Tour at Circleville Raceway Park, Tracy used the home track advantage on Saturday to post our best results of the season on Saturday finishing 4th in the 15 kart-strong Pre-Final. On Sunday the "Sleep-On-It" factor erased some of that home track advantage making the non-regulars faster. A raceday high of sixth was the best Tracy could manage but it was a confidence and morale building weekend with some decent points to boot. CSS-supported driver Eric Creech also exploited his knowledge of CRP by finishing 3rd in Saturday's final and a last-to-6th place run in Sunday's Final after a Pre-Final DNS.

Eric works on his Rok carb as Tracy looks on

As customary the SKUSA weekend started on Friday but as our home track a whole lot of testing wasn't needed. Since business had me out of town all week the day was mainly spent getting the karts serviced following the prior weekend's club race. Tracy showed up just as that work was being finished and we decided to send her out for a couple shake-down sessions. We were glad we did because at the end of the second session she noticed that the steering column was moving up and down an extensive range and it soon became apparent that the lower column supports had broken where they were welded to the frame. This caused a short. mild sense of panic but that was relieved when the Miller Bobcat welder was observed hanging out of the Alden Racing trailer. Arrangements were made, partial disassembly was performed and before the end of the dinner time the #99 was repaired and ready to be reassembled.

As the final turns of the wrench were being made there, Dennis O'Conner, tuner for the Mathewson Racing gang, came by and for the price of a Miller Lite and some words of wisdom about raising twin girls (his are only toddlers), we got some expert advice on front end settings. After six years I'm still learning new techniques and tricks.

Ross Ricart gets caught out by the front row slowing on the formation lap

Saturday morning Tracy returned from practice praising the way her kart carved through the corners (thanks Dennis). She wanted virtually no changes on her kart and backed that up by qualifying 6th in the 15 kart field, with only such notable names as Hatcher, (Cole) Mathewson, Creech, (Ross) Ricart and Wolters ahead of her. Eric put everything in his qualifying run together to earn the 3rd starting position.

Before the green flag even flew on the Pre-Final Tracy had a pretty good scare when Ross Ricart locked up the brakes to avoid hitting Cole Mathewson on the formation lap. It was captured on Tracy's helmet cam but in real life looked a lot closer than on the recorded image. Ross was able to recover and take up his rightful starting position but on the green flag lap something happened at the front going through turn 6 that bunched everyone up going into 7. The situation put Ross off the line and lost momentum and that allowed Tracy to snatch the position away. After that she kept the heat on Bill Wolters until about lap seven of the 10 lap Pre-Final when he spun exiting Turn 9 handing Tracy P4. With no one else near her she simply drove it home for our best SKUSA finish of the year. Eric, meanwhile, was maintaining his position behind Barry Hatcher and Cole, finishing a strong third.

Tracy nearly takes out Cole Mathewson as she arrives at Turn 3 without brakes.

But as luck would have it, she wasn't able to utilize that good finish from the Pre-Final. Gridded fourth, she arrived at Turn 3 on the outlap with no brakes and just barely threaded the needle between Eric and Cole before plunging straight on to the grass run-off area. As the field motored on off into the distance Tracy got out and began inspecting the brake system. Finding that it all seemed to be working and no fluid was gushing from any of the lines she climbed back in to resume the race. Fortunately the officials were aware that Tracy was off the track and since she wasn't pulling off her gloves or unbuckling her helmet they sent the field around again. She was able to fall in at the back and test the brakes a few times while she tried to get back into position. But she was only up to the sixth starting position when the green flag dropped. (For you folks keeping score at home, that's two SKUSA races in a row in which the green flag dropped before a troubled kart was able to get back up to its rightful starting position.)

Tracy follows Eric in the opening laps of Saturday's Final.

The best we can figure was that some bearing lube was oversprayed onto the brake rotor and the first time she hit the brakes going into turn 3, the pads had nothing but lube to grip. After a few applications of the brakes the over-spray burned off and the kart was fine. So instead of starting 4th next to Eric, she started from 6th, somehow behind him. In the confusion of her departure from the line-up Chris Tatman and Eric got moved around.

At the green Tracy immediately moved into 5th with Eric looking to get around Barry for second. But Eric got squeezed wide and fell back to fourth where he had Tracy looking inside going into Two. He kept fourth position as they got to Turn 3 but she then had a perfect seat for watching Eric use his Rok TT to beat on Chris and his Biland. It took him about five laps but Eric finally slid under Chris braking for Five. Once by, Eric motored away and, seeing that, Tracy smelled blood in the water. Within two laps she was on Chris' bumper. For 3 laps she looked for a way past Chris and was so intent on finding it, she left the door open for Bill who swept under her as they carved into Turn 7. Bill never got around Chris and I couldn't help but think that if she had started ahead of Chris she would have stayed ahead of him early and then had him busy with Bill in the last 2/3s of the race. But sixth is what she had to settle for with Eric pulling down another third.

