Road America has always held a dear spot in my heart as one of my most favorite places on the planet. The vast size of the place, the food, the scenery, and the sounds generated in some areas of the course make this a first class facility in many enthusiast's book.
I raced on the road course over two decades ago when I was a young formula ford pilot with F1 aspirations. Now we find ourselves back there at least once a year for karting and we couldn't be happier. Well maybe if someone had, say a Formula Mazda that they needed to shake down and I was their guy.... Alright, back to earth we come.
The Briggs and Stratton Kartplex offers a high paced twisting challenge for our smaller counterparts right inside the confines of the big track. And I'm certain there isn't a person alive who can say that they don't like driving there. Aside from my personal feelings for the facility, we enjoy it because for the most part we've been quite lucky there.
Rounds five and six of the Midwest Sprint Series rolled into town this past weekend and the promise of a larger Rotax Max field was the buzz. With the WKA Manufacturers Cup scheduled for the following weekend we believed the caliber and amount of competition would be high. Although we did have fellow Merlin driver Shinya Michimi on board, there were only two others on the docket with one a no-show and the other cursed with mechanical problems.
Round five on Saturday started with high hopes of breaking our personal fast time of 50.01 set in practice on Friday. New tires have shown a decrease of times as large as a half second and we had our "stickers" on and ready for qualifying. On the contrary, we went slower by nearly a half second and had to settle for an outside front row position. At the start Sam pulled into the lead and held it quite effortlessly until lap six when Shinya pulled his kart down pit road with technical difficulties. This left Sam as the sole running competitor in our class so in an attempt to save our equipment, I decided to have the official throw a black flag and bring him in. The look on his face was priceless when he came down pit road wondering why he received this penalty but it immediately turned to smiles when I informed him of his win by attrition. Sunday would turn out to be a different story though, with Shinya bringing a more sound kart and an appetite for redemption.
Straight off his Komet Throwdown win from the night before, Shinya qualified on Pole (again) on Sunday but this time he virtually ran away from us in the race. Second place was all that was in the cards for us as the checkered fell. Obviously any mechanical demons they were fighting just a day ago were a distant memory seeing that the gap between the leader and runner-up was almost five seconds!
All in all a good weekend and one which we learned a lot. From carburetor tuning to chassis set-up, I came away with a few pointers and both of us came away with new friends. If every weekend could net us these little perks it all might be worth the effort regardless of how we fall in the standings. And it might take the sting out of the realization of what we spent in a season when we review it at the end of the year.
Next up: New Castle Indiana and the Rotax Max Nationals. The best of the best in North America will be there so I don't think we'll have to worry about a field of less than fifty. Our objective in this freshman year is just to hang with them. The chances of us being one of the three representing the USA in Italy at the World Finals in October will be slim to impossible. But if we can learn something from these hot shoes and stay remotely close to them, I for one would consider that a success and I believe Sam would feel the same.
We'll keep you updated.
