10/23/07-Sorry for not being good about keeping the site up-to-date. Things have been quite topsy-tirvy between school, home and race. We've been doing decently, finished 3rd, got some 3-wide action through 4 corners, no wrecks(knock on wood). We just have little things we need to get right and we're there. Last raceday we had the chassis right out of the trailer but the engine wasn't there but by the end of the day the engine has it's normal spunk back and the chassis understreering. We did move up from qualifing 8th to 6th. The field lately has been very big lately too(relatively speaking), it's been fun. Our next race is this sunday(10/28/07). Racing starts at 11! ~Deana

7/28/07 - The afternoon started out with a brief monsoon rain. The track will surely dry, but will it rain again? Don't know, and can't take the chance, so we head up to the track. We have announced it yet, but this will be the last race we have the Biesse chassis, it was given to us to use by Dave Armstrong, and will be going back. Deana and I are looking to give it back after a strong finish. We do get a practice session in, and then the sky opens up again. The race is called after about an hour and a half delay. We are disappointed we can't run the Biesse, but look forward. We are exploring some options, both equipment we already own, shop chassis and the possibility of a new chassis. No matter what, we will be at the next race on August 11th.

7/22/07 - Summer Season preview - With Deana in school and working, and my work schedule, we haven't run since the end of the last season, 2 months. We hit the track Sunday morning, and were pleasently surprised as another person stepped up with support for Deana's racing effort for the Summer Season. With that boost, we hit the track reenergized. Deana has to get reaquainted with the track and her kart, but after the second session, she is just a bit off of competitive lap times. Considering the weather, track conditions, and the tires we had on, we were running pretty good. She even ran down a shifter kart. We race next Saturday, 7/28, with a renewed sense of competitiveness. Stay tuned as we go into the next season, preparing for the best, ready to tackle the worst, but always looking to enjoy this wonderful sport.  

5/12/07 - PKRA Winter Season summary - What a roller coaster. It ranged from qualifying and running up front, only to not finish due to overlooking the basics. We ended up 9th overall, but that was not idicitive of how well we did run, when we finished. The what if's, if we would have improved on our worst 2 finishes, we could have finished 4th. 4th to 9th was only separeted by 89 points. Oh well, that's racing, and how the racing Gods smile or frown on you. We have 2 months off, and we'll regroup for the PKRA Summer Season. 

There have been two race days since I've been able to update. The first rained out the main races, I qualified 4th out of 20 karts. Unfortunately, after some repair to the starter motor the bolts to the side-pod were forgotten (not by my dad by the way, the guy that helps us forgot them). It came out on the warm up lap and Itried to hold it on to it, but that didn't last long. The other race we qualified mid-pack. During the heat race, the other kid whose drives a BGR chassis ran over me and ripped my pipe off . I started in the back of the pack and worked my way to about the middle of the pack again. The day would have been better if things would stop happening to us!! It's a little frustrating but I hold out hope for the next race weekend. ~Deana

3/11/07-PKRA- The day started out bright. We were pretty confident from Saturday testing and in qualifying, snagged P3. In the heat race, I fell back to fourth on the start and spent the race scrapping with James Rooke, which was a blast! In the main race, I got a much better start. I was running in 4th for about half the race. The air pressure built up alittle too  much and I was passed in Turn 5. With 2 laps to go, my engine began to miss in the higher revs. Unfortunatly I don't have 7 other cylinders to tide me through and my race was over. The next Sunday, we went out to the track to see if we out find the problem. It turned out to be the started box electronic! Technology is cool, but it'll catch up to you really fast!~Deana

1/14/07 - PKRA - 23' F., that was the temperature when we left the house Sunday morning. We unloaded the kart and found the cooling system frozen, the radiator hoses hard as a frozen rock. We got a heat gun and Deana spent the next hour and a quarter unfreezing the water. We missed first practice and went out on second practice, only to have the kart stall out, probably due to the temp and oil/fuel mixture gelling up. Next up was qualifying, and we have not run a full lap. We only qualified 15 of 23, we didn't tape off enough of the radiator and never got the engine hot enough to run it hard. We start the heat race and move up 4 spots in the first 2 laps, looking good. Oh no, but what's this, Deana comes around on lap 3 with her hand up, warning other karts she is off the pace. She pulls in. The fitting that holds the throttle cable to the carb has failed. We make necessary repairs and start the main race in 20th. With some help from Curtis Ruth behind her, after the first lap, we are 16th. At the end of the 12 lap race, we finish 10th, with the next 2 karts right in front of us. It was a challenging day, we moved through the pack well, the Biesse chassis and Leopard engine performing well. We feel as though we just survived a tough day, and made the most of it. We also were the third fastest during the main race, also a good sign.

