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| Features |
| Driver Diary: Chris Scribner - IAME International Challenge |
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 | Chris Scribner
(Photo: EKN) |
Having the honor of racing at an international event does not come very often for drivers in the United States. The last five years we have seen a significant improvement in sending North Americans across the ‘big ponds’ to Europe, Asia, and other unique locations. With the IAME International Challenge and a strong IAME presence on our continent, it was no question the United States and Canada would be able to represent. The inaugural event in 2007 was won by the Canadian team and heading into the ’08 race, both countries had a solid driver’s line-up to keep the title here.
One of the drivers that made the journey for the second straight year was United States driver Chris Scribner. The 2008 Stars of Karting TaG Western Division Champion was invited by United States IAME importer Russell Karting Specialties to join Jim Russell Jr. himself and road racing specialist Chuck Gafrarar. Scribner was able to provide us with a behind the scenes look at his stay in Spain for the event
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The first day of the event consisted of making up our teams and receiving all of our equipment. First thing we did as a team is we all signed in and turned in our International Licenses. The teams were made up of young and skinny or old and fat. It was my luck since I’m older and fatter I got teamed with Jim Russell Jr. and Chuck Grafrar. The other team was made up of Joey Licata Jr., Joey Wimsett, and Kyle Wiegand. We drew our karts and were issued the FA (Fernando Alonso) chassis #’s 5 and 15. The old and fat team would get the #15. We got our suits and checked out the model of the proposed development of the complex which included an F1 track, kart track, and many other rally type and exercise courses.
Upon arriving at our pit, there was an American flag hanging up as the back drop with a Team USA sign. The chassis were equipped with the Parilla X30 from the IAME factory, and were broke-in by the factory before mounting. Each kart had four sets of Vega tires which felt like a similar compound to a Yokohama Y01 or a Mojo. The side wall was stiff, which would create a no grip situation for the long six hour race. We had two mechanics, Jordy and Stephan, who prepared the karts for us and mounted the seats. Once the chassis were completed and ready for the first day of practice of the event, it was time to head to our hotel. As we sat in the lounge area waiting for our team manager (Phil Kirby) to complete a meeting with IAME regarding the new Parilla Leopard, the drivers on my team began to issue the horror story surrounding our hotel and the drive that would take place to get there.
The stories were mostly true. We were not staying in town like most teams and the mechanics. Our hotel was a 45 minute drive across and beyond the town of Alcaniz. This wasn’t too bad, as it was nice to see the country side of Spain, and a few of the smaller towns that we hadn’t been subject to. There were many castles and older style housing made of brick. Some of the roads were made of dirt and were narrow, but none were more narrow and bumpy then the 15 mile twisting, turning, one lane, hope a car doesn’t sneak up on you head-on from the opposite direction.
 | FA Kart with Parilla X30s were the weapons of choice for the IAME International Challenge
(Photo: NorCalKarters.com) |
The road wasn’t too bad to be honest as we’re all racers and are crazy anyway. On the drive in was Jim Russell leading the pack with most of the drivers in a van, followed by Joey Licata Sr. in his hatch back, and then my family in our hatch back. Our car was a bit heavy however as we had not yet seen the hotel as the others, and still had our entire luggage loaded up in the back. In doing the math I believe we had around 300 lbs of luggage which made the car squat in the back on its own, then another 330 lbs. in passenger weight in the back which helped the ill handling rental car that we never purchased the insurance for handle even worse. As I learned I was teamed with the two old guys, as a typical driver I immediately questioned our chances in the event for a win. But my questions were answered as we made every attempt to stay with Jim Jr. in his fully loaded van through the windy bumpy roads. Let me be the first to put all the rumors that Jim Russell Jr. can actually drive to rest. He can actually drive! Once we got done with the drive to the motel and not looking over the edge at the cliff drop offs, and the mountain rocks leaning over the road, we arrived at our Motel which was an old olive oil well.
