The 16-year-old from Tumwater, Wash., finished first overall in the combined TaG/Rotax Final as well as winning the Pre-Final race on Sunday — making her three-for-three in that category as well — and just missed earning a third straight pole after a setup change prior to qualifying resulted in a slower than expected run.
The situation didn’t look promising for a three-peat on Saturday, as Jessica and her team struggled with mechanical and setup issues during practice. They worked late into the night to have Jessica’s No. 12 Arrow X9 kart ready for raceday, and their hard work paid off. During the Pre-Final Jessica broke PGP’s TaG Senior record on the counter-clockwise track configuration with a lap of 1 minute, 01.789 seconds, eclipsing the previous mark of 1:01.976 she set making her TaG Senior debut in January.
As she did while racing in wet conditions during the previous round in February, Jessica demonstrated great composure and kart control in winning Sunday’s Final. She started on the pole after coming from third to win the Pre-Final, but was surrounded by fast drivers in new karts: Derek Wang on the outside pole and Kyle Byers starting third in Kosmic Karts and Cameron Grimes-Hess slotted in fourth in an Arrow X1. Jessica and Wang made hard contact entering Turn 1 after the green flag dropped, sending Wang into a spin that collected Grimes-Hess and several other drivers.
By the midway point of the 14-lap race Jessica had built an 8-second lead over Byers with Wang and Grimes-Hess in hot pursuit after recovering from the opening-lap incident. At that point the gremlins that plagued Jessica the previous day returned as the motor on her Arrow kart began to lose power. Fearing the motor may give out at any time, Jessica calmly began to ease off the power whenever possible, gambling — correctly — that the large lead she had would hold up. She crossed the line 4.5 seconds ahead of Byers with Grimes-Hess finishing third.
In the 10-lap Pre-Final, Jessica pressured Grimes-Hess from behind for several laps before making a pass for the lead just short of the halfway point. She started third — once again surrounded by the fast karts of Grimes-Hess, Byers and Wang — but drove her kart deep into the first turn on the first lap, coming out in second behind polesitter Grimes-Hess en route to winning the race with a 3-second margin over Wang.
Weather conditions for Sunday’s event were much improved over the previous round in February. Running on a dry track in cool temperatures, Jessica turned fast lap times in both morning practice sessions. A setup change prior to qualifying unsettled the kart, however, and she ended up first in TaG senior but third fastest overall behind Grimes-Hess and Byers. Jessica’s crew made an air-pressure adjustment and gear change before the Pre-Final, giving her the speed she needed to break her own track record.
Jessica did not race in the TaG Senior class during in the first two rounds of PGP’s five-race Fall-Winter Series, making her debut in January alongside her Tanner Dana Racing teammate Tyler Tanner, who was in just his second competitive kart race. The TDR teammates finished 1-2 in that event, hopefully a preview of things to come this season as they compete in late-model stock car races and select karting events.
Interested in finding out how you can become part of the Tanner Dana Racing team? Contact Troy Dana at (360) 402-5500 or Troy.Dana@D3Rec.com.
On the Web
A Tanner Dana Racing website is planned for the near future, but in the meantime please visit www.JessicaDanaRacing.com or “like” Tanner Dana Racing, Jessica Dana Racing and Tyler Tanner Motorsports on Facebook. You can also follow @TannerDanaRacin on Twitter.
About Tanner Dana Racing
Tanner Dana Racing was formed in late 2010 to support two up-and-coming drivers, Tyler Tanner and Jessica Dana, and to help them achieve their shared goal of racing at the highest levels of motorsports.
Jessica Dana began riding ATVs when she was 4, and racing them at 8. Two months after sitting in a kart for the first time she was recording a top-5 finish at the 2009 U.S. Indoor Kart Championships. Over a two-month period in the spring of 2010, the high school sophomore raced and defeated both four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon and extreme motorsports star Travis Pastrana in charity kart events.
Tyler Tanner began his racing career at 5 in quarter midgets, earning four national championships, numerous track records and more than 100 wins over 10 years. Tyler also raced in mini-sprints and full midgets before moving into late models in 2008. Racing at South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wash., in 2010 he earned two pole positions and finished No. 2 overall in points in the late model division. Tyler earned early admittance to the Ira A. Fulton Mechanical Engineering Program at Arizona State University, where he is a sophomore.
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