The JWR crew was prepared and ready for action. We had parked the trailer on Friday night so we showed up ready to go Sunday morning. First up was a couple of rounds of practice. We time trialed for starting positions for the howler which is usually pretty good for us but, due to new tires, cold weather, bad luck or whatever we didn't manage to snag the top spot in either race. Jack started 4th in both divisions after pulling numbers for the starting spot for the SNL race.The SNL race was up first. Jack started fourth lined up behind the 95 of Josh Gayman with the 08 of David Gayman and the 43 of Devin O'Connell lined up to the inside. Josh is Jack's biggest competition as he currently sits first in the standings so we really need to finish ahead of him in order to take the lead and the championship. The race starts as expected with Josh charging for the lead and Jack hot on his heels. The 08 slides back through the middle as the 43 dives underneath him coming out of turn 2 on the first lap. By the time they cross the stripe the 95 has the lead with Jack in 2nd and the 43 coming up in third.
Jack stays right on Josh's bumper giving him a couple of taps as they make there way around the track and increase their lead over the 43 and the rest of the pack. On lap 6 Jack sneaks a peak coming down the front stretch and loses a kart length to Josh but soon gathers it back up and continues to push him around the track. Josh takes the half way flags but Jack sets up the pass coming out of turn two and uses his brother perfectly to take over the lead for lap 11. Once Jack takes over the lead Josh just can't get to him, he stays about a kart length away but can't get to his bumper. Jack leads the last 9 laps and takes the win with the 95 of Gayman right behind him and about a half a track lead over the remainder of the field. With that win Jack wins the 2009 Saturday Night Live Tiger Sprint Division Championship!!!
Next up, the Halloween Howler. Again Jack starts in fourth spot lined up behind the 96 of Justin Barry with the 95 of Gayman, the 09 of JP Brennan and the 43 of O'Connell lined up inside of him. Jack and Justin have worked great together all year so we're thinking it will be a repeat of the last race, Justin and Jack will hook up on the outside and take off like rockets around the rest of the field.
Justin got a jump coming down the backstretch on the pace lap with Jack right behind him but the 95 saw him pull ahead and sped up taking the 09 with him on the inside and giving the 96 a slower start to the race. With Jack right behind Justin and the 43 now on the inside of him we were stuck on the outside. Jack tried to push Justin to the front on the outside but the other karts were too fast and the two of them couldn't get around together. Justin managed to sneak in front of the 43 on lap 4 but Jack had to squeeze in behind. The 43 had not been fast all day and the two of them began to watch the front 3 pull away. By lap 7 Jack had had enough and had fallen a quarter track behind the leader. He attempted a pass on the 43 coming down the back stretch but watched the 43 change his line and come down in front of him through three and four so he backed out of it. Unfortunately he backed way out of it and now had even more ground to make up. On lap 9 he started the pass coming out of turn 3 and took the position from the 43 for lap 11. He was now a straightaway behind the front three who were nose to tail and had only fourteen laps to try to catch them by himself. With 5 laps to go Jack had all but caught the 96. Going into turn three they ran into the lapped kart of Gabriel Camuso. When Justin went high to avoid him Jack slowed up just enough and went low. Jack and Justin drag raced down the front stretch but with Jack on the bottom he had the preferred line. Jack had taken third spot away from Justin going into turn 2 with 3 to go. The front two were within his sights but with three laps to go there wasn't enough time to catch him. He cut their lead down from over a straightaway to less than a quarter track but came home in third place. A well fought fight for position and a few lessons learned along the way. Not a bad day...
The leader taking the checkers as Jack comes out of turn 4
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