Victory, like sand, slips through my fingers

SWRA returned to Oakhill instead of Eagle Canyon this past week, something about the track surface not being quite ready yet.


No worries, Oakhill is the home track and a favorite. It wasn't quite as hot this weekend as the event in June, and the points situation had improved for me: I now held a 10 point lead.


I had other reasons to be confident though. On the long drive home from Hallet, Frank asked if I felt I could lay down some consistent laps at Oakhill.


"I've got a few ideas to try out, new pipe configuration. I might be leaving a little bit of power on the table". Frank had driven every mile on the way up and made it well into Texas on the way back before he asked me to take over. Now, in the darkness of the cab, I had thought he was asleep, but he spoke again, "I need you to give me consistent laps, though, we won't be able to tell just how much we could gain if you don't". I cannot tell you the surge of adrenaline that gave me. Hell yes, I could lay down some consistent laps. It would be my second time at Oakhill, and I would have all day Friday to get the lap times down to a consistent pace.


I was encouraged by Frank's attitude. He's told me on occasion that he spends 75% of every waking minute thinking about racing and getting faster. This was what I'd hoped would happen: I had hoped Frank and Colin would invest themselves fully behind me. Perhaps my desires were pre-mature, but this was an indication that Frank was trying to make me faster. I had just put the front-wheel brakes onto the Birel, but didn't have a chance to utilize them at Hallet. Oakhill would be different. It was a shorter, slower track than Hallet, with several turns that the extra braking power would make a difference on. I was also controlling my diet and working out regularly and I'm sure Frank sees this as a certain level of commitment.


Friday practice started with my clutch out of adjustment. Right off the bat Frank called me back in. The clutch was hitting way too high in the rpm curve. We had expected this fine tuning though, and it was yet another reason for confidence this weekend; Frank had installed tungsten secondary weights in the clutch. Now it would be hitting like Lennox Lewis! It took some adjusting to get just right, but after several 3-4 lap sessions and adjustments we got it to truly hit hard, a marked improvement at this track with its slower turns.

As the middle of the day approached, the track got greasier, but the Maxxis MH's seemed not to notice. The times in the middle of the day only slipped a tic. When the heat of the day had for the most part passed, we began trying different pipe/coupler combinations. I started with the G4, then went to the G2, which saw some improvement. Then we went to the KBDO and I turned my fastest lap of the day. I was only a half a second off of Oscar's "light" pace. I was giddy with expectation for the race Sunday.

Because of a commitment with my band in Houston, I couldn't stay for Saturday's race, but they won! Finally, Oscar got his first win, and I'm told he was very happy and emotional about it. They had been through a lot as a team this year, with several things popping up and taking away victories earlier in the year. By this time, they were in second place in the points, but 35 points behind first place Steve Miller. But Steve didn't finish this race, so now Oscar isn't "mathematically eliminated" anymore. It would be a farfetched scenario for him to pull off the win with only one race remaining, Steve would have to dnf again. But this victory buoyed the whole team.

When Sunday came I was ready. I had to drive through the wee hours to get to the track, but the morning practice went well, and I was ready when race time came about. Since there were only four karts in our class: David and Julie Munden, Kari Summers and me, they put another faster class with us, and started them first. When our green flag dropped, I snuck out ahead of Kari and raced behind David and Julie. Julie wasn't on our pace, so I flew around her on the second turn and tried to keep David from totally checking out. David, I knew, ran an engine clutch, and according to Frank, after 4 or 5 laps, heat saturation would begin to cost him a full second per lap. Sure enough, I began to reel him in. I had a very fast kart and it was handling well. I was able to outbrake David in the corners, get back on the gas earlier and even out-accelerated him from the corners. He still had the advantage on top-end, though, and when I passed him in turn 4, he passed me back at turn 1 after the long start/finish straight. We dueled for six or seven laps, David and I. I would drive the defensive line, and he would risk it and outbreak me into turn 1. He did this maybe three times. I would pass him back at one or more other turns, and by lap 12 I was eeking out about a one-second lead. Frank told me he was just about to flash "+1" on the pit board the next time around. But I didn't make it.

One of the other, faster class karts came around me just as I was braking for the timing turn, and instead of giving up the position to him, I fought him off and tried to stay on the outside on the Barn turn, but ran out of track. I sped off into the grass and stalled. My race was finished.

I remember being totally pissed for about 30 seconds, then I just started laughing: I had so much fun, I knew I'd get a chance to redeem myself in three weeks. I just watched David drive on to his first victory of the season...not.

In a rare misfire, the SWRA officials made a mistake and cost David his win. One of his sidepods came off, and according to rules, if he took the checkered flag without it, he'd be DQ'd. No problem, there were still several laps left and they had Julie, his wife, who was back in the pits after dnf'ing, take the side pod out onto the track to get him to stop and have it reattached before finishing. He had about half a minute lead on second place Kari Summers. But David sped by, not knowing why his wife was waving a sidepod at him. On the last lap, she walked out onto the track, got down and made frantic gestures for David to stop, but to no avail. He didn't know his sidepod was gone, and finished the race thinking he'd won. Later he'd blame the flagman for not giving him the "black flag", which would have told him something was wrong, come into the pits. But the flagman couldn't find the number board, which is required when showing the black flag so as not to confuse other competitors. Once earlier in the season, a black flag without a number board had the wrong kart pull into the pits. So no black flag was shown, and David didn't stop. He was livid and swore not to compete with SWRA anymore. I was really saddened to learn that and even appealed to the judges to recind the dq, but it was a "done deal". Once he passed the finish line and took the checkers, his fate was sealed. Yes, the flagman should have shown him the black flag, but in the waning laps and with so many other karts on the track, it never got shown.

Kari ended up with the win, on a day when she had the slowest kart in the field, and I got second with the fastest kart.

Oakhill on October 6 will be the deciding contest. I know I'm up to the challenge. Now if only the days would hurry up and pass by!!


-Katykarter