When I said in our last post to hang on because we've just begun I wasn't kidding. This past Sunday at Road America Sam has proven that it's his turn to be a major concern to others on the track as he posted a well deserved fourth place finish in his HPV Junior class of nine drivers.
"I'm just shooting for a top five finish" he said, before heading to the grid for his feature race. After all we did have the Stagl brothers to contend with, along with a rare visit from WKA Champion Ben Hewitt. These young men as well as several other talented drivers from our class were on hand for the day's events. History has shown where we normally stack up against these teams so we knew we had our work cut out for us. But a top five was the bar that he set for himself and we were determined to get there.
Practice on Saturday had us going up and down all day on our gear ratios. We could never really get a grip on whether it was the gearing that was affecting our performance or the ever changing track conditions. We felt strong on what we had in our last session as we posted a fast time of 50.97 seconds so it was evident that this was, if not close to, our race set up for tomorrow.
In Sunday morning's practice sessions we were scratching our heads wondering how the field had gotten away from us. What was once a quarter of a second differential was now at least double that. It was decided that a drop in one gear tooth would be our course of action so the change was made for our first heat race. This proved to do next to nothing for us so back to the original set up we went in hopes of a better finish in the final.
By looking at Sam and talking to him it was apparent that he was becoming more and more frustrated in this situation. The day of the carefree kid who was just out for fun looks to be a thing of the past. He still has a blast, but I think winning is heavy on his mind lately. We've been living in the shadow of these drivers for the entire season so far and I know that's not where he wants to be. He doesn't have to tell you this though, you could easily sense it.
When it was our turn to take to the track we found ourselves gridded fifth with some hope of staying there. With the exception of one driver positioned behind us, the fastest of the fast were all up front so keeping up with them and not allowing an inch to anyone else was the game plan. Sam gained a couple of spots right off the start when pole sitter Ben Hewitt threw a chain in the first turn but for the most part that's where he stayed until a late charge from Andrew Hobbs took third place from us. For the remainder of the event he stayed glued to his bumper and was always within striking distance. Unfortunately Andrew proved to be just quick enough to secure his spot so fourth was what we had to settle for. A strange choice of words since a top five was what we were shooting for in the first place. But that race was so incredibly close you could almost taste that podium finish.
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not very colorful or vocal when standing on the pit wall while watching my driver race. I've never been that way when I worked on race teams prior to karting either. I have my occasional eruption when working on the equipment, but come race time, win or lose, I usually keep my emotions to myself. But this all changed this past weekend when I was talking Sam around every inch of this track (and talking to myself) clear through to the finish of the race. Once he turned on to the front straight for the last time I threw a fist in the air and shouted with delight, not caring much as to who may have heard me.
As for the whole weekend in general there couldn't have been a prouder team mate, crew chief, or father alive that day. There was also a new found spring in his step and smile on his face which was nice to see. After all, he's shown himself and all the others that he's finally arrived.
Welcome son.
