From the Seat!

"The time has come" the walrus said, "to speak of many things, of ships and shoes and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings." Well, maybe not. It is however time to speak of racing. Racing season has begun! All the local tracks are running and the first Midwestern road race is in the books. All is well and the excitement level seems higher than usual in celebration of surviving this past winter.

Team Rapid Racing is officially ready, with the amazing Gooseman (?) and I putting the finishing touches on "Lucille" our Tony/Honda combo.

First race of the season for us will be the World Nitpicking Association's National at Mid Ohio in less than three weeks. A good turnout is anticipated and maybe it won't rain. Generally Mid Ohio is good to us and I guess we will find out if our homework paid off. After that the CES opener at Grattan awaits as we begin our previously announced run for the SK-125 title.

The loss of the September Gingerman date is bewildering and leaves a serious hole in the schedule in late season. Maybe a replacement will be found but at this late date don't hold your breath. Is Gateway available? As expected some finger pointing has begun and I hope that this FUBAR isn't the wedge that splits up the efforts to unify Midwestern road racing.

The silliest item of the day...
WKA finally approves 2003 CIK Bodywork and then bans it from the National Road Racing Series. DOH! What are they thinking? Now they will complain about the lack of crossover entries from their sprint series. The fragmentation created by having umpity eleven sanctioning bodies and series is more than bad enough, but now we have rule fragmentation in the same sanctioning body.

Not Karting but news worthy...
God loves Mario Andretti. The amazing quadruple back flip at over 220 mph followed with a perfect landing on his wheels (most of them) had me expecting him to throw his arms in the air like a gymnast. Thank heavens Mario was unhurt. Information from an inside source at Andretti/Green Racing has shown that the debris that started Mario's hair raising flip was a chunk of styrofoam torn from the IMS soft wall in Kenny Brack's accident moments earlier. According to the same source Mario's front wing and other debris was found on 16th Street after the accident. If you haven't seen the video Mario almost made it out of the park. Unbelievable!!

Survey time!!
Despite the successful test day this writer still has some reservations about running IRP in the reverse direction this coming fall. I am fully in favor of the IRP event but would like to hear others thoughts on this reverse race. Please send me an e mail at Gwright152@aol.com or give me a call at the shop at (317) 293 2999.

Okay! Enough is enough. The sun is shining and in the background I can hear drag cars competing at IRP as I write this. I'm going outside and get the trailer ready for another season of great racing. The odyssey begins again in just a few days. I for one can hardly wait.

Until next time, Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America!

"When in doubt, gas it. It won't help but it ends the suspense."