12-10-06, Race Day! This was the first raceday experience with Dave and it was quite a good one, I believe. It was a non-points money race and there wasn't a very good turn out. In the TaG class there was only 4 karts and they used the pill pull method for gridding us up. In the first heat, I started on the out side pole. The inside line got a good jump on the start, moving me back to 3rd. I caught the second place kart but it took a few laps to be able to get by him. After I cleared him, I was able to chase down the first place kart. I attemped a few passes but was unable to make it stick. I finished in second, right on his bumper when we crossed the line. In the 2nd heat I started in third. I made it pass the second place kart and caught him again. I was able to pass him but he snuck pass me again. Going into turn one I was right on his tail when he slowed up quite substantualy. My nose cone was ripped off and I couldn't find the clamps to reattach it to continue. For the final I started third. The time sheets showed that I was fastest in both heats, I knew that I could beat him, I just had to figure out how to get around him. We took the green flag and the out side pole kart got a huge boost from the kart behind him on the start. Then going into turn two the guy I had been battling and the out-side pole sitter wrecked. Both the fourth place kart and I snuck by. That was it, I had the lead. I kept it too!!~Deana

12-1-06, Practice. This was my first test of the Biesse chassis. The track's direction has been reversed so currently I'm not sure where my times stand. Overall I think the afternoon went very good. The chassis handled well from the start and the engine was running very well. We were pretty happy with the times we were running and are looking forward to the money race on Dec. 10th at PKRA!

11/30/06 - Team update - It appears that our tenacity and perseverence have paid off. Deana has been asked, and accepted a ride with a 3 kart team, with her being the third kart. The team manager is Dave Armstrong, and his son, Clay, is driving the other 2 karts in Junior classes. Dave has a 3 kart deal with Pepsi as a sponsor. We will be parking the Manning and CRG chassis' for 2007, as Deana will be driving a kart furnished by Mr. Armstrong. Deana will be testing a Biesse chassie this Friday, powered by her Leopard motor. It still has not been decided what kart chassis she will be driving. She will be concentrating on a serious run for the points championship in Phoenix in 2007, and making an occasional trip to other tracks as her school schedule allows.

11/18/06 - WKA Phoenix - Crew Chief comments - Mike Manning is in the process of getting the Motori package approved for WKA. He has to run it 3 times for evaluation by WKA. He asked us to run it in Phoenix. We got the motor Friday, and the race was Saturday. So, we spent most of the night getting it on the CRG, running wires and and remounting exhaust systems. We got to the track early and finished the little stuff. After a couple of quick practice sessions, we went to qualify. The brake pads we had glazed over, but we still managed 7th out of 14. We went out for the heat race, and finished a quiet 7th. We made a few changes to the jetting and gearing and went out for the main. We were dicing with the 5th and 6th place karts but were just off a bit. A front runner went out and finished 6th overall. Deana said the motor pulled well off the turns, but with so little time on this package, we were learning what this motor liked, while we were racing. In retrospect to this race, and the Super Nat's, I think we have been too conservative in making changes, in a compressed schedule. No guts, no glory. We would like to thank Mike Manning for asking us to run the Motori motor package for it's Phoenix evaluation.

Good News!! We will be running the WKA event at PKRA this weekend for MMK. I will be in the CRG chassis and a Motori 7 engine!

Super Nat's, two words: crazy stuff!The weekend started on Thursday for this one. We only got 4 short practice sessions but didn't really hit any good set-up until the third heat. At that point it was too late. We battled with the brakes for a day and a half, I didn't have decent brakes until qualifying. With all karts all within about 2.5 seconds apart from each other, being a little off is huge and the way they run the heats, I started in the same position every time. In the first heat, I got run over by the heaviest guy in the class. My helmet left a dent in his nose cone (i'd tell more cool details if I could remember them better ;-), OUCH!! Friday ended with a bent axle and other bent up stuff. Heat 2 wasn't very eventful, thank goodness! Heat 3 was the one I enjoyed most. I got to do alot of racing and passing. I think I gained 12 positions in heat three. Then it was on to the Last Chance Qualifier. I did get caught up in the mess on the start and bent a spindle. I finished but not high enough to make it to the main. This was a very good learning experience, the kind of learning that you only get by doing it. It was an experience for sure and alot of fun! (and for the adrenaline junkies: try stuffing 40 karts through a walled-in chicane, trust me u'll love it!)~Deana

