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Tracy |
We assembled yet another awesome crew for the inaugural Ironman 150 endurance race. Photo by Julie
29 June - Ironman & Ironcrew
Conlin SpeedSports teamed up with Mike Unger's Kartworks to form the National Kart News/Circleville Raceway Park team in the Ironman 150 endurance race at New Castle Motorsports Park capitalizing on Mike's skill and fitness as a driver and our team's experience as a long distance race crew in the first annual Ironman endurance race for a single driver. The weekend was a long one with flexibility required to accommodate the fickle weather. As a last, cruel statement that Mother Nature was really in charge, there was a last minute scramble for rain tires as the skies opened and soaked the track 5 minutes before the green flag. After that one short, shower the the track dried rapidly and placed more emphasis on tire management by the driver and pit strategy by the crew.
Our team, consisting of Philip, Jodi & Noah Unger, Julie, Tracy, Dana & Todd Mees, Daniel Legg, Rocky Johnson, Greg Wilkinson and Greyson Eves, worked like a professional race team all weekend and that was especially true during the pits stops, playing a large part in Mike's progress up the lap charts gaining 17 positions through the race. The other part was Mike's consistent lap times and traffic management that put us into 12th place with something like 20 laps to go. But with enough fuel to finish and with karts ahead of us needing to make a final stop before the end of the race the drive gear stripped and Mike coasted into the pits. We replaced the gear and got back out but fell to 23rd in the final standings.
Although a paying finishing position slipped through our grasp in the final laps it was a satisfying run with everyone having fun. We also learned more about endurance TaG racing (I'm not sure you can ever stop learning in this type of racing) that we will apply to other long distance races we're involved in. Many, many thanks to Mike for the opportunity to crew for this event and to the entire team for being such knowledgeable, hard-core racers. Every person (and I mean everyone) played a crucial role in making this a great experience. Special appreciation also goes out to National Kart News and Circleville Raceway Park for their support.
Jim Ward leads Jim Martin and Brian Hottle through CRP's Turn One, backwards. Photo by Julie
22 June - Fast Learners
We had the pleasure and privilege to work with a couple of intense racers and great folks at Mid State Ohio Kart Club's Race #5 at Circleville Raceway Park giving our home track an international flavor along the way. Jim Ward and son Travis shared our kart as guest drivers in TaG Masters and TaG Senior respectively and both did a very respectable job on what was for all intents and purposes an brand new track for them, turning competitive laps times all day. Both drivers had racked up about 50 laps each at CRP earlier this year but those were on the regular counterclockwise rotation. So Sunday's clockwise or "backwards" race presented the father-son team a brand new challenge. But both gained confidence with each session and progressed well.
Unfortunately, the TaG attendance was the lowest its been in all the races we've attended this year (and if it wasn't for the bonehead decision I made for the last MSOKC race we'd have made them all!). Had the club's TaG usual suspects shown up our newest members of the "Rok Posse" would have had their hands full and everyone would have had some heavy traffic time. As it was, both drivers were all grins even without constant wheel-to-whell action. Jim is a seasoned open wheel racer having worked his way up to Toyota Formula Atlantic and has been karting to keep in shape for a couple of years, mainly at Infineon Raceway near his home. Son Travis is summering here from Amsterdam, Holland, where he had notched up some karting experience.
16 year old Travis Ward came a long way to race with the Mid State Ohio Kart Club TaG racers . Photo by Julie
In TaG Senior Brian O'Hara had us all covered with Mike Unger filling our the 3 kart field. For the first heat Travis decided move from pole to the final starting spot looking to gain more laps on the backwards layout before he gets out in front of the class' regulars. But with each lap we could see Travis getting more comfortable with the kart and finding speed, his best lap within a one-hundredth of Mike's in the first race. By the final he had gained enough speed to post the second fastest lap of the race and was gaining on Mike as the race wound down. And as anyone that has raced against Mike will tell you, that's no small feat. Very, very impressive and we can only hope Travis continues to hone his skills behind the wheel of a kart here in the states or back in his native Holland.
Jim was on pole for the four kart (we've supplied a TaG Masters driver in 3 of the 4 races we've attended this year - where'd everyone go?) and challenged Matt Milless all the way to the apex of the first turn (Turn 10 for those of you playing along at home) but as they approached Turn Nine from the wrong direction for the first time it was Matt that was ahead. In fact it was Matt that was ahead all day. Matt has taken his Hasse/Sonik and has become the Brian O'Hara of the Masters class, finishing 8 to 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place in each race. Jim finished the first heat second, hounded by MSOKC TaG regular Jim Martin right to the end. On the warm-up lap of the second heat Jim wasn't happy with the brakes and decided to play it safe and not jeopardize our kart of the other competitors. We found that the pedal stroke was long and took action to restore it but his second heat was a DNS. In the final Jim was gridded 4th and it wasn't until lap 4 of 8 that he was able to get around Brian Hottle (who is also coming on strong since his first kart laps earlier this year) and began chasing Jim Martin. Martin was having a good day and although our kart would gain some laps, Martin's hung onto a second or so lead all the way to the checkered flag.
Considering that both drivers only had 4 or 5 laps of practice each in the morning warm-up on the new track before being thrown into their races, Jim and Travis should feel very good about their accomplishments. If they thought this was fun, I hope they can join us again soon to race on a familiar track with a larger field of competitors. Either way, we were glad to have the opportunity to work with both of them.
We intended to celebrate Eric's departure for California with Tracy racing his number and body work and a wish of good luck
07 June - Boy Did We Screw Up
"Can't trust weather forecasts or even modern weather radar. Have to go back to showing up, waiting it out, hoping for the best, and making a decision at the track. Or, go back to racing in the rain and then not worry about it. Its a shame it looked so bad at 10:45, it turned out to be a perfect night for racing."
That was a post I made to the MSOKC Forum on June 11, 2006. Too bad I didn't listen to my own advice. Instead, almost two years to the day, as the huge green blob crept crossed Indiana and over Dayton and Springfield on various weather radar we considered whether it was worth even going out to the track with such certain impending meteorological doom. We watched the radar, discussed, got reports from Richmond, Indiana where it had been raining steadily for four hours, discussed, watched the radar, discussed, listened to forecasts, discussed, watched the radar, discussed. At 1pm Tracy, Daniel, Jason, Lynn and I were all convinced there was no way huge green blob could miss Circleville where MSOKC was holding its 4th race of the season. I made the final decision that it was not a race day but a rainy weekend day for which we'd been waiting to do some indoor house projects.
By 3:30 we were regretting the decision as the radar showed the huge green blob using up all its moisture by the time it got to London. But it was too late to change the plans.
Not that we weren't ready. Daniel and I were working on the karts until midnight Friday and everything was packed and ready to go at 10am. In fact, he and I had been prepping for the June 7 race off and on for several weeks. The Conlin SpeedSports kart was even outfitted with Eric Creech's Robo Pong bodywork graphics and Tracy was going to race under Eric's number 14 in celebration of his heading off to the Jim Russell racing mechanics school in Sonoma, California. We thought it might make part of the 3500+ mile drive a little more bearable knowing his racing colors were circulating Circleville in his absence and saw it as fitting to send Eric off with a message of good luck on the nose of Tracy's kart. We were looking forward to the first night race for all the right reasons. And then the huge green blob...
So we need to brush up on our meteorological skills. We cheated ourselves out of a great night of racing and the chance to celebrate Eric's exciting new endeavor. In the worst part is, the carpets really don't look that much better.
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