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Tracy |
26 July - Two Impressive Debuts
Midstate Ohio Kart Club's Race #8 saw two impressive debuts by drivers we have been working with. The July 26 Saturday night race was the very first race for new karter Daniel Legg and for California karting transplant Jason Barfield.
Daniel progressed well through the evening qualifying third in Supercan Heavy Novice in our Biesse B3. He had to start from the back of the Pre-Final, however, as is the standard procedure in MSOKC for first-time racers as the race director closely monitors their behavior. From sixth place on the grid Daniel worked his way steadily to third place, showing good judgment and patience. This was enough to convince Race Director Bo Strawser that Daniel could take his earned position on the outside of row 1 for the Final. Pole man Dave McDannald got an advantage on him at the start and then pulled out a slight lead but by mid race Daniel picked up the pace and closed the gap. On lap five he was looking for a way around the #71 kart and on six he executed a text-book pass going into Turn Seven. The corner was a little dark and Dave may have been a little surprised by the move. The result was a quick loop to the grass as Daniel passed but there was no contact. Daniel completed the final two laps unchallenged to take his first race win. Not bad considering Thursday evening his kart was still a TaG kart; that the plan to have him drive was only hatched Wednesday night when Dana learned she wouldn't be able to race this weekend; and that the last of the Supercan appointments were only finished at 3am Saturday morning. Way to pull off a first win Daniel! Well done. And thanks to EVERYONE that came by afterwards to congratulate the new guy.
Jason was also in good form in his Mike Manning Karting/Motori 7 kart qualifying on the TaG Masters pole and just missing (by .073!) qualifying on pole overall in the combined TaG Senior/TaG Master class. Jason has several kart races under his belt at Willow Springs in California and also races SCCA Spec Racer Ford regularly. With those credentials he was able to take his earned qualifying spot for the first of the evening's two races.
A bad start in the Pre-Final dropped him to second in Masters behind Matt Milless and fourth overall with Steve Tatman winning and Chris Carmen close behind him. For the Final Jason found himself on the outside of Matt on row two with Steve and Chris up front. Another tough start allowed Mike Brannon to slip into second in Masters (fourth overall) but this set up a fun race-long duel between the two with Jason finding out just how difficult it is to pass at Circleville Raceway Park. On the last lap he got a run on Mike going into Turn Seven but in trying to prevent any contact he hooked the RF tire inside the curbing and his kart snapped around. Brian Hottle took advantage of that to finish third in Masters and fifth overall with Jason rolling up to the scales last but all grins having enjoyed the competition.
Great runs for both gentlemen and we're looking forward to seeing much of the same from both of them.
12 July - A Win And A Wipeout
Tracy leads Fred Ricart, Steve Tatman, Brian Hottle & Matt Milless in Heat 1. Photo by Julie
Sunday, the second day of the Midstate Ohio Kart Club double race weekend dawned gray and threatening, the left-overs of the stormy night before but by noon the skies had cleared and it was a nearly perfect day for racing. The day may have been perfect but for Conlin SpeedSports the track certainly wasn't as we found out in practice with our kart being severely tractionally challenged on the reverse-direction layout (clockwise instead of the usual counterclockwise rotation).
With lightning taking out the AMB electronic scoring system overnight, starting positions were set by random draw instead of qualifying. Tracy was assigned the third starting position for the first heat but confusion among the drivers as they formed up moved her up to pole. She made the most of it moving into the lead immediately. Right behind her waiting for any sort of mistake was Steve Tatman, Fred Ricart, Chris Carmen, Brian Hottle and Matt Milless. She had her hands full as we were still loose and she did a great job of keeping her kart reigned in. She racked up her 3rd win of the year and the 44th race win since her and Dana started racing.
In Heat 2 she was somehow in the front row again, this time on the outside. Fred was having a bit of an off day and as the karts slowed to take the first corner (Turn 10) he missed his braking mark and plowed into Tracy's rear bumper. The impact can be seen on the onboard camera as her helmet snapping back and the jolt drove her knee into the driver faring support. She managed to hang onto second and even challenged Chris going into Turn 9. But on the exit of 7 she dropped the outside wheel off and Steve got along side her. They ran side-by-side through Six but Tracy lost momentum at the exit as she pinched it down to give Steve room to race. Relegated to third, she spent another six laps dealing with a kart that was loose at mid-corner and wicked loose on exit. Still she retained the position to the end.
Tracy (blue suit) collects her wits and ponders another meeting with a fence before jumping out and getting her kart pointing the right way again to continue. Photo by Julie
For the feature she was gridded in third starting position right behind Chris who was finding the backwards layout to his liking. Steve was on the outside and as soon as the green flag dropped Tracy (and her onboard camera) were treated to a terrific show of sportsmanlike driving between Steve and Chris with them racing side by side through the first four corners. Despite chassis changes we felt would help the rear grip, Tracy was still struggling to keep in touch with Chris and Steve and falling within reach of Matt. Before we could find out if those changes worked with hot tires, our race was over.
On the back straight Tracy heard Matt's Sonik coming up on her right. Leaving her braking late as possible, she held her line to give Matt room. Matt had left his braking too late and overshot Turn 4 and ran wide. Tracy squared off the corner and the race was on between the two for them for Turn 3. The onboard camera shows our kart staying wide through three to give Matt room. It was exciting from the outside as well. This is what racing is all about and Tracy was prepared to run wheel to wheel with Matt all the way to Turn 10 (the next 3 corners were all right-handers giving her the inside advantage) hoping to have some of the fun Chris and Steve had a lap earlier.
Coming out of Turn 3 the karts we still side-by-side as indicated by Matt being outside the camera's view. Tracy set up for a tight line through Turn 2 so as to not push Matt off at the exit. Matt then chopped across Tracy's kart, his right sidepod contacting our LF tire then driving over it with his rear wheel. That spun himself out and caused Tracy to spear off the track and into the fence hard enough to come out of the seat. Matt continued unaffected but after Tracy pushed her kart back from the fence and tried to resume, the front wheels were splayed out and she headed for the pits.
Despite the surprisingly extensive damage, we were prepared to dismiss it as a racing incident and leave it at that. My mistake was suggesting Tracy stay and let Matt know there were no hard feelings but apparently there were. We really weren't expecting any apologies but were certainly weren't expecting to be accused of dirty driving. We've posted the onboard video to YouTube so we'll let folks decided for themselves. Meanwhile we'll rack this one up as experience.
12 July - Rocky To The Rescue
We hadn't turned a wheel yet on the MSOKC club picnic & double race weekend before Daniel spotted a broken frame seat strut left over from the previous weekend's sessions. Business had me out of town in the days between preventing any inspection of the kart during the week so we found ourselves considering scrapping the entire day and making repairs overnight. But master welder and metallurgical virtuoso Rocky Johnson wouldn't let us. In flash he had our frame back in one piece and racable.
Racable but barely manageable with weird track conditions eluding us most of the day. None of us were happy with our fifth qualifying position even though Tracy did the best she could with what we gave her. In the pre-Final we had gotten a better handle on the track and lapped six-tenths better than we did in qualifying and finished third. The debrief after that race was a productive one and we felt like we had a good setup for the final. Two races before ours though, the clouds opened up and the TaG Feature was canceled.
Huge props to Rocky for dropping his race prep to save our day.
On board with Tracy for the Saturday (L) and Sunday TaG heat races
01 July - Team Race Report Hits Ekartingnews
Ekartingnews wasted no time publishing Julie's press release on the National Kart News/Circleville Raceway Park team's performance in the Ironman 150 endurance race at New Castle Motorsports Park. Read it here for yourself.
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