Gingerman results

Jessica's Race Recap
Championship Enduro Series Race #2
Gingerman Raceway
South Haven, MI
May 11-13 2007

Friday May 11:
Once again Friday was an up and down day for my crew and I. During the first lap of the first practice session my Yamaha motor broke. My crew was so busy working on my Animal kart the rest of the day that they did not have time to put my back up motor on my CIK Yamaha kart.
The good news was that we were able to test with my Animal kart for the first time this year. We used our time wisely and learned a lot.

Saturday April 14:
My first race of the day was in the Briggs Animal 335 class. I was more confident now than I was at Gateway. We got in a good day of practice on Friday and I felt I was ready for the race. Things started out well. I was able to race with the leaders for the first half of the race. Then just as I felt good about how things were going, I was knocked off the track by a lapped kart. This caused me to loose the leaders draft and I quickly fell behind. I finished the race in 6th place. I was not happy with 6th place, however it was an improvement from what we did at Gateway.

The next race of the day was CIK Yamaha SSX #1. I was a little nervous since we did not get to practice with this kart. When the green flag waived my nerves went away. I took the lead right away and never looked back. Even though I did lead the race from start to finish, it was still a hard fight. My teammate and I started the race nose to tail. It did not take long for another driver to work his way in between us and break our draft. I was followed VERY closely for the whole race. At the last corner on the last lap the second place kart made a hard charge to take the lead from me. He could not do it and I ended up winning the race by about 2 feet. During the race I also set a new track record, beating the old record by 3 SECONDS.

Sunday April 15:
I felt a little bit better today since we did so good the day before. The CIK Yamaha SSX #2 race was almost a repeat of the Saturday race. I took the lead from the start and never gave it up. My teammate was able to stay with me for most of the race. After about the half way point I was able to shake him off of my draft. From there the race was mine. I went on to take the win by almost half a lap over second place. I also improved the time I set on Saturday by breaking the track record in this class by 3.1 SECONDS.

With each Briggs Animal race I compete in, I gain a little more confidence. We keep learning more each time we race in this class and it shows. In Sundays Briggs Animal 360 class I felt like we had a chance to do well. I was just as fast as the leaders, and I was able to take my first top 5 finish. I was happy with my 5th place finish, but I can't wait to win my first Briggs Animal race. We are new to 4 Cycle racing and we still have A LOT to learn. I know we will get there. I just keep looking at how strong we are in the Yamaha classes and that gives me the confidence to know we will start leading races in Animal very soon.

Thanks
Jess