 I was back at the track by eight in the morning. Gerald and I went down to open up the trailer to get the kart ready. The engine had to be reassembled after tech the day before so Gerald went to work on it. I had to change over to my wheels and tires and do a general check of everything I could think of on the kart. I measured my tires and they were smaller in diameter than the set Marilou had used. I wanted to keep the same final drive ratio she had used in the last two heats that had worked so well. With the smaller tires this meant going down to a 67 tooth gear from the 70. Eventually Marilou got out of bed, put on her Kart Klinic shirt, and was ready to be pit crew for one more day. I went out to practice. Marilou and Gerald had the stop watches on me and my times were slightly better than I had managed on Friday. I did not want to put too many laps on the race tires as they still had to last all three heats. The only change I made after practice was to go up one tooth on the gear to a 68. The Piston Port class kept growing in size. Many of the Amateurs had decided to enter. It was now going to be the one of the larger 2-cycle fields this year. Marty Woosley was particularly fast today, but he could not displace anyone in the top four since he was a race day qualifier. He would start fifth despite setting the fastest qualifying time. Marilou had started fourth on the grid Saturday. I was starting fourth also. If I could do as well as she had done in the race it would be a good result. My results at the Nationals had never been as good as at other races. I had come in a few times with a realistic shot at winning, including winning the Pre-Nationals one year at Picton, but ultimate success did not happen. My best finishes had been a third and a couple of fourth places. This was back when there were twenty-five to thirty entries in the class so these were still good results. The equipment was there this year, Marilou had proven this, but was I ready? I had very little seat time. Hopefully my past experience would help me out.  Due to time constraints and problems with noise by-laws on Sundays at Goodwood, all the noisier 2-cycles would run before the quieter 4-cycles. This meant we would have less time between heats, but this would also cut down on those agonizing long waits for the next heat to start. The starting order was James Kraft on the pole, Craig Rhodes in second place, Dario Orlandi in third, I was in fourth, Marty Woosley in fifth and Brad Graham in sixth followed by the rest of the field. We took the green flag for heat one and everyone made it cleanly through the first corner. At the front no one made any ground, or lost any, as we finished the first lap in the same order as qualifying. This meant I was still fourth. It was the first time in a year I had been in a race, in traffic, so I was just getting used to it at this point. Woosley was right on my bumper. He hit me a couple of times going into corner three. One lap he gave me a pretty good shot and it forced me to go wide exiting the corner and he had enough speed to get beside me on the right side. The next corner is a left hand bend so I had the inside line. We were side by side as we approached the corner. I held my line and he turned in. We touched. He bounced off my side pod, and then he veered straight off the track onto the grass. When he landed, the rear of his kart hit the ground quite hard and he bent his gear, his chain came off and he could not continue. In the confusion, Brad Graham who was right behind Woosley, passed me on the approach to the left/ right switchback corner across from the pits that had given both Rhodes and Marilou problems the day before. By the time I was back up to full racing speed, Graham in kart 33 had pulled a few lengths ahead. Now I had to size him up. He was faster through the slower twisty infield corners, but I had much more top end through the high speed corners and down the straight. If he pulled out anything in the corners, by the end of the straight I was right on him. As Marilou had done the day before, and the week before, I pulled to the inside coming up the hill towards the pit entrance and passed Graham there. He followed me for the rest of the race and at the finish he was not very far behind. The chequered flag fell and I was fourth. Nothing spectacular but not bad either. There was very little time between heats. I needed to do something to the kart. When I was racing against Graham it was obvious we had more than enough top end, and lost time in the tight corners. I was already running a relatively higher gear ratio than Marilou had used on Saturday. Would a 69 tooth gear be enough of a change to make any difference? No. There was only one alternative. I went back to the trailer and picked out the gear I wanted. I wiped of the grease, took a good look at it. It was the 'SOMERVILLE' 70 that had taken Marilou to the front the day before. Hopefully some of the winning magic was still there. The starting positions for the first four was the same for heat number two as heat number one. I would start behind Rhodes again. On the start I was glued to his bumper. I hoped to pick up a place on the start this time. There was no margin for error. In the middle of the corner, Rhodes went sideways. He may have touched Kraft or Orlandi. It happened so fast it was hard to tell. He slid off the edge of the pavement onto the grass, followed by Orlandi. A cloud of dust came up and I had nowhere to go. I dropped a wheel off the track but kept going. Coming out of the second corner I could see I had lost a number of positions. I knew if I wanted a decent result now I would really have to work for it just as Marilou had done in her second heat. As we came around past the start/finish line the red flag was out and the race was stopped. We would have a restart. We all went into the pits to get lined up again. The Ultra team were frantically working to fix Craig's damaged kart. At some point Craig's father Steve said something to one of the race officials. Craig was disqualified and prevented from re-starting the heat. The grid was re-arranged and we all moved up one position. I would now start third, right behind pole sitter Kraft. Now I was in the same position starting my second heat as Marilou was in hers. This time on the start I was right up on Kraft's bumper. As he pulled ahead I was now rubbing wheels with Orlandi in number 6 who had started on the outside of the first row. I held my line, added another black tire mark to the side pod after a few bumps, then I went ahead into second place. Ahead of me Kraft had his chassis handling a little better than mine was. We were running at about the same speed. He didn't make any big mistakes so I could not really challenge him. Brad Graham moved up to third place but he could not catch or challenge me either. Not as dramatic as Marilou's second heat, but it ended in the same result. Second place. The other 2-cycle heats were soon over, and we lined up for our third and final heat. I made one change. I moved the right rear wheel in to get some more rear end bite. Now I could use the same driving advice myself that I had given Marilou when she took the lead at the start of her final heat from the same starting position. This time I went for it in the first corner and was in first place without too much trouble. It was evident by the second lap when the tires had warmed up that moving the rear wheel in had improved the handling. I could get through the corner at the end of the straight much more quickly. At first I had a small lead. I saw some of Kraft's front bumper once when I slid wide in a corner, but that was it. After that, Kraft was right behind in my wheel tracks the rest of the race. I had a good rhythm going. The power up the hill was awesome, and there was still good top end speed. The kart was much more comfortable to drive. Soon the white flag was out. One more lap and I would match Marilou's finish once again. I was ready for a last lap challenge from Kraft, but it did not come. I took the chequered flag in first place and could not quite believe it. I thought I would wake up on the cool down lap and it would have all been a dream. The team had another second place overall. Kraft still had more total points when you added up all the heats. We had proven our point once we got to the front again. Too bad the Nationals was the only race in 1991 run under O.K.R.A. rules where the last heat was not the only one to count. Maybe this will be my last kart race. Time will tell. I thought I would stop in 1987 after winning the final race ever held at Georgetown, the Fall Championship for the fourth year in a row. That year I also won the the O.K.R.A. championship in the Stock Light class. It's always better if you can end on a high. If I had stopped in 1987 then this weekend would never had happened. Marilou would not have been my mechanic for three more years.The test drive at Peterborough would have never happened. Marilou probably would never have started racing herself. The plan is for Marilou to do all the driving again in 1991. The 'SOMERVILLE' 70 gear has now been retired and sits next to the Yellow Fin cylinder head in my racing display. Even if we tried, I doubt there could ever be another race weekend with twin finishes quite like this one, or another year quite like this for that matter. Like most of the events this season, it was impossible to predict. Fact is more unbelievable than fiction once again.  Onward. |
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