Our teams were the only guests at this motel which was run by a family. They had a very nice lounge library with a bar and many books. They treated us like royalty. The place was clean and immaculate. They served us fine Spanish wine (even to the young ones, no id checked) and dinner at a long straight table. We all ate as a team and family. They started us off with bread and fresh green olives then served us roasted vegetables. Our server Mario kept our glasses full and the food on the table. The main course was a cherry marinated pork roast. After dessert I took off to bed as I needed the sleep and was still adjusting to the time. Day 1 was completed and my mind was now switching into race mode.
Friday, November 7, 2008
The mornings at our family owned Motel were quiet. I didn’t score major points with the owner my first morning as he said breakfast was at 7am. Well I decided to get up early and sit in the lobby and write this diary for eKartingNews. Unfortunately for me I set the alarm off in the owner’s room as there was a motion detector that detected me, and he came downstairs looking for a thief. He was not to happy and informed me if breakfast is at 7am, wait until 7am before I come downstairs.
He set up a buffet consisting of ham and cheese, toast, breakfast cakes, and a cereal and yogurt table. He made some of the best coffee I have ever tasted, as Starbucks doesn’t hold a candle to this guy. As we left the hotel the mornings were cold. The windows were fogged up in the van and the roads were wet, which created quite the challenge for our team leader Jim Russell Jr. who drove the one lane windy road in van as if we were in a rally car.
We arrived at the track and our mechanics had the karts ready and were warming the engines. I took to the track for the first session of practice. The track was slick and the tires had little grip. The surface of the track however, was very consistent in the fact as the track began to come in during the third session, the track itself would create grip in places when there wasn’t rubber beginning to lie down. We ranked 14th most of the day with some flashes of top tens in practice based on time.
 | The castle hotel where Team USA stayed
(Photo: NorCalKarters.com) |
IAME had a lunch and dinner area set up that offered everything in fine dining. Pastas, meats, salads, deserts and drinks were available in an open buffet for 15 Euros. Everyday the servers would come by and offer to serve you red wine and put down a pitcher of Sangria. Not sure if any of the drivers drank alcohol in the middle of the day between driving, but a few of the moms of the drivers sure did enjoy it.
After the first day of driving and testing, the setup we arrived at for all three of us was full caster in the front, and all but one spacer wide. The front flat bar was upright, and we ran around 0.65 bar (9.42 PSI) for pressures. We loosened the rear bumper, as we had no upper seat struts, no rear bar, and we were not allowed to take the bolts out of the third bearing. As we left for the day, our mechanic Stephan changed the brake pads, and prepped the kart for the first three hours of competition.
We made the trip back to the hotel through the country of Spain. When we arrived at the motel, the residence had the lounge open for our enjoyment. They served us fine wines and beer, and even allowed young Joey Wimsett to enjoy the flavor of a Bailey’s and cream coffee (still not sure how he can sleep with the caffeine). The dinner this night was duck. It was rich and full of flavor as duck usually is. By the time we were done with our dinner they brought us dessert in vanilla ice cream with fresh cherries. We were all very exhausted by the time we finished our dining, as dinner is late in Spain, and we didn’t even sit down until 9pm. We all got to bed around 11pm.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday was the day competition began. We had three early morning sessions, qualifying, and the first three hour stint. We once again had our early morning breakfast as a team with the same food of ham, cheese, breakfast cake etc. On the way to the track as I was sitting in the van listening to my iPod. I decided to have a little fun with the team. I was the only one listening to music so everyone in the van could hear my music (my hearing lacks and I listen as loud as possible). I was scrolling through songs picking out the good ones I wanted to listen too. Knowing that everyone could hear exactly what song I was listening too, I began to pick odd songs to get an acknowledgment to see which drivers recognized them. Let me first throw in the disclaimer that I had my girlfriend upload all the songs so some of them, well most of them are not songs I would listen too. The first rise out of my teammates was from Joey Wimsett. I started playing Justin Timberlake and he immediately recognized the song. He must like Timberlake. But the best reaction came from the three old guys in the front seat. The whole trip they were talking amongst themselves, but when I started playing Billy Jean from Michael Jackson, all three turned around and began singing along. Three old dudes singing Michael Jackson? Yeah, that was the interesting way to start the day!
