|
South West Regional Cup (SWRC) @ OMC, Normam, OK June 28-29
This was our first out of town race in the shifter, and we spent Friday practicing and working on finding a set-up,
happy to be running at OMC again because it is such a great track.
Saturday 6/28 SWRC Race #5 After putting on some fresh tires, we went out and qualified
2nd. We felt pretty good about this since we only did 3 hot laps, and the pole winner (Jake French) did more and was
only .008 seconds ahead of us on the grid. In the pre-final, Devin stalled on the start (we will be practicing these
more), and after 5 laps running in the rear decided to come in and save his equipment. However, his fast time was about
.3 seconds faster than the leader. In the final, Devin made a conservative start, dropping several kart lenghts behind
the leader. However, by half way around the first lap he was on his tail, and passed him coming out of the hairpin and
was never challenged again for the lead. In the process Devin set fast lap for the class for the weekend, and even managed
to pass some Senior Shifters over the course of the race.
Sunday 6/29 SWRC Race #6 On Sunday we did not make the morning practice, and again
Devin went out and only did 3 laps of qualifying. This was still good enough to put us on the pole by .087 seconds over
French. In the pre-final, Devin did his usual conservative start and dropped back to second, but caught back up to the
leader quickly and passed him at the end of the main straight, going into Turn 1. All was for naught, though, as there
was a wreck that sent Clint Korte (racing in Senior Shifter S3) flipping, so the race was red-flagged. Thankfully,
Clint was unharmed, and after the track was cleared, the race restarted from the beginning. This was a copy of
prior to the red flag, and Devin again took the lead by passing at the end of the main straight, and then was not challenged.
In the Final, after Devin's conservative start, he caught up to French and, after following him for a few laps passed him
in the left hand 90 degree turn, only to miss the next turn and let French get back by. However, on the next lap Devin
passed him back on the inner "bowl" and made it stick. After that, Devin pressed on and opened a comfortable gap, winning
for the second day in a row. Overall, a successful weekend, and we came away with some more time and experience with
our new chassis and motor combination.
Summer 2 @ NTK (clockwise), June 14, 2008 Devin qualified 2nd (out of 4), and in the
prefinal was doing ok the first couple of laps before he spun off in turn 7. He kept it running, though, and then put
in some more laps. In the final, he finished 2nd, and with still less than 5 hours in the kart, we were a couple tenths
off of Jake French's pace.
Spring 6 @ NTK (clockwise), May 11, 2008 This was Devin's first shifter race, and was
more of a shakedown and practice session than anything. We got a little more feel for the kart and motor, and a feel
for running it in race conditions.
|