CSS manager (right) attempts to uphold the team's honor. Click the pic.

The Circleville round hosted, as last year, the annual tire changing contest. My reputation as a fast tire changer (I certainly get enough practice - out of necessity) had proceeded me (thanks Julie) leading up to this year's event and I was one of the first crew members Terry Riggins recruited. He also recruited Jay Vormwald, Dennis O'Conner and Jim Kish for the event. It was pretty straight forward, just unmounting an old tire and mounting a new one. No breaking the bead or popping it back on. The clock would stop when the tire changer broke a water balloon onto the time keeper's feet. The Conlin SpeedSports Tire Changer managed to place second to Jay who turned out to be a human tire changing machine. Click on the video link to see the action.

Some time Saturday night I began feeling poorly and got worse from there spending a fitful night near the bathroom. I wasn't feeling all that much better by dawn. So I was really relieved to see Brian O'Hara at the track Sunday morning and to learn that future son-in-law Todd Mees had changed his day's plans to help the team all day. Without those guys our effort would have ground to a halt before qualifying.

The fight for fourth was intense - click the pic to watch.

Overnight some of our home track advantage evaporated as the CRP newbies slept on Saturday's experiences and got their karts dialed in. The result was a 8th place stating position for Tracy but Eric was able to earn 5th. All Eric's work to put in a good qualification run went to naught when, on the pre-final out-lap, the chain walked off the sprocket at Turn 3. Eric's first SKUSA season will be memorable for the run of bad luck and bizarre problems.

With Eric off the grid, Tracy moved up a position before the green flag even fell. At the green Tracy picked up another spot when she got around Chris at Turn 1. From there she shadowed Bill finding that the setup had gone away a bit with the track scrubbed clean by a downpour between qualifying and the pre-final. On lap five Chris squeezed down the inside going into Turn 7. Tracy (and her helmet cam) then had a great view of the battle between Chris and Bill that went on for a couple laps until Chris got into 8 a little hot and ran wide. Tracy pounced but Chris won the drag race down to Turn 9. A few laps from the end of the race Chris got sideways at Turn 9 and Tracy again tried to capitalize, carrying more speed out of 9 and pushing her way inside at 10 (click here to see it). Chris wouldn't give an inch and again Tracy had to fall in line. No positions would change by the checkered with Tracy placing 6th with Chris 5th, Bill 4th, Barry 3rd, Eric Chappell 2nd and Cole winning.

Click the pic to ride with Tracy for the exciting first half of the final.

Although official scoring had Tracy 6th in the pre-final, on the grid she was positioned 7th and we never got an explanation for that. At the first turn it was Cole, Chappell, Ross, Barry, Bill, Chris and Tracy. Between turns 3 & 4 Tracy attempted the daring move to the inside going into turn 4 but had to put 2 wheels into the grass when Chris slammed the door. The lost of momentum made her vulnerable to Jim Brickley and going into Turn 5, where he out braked her for the position. Before the lap was even over it became obvious the carb changes we made after the pre-final were working against her as she no longer on pace with Bill & Chris. On the backstright for the second time she continued to fall back with Troy Smith and Eric both getting around her demoting her to 10th. A couple corners later Eric got by Troy and set his sites on Jim.

Tracy quickly worked the carb needles to get the mixture back to optimum and was immediately beating on Troy. That harassment went on for about five laps before Tracy set him up at turn 8 and stuff it inside going into 9. Within a lap she'd caught Jim and commenced to harassing him. A good Turn 4 on lap 9 gave he more speed on the back straight but in order to complete the pass she had to leave her breaking impossibly late. Sideways, brakes locked, she barely stayed on the road while Jim took back the position. But shooting into turn 10 on the same lap she made it stick pulling herself back into 8th position. You can see the whole ten laps or so from the #99 kart on YouTube.

After getting past Jim it became a lonely existence with not another kart in site. Left to only work on her laps times she set her best lap on lap 12 before fatigue began setting in and stealing a few tenths per lap. When Ross dropped out at Turn 3 on lap 13 she picked up another position for 7th. Eric meanwhile was closing in on Chris, Chappell and Wolters but the 20 laps were up before he could catch them and finished sixth but well clear of Tracy.

Even by the end of the day I was still decidedly under the weather and once again, we were lucky to have Todd, Brian, Dave Creech, Eric and the rest there while I more or less imitated a limp rag. But most have them have helped so much in the past that they knew what went where in every inch of that little trailer. So we pulled out of CRP especially happy with Saturday's results and good points for Tracy's ranking in the Bridgestone Great Lakes Superkarts! USA Pro Tour championship.

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