Wow, did this one go by fast!
The 2009 season actually came to a close for us back on September 27th. We clinched our final position in the standings back on September 20th and because of this, chose to run a totally different kart/engine package in the final event. More on this later.
So even after all the frustration of several consecutive DNF's this past season, Sam managed to hold on to the third place spot in HPV Junior for the second straight year. Proud we most definitely are. But in the never ending quest to win, or at the very least better your past successes, I do have to say it is a bittersweet finish at best. We all know we tried our hardest, but at the end of the day (or season) you only get what you give. And being human, you always find yourself asking "what if". Regardless of what we expected of ourselves, we had fun and we finished in the top five so there is plenty to be happy about.
Congratulations goes out to all of the competitors in our class but especially to Kodiak Wirtz for finishing in the top spot for the year and Nathan Crane for his runner-up efforts. Both proved to be formidable opponents out on the track who became increasingly tough to beat as the season went on. Special mention must also go out to Nick Strobe who always put on a great show of just how smooth and tactical a driver should be, and Andrew Hobbs who brought his A-game whenever he was in town to join us. Not only are these drivers very talented in their own right, they are a pleasure to be around even off the track.
So what did we accomplish this year outside of our finishing spot? We proved that we had the perseverance to stick with things and remain optimistic even in the face of adversity. You wouldn't think so if you strolled by our pit in the midst of a few bouts with searing anger and utter hopelessness. But neither my son nor I could bring ourselves to throw in the towel no matter how bad things got. I even witnessed a very rare occasion in that Sam returned from the track so dejected by a never ending rash of broken parts that he tossed the kart aside and grumbled a few expletives at his four wheeled friend. I sure hope he was talking about the kart! But in any case we always went back to the trailer and regrouped, hoping that our next effort would prove worthwhile.
And where do we go from here? All I can say is that what we want and what we can afford could be two totally different things. We seized an opportunity a few weeks back to test a Merlin chassis with a Rotax power plant. One hundred and twenty-five cc's of pure kick-in-the-pants fun. I certainly liked it and showing by the grin on Sam's face after his first session on the track I believe he liked it as well. So hoping that the fire sale goes good and we can offload our current equipment there could be a chance that we'll contest an entire season around this combination next year.
Another heartfelt round of thank you's must go to Chris and Carla Heitman of Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies. They've got the good stuff people! And if you're running anything with an internal combustion engine in it, you better have them on your speed dial.
To Gabriele Pedone and Danilo Oliveira of OMP, thank you so much for everything that you do for us on and off the track. Companies like yours and people like you are hard to find nowadays and I just wanted you to know how much we appreciate you both. We look forward to working with you again in 2010.
To the ladies in our family who selflessly gave their weekends up so the boys could go play, we thank you. For the past few years we've said we were going to shave our schedule down by half and every year we seem to do more. Without your help at the track we wouldn't be able to do a lot of things that got us to where we are today.
And last but certainly not least, thank you god for the NHL. Without it I wouldn't know what the heck to do for the next six months, two weeks, and roughly two odd days before we do this all over again.
