Written By: Vogel Racing

ST. LOUIS, MO (September 6th, 2010) Hello everyone, sorry for the extreme delay between reports, it’s been a very hectic past few weeks with racing and school starting there is no more free time. Since the last report the team has hit a few races, both national and regional. With this being a late report I’m going to attempt to make a collaboration of all weekends so I’ll try not to confuse anyone. 

We can start with the Man Cup race in Road America. The team was on the fence about going to this race, with the fear that it would have low kart count in the Tag senior category plus the team is still trying to budget their money as best as they can while staying on track. You say impossible, I say neh neh. Finally we decided to bite the bullet and compete in our first national race of the year. 

Friday practice was a breeze, being there the previous weekend for the Midwest Sprint Series race didn’t hurt anything either. Without any mechanical failures and good pace, Christian’s number 34 was looking good at the conclusion of the first day.

Waking up early is never ideal but after a semi nutritional breakfast we headed to the track for the first race day.  Going through our morning rituals, setting up camp and getting the kart ready to run went like it always did with the exception of finding a good radio station to listen to. Morning warm up went off without a hitch also and making minor adjustments to gearing we looked ahead to qually. Qualifying didn’t go as planned for the number 34, hoping to break into the top 5 Christian could only pull off an 11th place starting spot, despite being in the top half of the field he still had ten fast drivers ahead of him. Being able to move forward in the pre final Christian hoisted his Tony kart up to the 9th position for the final.

The Tag race, as always, had very tight and competitive racing. The grid being set and the track cleared we were ready to go racing. Getting slipped up in the first corner; Christian fell back to the 15th spot.  Spending the rest of the race making up for lost time, but being held up in the middle of the race eliminated him from the possibility of a top ten finish. Coming home in the 13th spot was not what the team was hoping for but knowing the kart had pace eased their worries heading into day two.

Day two of racing started off with a loud alarm clock at roughly 6:30 in the AM.  Everyone still tired from the previous day’s excitement. After snatching some food from the complimentary hotel breakfast, we were on our way to the track for the third and last day of the weekend. 

The kart was cutting out through the low end parts of the track in morning warm up. After checking the spark plug, changing the carb, and going over the kart with a fine tooth comb we thought we fixed the problem. Come qually time we quickly figured out that that was not the case at all. Despite the problem Christian was able to muster up a lap time good enough for 9th. Coming off the track frustrated and determined to find and fix the handicap, the team went over everything again. It turned out to be an electrical problem and a slightly loose connection that was giving us all of these problems. Who would have thought? 

Feeling better having found the problem and now looking ahead to the pre final where Christian was able to edge his way to the front.  Boosting the Tony kart up to the 8th spot satisfied the team and put them in the hunt for a podium position.

Having no problems at the start, Christian was able to claim a few positions right off the bat. Making necessary passes kept him in touch with the front group, but a sloppy pass separated him slightly from the leaders. Putting his head down he was able to reel in the next driver in line and take over the 6th position.  The laps running down the number 34 was unable to claw any further up the field and had to settle with 6th. 

The team was satisfied with the 6th place finish on the rookie’s debut senior race at the national level, proving to everyone that he will be a factor in the races to come. Also, claiming the second fast lap of the race gave the team a boost of confidence for the next WKA race at New Castle.