The blistering summer weather once again put itself on hold long enough for TKC families to get out of the house this weekend and catch up on long overdue practice and/or yard work.  The pit lane was full on Saturday before the race with people looking for those big chunks of time in preparation for Round 14's CLOCKWISE track layout.  The track in reverse poses a totally different set of challenges, braking zones, and passing opportunities, and essentially puts everyone on a level playing field since drivers have nowhere near the same experience as they do in the normal counter-clockwise configuration. 

The banked Daytona curve assumed duties of Turn 1, and drivers carried a huge head of steam downhill to the tight hairpin.  The additional speed and unusual line introduced bumps that drivers don't ordinarily see, and made the best late braking overtaking opportunity on the track a serious test of courage as well.  Leading out of the hairpin uphill through the tight turns, karts began picking up speed through the traditional Turn 1 curve which bears an uncanny resemblance to Curva Parabolica at the storied Monza track in Italy - where the Formula 1 circus happened to be competing this same weekend.  This layout provides drivers the longest uninterrupted time on full-throttle of any layout we run, and naturally, the highest top speeds possible at our track.

The mild(er) temperatures and heavy air meant that engines would be making bags of power if dialed in properly, and if the track record list is any guide, dialed in properly they were.  New records in this track layout were set in nearly every class, and most classes got progressively faster as the day went on.

In the Kid Kart final, the red #3 of Kennon Anderson made a return appearance to gain extra seat time on this layout.  Proving that experience in quicker karts translates well to slower classes, Anderson set a fast lap in the final fully 2-seconds better than rookie Rachel Callahan who finished 2nd.  Anderson also moved the track record time up a notch with his best effort of 37.472 seconds in the heat.  The #48 of Callahan ran a solid race of her own, finishing on the lead lap, ahead of Bryce Barrett in the #00 who took home 3rd place.

Another track record fell in the F4 Medium class, where the #182 of Benny Cantellay put another notch in the belt with a time of 31.991 in the Final to claim not only the victory but his 2nd track record in the class.  Only slightly less impressive was the performance put on by rookie driver Sean Stevens.  A member of the juggernaut Amigos Racing stable, Stevens was trying out the #12 kart fielded by RPMotorsports to see if kart racing was for him.  Turns out it was, as he had the second fastest lap of the day in class and drove to a solid 2nd place finish.  In 3rd place making his season debut was the #71 of Shayne Stephens, conceding that it does not take long to get one's self out of race shape no matter how thin or fit they might think they are.  Behind him by 10 seconds on track was the #95 of Gene Pearce.  Official classifications for 5th place went to Ken Foster in the #43, who was the last kart on the lead lap.  He was followed by Jeff Starkweather in 6th, Todd Gunther in 7th, and the retirements of Jase Martin in 8th, and Paul Churchwell in 9th.  Nathan Cody in the 7m kart was classified in 10th for being under the minimum weight (but had a great time nevertheless), and the #42 of Kyle Pearce was classified 11th for failing to cross the scales.

In the Junior 1 2-cycle final, fans witnessed one of several amazing races for the lead that would transpire on the day.  The #48 of Joshua Callahan got out in front of Cole Quaile in the #14 early, and drove a mistake-free race with Quaile knocking on the door right behind him.  Then on the final lap, at the end of the back straight, Callahan would get the hairpin wrong opening the door for Quaile, who did not hesitate to go through.  Quaile led Callahan uphill and through the Curva Parabolica across start/finish right as the checkered flag flew.  Quaile crossed the line just 0.343 seconds in front of Callahan for the win.  Austin Jeffries in the #159 kart had a great view of the action from 3rd place, where he would finish just 4 seconds back.  Max Stephens in the #18 was just able to nose out the #4E of Braydon Cromwell for 4th and 5th respectively.  Cromwell, whose family drove down from Kansas City, MO to run with TKC this weekend, at least took some comfort in knowing he holds the track record in this class for the Clockwise layout with his brilliant qualifying lap of 30.395 seconds.  Kennon Anderson in the #3 rounded out the field in 6th, on the lead lap, unable to reprise his earlier victory in Kid Karts.