11/12/06 - Super Nat's - Crew Chief comments - We felt pretty good going into this. Boy, was that a pipe dream. We only had 4 10 minute practice sessions Thursday. We were off, but didn't realize how far a little off is in a national event. Thursday, we battled brake issues all day, eventually rebuilding the master cylinders and caliper. Friday qualifying, we ran our fastest lap of the event. We were just a tic under 2 seconds off the ploe sitter, but at this level, it put us 71st of 80 in the speed charts, Ouch!! Our starting position for all 3 heats was row 18. First heat, there was a pile up, Deana slowed down, but the guy behind her didn't. We didn't even make it to turn 3. Bent axle and exhaust system, Rick and I had our work cut out. Saturday, second heat, again starting 36th, we moved up to 30th. Went back and did some more tuning for heat 3. Again started 36th, but we were good this heat, moving all the way up to 24th. Too little, too late. We went to the C main to try to move in to position to make the Sunday race. We started 15th, finished 11th, but only the top 5 transferred. Our racing program has been a series of steps. each step you take, you go from near the top to the bottom of the next. We have heard about racing at this level, but until you do it, the stories don't do it justice. As they say, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Well, we're not dead, so watch out!!!

11/12/06 - Super Nat's - Quick update - Wow, what a weekend. 80 entries for only 41 starting spots. Unfortunately, we did not make the race Sunday. We have raced locally and regionally, but this was our first National event. Our qualifying time was just a tick less then 2 seconds slower than the pole time, and that put us at #71 in the speed charts. We have never been in competition that tight before. Full update to follow.

11/8/06 - Super Nat's in Las Vegas - We will be heading up to Las Vegas to run in the Super Nat's. We will get to be "under the tent" pitting with other drivers from the AzKartWerx stable. This will be our biggest race to date, with 80 entries, but only 45 starting. It's go or go home. We are very confident of making the show on Sunday. We'll try to update the website through the weekend, or go to EKarting News or the SKUSA websites. If you are attending, stop by and say "Hi".

11/7/06 - Series standings - Although we participated in 3 series this year, our focus was on the ProKart Challenge. In this series we finished 4th overall, an improvment from last year's 5th place finish. We started strong in IKF, but with Deana attending ASU now, we were not able to run the last 2 events. We did finish 9th, running 6 of the 9 events. Closer to home in Phoenix, if we were not out of town, we would run the club races. We finished 5th in the winter season, and 7 in the summer season.

9/22/06, ProKart, Streets of Willow, Crew Chief comments – We leave Phoenix Friday afternoon, and arrive at Willow at 10:30 p.m. Gates open at 6:30 Saturday morning, with practice and racing all being done in a day. It is going to be a long one. This is a big track, with us expecting speeds nearing 100 m.p.h. It turns out we have a headwind on the long downhill straight, and the best we can run is about 82 m.p.h. Have I mentioned, Deana loves the speed? We try a range of gears, but our times stay within 1 second and 2 m.p.h. Unexpectedly, our understeer condition returns. We qualify 5^th out of 10. At the start of the first heat, Deana pushes the starter button, but the motor doesn’t crank!! We grab an external starter, get her going, but the penalty for that is that she has to start at the back of the field. Big track, we’re not worried. By the second lap, she is up to 5^th. We finish in 4^th. We get the kart back to the trailer to change the starter, and discover a severe crack in the right rear of the chassis. Luckily, we have our “Master Improvisor” with us, Rick. We make a decision to not run the second heat race. If we put Deana back out the way it is, the chassis will surely break, and we will be screwed. We are 4^th in points, and points are awarded if you take the green flag of the main race, the heats don’t count. We need to take the green flag, we need the points. We improvise a brace, and get the kart to the grid, just minutes before the start of the race. Even though we missed the 2^nd heat, we start 7^th of 10. We want Deana to run hard, but tell her if anything feels odd, to come in. The track is ready, and the karts take to the track. It is a full lap around, 1.8 miles. Green flag drops and we’re racing, and we’re getting points!! We hang around 6^th for the first half of the race, Rick and I are just glad to see her running. The 3^rd and 4^th place karts tangle, and we inherit 4^th place. With 2 laps to go, our patch fails the stress test, and Deana is given a mechanical black flag. However, through attrition, we still finish 4^th, and more importantly, finish 4^th in the points for the year. What a day!!!

