Never been so proud of damage

Happy doesn't even begin to describe how we were after our final this past Sunday. As we sat there eyeing up the side pod on our LM30 and the remnants left behind from contact between a few of the drivers I couldn't have been more proud. We finally finished a race with what looked like a kart that had gone through battle. And it didn't just look that way, it actually did this time.

I've been telling Sam for a while now that if there's one thing that we're missing it's a bit more aggression. We have great equipment, a fair amount of knowledge of this whole sport, skill to go with it, but no fangs! When someone pushes their way through the field we let them. We don't guard our spot with tenacity, nor do we go in and take from others when a few inches of daylight are shown. Up until this past weekend we just sat back and waited for the right opportunities to come to us but now we barge in and create them for ourselves. In this sport you have to. Most of the time there aren't enough laps in the race to sit back and construct a way around others, you have to take what little opportunity you see and run with it. And if incidental contact occurs you have to be ready for it.

For years now we've had the cleanest kart in the series and it's partly because of our apprehension to put ourselves in the thick of things.  Nine times out of ten it meant we finished behind opponents that we were clearly faster than but could not find a way around.  I'm hoping habits like this are all a thing of the past now.  I'll trade the trailer queen look for a beaten and battered winner any day.

Our second TaG event of the season this past weekend at the Badger Kart Club found us gridded in 4th spot for the final. Pre-race strategies were discussed and I told him to feel free to tear the graphics off the thing if he had to. Be safe in doing so, just don't give anyone an inch. The drivers along side and behind him today proved to be a bit physical on the starts and I just wanted him to know what to expect and be prepared for anything.

As planned, at the start several drivers made the entry into turn one very slim but there we were smack dab in the middle of it and holding our own. Unfortunately when the dust settled we found ourselves back in 5th with a guy who let's just say makes his kart very wide when he has to. This went on for several laps while the leaders continued to distance themselves from our pack. Then just as I had begun to think that there was no way out of this spot for us, he stuck his nose in at the entrance to five and muscled his way past. Not a moment later and he had the third place spot sealed up, he was on a mission and he didn't look back. Although we didn't catch the leaders who were by now almost seven seconds ahead of us, we finished three and a half seconds ahead of the fourth place finisher.

Granted the "damage" I speak of is nothing compared to what you could really tear up in most cases of this type of physical play. It was mainly cheap plastic and vinyl graphics, both of which can be affordably replaced. But anyone who knows me knows that having a race vehicle in any state less than show quality is not an option. When I worked for a professional race team years ago we would clean and polish our cars completely before tearing them down and rebuilding them. Not this time though, I might just leave it on for next week.

TaG, we're it!

So our Hiatus from racing lasted two weeks.  Did anyone really think we were going to stay away from it longer?  I mean c'mon, most people need food and oxygen to survive, all I need is rubber and racing fuel.

With our Rotax schedule being sealed up for the season we switched our attention to what could be next for us.  We knew we couldn't continue with our current power plant seeing that most of the competitors have hung it up since the Grand Nationals in July, going back to HPV was not all that enticing, and then it came to us - TaG!  For those unfamiliar with the lingo, TaG stands for Touch and Go.  Really not much difference from our old set up other than the fact that rumor has it our trusted Rotax is a more resilient package than the widely used IAME Leopard engine.

Either way you look at it, they're both centered around a 125cc water cooled engine with an on board battery and starter.  Hence the acronym TaG, you just push a button and away you go.  Most people claim that the only real difference between the Leopard engine and the Rotax is where the power bands come in.  The Rotax likes long tracks to stretch its legs where the Leopard has a little more low end grunt, aiding in its strong preference for shorter tracks.  And with the end of our season comprised mainly of our local track, or others like it, we thought this would be the logical direction for us to go.

Like anything we do, the time frame from moment of idea to concept was a little under three days, leaving no one much time to regroup.  The engine builder still had to build the thing, we had to tear our old one out, and literally the day of practice at the Road America Motorplex this past weekend was when we found ourselves installing it.  Close to eight hours later the last bolt was tightened and we managed to get out on the track for a total of twelve laps before the day ended on us.  Not a whole lot of time to see where we were or to make any crucial adjustments but Sam liked it and he proved to be relatively fast right out of the box.

In Sunday morning's warm up we were indisputably the fastest in our class.  Two tenths of a second over the next quickest driver (who happens to be in second place in class points) had us optimistic that we were on the right track with our set up.  It's beginning to look like all those books on chassis alignment, the new tools in our box, and tutoring from Cody Elliott are all paying off.  We turned that into a pole position for the prefinal and another three tenths of a second over P2.

The club combined us with the shifter karts for our race and it made for quite the spectacle.  Let me tell you that starting two classes simultaneously, one with a standing start and one rolling, proved to be very tricky.  Once the flag man figured it out we jumped out to an early lead over the field and with the exception of one 4-Stroke pilot in our class that gave us anything to worry about, this was the first time I can honestly say that I stood there watching a race knowing that without a doubt we were going to win.  Not much of a fight was given and we eventually cruised to the checkered flag with a four second lead over the runner up.  And the gap would have been much wider had we not been stuck behind a back marker in the shifter kart class for more than a lap.

One thing I can say I enjoy about being fast (and out in front) is the reduced amount of thrashing that goes on between rounds.  We would return to our pit to clean and refuel the kart, make sure everything was still where it belonged, and basically waited until we were called up again.  One thing I've learned in this sport is that you don't have to be busy all the time to be fast.  Stick with what works and don't over analyze the situation, and if it's winning leave it alone!

A win in the prefinal means pole position in the final and that's where we found ourselves once again.  The thought of a sweep was beginning to fill both of us with a high level of anxiety.  After all, this type of situation which we found ourselves in was totally new to both of us.  We were now the team to beat, the guys with the target on their back.  Basic words of encouragement were spoken, one last check of the tire pressures, our secret handshake, and away old number 98 went down pit road.

At the start, Sam brought the field to the green at a bit higher clip of speed than what would have normally been allowed.  But with the shifter class already receiving its green just ahead of them there was no way that the flagman was going to wave them off.  It turned out to be a nice strategy as our Leopard needed to be closer to its power band if we were ever going to fend off the charge of the lone 4-stroke driver.  To our surprise he was also stuck behind two other drivers which made his catching us that more difficult.  Sam was clearly faster than everyone and was separating himself from the pack by more than a kart length per lap.  But then in one shockingly slow motion episode it all came to an end.  A slip through turn seven turned him around and over the curb.  With his hands in the air as he looked over his right shoulder, I realized that the resulting contact popped the chain from its gear and our race was over.  That had to be one of the longest walks back to the pit that he ever took.

One thing I've always said about us is that we may never be the fastest out there but we've always proved to be the most reliable.  Reliable in the fact that our equipment stays together during a race and also in the fact that Sam makes very few mistakes behind the wheel.  Like they say, "To finish first, you first have to finish" and we've been paying our dues for some time now in doing just that.  Sunday could have been the day when everything finally came together for us but sadly it didn't.  Most people would see the big picture and be content on a job well done but to a racer, you're only as good as your last lap.  Brutal you must think, but we ourselves are our worst critics sometimes.

So we can do one of two things here.  We can let this episode consume us or we can dust ourselves off and try again.  Option two is the obvious way to go but man when you get that close and could have literally touched it, it's tough to put it behind you.  But there's another saying that I subscribe to totally and that's "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger".  We had a little taste of what it's like to be up front and we like it.  Next time my friend, next time.