Elite Karting World Championships
Daytona International Speedway
December 27-30, 2005

After doing so well last year (and the disappointment of a DQ) I was ready to get back on the high banks. Going to Daytona is always very exciting. It's the track I grew up going to and always wanted to race on, so it holds a special place in my heart AND its the Elite Karting World Championships, so that makes it a little more exciting too.

I practiced all day Tuesday making different adjustments to the kart and driver, including running a carb without steering wheel adjustments (known as a "trigger") and wearing my glasses (which dropped 2 seconds off my lap times). By the end of the day I felt comfortable with where I was and figured I would just go with it on race day.

The lite race was on Wednesday. Because I finished fourth in the championship, all year I automatically start fourth. From the beginning of the race Barry Taft took off from the rest of the pack (Me, Charles, Scott Berkheiser, Nick Hollingshead and Jim Fry). We all tried to line up and catch him, but didn't have much luck. There was also a lot of racing going on amongst our little group.

The draft at Daytona is amazing. You need two or three karts lined up to pass two others. We swapped positions a lot on the back straight. I always tried to keep in mind that maybe Charles and I could get together and break away, but it never really happened. About half way through the race I was in the back of our little pack following Scott when Nick went off of the track at the exit of five. He did a half spin and started backing back across the track. Jim got by, Scott got by and I barely got by before he crossed the track. It was close.

At that point I tucked in behind Scott and we stayed together to keep up with Charles and Jim. As we would go into turn one Charles and Jim would gap us a little. With about 15 minutes left in the race I came into turn one to see Jim spinning. He sat up and it looked like he was going to hit the armco. He ended up recovering and finishing the race, but that left Charles, Scott and I to duke it out for second.

I could tell by my my-chron that we were coming up on the last lap. I tried a couple of different things to see where I could pass Charles. When I knew it had to be the last lap I laid back until NASCAR 3 so I could get sucked up in his draft. I did that and got next to him at the Start/Finish line. Neither of us really knew who finished ahead. While we were in the weigh line we heard over the PA that Charles beat me. So that's the way we went through tech and took our pictures. Then we went to look at the AMB results and found out I beat him by .002 seconds (that's about an inch).

Thursday was medium day, so I added 25 pounds of lead and got ready to race. Once again I started fourth. I got a decent start. In Medium there were more people entered. Just like on Lite day Barry Taft took off. That left Peter Ludwig, Charles, Scott, Nick, David Goodwin, Kevin Learnard and me to fight for second again. We did some back and forth racing testing out the draft. I made my move to second in our pack and stuck onto Peter's bumper. The two of us managed to leave the rest of the pack and were gaining on Barry.

After about four laps we caught Barry in NASCAR 3. As soon as we did it was like Barry was a magnet and sucked Peter up and off they went without me. I was all alone and knew the others must be catching me. Sure enough, about two laps later as we were coming onto the back stretch I saw Charles' black nose up next to me near the wall. I had been taking a line close to the wall and I almost hit him. Then the others all went blasting by. It was a big mix up with everyone wanting in the main draft. By NASCAR 4 I had lost them all.

As I rode along back there watching all of them have fun and race with each other I started thinking about Charles leading the pack to pass me. I decided a new line needed to be added to our wedding vows..."until death do us part, or we're on the backstretch at Daytona!" Boy was he in trouble : )

After about two laps of sulking I came around turn six to see Scott sitting up in his kart and waving his hands. As I passed him Kevin was off to the right trying to get going again. When I made another pass by turn six I saw Charles sitting on the sidelines. As it turns out David Goodwin was leading their pack and Nick was second. Nick spun and Charles was so close he couldn't miss hitting him. Kevin and Scott spun trying to miss Nick and Charles.

At this point I thought I was all alone. I caught a few "faster" karts. One spun right in front of me in turn five. I was lucky to miss him. Then three laps later a pipe spun in front of me in turn 6. I was glad to get by him because I had been racing him in the infield for several laps.

With about eight laps left Kevin caught back up to me. We raced a little but he was clearly faster on the straight, so tucked in behind him there. We were catching David, but ran out of laps! I tried to get beside Kevin at the checkered flag, but that's all I could do, I didn't have enough to pass him. I finished fifth.

The good news is that with my second and fifth we have completed our Daytona Silver Collection. We now have a complete set --1st through 5th.

The annual awards banquet was also held the week of Daytona. Charles got his eagle and championship ring along with some other goodies. Dad got a Mechanic of the Year award. At an earlier dinner my "spineless teammates" (they said it, not me) gave me a special award. Last year, after making lots of jokes about Dad going off of the track all of the time, we created the John Deere Award. If you had to be pulled back into the pits you got a "John Deere Sticker" on your kart. It serves me right that because I picked on Dad so much I was the one who was an "ACE" and got five JD stickers last year. I was presented with a nice JD green lantern with 2005 ACE, and all of the tracks I went off at. They are so thoughtful : )