I've been very remiss in my reporting since my victory at Hillsborough Community College. The next race was at Wharton High School in Tampa on January 25th. The course was not to my liking. It was a very tight parking lot course, which is OK, but there were a couple of islands with concrete curbs surrounding them. When we were running in a counter-clockwise pattern around the track, it wasn't too bad. For the second race of the day the direction was reversed and there is a concrete curb at the exit of the "chicane" that is just too close for comfort. My right front wheel was running within about 3 inches of that curb on corner exit. A blown tire in that area of the track would have been disasterous. It's hard to explain without detailed pictures; suffice it to say that if they run that race in the same configuration next year I'll stay home. Anyway, I took it easy in that area and ended up with a 3rd place overall finish for the day in my red #94.

My son wasn't available on that day, so my black #13 car was being driven by an old friend and former IKF karting champion from Indiana. With only 3 minutes to go in the first race, the right front tire popped and he hit a curb as he was exiting onto the main straight. The right end of the front axle was pushed back about 3 inches and the normal 7 degrees of negative camber and 7 degrees of positive caster were now about 2 degrees positive and 1 degree negative, respectively. He thought he was finished for the day, but we went to work and, with the help of a couple of hard-working high school guys and Rodney Schreck's welder, we got the car back in shape to run the second race. The faithful old #13 ended up 4th overall for the day!