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| July 01, 2008 |
| Team News: Conlin SpeedSports - Ironman 150 Report |
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 | | National Kart News-Circleville Raceway Park team with assistance from the Conlin SpeedSport crew |
After overcoming numerous challenges throughout the day, the National Kart News/Circleville Raceway Park team persevered to a solid finish in Sunday's Ironman 150, a grueling 3 hour kart race held at New Castle Motorsports Park. The first of these challenges was the skies opening up just prior to the start of the 150 lap race, forcing the team to switch to a rain set-up just minutes before the drop of the green flag and also forcing a change to the team’s entire race strategy.
Conlin SpeedSports, with experience in the last three RoboPong 200 endurance races, crewed for Mike Unger a technical writer for National Kart News and driver of the No. 97 NKN/Circleville Raceway Park racing machine. Having qualified in the 29th position out of the 37 kart field, Unger drove through an incident in the first turn and drove cleanly under the wet conditions. Shortly after the race began, the rain stopped and the track quickly began to dry which forced Unger to pit early on lap 36 to change back over to a dry set-up.
Unger drove on deteriorating rain tires just long enough to get into a pit window that would allow the team to maintain a two-stop pit strategy. During the second stint Unger quickly worked his way up to the 12th position. On lap 87, the team made a routine pit stop and would have been able to finish the race in the planned two pit stops if it had not been for a late race problem. With just 20 laps to go, Unger coasted into pit lane with a broken drive sprocket.
The team quickly worked to repair the problem, but having spent eleven minutes in pit lane, Unger went nine laps down and finished in the 23rd position. “I would like to thank NKN and Circleville Raceway Park for helping out on this project. With their help I not only had a great time but I can explain to everyone who reads NKN why they should participate next year. Look for the article this fall and plan on racing with us next year” Unger comments.
The team is already looking forward to next year’s Ironman 150. "It was another great endurance event held at Mark Dismore's track. I just wish the drive gear would have lasted another twenty laps. We had a great crew and we could have had a top ten finish", Team Manager Jim Conlin says.
Unger operates Kartworks, Inc., based in North Lewisberg, Ohio and is also a writer for National Kart News. Additional information can be found at http://www.kartworksohio.com
Conlin SpeedSports is a family karting team based in Hilliard, Ohio. Additional team information can be found at http://www.conlinss.com |
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