WKA Daytona KartWeek Blog - Michele Bumgarner

michele bumgarner · Joined: 22 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

Was at the table last night with Brandon Adkins and Chris Wehrheim and told them how excited I was to get on the track today and just drive, as I havent driven anything in quite a while. But i was really looking forward to the Race Weekend because i did particularly well last year and just want to get a better result. And of course to be back with my Team, Margay managed by Jason Birdsell, as the Team Owner, Keith Freber was busy doing his 25th Annual Race at the Enduro Track here in Daytona.

Saturday Morning came, and I was just anxious to get to the track. Practice didnt start till about eight o'clock, which means that i wasnt on track till about a quarter to nine. My First Session went okay, wasnt looking to top the charts right off the bat, was just getting myself comfortable with being in a kart and back at the track.

Tony Loniewski, Shaun Cook of Cook Motors and I found more speed every session. In the end, i was a couple of tenths off of Caleb Loniewski's fast time, which puts me in the ball park of where we need to be. After debriefing in the 3 session with my tuner Tony, he knew exactly what I needed. We tried the new 25mm spindles from Margay, which were worth 3-4 tenths and gave me amazing grip.

Tomorrow will be a new ball game, and I am looking forward to putting this set up that we found today to the ultimate test.
_________________
Cheers,
Michele

Jacob Carpenter · Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject:

Great news about the 25mm spindles!
Good luck Michele and the rest of team Margay!!
I'm pullin for all of you and lets get a good start to the 2009 season!
_________________
JC Racing Driver #8
Formula 500, Formula Ford
JC Racing
http://www.freewebs.com/jc_racing/
(810) 623-5046
Yellow Fin Performance Engines
http://www.pkpyellowfin.com/
(937) 743-4433
Margay Racing Products, Inc.
http://margay.com
(314) 771-4242

Michelle Wehrheim · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 24

Rick Fulks · Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:22 pm Post subject:

Michele, (Jason, Tony, and Shaun)

An ALL STAR line up indeed.

Good luck you guys!

Rick Fulks

Jacob Carpenter · Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

Michele, Are you running just TaG?
Hows KF doing in the Enduro Kart? :]
_________________
JC Racing Driver #8
Formula 500, Formula Ford
JC Racing
http://www.freewebs.com/jc_racing/
(810) 623-5046
Yellow Fin Performance Engines
http://www.pkpyellowfin.com/
(937) 743-4433
Margay Racing Products, Inc.
http://margay.com
(314) 771-4242

David Cole · Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject:

From Michele:

Since yesterday was a relatively successful test day. Once again, today I was anxious and excited to get back on the track and chip away at the lap times. In morning warm up, I was definitely fast. Probably top 5 quickest, but due to traffic made things more difficult to see my fullest potential. Which made me and my tuner Tony confident for the qualifying. However, in qualifying I didn't think I faired well because David Sera was 2 tenths quicker over the field, but to my surprise we ended up 8th. Sitting on the grid for the prefinal, I noticed an empty spot right next to Caleb Loniewski, who was starting in front of me. I thought to myself, "who is missing?" It was my buddy, Brandon Adkins! Unfortunately, the officials were running out of day light and we had to start without him.

During the prefinal, I was a little nervous about the start, but we had no issues then. As the race went on, the kart was decent, until the end which it started to pick up a push. However, we managed to finish 6th. After the prefinal, Tony and Shaun went to work on my kart again for they knew just what I needed. I started the final nervous in the beginning. Once again, I stayed out of trouble on the start. Zach Beard passed me for a position. I managed to stay right with him with no trouble. However, I noticed the top 5 drivers were pulling away. I knew I needed to pass Beard ASAP. So I had to make a hole and I dove in the inside in T1. I knew he wasn't going to give it up that easy. But I was confident in the Margay chassis. I knew it would hold and I booked it. I checked out from Beard, but unfortunately it was too late to catch up to the leaders. So we ended up the same position where we started, 6th. Tony and I believe we found more speed in the chassis.

Thanks to Margay and Shaun Cooke of Cooke Racing Engines, I was the fastest Leopard out there. Looking forward to a new day tomorrow and hopefully get a poduim finish! WISH ME LUCK.

and P.S. to Marc Miller, GRAZIA.
_________________
David Cole
News Desk Manager
eKartingNews.com
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Rob Howden · Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject:

michele bumgarner · Joined: 22 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

Rick & Rob - WE WISH YOU WERE HERE TOO!
Hopefully today will be better!
_________________
Cheers,
Michele

Brandon Hull · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:54 pm Post subject: Congrats

Nice Job Michelle! We were sure sorry not to be there!
B&F

David Cole · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:46 am Post subject:

Michele's Final Entry:

Sitting at my gate in the Indianapolis International Airport, waiting for my flight to go back home to Manila, I look back on how I did at Daytona Kart Week a few days prior.

The weekend in general, was great. I got to see people who I havent seen since the last ManCup Race in New Castle. As always, i had a fabulous time with my Team, Margay Race Team, I never have a dull moment when I'm racing with them! The Racing Front was good, could have been better. Had better results in Final 1 than I did in Final 2.

Day 3 Warm Up was great, had my best time while passing someone in T1, which made me really confident and anxious for Qualifying. Qualifying result wasnt great, everyone went quicker, which put me in 18th.
Both Races were pretty much a mess. I got pushed out at the exit of T1 at the start of the Pre Final, which put me back in 20th or even further back and got back up to 17th. And the same thing happened in the Final, i dropped a wheel in the exit of T1 and lost it and never regained my momentum and got stuck behind a few drivers.

If only Day3 was the day before and vice versa, I would have been alright, as I would much rather leave on a high note! But Hey, that's Racing!

I am about to board my flight to Detroit, but hope to see everyone at South Bend in May! Have a Happy New Year!
_________________
David Cole
News Desk Manager
eKartingNews.com
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