9/9/06, PKRA track, Crew Chief comments – Deana has been in class, at ASU, now for 3 weeks. School is taking up all of her spare time, and we don’t get any practice time since the last race. That is our first priority however, and we’ll rely on our tenacity to get us by at the track. We try something different on the kart during the 1 practice session before qualifying, and what do you know, we have oversteer!! I can’t remember the last time that was a problem. We are pretty excited at our prospects. Deana qualifies 8^th out of 15, but this has now turned into a real-time practice session for us. We move up 1 more spot in the heat race, finishing 7^th, but we are “racey”, with Deana dueling it out with another driver for 4 of the 6 laps. We leave the chassis alone, but make a gear change. Wow, what a difference. Deana shoots up to 4^th place. There is a battle for 4^th, 5^th and 6^th all race, with us running 4^th a fair amount of time. She is a rocket on the straight, but lose what we gain in the first set of turns. We end up 6^th, but going through our data reveals some interesting facts. The most telling was that we are 3 m.p.h. faster at the end of the straight than before. That is a huge gain. However, Deana isn’t used to carrying sooo much speed into the next set of turns, her line was off, which allowed the other drivers their opportunity to pass. This has been the best outing we have had in a long time.

8/26/06, PKRA track, Crew Chief comments – We take drastic steps, and move a bunch of weight forward. What we had wasn’t working, so let’s try something else. It helps, but we have been better. We qualify 5^th, and finish 5^th in the race. Doesn’t seem too good, from the outside looking in, but after the motor and understeer issues we have been dealing with for the last 2 months, we’ll take a quiet, unexciting 5^th. We both like the new motor package. It is fast out of the box, and with a little tuning, it should only get better.

8/12/06, ProKart, Willow Kart track, Crew Chief comments – Well, this is our first opportunity to run the Leopard motor on our chassis. We can tell it pulls off the turns better, but we are still struggling to get the kart to turn, rotate through the corners. This is where we are losing time. We qualified 7^th. In the race, we ran as high as 4^th, but as the front tires give up grip, we end up 9^th overall. We’re pretty disappointed.

7-22-06 PKRA. We were fortunate enough to get to run the Az Kart Werx Tony/Rok kart! In qualifing they sent a kart out right in front of me, which did hinder my qualifing a bit. I placed 6th and on the start of the heat race ended up in third! I was passed on the straight by two other karts putting me back to 5th for the main. On the start I went back to 6th and fought with 5th the entire time. He liked to brake check, I wasn't willing to compromise Darryl's equipment. I tried a few passes but he held on. One of the front runners had some difficulties and both of us made it through. I finished 5th at the end of the night. Our next race: Willow Springs Kart Track at night!! ~Deana

7-8-06 Santa Maria, PKC. Wow what a weekend, you really learn who your friends are! We showed up to the track with the Az Kart Werx shop TonyKart/ Rok. The chassis handled wonderfully, the engine felt great. I really think we could have run top 3 with this package but unfortunately as the saying goes, "they run best before they go" holds truth. We manage to piece it back together about 4 o'clock and went out to break it, which we literally did, sticking the piston. So at the end of the day Friday we were left with a dilema: 540 mile drive and no engine to run. Luckily 2 Wild Karting had a complete Leopard package in their trailer. We were at the track until 11 putting on the engine package and broke it in on morning pratice. We qualified 9th and had the carb to rich in the first heat, the engine flooded and died. In the second heat We started last, which turn out in our favor with a few of the guys running into eachother in turn one. I got to make a few passes and made it up to 7th. In the main I got a decent start. I got to do some fun clean racing and ended with a 5th. ~Deana

7-2-06 Weekend Preview. Seeing as we still lack an important piece of a race machine, we will be running the AZ Kart Werx shop-kart in Santa Maria for the ProKart Challenge. With the help of Arizona Commodity Traders, we have been able to place an order for a Leopard engine to replace the Rotax. This coming weekend we will be running a Tony Kart equipped with a Vortex Rok engine. And on a side note, I was very fortunate in that I got to drive Arie Luyendyke Jr.'s FA Alonso shifter kart! It was an absolute blast and he was very helpful getting me aquainted to the shift points. I wasn't anymore then 1.5 seconds off his pace in my fourth shifter kart experience. He won the last club race and is planning on a repeat performance here at home this weekend, best of luck to him!~Deana

