It's July 29th and we're back in Palmetto to sweat off the summer season of national and regional competition with Andersen Racing. A lot has happened since my last update, with two races and a chassis test occurring in such a short span of time. I'm back in Florida to re-structure and move forward with a new plan that best serves our drivers and team.Firstly, New Castle Indiana and the US Rotax Nationals have become a faint memory. Our drivers (Andy Dunne and Jeremy Kane) finished in the top ten of a competitive rotax senior class. Andy finished out in fourth and Jeremy in seventh. I'm proud to have both drivers, who started second and third for the final, accomplish so much that weekend. Andy was dejected to not qualify for the Grand Final in Italy, but one out from the top three is still a good job. It was determined that a faulty clutch prevented Andy from getting off of the slow corners fast enough to contest for a win. Jeremy was fast and aggressive - the ladder not as common with his traditional style. He was pushed back a few places and came through with six in front of him. Not too shabby for his first race in senior competition!
Before we left, Andy and I had an opportunity to test some Arrow chassis, to see how they felt and how the team interacted with us. The weather was not too cooperative and we had damp conditions for most of the day, but for the few moments it was dry on-track, we noticed some distinct differences and we were both happy to have tested the chassis. I want to see if Andersen Racing will be picking up a second chassis line in the coming months, and doing the necessary research such as post-race testing is essential for a proper decision.
After packing from New Castle, we moved southeast for our next stop, a regional Florida state race in Jacksonville. Andersen had a large driver lineup with the likes of racers from mini max to masters. Greg McCarthy and his son, Michael both had disappointing weekends. Greg was starting to get back in to the swing of things as far as driving a kart was concerned, and Michael was getting demolished down the long straight. I was missing something on the engine and it is a major focus item while I'm at the shop in Palmetto currently. Eddie Kish got back in to the seat and had a bad weekend performance-wise, but improved on last year's result. Jake Mottaz climbed in on Sunday in TaG Senior and was excited to mix it up with the middle of the pack. Mitchell St.Cin stayed massively overweight and finished in the back of the mini max field, while Michael Melancon showed massive improvements in qualifying and heat racing. Jake Duvall scrambled around during the weekend and came away with a strong result in TaG Senior.
To look back just a few days ago and realize that team Andersen has just completed two major racing weekends seems a little less stellar because of the lack of wins. I believe that our drivers and team personnel have the capability to perform better than we did. During our short time here where there is little racing and more availability for testing, I will be evaluating which direction Andersen Racing should move in for the remainder of the year and in to the coming seasons. I will be specifically looking at which chassis we will be running, who our associated racing teams will be, and which motor development program best suits us as a team. We need to get the results that we have prepared ourselves for.
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