 | Scribner on track in Spain
(Photo: NorCalKarters.com) |
When we got to the track it had rained that night and the track was damp. Jim Jr. went out the first session and came in early as the track was wet. Many teams opted for a rain setup in the second session but I went out with slicks and was third fast overall, but fastest on slicks. We tried new tires for the last session to get a good qualifying setup. The tires came in quick. In qualifying I got held up by some slower karts that dropped us down to fourteenth. Team A set fourth quick time as Joey Licata set some fast laps. Things were looking good for team USA A-team. Kyle Wiegand and Jim Jr. were the two drivers to start the race. Kyle fell back a bit on the start as Jim Jr. moved up a bit and they were running in the same pack both in the top ten. After our first set of pit stops both teams moved up into the top five.
Both teams managed to stay in the top five on the lead lap for most of the day. Joey Licata Sr. and Phil Kirby did great jobs on the stop watch getting our pit stops right down to five minutes with a few seconds over. Our karts were setup great and the day was looking good as Team USA A-team had taken the lead and team-B was solid in the top five. However bad luck struck Team-A when Joey Wimsett was on the track. Some aggressive driving landed Wimsett the black and white flag. Wimsett not being familiar with the CIK flagging pulled into the pits as they had his number on the board and the flag displayed. The flag was a warning for contact, and this dropped the team down several laps. At this point, much of the focus switched to Team-B, as we had moved up to third with great pit stops and smart safe driving. At the end of the day, Team-A was 14 laps down in 22nd, and Team-B was third only one lap down. After Penalties were assessed, Team-B moved up to second on the lead lap, and Team-A had gotten seven laps back, and now down only seven laps.
There was a major conflict with Team-A as to how many laps they were down, and they had several meetings with scoring as to why they had received such penalties, however there questions could not be answered and scoring responded that they would look into it that night and have full results and answered questions in the morning. After the race when lifting up our kart onto the stand, the internal bolt holding the rear bumper into the frame tube had broke. We escaped with luck and it not breaking on the track. We replaced the bolt, installed new brake pads, and got a new top end in our motor for day #2 of racing. Chuck and myself walked the track that night. It was clear Chuck was struggling as he was the slowest on our team. We went over some lines that helped him look at the track in a different manner. The great thing about Chuck, he was determined to get fast laps to help the team, and had his goals set as to what he wanted to accomplish. That night Chuck was very optimistic.
 | Joey Licata Sr. and Phil Kirby enjoying trackside time
(Photo: NorCalKarters.com) |
When we got back to the motel we had a team meeting to go over our strategy for Day #2. Dinner again was not until 9 pm and most all of us were exhausted. By the time dinner came I myself was falling asleep in the lounge on the sofa. Jim Jr. had put me at the head of the table in his spot to sit next to our team manager Kirby. Kirby is an interesting guy that has many stories to tell from his experiences. Interesting stories they are as I was able to stay awake during dinner and didn’t nose dive into my food sleeping. I was served last as we were having fish for dinner and I got the end of the fish which was a very big chunk of meat. Unfortunately the fish was a little under cooked so I was not able to finish it off. Once again, we got to bed around 11.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The final day of the event was here. We said goodbye to the owner of the Motel in the morning as we would be staying at a different hotel Sunday night. I was feeling ill Sunday as I was queasy in the stomach and had a fever. It may have been the fish, it may have been nerves. When we arrived at the track we were pleasantly surprised that Team-A had gotten five more laps back, and were now only two laps down sitting in 10th. The last day we had our game plan set to minimize Chuck as much as we could to allow maximum laps for Jim Jr. and I. No time was wasted as we had one practice then the race began at 11. Jim Jr. got a great start using the Tony Kart nose to its maximum capability and moved a few karts out of the way.
