The Rust Showed at Santa Maria.

Tempe, Arizona, 6/26/2000. Scott Racing  just completed our second major S!KUSA event, the Santa Maria ProMoto Tour.  This event was once of the nicest that we have ever attended.  The weather was perfect (72 high, clear, light wind, 55 low).   SKUSA did a great job of being a nice combination of friendly and firm.  It is amazing how even racers will respond to please and thank you.

The SM track is a bit small for a shifter event, however everybody was very under control.   There were no reds the whole weekend, the event ran perfectly to the published schedule and we really enjoy the food and hospitality of the club there.

As to our efforts, our Friday practice was perfect as we made every session and kept to our dial-in plan quite well.  Carl found a rhythm early, using our MYCHRON2 we found a good gear and worked setup although it is somewhat futile to work setup on Friday since the Saturday/Sunday track becomes quite sticky. SKUSA lets the S1 and S2 use soft tires and the rubber buildup when the sun comes out is amazing.  The infield hairpin looked like a dirt track with a three inch high "cushion" down the middle. Our best time was 33 flat which was about 0.2 sec off fastest observed practice times of others.

Saturday was qualify and two heats.  Carl qualified 11th (.01 out of top 10, but 0.5 off pole).  Then the rust set in.  Carl's crew did not check the sprocket bolts and he did not make the parade lap of the first heat before the chain came off.  Last (:<

Second heat much better with at least a start.  Unfortunately a guy (thankyou Wade) two rows up stalled, which got Carl freight trained back to about 20th at the end of lap 1.  He made up 8 of those to finish 12th which was pretty impressive on this very tight track.

Sunday we ran third heat in the morning and got a good start, but bad luck put people out of shape at bad spots and in his way. Two of these incidents pushed him back to about 20th although either one could have put him out of the race.

Final was a disaster, as the DNS in heat one put him 21st on the grid which is the land of the wild men.  He got punted off after a great start (while running 14th and braking for the corner) and by the time the corner workers got him going, the leaders were almost on him.  SKUSA shows black flag to Karts about to be lapped to give the leaders a clean race track and out he went after a couple of laps.