Undeniably the best track that we've seen, and probably will ever see in our time. Someone told me that the USA International Raceway in Shawano was nicknamed "Little Laguna Seca" and it couldn't be more true.
The elevation changes here are enormous compared to any other track that we've been to. The racing surface is quite smooth, it's wide, and the course offers a variety of challenges found in many other tracks, all rolled into one. Spectators have plenty of places to find just the right vantage point. And being situated on an amusement facility, there's plenty of food and fun to occupy your time when the last flag falls on the day.
As for us and the real reason to be there, we came to race. The Midwest Sprint Series was explained to us as the right place to compete with all of the bigger names in karting, but with not quite as much pressure as a WKA Man Cup event. This is not to be mistaken as a series that's any simpler to compete in. It just doesn't normally attract the very large team or the teams from out of our region or even our country.
With the exception of just one moment where Sam got a bit wide exiting a corner and took it off road, the weekend went pretty smooth for us. The kart was set up for the track and basically stayed that way through every session. From practice on Friday to the pre-final on Sunday his times consistently dropped and he became increasingly faster and much more comfortable with the kart and the track. But if you know me you know that I just can't leave well enough alone and feel that I have to constantly change things to be quicker. For the final I decided to add a tooth to his final gear ratio and it didn't net the results I had hoped for. He eventually finished in 14th spot verses his 11th place finish in the pre-final.
Now we have our sights set on Round Three which comes to our home track in July. We are planning on testing every possible day that we can leading right up to this event. We might not have the experience that most of these drivers have in general, but what we do have is time on that track. It's our home turf, now all we have to do is bring our A game and make them all aware of this.
