Road America Recap

Jessica's Race Recap

Championship Enduro Series Race #3
River Valley Kart Club Race #2
Badger Kart Club Road Race #1
Road America
Elkhart Lake, WI
June 8-10 2007

Friday June 8:
Different day same old story. We had nothing but troubles with our Animal motor all day. We did not even get one good practice session in. I don't know what it will take, but we need to work with our motor builder and get things fixed. I am always behind on my performance because we have not been able to get any testing done with my Animal kart.

My Yamaha kart was running great and I was very fast in it.

Saturday June 9:
It is very hard to have confidence before a race when you have not had any practice and you don't know what your kart is going to do. At least the good people at Briggs and Stratton loaned me a motor so I could race.

At the beginning of the Briggs Animal 335 race I got a good start. I was just as fast as the the lead pack. I was pushed off line by a slower kart and lost the lead draft for a moment. I pushd my kart and myself very hard. By the end of the race I caught up to the tail end of the lead pack. I made a few passes and worked my way up to a 6th place finish.
I have so much confidence in my Yamaha kart. I know that I am usually the one to beat and so does everyone else. They are all gunning for me and it forces me to push myself to the limit all the time.

Today was no different. I pulled to the front and was well on my way to another win in the CIK SSX Yamaha #1 class. 2 laps into the race I was out front with 2 karts right on my back bumper. As we came out of the last turn to start the next lap my motor revved up high. I knew my race was over, but I did not know what the problem was. This was my first DNF in I don't know how long. I finished the race in 19th place.

When we got back to the pits my crew discovered that the crankshaft on my motor broke. This is the 2nd motor we have lost in the last 2 weekends. I don't know how we are going to pay to get it fixed since our budget is so tight. If anyone has $1,000 laying around, please feel free to contact me!

Sunday June 10:
At the beginning of the Briggs 360 race I got my best start ever. I was right up front and feeling very good. 2 laps into the race my motor started to rattle. One lap latter my clutch came apart and locked up. I was able to finish the race, but I was way behind. I finished in 9th place and lost even more ground in the points chase. If we ever get in a good day of testing I know we can figure things out.

As bad as things were going I was afraid to even go on the track for the CIK SSX Yamaha #2 race. My crew put my back-up motor on the kart and we felt like we were ready to go. When the green flag dropped I went straight to the front, again. The race was exciting for awhile. It was me and 3 other karts racing hard for the lead. One by one I was able to shake them all off until I was out in front all by myself. I took the win by 25 seconds over 2nd place. Along the way I also broke the old track record by 3.5 seconds. At least I had some redemption after such a bad weekend.