WKA Briggs & Stratton / Competition Cams Grand Nationals Southern Pitt Raceway, Ayden, NC June 14th & 15th, 2003     Photos load one after the other. Depending on your modem speed, there maybe a short delay between images.

Race Report

Wow! Back to the Nationals at Southern Pitt! I wish we could move here. This is my favorIte track. I have been looking forward to racing here for weeks because this is the track that I went the fastest at last year and I won a pole here too.

When we got to the track something was different. Everything looked pretty much the same but the track didn't seems as large as it did the first time we came here. Well, turns out, they cut the track down and shortened up the straight aways about 200 feet. Now the track takes 3 seconds less to get around. Still, this is an awesome track.

Everything went well in practice on Friday afternoon. This track doesn't seem to take rubber like some of the others do so you don't have to worry about the kart getting tight but it does get a little sandy so tires selection is just as important only different. We ran some really fast laps and thought we had a good kart for Saturday so we packed everything in the trailer and went to the motel to get some sleep.

On Saturday morning the weather was threatening to rain. In fact, it did rain just a little bit on Friday after practice. The weather forecast said 40% chance on Saturday and 80% chance on Sunday so we figured that we didn't have a very good chance to get the races in. Still, we gave it our best shot and on Saturday morning we went to qualify for the Sportsman 2 light. I had been driving down low entering the turns and my crew chief kept asking me why. I really couldn't give him an answer, it just felt good down there. He said I was pinching the kart down which slowed me down and I didn't want that to happen so in qualifying I tried to wait until the last minute to turn in to the corners. I guess I should have realized that that wasn't working because I kept coming off the corners too high and losing forward bite but I didn't want to disappoint my crew chief. When the results were posted I had qualified 13th. I guess that's not too bad when you consider that there were 17 of the fastest karts in the country behind me but I think I could have done better.

When they called us for the race we were one of the first karts to get on the grid. My crew chief pushed my kart up to the pump around and they sucked the fuel from the tank. Then he tried to fill the tank but he couldn't see that he was filling it too full. When he realized that he had over filled the tank he tried to get the guy that sucks the fuel out to come up and take some fuel out of our tank but his hose wouldn't reach. So, he pushed the kart off to the side and lifted the kart up so that some of the fuel poured out on the ground. Bad Move! The grid steward saw him and came over and said that we now had to start at the end of the line because we spilled fuel on the grid. Well, I was devastated and my crew chief felt bad so he tried everything he could to get the penalty reversed, including talking to the president of WKA, but they wouldn't budge and I had to start in the back of the pack.

I knew that they wouldn't get the race started double file, they never do, so I laid back on the start so I wouldn't get wrecked and waited for the single file start that followed. As soon as I saw the green flag I went and I passed about 4 karts before I crossed the start finish line. I was fast and passed a bunch of karts before the end of the race but I was only able to get up to 19th by the end. Still, it was a lot of fun and it never rained a drop. The nationals are so cool!

On Sunday we were confident about our kart. After practice my crew chief put on a set of tires on the sprint kart and then went to sit in the trailer. That's sort of weird because he usually paces around and changes everything a couple of times before we go to the grid. Later he said that he never felt so confident about the tires and the gear and he really didn't know why! Great! Well, I went out to qualify for Sportsman 2 Heavy and the kart was perfect. I got into the turns just right and it felt like a rocket coming off. When we got to the scales I was really expecting the tech man to wave me to tech but he didn't. My crew chief asked him what kart had to go to tech and he said the #22. That sort of made sense because the 22 sat the pole the day before so we pushed the kart off to the side and went to qualify the champ.

About half way to the grid they called me over the loud speaker and said I needed to go to tech immediately. I thought I was in trouble again! Turns out that the tech man had the wrong number and I was the fastest kart! I got the pole! I love So. Pitt!

Well, after that I went out in the champ but I guess I wasn't thinking clearly after just winning a pole and I really didn't get the kart down on the cones like I should have. When it was finished I had qualified 15th, 8 - 10th of a second off the pole.

When the first race started I was ready. I lead the field down nice and easy just like they tell you in the drivers meeting and, believe it or not, we actually started the race double file! I lead about 4 laps and then slipped up and 3 karts got under me sending me back to 4th. That was OK because I fell in line and with in a lap or 2 I was back in second. Then, all of a sudden, we came up on a lapped kart. I went high and the leader went low around him. The leader got into the soft stuff and his kart slowed down but I got a big run off the top and the next thing I knew I was all over his rear bumper. I hit him and got him sideways while I spun down into the infield. Then, while I was trying to get going again, the corner worker came over and pulled me back down into the infield. He did it twice! So while everybody passed me by I was sitting in the infield with some guy holding me back by my bumper! The yellow flag eventually came out and because I had caused the caution I had to go to the back of the pack. There was still about 10 laps left and I drove my heart out passing high and low and eventually finishing in 11th place.

Then it was time for the Champ race. By this time the track was getting pretty dusty and the there just wasn't much grip left in the groove. That actually helped me because I had too much grip in my kart so I could run down low or up high just as well but everybody else was having trouble just making a lap anywhere. I ran everywhere i could sometimes passing 2 kart a lap but it was just too far to go with too little time. I was trying to keep track of my position but there were kart spinning and crashing everywhere. The corner workers looked like they were running for their lives with no place to go! When the race was over I thought that I was in 5th but it turned out I finished 6th.

Darn! I missed a podium finished by one again! Oh well... It never did rain and we have finally got the kart freed up so I can run like I did last year again. It's just a mater of time before I'm back in the winners circle again just you wait and see!