6-24-06 Phoenix, PKRA. What an incredible week! We were practicing on Thurday when the engine had a catastrophic failure. The cylinder is torn up and the crank case is cracked so I no longer have an engine. Unfortunately, we had a race Saturday night! Darryl,http://www.azkartwerx.com, has a rental kart at the shop and we were able to rent the kart for the race night. It is a Tony Kart with a Rok engine. My first run in the kart was in practice on race day and it handled great right from the start. I qualified 7^th out of 17 karts, in my second time in the kart. On the start of the heat race, the engine died but restarted. I was in last and started picking off karts. I finished in 10th right on the tail of 9th. In the Main race, the maylah was right in front of me so I went dirt tracking to avoid it. I ended up in a pack of four karts that were boncing off eachother quite a bit. Two of the karts took eachother out. I got to make a few passes in the road course and finished 10th, two wide across the finish line. I was quite happy with the night considering how it could have been! ~Deana

6-17-06 CalSpeed, IKF. Another weekend with triple digit tepms at the track, but the high was only 102 instead of 104. We were running a different configuration then the last time, with the hair pin in the middle.In the past we've struggled with this corner and this weekend was no different. Alot of the problem is me, I can hit the line but not every lap. In the laps I got it right, i would drop four tenths. We ran mid-pack all day. I qualified 9th. In the first heat, I got a good start and picked up a spot. About half way through the heat I got into a fun race, ended up losing a spot but it was fun. The start of the main race was fairly good again. I was racing pretty hard with another guy, going back and forth for a couple of laps. I finished up 9th again. We found a better set-up in the front end that will hopefully get us that extra littel bit to get up front at the club race coming up. ~Deana

6-10-06 PKRA, Club race. For the summer season opener I was able to run one of Mike Manning's Motori 7 engines! We were running a different track configuation, from turn 1 up into turn 5, which opened up another passing zone. I ran a fast time in pratice, it would have grabbed pole. But in qualifing, my right rear tire was losing air, coming in at 6 psi! I qualified 8^th of 23. On the start of the heat race I grabbed two positions. I was trying to push the tires and I did a little to far and was passed. After I found the edge, I was able to pull five kart lengths off of turn 8! That Motori has nice bottem end! The start of the race wasn't as good as the heat but I retained my position. There was lots of racing and guys bouncing off eachother in front of me. I got racing pretty hard with a guy I used to race with in Jr. Sportsman! And on the second to last lap we went two wide through the dog leg, I was on the inside, and unfortunately he got a bit of the dirt. I ended up finishing 8th, so over all I didn't lose any positions. We will be heading out to Calspeed again but for IKF this time and we are quite optimistic!~Deana

6-3-06 Calspeed, ProKart Challenge. Friday practice, we broke in our Rotax engine after Mike Manning did a top-end rebuild. After working with the chassis, we were able to drop quite a bit of time off at the end of the day. In qualifying, I was able to get tons of open track and put up fourth fastest. In the first heat race the inside line got the jump and I went to fifth. We needed just a bit more top end to get past fourth and the chassis was starting to get overstuck. We adjusted and tried it again in the second heat race. I got shoved out on the start and went back to seventh or eighth. I got to do some racing with some other Arizona TaG racers and made my way back to fifth. The track continued to get more grip and the temperature was 104 with enough humidity to make it really ugly. We adjusted the chassis for the main and it was for the better. On the start I went from fifth to third and was running right with second. On the third lap, the leader's tire went flat and he washed up in front of me and I went back to 6th. I fought my way up to fourth but was just keeping even with second and third until they got together in the last quarter of the race. I caught them and passed for third on the third to last lap, slid out too far and was passed back on the second to last lap. I repassed third again, and caught second on the last lap, bringing home third place. I then promptly drank a few bottles of water! The IKF race this month is also at this track and we are hopeful going into the race weekend. ~Deana

5-14-06 Wow 3 tracks in 7 days! We ran at Moran with IKF, Grange with ProKart Challenge and here at Phoenix. At Moran, we broke reeds during Qualifying. With one lap I qualified 11th, I went backwards during the heat but had a lot of fun racing! In the Final, I made it through the starting melee, but spent most of the race stuck behind two guys, one would mess up, I'd cautiously pass him and the other would dive bomb me! (rolls eyes). I finally got past on the second to last lap and dropped a second off my times, finishing 9th. At Grange we just could not find the set-up until the final. That track is very tight with a long straight, not fun to gear for, needless to say. We finished 11th, which is where we were all day. At Phoenix the next day, it was 10 degrees (F) hotter at 102. The kart felt pretty good, but we tried to make it better but that ended up back firing, we had way too much front end grip whereas the day before we were fighting not enough front grip! Ha Ha, oh the irony! Well I need sleep before school tomorrow! Have a great day!~Deana