Good run for Justine Jackson at the Palisadoes International Raceway

The Jamaica Karting Association held their eighth race-meet of the year on Sunday August 24 at the Palisadoes International Raceway in Kingston, Jamaica, having been postponed from the previous Sunday, when Tropical Storm Fay passed through flooding the track.

Justine Jackson participated in the event racing in two classes- FR 125cc Rotax Senior Class and the 125cc Shifter class with a total of 6 races, qualifying 3rd and 5th respectively.

Her day got off to a bad start after being involved in an on-track incident in Race 1 of the Rotax senior class where she was punted from behind and forced into another kart, followed by an off-track incident with an angry parent which really affected her mentally. But remembering what she learnt at the Women in the Winner’s Circle Driver Development Program, she had to put it behind her knowing that she still had 5 more races. Jackson would later finish 3rd in Race 1, 4th in Race 2 and she claimed the top spot in Race 3!

In the Shifter Class she finished where she started in Race 1 and 2- 5th place. But Race 3 would later shape up to be the most exciting race of the day. Justine drove her heart out, racing from 3rd on the grid to 1st in a handful of laps while being trailed by the top 2 qualifiers, kart #90(championship leader) & #23. She held her own driving defensively making it virtually impossible for her competitors to get by, not making a single mistake despite enormous pressure from behind. But what looked like a second win for the day turned into a 2nd place finish after being passed on lap 5 by kart #90. For the remaining laps she battled with kart #23 trading 2nd place, back and forth, 3 times before finally finishing 3rd after a race well fought. But her competitors had nothing but praise for the 17 yr-old, Formula 1 aspirant.

Misty Balser Race Report

Misty Balser, IKF Race Preview
Balser Racing PR
From The Desk of: Dave Lynch

Racing Sensation, Misty Balser has been racing more than half her life. At 13, she is a normal kid, but loves to spend the weekend at the track. (Weekdays at the mall, and race days at the track, it’s a girls life.)

This weekend, Karting Champion, Misty Balser will run her number 90 karts at, Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California, in the IKF Series.
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Hummel the only female racer at Easy Kart Florida Championships

Michelle Hummel has big dreams of being a doctor one day. That’s if she can’t get a racing career cranked up.

As odd a mix as Hummel’s career choices might seem, her father won’t doubt her — just as he didn’t when she declared she’ll become one of the best go-kart divers in North Florida.

“When she puts her mind to something, it’s very hard to stop her from doing it,” Alan Hummel said. “It’s not a natural thing to get into one of those (go-karts) and go about 90 mph and be good at it. That part of it surprised me.”
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Karting star Jessica Hawkins confirms zip Young Guns deal

Britain’s fastest rising female motorsport sensation Jessica Hawkins has today, Wednesday, 5th March, been officially confirmed as a member of the highly prestigious Zip Young Guns All Stars Team for the 2008 Super 1 Dunlop Honda Cadet British Championship karting season.

Having been selected for the squad, Jessica has a terrific opportunity to become Honda Cadet Champion this year, a season which is expected to be ultra-competitive.

Unable to contain her delight at the news, the reigning Buckmore Park Club Honda Cadet Champion – who celebrated her 13th birthday in mid-February – follows in a long line of superstar drivers who have competed during their formative careers as part of the world-famous Zip Young Guns.

Formula One aces Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson, F1 test driver Gary Paffett and former British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato have all raced under the guidance of Zip Kart founder Martin Hines. Hand-picked by Hines to compete in the Zip Young Guns All Stars in 2008, Jessica is on the fast track to stardom.

Attending school in Haslemere, Surrey, and with residences in Farnham, Hampshire and Twickenham, South West London, Jessica is undoubtedly one of the country’s most promising young motor racing stars as she proved last year with outstanding results.

Jessica’s ascension to the Zip Young Guns All Stars Team is confirmation of her growing reputation in motor racing circles, the spectacular young karting starlet unquestionably a racing driver with the potential to rise to the pinnacle of the sport and become the UK’s most successful female motorsport competitor.

