WKA Briggs & Stratton / APS World Championships

Municipal Stadium, Daytona Beach, FL
December 26 - 30, 2003

Race Report

Ah, it's good to be back home! The Daytona Nationals, 4 days of nail biting and, if you're lucky, racing!

We watched the weather forecast for the week prior to see if it would be cold or if it would rain but the weather man kept saying the weather would be beautiful. 70 degrees and sunny! What more could you ask for? Last year it was warm too and we found out that we could use a set up similar to our Saturday night set up. So, the reason we were checking the weather report was to try to get an idea what to do with the tires.

We only had 2 new sets of tires for each kart. We didn't want to get them too soft and then have a hard race track but we didn't want to show up with hard tires and then not be able to get them soft enough for the track conditions. We decided not to do anything to the tires because we didn't race until the second day and thought that would give us time to work on the tires based on what everybody was doing, and what was working, on the first day.

When Saturday came and the karts started to practice and qualify we thought that the old transmission fluid mixed with lacquer thinner was the ticket so we started to get the tires ready. We also came up with a mixture that contained creosote that we used to treat the second set of tires. We scaled the karts and got everything ready for Sunday and then went up to the stands to watch the races.

On Sunday morning we got right to work for the first Champ race and went out for practice with what we thought would be the best tires for the day. All the kart wanted to do was slide up the track in the corners while the rear end tried to come around. It was a handful to say the least. We kept trying the transmission fluid stuff but it never really got any better and when it came time to qualify I was over a second off the pace. In second round I wasn't any better and wouldn't have made the race except that we earned a provisional starting position at a race earlier in the year so I got to start 31st.

When the race came I knew what I had to do. I had nothing to lose so I planned to hold down the gas and stay off the brakes and let caution to the wind! It took us forever to get the race started but when we did it seemed that no one had any grip. The karts were spinning everywhere but I just keep going past them and then some of the front runners ran out of gas and I passed them too. On the second to last lap 3 karts in front of me got together and spun and I just held down the gas and drove my way through and came out at the end of the race in 9th.

On Monday we found out that the set of tires we had prepped with creosote, that had been sitting on the trailer floor ready to go, would have probably worked really good! So, we put them on and tried that for practice and thought we had found the answer. Then, around the time that qualifying started the sun came out and dried out the track. We didn't know it but creosote works good on the lime rock track when its wet but not when its dry so in the sprint kart I was once again finding myself sliding up the the track with the rear end coming around on me and qualified about 35th fastest in first round. We scrambled to find out what to do and decided to put the tranny fluid tires back on the champ and qualified 14th in first round. In second round for the spint kart we missed the gear and didn't make the race in that class at all.

In the champ race it was just like the night before except everybody made sure that they had enough fuel. I don't know why but these champ races are always out of control. Maybe its because they are a little slower that we tend to over drive them but, like the night before, everybody was spinning and running into each other. I held my line and keep focused and wound up finishing in 4th place. A podium at Daytona!

Tuesday was another nice day and we really stayed on top of the tires. After every practice we ran from pit to pit asking everybody we could what type of prep they were on and what was working. Once again it was tranny fluid but we keep the creosote close by just in case. We changed the gear and went out to qualify and came in 18th fastest in the first round. We made the main!

The race was kinda boring really. On the start the karts from about 10th place back got bunched up in turn 4 but kept things going in the right direction. I wish someone would have spun to bring out a restart because this let the front runners get about a 1/3 of a lap ahead of everybody else. No one had any grip as always but a caution never came out so we just sort of followed each other around for 15 laps until the end of the race. I moved up 2 positions to 16th by the checkered flag but that was all I could do.

What was sort of funny was on Saturday morning as we went to the track I noticed this really nice tennis facility just about a mile before the stadium. Later I thought, If they can build something like that for tennis, why can't they build a race track for us here in Daytona instead of making us race around a football field on talcum powder? This is the biggest, most prestigious kart dirt track race in the world and its not even run on a real race track!

Well, I'm off to a good start in the champ and I think I can still do pretty good in the sprint kart. Check back next month and see how we do when we go to a real race track!