Cole's Regional and National Standings

Florida Winter Tour

US Rotax Challenge

Championship Karting International

Southwest Regional Cup

Cole Glasson Beats Expectations at Daytona

Cole and the rest of the Glasson's made the road trip to Daytona. What chance would you give the youngest driver in the field running a loaned engine they didn't know how to tune on a track they'd never seen? They leased an engine from us for the race and made the long drive to WKA's Daytona Kart Week. It was Cole's 5'th race in a Cadet and his first race with a K80. We sold out of our in stock top K80's and we sent the last one we had to Tim for the race. It was not a remarkable engine but it was all we had to give him. The engine was brand new and still very tight. Cole was the youngest driver in the field at 7 and half. I would have projected a qualifying of about 47th of the 55 karts in the field but Cole surprised us. He qualified 32nd 2.3 seconds off the pole on day one while stuck in traffic during qualifying. He had a faster kart but couldn't get a clean run in as slower traffic was in the way. He passed several karts in qualifying. He ran the consi race and missed the transfer into the final by one spot. This was Cole's first ever big, big race and he handled it well. That night Tim found out that he'd left front spindles on rain race set up. He got that fixed for Sunday but was still testing gearing as they had never run a K80 before. Cole did better but was still just out of the line up for the final and would have to race into it. He had qualified in 32nd again but only 1.5 seconds off the pole this time.

I asked Tim what would he handicap his driver in lap time for his age. Tim had to think, I explained that engine builders and chassis builders look at dyno curves and then see drivers with equal engines on the track. We learn to handicap lap times by age and driving style. Often a top driver can run two or three seconds quicker with the same engine or chassis that a new driver can. Tim said a second or so. As much as a 7 year old would like to run as fast as the 12 year olds it's just not going to happen in 99% of the time. The twelve year old has had 4 years of testing and practice. I handicap a 7 year old by 1.5 to 2 full seconds on 7/10ths track. That means that even with our lowest end K80, that was still breaking in and on the track for the first time ever Cole placed the Tornado Cadet in the middle of the 55 kart field. That is a huge success as Tim was between a 83 and 88 gear during the day hunting for the right set up. Had Tim been with the engine for six months he'd have been able to dial in the gear faster. I think had we made it to the race and had the chance to help Cole and Tim bracket faster we would have qualified another ten spots up in the field. Next year we'll bring the whole team and bracket jetting and gearing faster. Thanks to Michael Schneider for helping over the phone. We are so proud of the Texas team of Tornado Cadet drivers. As they'll test and race together in 2008 they'll dial in the chassis and the drivers. Look out for Hannah, Cole, Michael and Gunnr next year in Daytona. To think that Cole can race this race four more times in the Cadet class before moving up is certainly very promising for the year 2010 and 2011. Congratulations Cole. We know how hard you worked and tried. You just don't know yet how well you did!