WKA National
Roebling Road Raceway
October 6-7, 2008

It has been over a month since I raced last. Between the Putnam national and the Roebling national we rented Roebling Road to try a lot of different things. It was great to try things, move them and go out again. I learned a lot and felt good with my set up for the national.

This past weekend was not only the national, but Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta. I missed practice at Roebling so I could be at the IMSA races. I arrived late Friday night. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to practice. It was almost time to go out when I looked down at my kart and discovered that Dad had me set up to run Medium. I race Lite on Saturday. We did a quick change of the gear and took 25 pounds of lead off and away I went.

The kart felt really good in practice, so I decided to leave it alone and go for it as it was set up. There only five karts in Lite. I got a decent start and led the first lap. I wasn't sure where Charles and Brian were, so I just hit my marks and went as fast as I could. It wasn't long before I saw the black nose of Brian's kart sneak up beside me on the straight. After we passed start/finish I'm not sure if he let off a little or that was all he had because by turn one I was back ahead of him. About 30 minutes into the race we were coming up on lapped traffic and Brian passed me going into turn six. As we came up on the straight Brian went to the inside of the lapped kart and I went to the outside. It was a three-way drag race down the front straight. I ended up with the lead going into turn one.

That's when I thought to myself....should have let him have it. Brian never tried to pass me again, so I knew he was waiting until the last lap. I thought I was pretty strong coming up the hill, but he was faster than me in turns five and six. On the last lap Brian passed me at the exit of five going into six. That was fine with me because I got a draft coming up the hill. I had to hesitate just a second for him to decide which way he was going to go. I went to the outside and we were side by side at the finish line. He ended up beating me by .018 seconds! I have to say that usually the "kids" (Brian is 16) don't race that mature, but he sure did. It was a great race!

Sunday the weather was about the same as Saturday, so I just added the weight and a tooth to the gear and went out for practice. I had some trouble in the lite race with my tires vibrating, so I wanted to try the new set I put on. After the second practice the tires were already starting to vibrate. I had all afternoon to chase the problem. Dad and John from CKI (my chassis and motor builder), looked at the tires, did a lot of talking, and finally decided on a solution. Dad scraped all of the excess rubber off of the tires before the race.

I got a good start and led the other nine karts the first lap. I could hear other karts behind me, but I wasn't sure who it was. It didn't take long for David Goodwin to come up next to me on the straight. The next lap I had a run on him coming up the hill and went past him. I could tell I wasn't alone, so I didn't move over right away since I figured Dad and/or Charles were right behind me helping me out. I led a few more laps and then David passed me again. I was sure where Dad was, but apparently he was still right there, helping me out. I passed David back and rode in the lead for a while.

As it turns out when David got behind me like that we left Dad out on his own. Charles fell back a ways. It was just me and David. I kept telling myself if he passed me with 15 minutes or less in the race I was going to let him lead for a while. After the lite race Saturday Pete Michel, the Dad of a guy who used to race with us, came up and said "Hon, you've got to learn to race in second place." I was thinking of Pete when David passed me with 12 minutes remaining. I rode behind him. I got a little worried though when we slowed down two seconds a lap.

I kept looking at the wall for a signal from someone, but everyone at the wall was from David's pit! Finally I saw John and motioned to him that I needed to know how far ahead we were. The next lap he gave me the signal that we had a really big lead. I just sat in second place waiting for the last lap.

On the last lap I was ready to make my move coming up the hill. As we came into turn eight (the last turn before the straight) my heart sank. The corner worker was holding out a red flag. For a second I thought "maybe that wasn't what I thought it was" so I pulled up next to David only to see the flagman waving the red and checkered. I slowed down and got back behind David. If that had happened the day before I would have won, but then, if toad frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their fannies when they hopped (that's a Dad saying). When I came into the scale line John came up and gave me a hug. He knew what I was doing...just waiting.

I joked with Pete about listening to his advice. Everyone knew that I was just waiting, but it didn't work out in my favor this time. Two seconds helped me out in the points though. Both classes will be close as we head to Road Atlanta for the last race of the season. I'm trying not to think about it too much!