After the first couple of laps Jim had moved up to eighth right behind Joey Licata who had started for team-A. About that time Joey’s kart began to come in. The kid can drive and proved it by running down the lead pack from a major gap. He picked them off one at a time. He moved into the third spot and worked with the second position kart to run down the leader who had opened up a good size lead. They both made their move on the leader, and team-A for USA had moved into the second position and looked as if he would make his move for the top spot, but their strategy was to pit early and pulled in a few laps after.
Team-B was running in the top five early and at times fell to sixth or seventh, but both teams were running strong, and USA had all the eyes, especially Team-A. The fast three drivers were laying down consistent fast laps. The pit stops again were flawless, and the smart driving for both teams was starting to pay off. Bad luck struck Team-A again, as Joey Wimsett and a lapped kart got together collecting another and wrecked. Wimsett continued but with a bent steering shaft and later they found the chassis had been bent delivering a major blow to Team-A and keeping them off the podium.
 | Team USA on the podium in third place
(Photo: NorCalKarters.com) |
They stayed on the lead lap and finished third, however at the time of the accident, it looked as if they could possibly put the whole field a lap down, and make it to the third spot. Team-B meanwhile was staying consistent. Chuck stepped up his game and was running faster times. We ended going one lap down, and would later cost us the second position on the podium. When the day ended we had finished seventh, but our great performance on Day 1 landed us the third place overall and a step on the prestigious podium.
As we wrapped up I sat in the lounge and enjoyed a San Miguel with Licata Sr. and Kyle Wiegand, as well as some fellow karters from Team Canada. We talked of the day, and made some jokes and laughed. I got wrapped up in the fun and forgot all about the ceremonies. Usually I frown upon that guy that runs across the pit during the presentations to come get his trophy, but this time, I was that guy. Licata poked his head in the lounge and said, “They just said your name!” I chugged the rest of the beer I WAS enjoying and there I was, running across the pits like that guy that missed part of the presentations, taking off my long sleeved shirt and hat trying to fix my hair so I could look presentable. I got their in time. They hadn’t even started calling the teams names yet. We received our huge cup, probably the nicest karting trophy I have ever seen. We sprayed champagne and enjoyed the glory of finishing third at the IAME International Challenge.
The champagne was expensive stuff. I walked around with the bottle to all my teammates and made sure everyone had a taste of the glory of getting on the podium step. It was a nice feeling of reaching the feat. Not only did we get their as the team, but they helped us get there, and we would have helped them get their. For that moment when you reach such an amazing goal, all your teammates feel like family, and you want to go give every one of them a hug and a kiss!
Okay, not one of them got a hug or a kiss, from me at least, but they were all smiling and all got a hand shake, and my appreciation for their work put forth. The mechanics were thanked, IAME was thanked, and at this point, every team that walked by got thanked and a hand shake. Yeah it was only a third, but competing against fourteen other countries and many teams that could have very much been more talented then ours, it was an accomplishment that many may never experience, and it is something special in every aspect.
I myself as a driver learned a lot throughout the weekend. I learned many new things about driving a kart and the technique in which I used coming into the event, and the one I now use leaving the event. I learned to work with your team and motivate them, and let them motivate me. When all was said and done, I give most of the credit to our team manager Kirby. He worked hard on that fence all day crunching numbers and getting us in the right place to finish where we did. But much credit has to go to the drivers as well. I was teamed with two older gentlemen that came from road racing. They adapted very well and focused. They were open minded and listened, and gave very much feedback and ideas. They were very easy to work with, and move forward. Our mechanic Stephan worked very hard as well. He had our kart prepped, cleaned, and nothing ever broke down.
The IAME International Challenge of 2008 had concluded. We left the circuit and just like any other event you start looking at what’s next. You try to switch your focus and move forward, but not me. I was overly happy with our results and I was headed to Zaragoza to enjoy pasta and fine red wine. I hope I’m invited back next year for this event, because next time I will be greedy. I want the top step on the podium, as the Canadians have gotten it two years in a row. |
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