OVKA- The first BIG race!

It is a rainy day in southwest Ohio, but an avid young karter and his dad are still making their way up to G&J Kartway in Camden, Ohio for a Saturday practice session on the brand new "1A" track configuration. I go out for the first time and spit out a 47.79 second lap time, 7 tenths off of the fastest time.

As I'm lapping, sprinkles of rain start to hit my helmet, and soon enough the track is too hard to drive. The rain eventually goes away, but a hurricane-like gust remains, killing the kart's aerodynamics and ultimately costing about 7 tenths of a second per lap. I pack up for the day somewhat disappointed about my results, and wanting only to come back and have a better day on Sunday.

I get up on Sunday morning at about 6:00 a.m. and in get in the car with my dad. We go to Mickey D's and get an iced mocha with LOTS of hashbrowns. We get to the track at around 7:30, and get the kart prepared for pre-tech.

When we get the o.k. from the tech people, we head off to registration and get a transponder, which will record our lap times in the race. While I'm waiting for the first practice session to start, a play some catch with a friend, who's got one helluvan arm. Once my mitt has been beaten down to a pulp, and my hand has gone completely purple, it's time to suit up and get ready to go. I start the session stuck behind a bad driver in a very good kart. After about 3 laps of kissing the kid's back bumper, I see a black kart passing me down the straightaway. He cuts in between me and Captain slow at the end of the back straight, and when we get to the front stretch I bumpdraft him, and we pass 3 or 4 karts before the flagman waves us in. I look at my times on my MyChron 4 data thingy and am surprised to see a 47.4 second lap! Whoever said there's no drafting in karts? While we're waiting for my class to go back out again, my dad makes a small adjustment to the clutch. This little adjustment ended up making a BIG difference, as the 2nd time out me and my friend in the black kart draft our way to a lap time of 47.09, only a second off of the leader, who has twice the kart of either me or my drafting partner.

Next up is qualifying, a two lap scramble for the fastest time, with the field of around 20 karts going out in small groups. I go out alongside Matthew Newberry, a Slattery Racing teammate and an all around great guy. We qualify 8th and 10th on the grid, with me laying down a lap of 47.3, and Matthew coming in somewhere around the low 48 second range.

So now I'm on the warm up lap for the pre-final race. The field is supposed to circle around the pace oval (shown in picture) one time and start racing. So I'm at the end of the pace lap, and I see the green light flash on, which is my signal to tuck my head down (aerodynamics) and go. But what I don't see is the green light turn off as a back marker spins upon speeding up. This will mean another lap around the pace oval. But I'm too busy driving to notice, and I look up from my MyChron at the end of straight just in time too see my front tires fly up over another kart. I come down with a thud, landing sideways across the track. I'm still not quite sure what's going on at this point, but I can see several drivers scattered around the pace oval in various stages of shock and disappointment. Although I'm certain that I will see a black flag at the line, I motor my jumble of bits and pieces back up to the pack, and into my grid position. We finally start the race, and I am absolutely amazed when I do not receive a black flag from the marshal. So now it's just a race, and I get my game on. I tuck in behind a kid named Scott "Sharky" Rumsey and follow him around for a few laps until at the end of the back straight, he gives a little shove to the guys in front of him and we both squeeze through the hole. Though I do think I am one of the better drivers in the field, Scott is one of the most experienced drivers I know, and once he gets by the guy in front of him, I can't keep up with his pace. On the second to last lap, I am brking at the end of the hill (the long straight to the very left in the picture), when all of a sudden I feel a jolt from behind me. All of a sudden I'm sliding sideways around the turn with another 2 karts, one of which belongs to Matthew Newberry, doing the same on the inside of me. I regain control of my kart and hold my line around the next corner to hold my 7th place spot. For the next lap all I can hear are two angry bees buzzing around behind me, but I stand my ground until the finish line.

On the first lap of the final, one of those angry bees is starting on the outside of me, and he uses his smaller gear to blast by me on the straight. My friend Matthew is also starting right behind me in this race, and at the end of the straightaway he pushes me to he outside of the corner, and tucks in next to me. We run about a ¼ of the track side by side, before we eventually hit a straight and Matthew closes the gap on me. He and I run nose to tail for the next few laps, and we quickly reel in the guy who started next to me. Around halfway through the race, going into turn 1, Matthew gives a little lovetap to the guy in front of us, and he takes his opportunity to get past him. I, on the other hand, get stuck behind the kid due to the fact that he has about twice the straight-line speed as I do, which makes it very hard to set him up under braking. I run inches from the kids back bumper, and I finish the race with my nose getting a facefull of the sidewall on his his left-rear tire. I would have had him the next lap, but I ran out of time. Oh well...