The Junior 1 4-cycle final was eerily similar to that of the 2-cycle race.  Again, the #14 of Cole Quaile had everything he could do to get around the #00 of Morgan Bain who outqualified Quaile by 0.02 seconds but who couldn't seal the deal in the Heat race either.  In the final though, she looked unbeatable.  Despite Quaile being in position to capitalize on the slightest mistake, Bain simply didn't make one - until the penultimate lap, where she too got the hairpin wrong and Quaile pounced.  Up the hill, past start/finish to see the white flag, and one more circuit around opening up a 0.6 second lead on Bain to take the victory.  Just behind them and hoping to sneak through in the event of contact was the #4 of Braydon Cromwell, who finished in 3rd just over 2 seconds behind.  The #23 of Justin Kessler took the checkers in 4th, one lap down.  Quaile did manage to reset the lap record in this class, with his 30.615 second lap in the Final.

In the Sportsman final, somewhat like the F1 race at Monza, we saw surprising attrition.  The #08 of Paige Evans obliterated the lap record in her class for this track layout in qualifying with a time of 28.799 seconds, but on lap 7 of the final, she retired to the pit lane consolidating 3rd place points.  Five laps later, the #86 of Steven Younger sounded as though it had lost a chain - but it hadn't.  An apparent clutch failure meant his day was done, but would still claim 2nd position on the podium.  That left the #2 of Derek Proctor to cruise home to victory wondering only where to put the 1st place sticker he had earned.

The TAG final was another nail biter, and without a doubt the closest race of the day.  The #30 of Christian Duarte earned the pole in qualifying, but the #1 of Gavin Moore got a demon start and shot through to the lead entering the hairpin on lap 1 where he would fend off Duarte for the Heat victory despite having misjudged a carb adjustment.  With the carb sorted, Moore led the field ever so slowly to the green flag in the final, and when it flew, he again took off like a shot.  The gap grew to four kart lengths quickly, but after a couple of laps, the extra speed Moore was carrying through the Daytona turn with the motor now in-tune revealed an understeer condition.  In short, the gap Moore would build through the infield and through Curva Parabolica would disappear exiting Daytona, and Duarte's full head of steam put him right behind and even alongside Moore as the duo stormed down to the heavy braking zone, lap after lap.  To their credit, neither driver made contact with one another and neither made a mistake in the heat of battle.  Each lap, Duarte seemed to be closer to making the move stick - the two drivers exiting the hairpin side-by-side on one lap, but unable to make the pass stick heading uphill.  When the checkered flag flew, Moore's silver #1 had managed to grow his lead to just under 1 second over Duarte.  The #19 of Rey Ferreyro Jr. came home in 3rd on the lead lap for another respectable points day, where he is now still less than a finishing position behind Duarte in the championship.  Duarte took home the overall fast lap honors for the day with a best of 26.705 seconds in the heated Final duel.

Which left the TAG Heavy field to hash it out for all the glory.  The two championship front-runners - Scott Matejec and Kip Anderson - would not have their best days.  Matejec suffered a clutch failure in his 22m early, and went to a backup kart normally piloted by his brother Chad.  The substitute, while quick, was tougher for Matejec to control and his pace showed it.  The #7 of Anderson had an unspecified, and we understand non-catastrophic, form of engine failure on lap 5 and retired 11 laps down.  Ahead of them, putting on an impressive display and claiming the track record in the class for this layout, was the #760 of Anthony Honeywell who won here in his only other appearance earlier in the season.  The #48 of Jason Shackelford put in a tremendous performance on the clockwise layout, managing to stay within breathing distance of Honeywell in a 2nd place effort.  Matejec would finish 3rd in the backup kart, barely ahead of Don Grace from the Amigos stable in 4th.  The #26 of Kirk Murdoch would also retire, on lap 9, classified in 5th place while Kip Anderson would earn 6th place points.  Honeywell's record setting time was a blistering 26.830 seconds, which would have been good enough to run with the flyweights in TAG despite carrying at least 30 pounds more ballast.

And so went Round 14 of the 2012 championship.  The next event in two weeks' time is the punishing IRONMAN special, which we dare not talk about here as to scare anyone away.  Suffice to say, winning this event is an accomplishment in and of itself.  Fingers crossed for good weather, we hope to see you there!