Speaking on her excitement at being selected, Jessica said: “I’m aiming to be Honda Cadet British Champion this year, after just missing out on the title last season as runner-up, and being with Martin Hines’ Zip Young Guns team will give me the best chance to win the title. I’m really excited and I’m confident we can be very successful.”

For Hines, who has been responsible for nurturing and developing some of Britain’s most outstanding kart racers and helping turn them into future car racing champions, the deal with Jessica marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the storied history of the Zip Young Guns.

“I’m delighted Jessica is joining us as a Zip Young Gun for 2008” said Hines, “She has a huge amount of talent and has the undoubted potential to become the best female racing driver Britain has ever produced. We’re all looking forward to a very exciting year.”

The 2008 Super 1 Dunlop Honda Cadet British Championship karting season begins at Ellough Park near Lowestoft, Suffolk, on Easter Sunday, 23rd March. During the year Jessica will also take part in a number of club events the length and breadth of the UK.

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Taylor Holds off Craig for Win at Fontana

LAKC, February 10, 2008. Cal-Speed, Fontana

The LAKC club race in Fontana turned out to be another great race day for Carlee. In HPV 1 she had the fastest time during practice, and secured 3rd position for qualifying. In the heat race she finished 2ndnd position, shot in to try and pass Carlee on the final turn, but Carlee was ready for him and secured the win! Junior One ended pretty much the same as HPV 1 although this time Carlee qualified 2nd, finished the heat in 1st and continued to battle it out with Jake Craig in the main. After lapping at least 3 karts, the white flag came out with the top three in hot pursuit of the checkered flag with more lap vehicles approaching. Lady luck was again on Carlee’s side and as they rounded the final turn, once again Jake Craig made his move and Carlee was ready once more, and raced to the checkered flag to secure her second win of the day! behind Riley Reyes, then the main started with Riley having engine trouble and not starting, the main then became a battle with Jake Craig and Michael Womack with the three of them rounding the final turn almost 3 deep. Jake Craig, in 2

This turned out to be a great weekend for Carlee! 4 races and 4 wins! Her next race will be the IKF Region 7 at Buffalo Bills in Primm, NV.

After A Long, Uncertain Winter, There’s Hope

Frequent visitors to this humble web site are used to us announcing our racing plans for the new year in January or early February. Here it is nearly March and visitors have found the site almost abandoned, having had no changes since December. The reason was largely that we didn’t know what we were doing. It wasn’t indecisiveness on our part but due to a general insatiability in the TaG category.

Late last year there was a outright uprising due to the Vortex Rok TT’s (the engine our team uses) performance by Buddy Rice (yes, the Indy Car driver), Joel Miller, John Zartarian and Victor Cabrera, Jr. at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas. Despite an entire season of racing in which the Rok TT lap times were at best matching the Parilla Leopard’s, people with a financial interest in maintaining the Leopard’s market dominance in North American TaG racing began pressuring the governing groups to penalize the Rok TT based on the results of this one race. To understand the dynamics here, the Parilla Leopard is the category’s standard, having gotten into the category very early. There have been approximately 9000 Leopards sold in the NA market in the last 7 years compared to 500 Rok TTs sold in the last year. So you can see how thousands of panicked voices can influence the people trying to run things. Leopard owners and dealers that felt threatened by the arrival of the Rok TT quickly formed an ugly mob calling for more handicapping weight to be added to karts using the Rok TT. Interestingly, when the same drivers that were in the top 5 in Las Vegas raced on a similar course (a temporary track set up in a parking lot - Stars All-stars in Orlando) two weeks later, they didn’t dominate and had best laps on par with the Leopards and Rotaxes proving to the sensible people that the SuperNat results were a fluke or simply a reward for better preparation.

