Almost Third Place!

Guess who made weight for her motor AND did not finish last today?  That's right: moi!

Singer's tired too.  (Note the duct taped shoe.)

For the first two seasons, I was zooming around in a Comer with a 380 lb+ total weight requirement.  After the Comer ate some metal, he was replaced with a PRD Fireball.  Bad news? Definitely a lot less zzzzoom. That "knock your head off" feeling I used to get going down the back straight has been replaced with a steady put-put-put.  However, with the decreased power comes a much lower, 340 lb weight requirement.  Even so, I was still underweight by more than a few pounds.  A hundred twenty dollars worth of lead weights later, I was officially legal, with five pounds to spare.

The August 4 race was different in another way as well: for the first time ever, the TAG class had two qualifying heats instead of a qualifier, pre-feature and feature.  When you have two qualifiers, your first qualifying start position is determined by your draw.  For the second qualifier, the field is inverted.  In any event, I drew a 253, which put me fourth in a pack of five during the first qualifier.  P5 was a really nice guy who used to race on dirt tracks as a kid, drove at Etown for a few years, and was now returning to karting after a hiatus.  I guess having kids does that to you though.  To my surprise, I beat him in both qualifiers!  During my second qualifier, I pulled a 43.99, my fastest time yet, despite being on a slower motor and having the least seat time in years.  (I guess life does that to you too. :P)

For the feature race, I started in P4.  The start was clean, but during the third or fourth lap, I started catching up to P3 (Kart 11)!  Kart 11 was totally within spitting distance, and I saw him fiddling with his motor down the straight.  Uuunnfortunately, I got a little too excited about this unprecedented happening and broke way too late at the end of the straight and spun out.  A few bumps over the turtles later, P3 had cemented his position as P3.  :(

The good news is that I had also cemented my position as P4, and for the first time ever, beat someone!

Made weight: Yup
Drove faster than someone: Yup
Hit a personal best at the track: Yup
Beat someone for reasons not related to their equipment failure: Yup!

YEAAAAAHHH!  Maybe as a treat, I'll finally get some real karting shoes.  During my first qualifier, I could feel the wind on my toes.  I fixed the situation with a little duct tape, but I'm pretty sure the abrasion protection of duct tape is limited.