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| Features |
| Racer’s Diary – Lynsey Tilton |
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 | | Lynsey with Roger Penske |
Editor’s note: I met Lynsey last May in Indianapolis through Lyn St. James. Lynsey, 16, was invited to Indy by the Lyn St. James Foundation as one of the women who were honored in the “Women in the Winner’s Circle” celebration and fundraiser. St. James has taken Lynsey under her wing as one of her recent protégés. It’s great to see up and coming talent in the beginning years of their career ambitions. Along with her parents, she had a fantastic time over qualifying weekend at Indy.
Lyn personally escorted us through Gasoline Alley and on a tour of the Speedway. As many will attest, St. James isn’t shy about walking right up and introducing who she hopes will be the next rising star on her list of protégés to the likes of championship teams, crew chiefs and drivers. St. James was instrumental in helping to jump start Danica Patrick's career.
Lynsey, from Lakeside, Calif., started racing at the age of four and is a five time Grand National BMX champion. She moved to karts at age nine and in 125cc shifter karts at age 14. She races regularly in San Diego Karting Association. Her 15 starts in 2002 resulted in two wins, 10 top five finishes and three top 10 finishes, plus four fast times in the Alex Barron Super Spec Series.
Now that she is venturing out to national competition levels, her learning progression will continue. Although her second Stars' national attempt didn’t acquire the results she had hoped for, she continues to find areas of improvement necessary to run up front in the series. We hope you find her Racer’s Diary of interest and we appreciate her taking the time to share her experiences with us.
A Racer's Diary - Lynsey Tilton
July 11-13 was the third round of the Stars of Tomorrow West division race held at Infineon raceway. The track was 7/10 of a mile, 15 turns and right above the big track. This weekend would bring the best in karting to the track.
It all started out on Friday, the first day of practice. We would get 5 sessions that day, then Saturday and Sunday would be the races. The first session on Friday would be to learn the track and break in the motor. The rest were used to find a set-up. By the end of Friday we were right around 35th out of 56. We were hoping that when Saturday came along I would be able to pick up a half a second or so and make it into the top 20.
 | | Lynsey, shown at right, listens to Shawna Robinson in a discussion forum. Note other karters in photo, Rhonda (Gutsue) Trammell and Samatha Weakley who were also invited |
Saturday morning practice showed I was sitting in 35th position, and that meant to make it in the pre final, I would have to make up a lot of ground. Qualifying came around and I put the best lap I could together in the 15 minute session. Unfortunately I would be sitting 42nd, this meant going to the last chance qualifier. My whole attitude toward this was that I was going to make it. I had to pass 7 people to make the top 8 to transfer. The start was a mess a big crash in turn 1 and a couple laps later another crash in turn 5. This would put me in 10th place. With 2 laps to go 7th and 8th took each other out putting me in the final transfer position. I held off 9th place to make the transfer position.
The start of the heat, I stalled it on the start but got it going again. I quickly moved up to 27th after starting 36th. The main came around and starting 27th, I wanted to at least move up to the top 15 to get points, but that didn’t happen. I ended up moving up to 19th. The main showed me turning faster lap times and with this set-up it would hopefully work on Sunday to put me in the main again.
But when Sunday came along, it was another hard day. Still in practice I was over a second off, just like I had been all weekend. Qualifying would put be 44th, and yet another hard chance of getting in the main. Starting 17th in the LCQ would be harder then Saturday. Sitting in 9th with one 1 lap to go, I was trying to make a pass for 8th and it didn’t work. The guy behind me passed me and the other guy in front of me putting me back to 10th. At scales the winner was DQ’ed so that put me 9th missing the main by 1 spot.
This was a hard experience to swallow, but it was a really good one. I am taking this a stepping-stone to further my racing career. What I got out of all this is that we are weak in a spot or two. The major one is the motor situation. We feel that there is something wrong with the horsepower. We are thinking that we are down a couple horsepower then where we need to be and we are working on it.
The next race for the Stars of Tomorrow will be September 12-14. I will also be racing locally along with some other races that are coming up, and working to get the test in the midget in soon. I would like to thank, my parents, fast girls racing, Bonita Vista Chevron, RDS Unlimited, Gray Thunder Racing, Tel- Air Interest, La Mesa Glass, and Sanner Racing. Also, special thanks to Juliana Chiovitti who gave me advice and support all weekend. Juliana did an awesome job all weekend but stuck both of her motors.
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