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VOGEL RACING – 2008 WINTER REPORT Written By: Vogel Racing Our winter season started with the MKP racing team in Daytona at the WKA Man Cup kickoff event. We were on the Birel RX-30 chassis, and I have to admit that in their stock form we were probably closer to the mark than at any point during the remainder of the winter as we started to “tune them in”. Considering how rusty the boys were, we actually had a decent showing. Unfortunately, Grant struggled in the Yamaha classification (a totally different animal to drive) where Christian showed decent pace. The HPV category was better, and the boys had pace for finishes near the top 10, but poor race craft stymied the potential results with both boys not seizing opportunities to advance positions, thus they were held up and off pace. One side note: Anyone who watched the Yamaha races could see Cody Robinson and Dylan Nobile were the class of the field (if someone else was as fast as those guys please accept my apology for not noticing!). They manhandled the field on Saturday and looked to be handing out more of the same on Sunday. Early in the race the two were running together in a zip code of their own when one of the two boys clipped the exit of the turn leading onto the front straight and slowed up. Contact ensued, and both boys were out of the race. At first it appeared the boys were going to exchange words… who wouldn’t under the circumstances? Seconds later both boys realized it was just a racing thing, and shook hands in the infield, then proceeded to watch the race together. Such a big event! Such a mature response! I hope my boys are mature enough to react in the same way; heck I hope I am! It was my favorite on track happening of the entire weekend. Next up on the agenda was a stop in Homestead, FL. This is down near Miami, and although it was mid winter the weather was WARM! For those of you who have not been to the Homestead track, it is a treat. It’s a perfect mix of high speed stuff (enough to test your nerve), with enough tight stuff to test kart set up and skill. We would really like another crack at the track. Starting the weekend, we were a bit slow to react on our set ups. Grant specifically could have used a shade more rear grip, and although we instructed him to get on the gas earlier thru the fast stuff, we ignored his retort that he could not. Unfortunately, as we dialed in rear grip, we began to lose turn in, and we were so far behind the karts, we never recovered. Tuning issues aside, we did have a cool race day on Sunday. Morning rain forced qualifying on rain tires, and by our heat race, the track was about ready for slicks. We rolled up to the grid last from our pits, saw everyone else on rains, looked at the track, and elected to install slicks for the race. You should have seen the reaction from the grid! Those on the fence with their own rain tire decision immediately ran for their pits and started the change. Those who were settled on rain tires looked at us like we were crazy. The race was a mixed bag; those on rains got an early jump, but by mid race were fading fast. Totally F-1 stuff, and totally COOL! For our part, we should have capitalized on our advantage more, however the days racing was good, and we learned a lot. Next stop? West Palm Beach, FL! The good? The restaurants! The food all weekend was outstanding. The restaurants on PGA blvd are all awesome, and the warm weather and the hot cars… I want to move to Florida! The bad? We were slow! We showed up on Thursday, determined to be prepared for the race. Thursday looked promising… unfortunately we ran our fastest laps on Thursday. The more the track rubbered in the worse the karts got, the worse the karts got the more the boys overdrove them! The boys looked as bad on the wheel as I can ever remember. (When I say ever, I mean like since the first day we started racing 4 years ago.) If you are familiar with mychron data, you will understand my confusion: sector time standard deviation was well under .1 sec, our best rolling lap for both boys was within .05 of our fast lap, our fast lap was within .1 sec of our best theoretical. If you just saw the data, but didn’t see the boys on track, you would figure they had a good weekend. Watching the boys on track, I wondered if they even belonged at this level. Their drives were just that messy! Now comes a fateful decision? What to do? We seriously contemplated using our airline tickets to take a winter cruise, and cash out of racing for the winter. Christian was not without his own self doubt, but he assured me the chassis or it’s set up was the issue. We made the bold decision to try another chassis, discussed our options with two other teams, and settled on purchasing two Tony karts. The difference was evident from the first practice session. Christian came off the track, and could not stop smiling! Turn in was crisp, and the rear end was manageable, the perfect combination for speed. All day Thursday Christian spent the day, slow on the wheel and late on the gas. Grant just attacked the track, but by day’s end on Friday, we left the track knowing results were there for the taking… it would be up to us to seize the day! Saturday I will choose not to talk about, except to say that Christian qualified third, .02 off of pole. That’s it, nothing else worth talking about happened, not even a good restaurant! Worse, all of it was done the result of our own actions. Opportunity squandered! Sunday started a little more settled; Christian qualified 10th, Grant 12th. The heat race went well, except that the boys were a bit too patient, until the end when Christian passed Grant on the final lap, then overdrove the next corner. Grant pushed under Christian, took the position back, but put Christian in a bad position on track, where he was collected unintentionally by a hard charging competitor and friend. Unfortunately, both boys suffered; Christian due to being out of the race on contact, and his friend, penalized by the race director for the action. A sorry deal for everyone, but a racing deal none the less. What about Grant? Well that’s another story. Early aggressive driving in the final found Grant in 6 th place, until the leaders made contact and were shuffled back in the order. Now Grant found himself in third place, with a real chance for second, until the motor popped on the first place kart. Stop my heart, because Grant had more pace than the new leader, and victory was within his grasp. Grant waited, and waited, and waited, for what I don’t know. In the end third and fourth place caught up, and Grant was relegated to fourth without time left to make a counterstrike. When I asked what he was thinking waiting to make a move, he said; “I was being patient dad, like we learned when racing cadets.” I guess we have a little JICA strategy adjustment to make! At any rate, the result gave us a much needed boost, and we are looking forward to the opening round of Stars with renewed vigor!
Final thoughts: The Tony karts were outstanding. We are really looking forward to the remainder of the season, and are eager to get some testing in away from the race environment to perfect our tuning of the chassis. Still, out of the box performance… WOW! I am trying to think of a reason we should not expect success in the JICA classification for 2008. The Tony Kart chassis behaved so well, as I look at our program going forward, I cannot put my finger on a weakness except maybe driver preparation, which is the fun part anyway! The Birel karts? We still want to run them, and expect them to shine once we get a handle on them and where they fit our program. I had an excellent conversation with Chris Lobaugh of MRP (the Birel importer), and we are going to schedule some testing once we get clear of the Florida action. Chris assured me we could make the chassis work, and on paper, they look like an exceptional choice for the Yamaha classification, a class we intend to spend a fair amount of time running this summer. I will update our progress as we move forward, but I have no doubt, when we stumble on what makes them tick, we will be at the pointy end of the grid with them. High Rev Engineering and Marc Zartarian! Can you say FAAASSSTTT! If I didn’t like Marc so much, I would fly someone else’s decals on our engines to throw off the competition. I have got to stock more pretzels to keep him in our pits, and out of the competitions! Information on the team or sponsorship opportunities can be researched at www.VogelRacing.com . Vogel Racing would like to thank their team & associates. Those include; Walters Web Design, Vogel Heating and Cooling, High Rev Engineering, Tony Kart Florida and MRP/Birel. |
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