From the Seat!

I've said it before and I will say it again. There are two kinds of kart racers in this world. Those with a cheese cow ripening in the refrigerator and those poor unfortunate lost souls without. Those of you suffering from Cheese Cow Envy will have to wait another year to redeem yourselves because the Road America Supernationals have come and gone.

A record or at least near record crowd attended the biggest road race of the year and Team Rapid Racing managed to stay in the thick of things, proving once again that even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

Kudos to the Badger Kart Club for seemingly streamlining the administration of this monster event other than the silly numbering system. (example car #559) Sure makes it hard to score your drivers position in a multi class race.

The mysterious Gooseman (?) and I arrived at RA Thursday afternoon and doing my civic duty I was the first to bribe Charlie Tackett with a cold beer to prevent his wearing a thong. Maybe just maybe I saved the world from this debacle. Oh the humanity!

Registration and tech went smoothly which left me waiting for the other shoe to drop, which fortunately never happened. Friday morning practice started on time just to keep me on my toes I suspect. Practice started smoothly and "Lucille" performed uhh okay. The wondrous Gooseman (?) and I thrashed mightily looking for more speed changing everything but the paint scheme. Come mid afternoon we had a mishap that this grizzled veteran had never before experienced. As I was inserting my glasses through the visor in preparation to run yet another practice session the right lens popped out and fell into the Deep Seat. Good thing it was practice and not a race otherwise we would have invented a new way to lose. The thrash continued though Friday and into Saturday morning practice with some gains in speed being made.

Come race time 89 125 shifters answered the call unfortunately split into three groups (WKA 125, MSSS mutated version of CIK 125 and CES SK 125) Lucille started on the pole of the SK 125 race but we were deep (I mean deep) in the pack. As the field rounded turn fourteen on the warmup lap we almost came to a complete halt despite the fact that we were doing a rolling start. As we crept up the hill I saw the smoke roll from the front of the pack and began grabbing gears. To my surprise nobody seemed to go with me and I jumped into the WKA 125 pack and began to draft along merrily. "Lucille's" lack of big speed was helped immensely by the big draft put out by the bignoses and although we were soon caught up by Clayton Prater and a couple others we managed to hang on and were rewarded with a Fourth place finish. (And a Cheese Cow!) Smiling faces abounded but were accompanied by a furrowed brow as we knew we had to find more speed.

Studying the situation Saturday night and into the next morning and with some suggestions by Chad Donner of Donner Racing we made some seemingly minor changes. I could tell you what they were but then I would have to hunt you down and kill you. Anyway! First practice session "Lucille" turned lap times that were two and a half seconds faster on our own then we had been able to turn Saturday with some help. A little more fine tuning and another second came off the time. Now time to wait most of the day for race time.

Finally race time arrived and the ever loyal Gooseman (?) and I rolled "Lucille" into position on the grid. Another weaving, bobbing warmup lap and again we almost came to a stop exiting turn fourteen. Some drivers over anticipated the start and backed off just as the green flag flew. The congestion was awe inspiring. "Lucille" bared her newly sharpened fangs and we joined the bumping and banging pack battling for second through tenth while an on fire Clayton Prater checked out. The on track action was intense to say the least developing into a classic run and gun battle with everybody diving on everybody else at each corner and side by side drag races coming off of each turn. At one point we had fanned out four abreast on the front straight and somebody (don't know who) bumped me hard in the side throwing me into Andrew Chases PCR. I thought Chase was headed for the next zip code before he somehow saved it. On and on the battle raged and it was time to figure on last lap strategy. Well it went pretty well until then. Unfortunately I miscalculated what was the last lap and instead of making that brilliant last lap maneuver I was surprised by the waving checkered. Result sixth! Oddly enough though I was happier with this than with the previous days fourth. Personal best lap times and a great race made it more satisfying. Weird Huh!

Any road racers out there that haven't made the trek to the Road America Supernationals you don't know what you are missing. Great racing, Great times, Great Friends.

Ok that's enough! Until next time.

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."