Southern Kart Club
Roebling Road Raceway
February 4-5, 2006

A month after Daytona we were back at Roebling Road for our first Southern Kart Club (SKC) race. The SKC is a club that the karters formed last year when we were in jeopardy of not getting to race at Roebling Road any more. Charles is on the Board and I am the Secretary, so we were extra busy this weekend.

Dad kept asking what he could do and I told him to just make sure I could race. He was awesome in getting my kart ready, pushing it up to practice and grid. I was truly and arrive and drive driver this weekend. We also put Mom to work selling pit passes...she's our new director of First Impressions.

There was rain all morning Saturday so I only practiced once when the track was "sort of" dry. I had wheel wells I was trying out and really wanted to see how they did. I'd have to wait for the race. Because of the rain we were combined with another group, which meant Dad, Charles, George, Dave, Chuck and I were all out on the track together.

There were only three of us in Lite (me, Charles and Sissy Mendenhall). I got an okay start and stayed with Charles for the first few laps. Once he got away from me a little he was gone. I could see him inching away with each lap. Just when I thought he was gone I came into turn four and found him spinning. I couldn't tell which way he was going to go. First he was going to the outside, then to the inside. In all of this I was thinking...Dad is going to kill us. He's had to do a ton of work to Charles' kart lately and I just knew if we hit each other we were DEAD! As it turns out we cheated death and I passed him with no problem.

From there I was out for a drive until Charles caught back up to me. We raced back and forth a couple of times. He was real loose in four and I could pass him there. As we came up to the finish line we were passing a lapped kart and I couldn't get a run on Charles. He beat me by less than a second, but it wasn't that close!

Sunday the weather was much better, but the kart really wasn't. Charles took off at the start. George, Matt and I were racing for second going into turn one. Matt made it three wide by getting on the inside of me. I know we passed George and I think Matt passed me. He ended up catching back up to Charles. George and I had a good race. I would pass him at the end of the straight then he'd pass me back. After five or so laps of this my handling started to go away. The kart was really pushing bad, so I just held on to finish. Dad was behind me, but still hadn't caught me.

All in all the weekend was a success. Dad and Charles race at the next national in Kershaw, SC. My next race will be Barber Motor Sports Park in April (can't wait...I LOVE THAT TRACK!).