For us, adding more weight to our karts was not an option. Because our drivers are so light, healthy and fit we already have to add 30 - 40 pounds of lead and another 15 pounds (which the Leopard masses had been screaming for and which WKA in their endless ineptitude conceded to) would be just ridiculous. In addition to taking advice from Leopard stock” concept of TaG racing. The problem is that a “box stock” anything doesn’t do much for all the 2-cycle engine builders that are struggling to keep busy and look to WKA leadership to help them out. Further, WKA approved the use of front brakes in TaG, the only non-shifter class now to allow front brakes. The idea was presented nobly as a safety feature but for people that have been watching WKA’s motives for years, the move was simply a way to allow karts shops to sell about $1000 worth of equipment to mount front brakes on existing karts. Or to sell new karts to racers replacing their “100cc” chassis for “125cc” chassis that come with front brakes. dealers and engine builders on how to penalize the Rok TT threat, WKA decided to permit modifications to the Leopard and Rok TT that were contradictory to the original “box

We saw nothing but parity from the Rok TTs in a season of racing against Leopards, Rotaxes, Bilands and Motori 7s so we crossed WKA (which sanctions the Midwest Sprint Series and the Great Lakes Sprint Series) off our list for 2008 but TAGUSA (which most other clubs thankfully use for TaG rules guidelines) was expected to do their own thinking and we could do nothing but wait for their ‘08 rules to be published in January. When the rules did come out in January every engine’s rules were set except the Vortex Rok TT’s which was listed as TBA. TAGUSA was going to re-test the Rok TT and set what it believes will be rules to retain parity with the other engines in the class.

In waiting for TAGUSA to do their testing and announce their findings we were completely prepared to sit out the 2008 season while we let the situation settle if necessary. Three different sets of rules; front brakes, no front brakes; 10 pounds more, 15 pounds more, 0 pounds more; engine mods, no engine mods… it was getting really stupid. Our argument in this debate was that if the engines were found to have an advantage (despite a year of race results that indicated there wasn’t) additional weight shouldn’t be the equalizing penalty because many, if not most, of the people that bought the 500 Rok TTs did so based on the weight the governing bodies set after initial testing. Suddenly many of those owners would have engines that no longer “fit” them and the values of those less-than-one-year-old engines would plummet (such a thing never occurs to WKA). Instead of adding weight, changes could be made to the engine to reduce perceived advantages: Specifying (exhaust pipe) flex length, restricting intake or exhaust, mandating base gasket thickness to change port timing. The one that made the most sense to us is the easiest: spec’ing head gasket thickness which would not only take compression out of the engine but would in turn reduce internal stress and give it improved longevity.

As we neared the end of February, neither TAGUSA or Stars of Karting had completed their testing of the Rok TT and neither had announced the medications they would impose, if any, to maintain parity to the Leopard. Press releases and industry forums could provide very little insight as to what is really going on behind the scenes so we made a last minute decision to attend the KMI Kart Expo in Chicago and try to get some answers.

The first glimmer of hope was from our old friend Curt Puluzzi owner and editor of National Kart News. He had been speaking with Marty Casey, the technical director of TAGUSA who had told Curt that they weren’t sure they were going to do anything but if they did it would not be a weight penalty. Later we spoke to Andre Martin of TonyKart Florida who, as a Vortex importer or distributor, seemed to be able to speak with authority to the situation. He felt that an exhaust restrictor might be the solution and that a header exchange program could be in the works. While he could say for sure that would be the final solution, he also said that additional weight would not be imposed. Lastly, discouraged by the TAGUSA booth being empty every time we stopped by (which was about 4 times both days) I gave up on trying to get an official comment from TAGUSA. Eric however managed to run into Dave Larson of TAGUSA and in spite of what was described as Dave’s uncooperative demeanor, Eric was able to get confirmation from him that the Rok TT would not receive additional weigh for 2008.

So while this news won’t be good for the Leopard crowd waving their torches and beating on the castle door, we left the KMI show at least knowing that we were not going to have to sell our Rok TTs and reinvest in new engines yet again. Instead we can turn our attention to the usual concerns like race schedules that work for us and budget. Right now with the cost of fuel and the economy in general it looks like we’ll return to our racing roots and run as many races as we can with our home club Mid State Ohio Kart Club as much as we can. There is even a notion floating around that this Old Man might run the club’s Masters class. We’re already stocking up on Advil.

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