FKA Race #3 Crossroads Motorplex Jasper, FL May 17th, 2003   Photos load one after the other. Depending on your modem speed, there maybe a short delay between images.

Race Report

Hello again! Sorry that this took so long to get posted. Seems my Web Designer has been busy with a few other jobs this week.

Well, the last couple weeks I've been the one who wanted to quit racing. This week I almost lost my crew chief! I tell you, if we ever get on the same page together, everybody better watch out!

This was supposed to be a "No Pressure" race. We haven't been racing with FKA this year so the points and the championship didn't mater. I guess I took the no pressure thing a little to far because I really didn't have my mind on racing. I was happy to see my racing friends and spent a lot of time going around and talking with them. When it came time to race, I just wasn't "In The Zone" as they say and my results showed it.

After I had been talking about quitting I guess the pressure was still on my crew chief to get this thing rolling! I wonder if he got any sleep for the last 2 weeks because all he did was talk about, and work on, that kart. We didn't even race the champ kart at this event so that he could totally focus on the sprint kart. That's how serious he was! Guess I should have noticed...

After all the fussing and tinkering over the kart for the last 2 weeks, we went out in practice and the kart was better but it still wouldn't turn the way it used to. We were over a half a second faster in qualifying than 2 weeks ago but we were still 4 - 10th of a second off the pole. We were stumped! So, my crew chief started going over to every other Twister driver who we had helped out last year and asked them if they were still on the same set up that we had given them and had worked so well before. Turns out they had changed because what was working last year wasn't working for them anymore either. The only thing we could think of was that it seemed that we got a lot more rain last year and maybe the track was a lot tighter than it had been before? What we found was that everybody had gone up on the left side weight.

Now we usually don't run a lot of left side weight because when you are a little kid like me you don't have the upper body weight to transfer in the turns. But, I'm a lot bigger than I was last year and we run a lot more weight than we did last year so maybe its time to make a little adjustment. Problem is, the way we had the seat in the kart and the motor mounted, we couldn't get much more left side weight without changing everything and we just didn't have enough time to do that before the races.

Well, enough about that. Qualifying... The kart wasn't really all that bad and we qualified 4th in heavy. Then in light everybody got a bit better and we got a little worse so I qualified 7th. I would almost rather start in 7th than 4th so I and my crew chief were pretty happy. This was the fastest we have ever qualified so at least we were getting better.

In the first race I got a great start and came out of the second turn in second but, as usual, someone spun and we had to restart the race. When we finally did get the race started I was in 3rd and heading to the front. As the race went on the kart just got tighter and tighter and I slipped up coming out of turn 4 and let the 4th place kart get under me. What happened next is still a mystery, I just let about 5 karts go by and, when there was nobody left to pass me, I pulled back down in line in 8th or 9th place. DA!? I could stay with them but I was too tight to get back around them so I finished in 7th place.

In the second race I did almost the same thing. I got a great start and was in second. Then a kart spun so we had to start over. When we restarted the race I was back in 3rd place. Then the kart got tight and I slipped up again and fell a sleep while everybody passed me. I finished the race in 12th. Talk about consistency!

I can tell you I learned a good lesson, every race is important! No mater where or who you race you can still learn something and the crew works just as hard to get things ready so you better always give it 100%! I think my crew chief learned a good lesson too! Just when you think you've got everything working pretty good, your driver will grow 6 inches and mess everything up!