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----------------------- July 22, 2003 -----------------------

Round 5 of the Ontario Kartsport Championship Series was held July 18-20th in Hamilton. That was great for the team because it was only minutes from the house and friends that have never seen the team or Tyler race would finally get their chance.

Tylers weakest area is qualifying and this weekend would be no different. He would qualify 14th out of 27 karts. Unfortunately for Tyler and the number 91 MBA the set up for the race was awful. The kart drove like a brick with wheels, the best he could do was make up 1 spot and that was because another kart had mechanical problems. At the end of the race Crew Chief and Dad (one and the same) accepted the blame for the poor setup and promised a rocket for race 2.

Gridded 13th for the final Tyler would race his way up to 3rd. With 3 laps to go the 4th place kart would make a clean pass on Tyler but unfortunately would also pull two more karts through on the same pass. The day would end with Tyler finishing 7th.

With 5 of 6 rounds now complete Tyler sits in 8th place in Ontario. The last round will be hotly contested as well but that race does not run until the end of September in Stouffeville. Right now the team gets their first weekend
off since the beginning of the season. That said we are getting ready for 2 major races "The Canadian Championships" this year to be held at Shannonville and then 2 weeks later at Mosport..Stay tuned.
 

------------------- July 8, 2003 - Round 4 -----------------

With the season in full swing the major races are coming in quick succession. Round 4 of the regional series would see the team go back to the track at Sutton. The whole team was looking forward to maintaining the momentum from recent outings which incuded 2, 4th place finishes at Mosport a
week earlier.

During the race day morning practices, Tyler was quick off the mark in his MBA with a lot of the teams commenting on how quick he was. When qualifying though, the best he could do was qualify 15th out of 28 entries. His comments afterward were honest and succinct, "the poor qualifying results were totally my fault, I did not drive the kart hard enough and it will leave us with a lot of work to do during the races".

During the first 15 lap race Tyler would drive a smart race picking his spots and moving past drivers who were already making errors probably due to the extreme heat. By race's end he would finish 11th. A red flag incident on lap 13 ended the race and by the rule book went back to the last completed lap for scoring. This was unfortunate for the team because Tyler had made a two kart pass during that lap which would have put him 9th, only to lose the position due to the way red flag stops are scored.

Gridded 11th for the 2nd race and the feature for the day Tyler was pumped for an aggressive race. After the day was over he would comment, That was probably the roughest race I have ever been in". (Which from the spectator section seemed to be an accurate statement). During the race there was a lot of aggressive driving and unneccesary contact between a lot of drivers. Tyler kept a cool head and quickly got into 8th place behing the number 10 kart of Curtis Fox. The two would stay nose to tail for 5 laps until they caught up to the lead back of 6 karts. From that point it was a tough ride as the lead 8 were encountering a lot of slower karts and putting them down a lap. Tyler used this time to pick off another couple of positions that were hard fought including a side ways slide across the grass in one corner while avoiding an out of control lapped kart. The day would end with a 6th place finish.

The team was happy with the race day progress but was quick to state that qualifying needs to be better so that not as much time has to be spent in the middle of the field. "The MBA was awesome all day" Tyler would say. "It had a bit of a push but it was quick and it would have been nice to be battling up in the top 5 instead of digging out of the hole I got ourselves into by qualifying poorly".

The team is consistently putting together solid runs and looking forward to the regional series being in Hamilton on the 19th of July which is only minutes from home.


 

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