McDougald Recaps Charity Kart Race

Tacoma, Washington –

 

10-2-2012 – The 1st annual "Laps For Little Ones - Karting For Kids Grand Prix" took place at PGP Motorsports Park last September 29th and driver of the #68 KMB Design / Hargis Engineers / Print-NW / Fast Track Sims / Ringers Gloves Toyota Camry, "Terrible" Tim McDougald was all too excited to be a part of helping to raise money for the cause.
The "Laps For Little Ones - Karting For Kids Grand Prix" kicked off it's inaugural running of the fund raiser benefiting "Dentistry For Underprivileged Children". A solid group of racers made up of a couple drivers, some crew members and some friends gathered at PGP Motorsports Park in Kent, Washington to take on the big 9/10th mile, 15 turn National Course layout. With a bright sunny day on tap and temperatures around 60 degrees, it was shaping up to be the perfect day.

While this race was purely for fun, there would be a format to follow. The field would take to the course for a short practice session, letting the drivers become familiar with the layout. Then the group would run a short Heat Race that would be used to place them in either the A or B Main. Main Event lineup would be determined by the driver's fastest lap in the Heat Race. The group also chose to do a full field invert for the A Main, giving the faster drivers more of a challenge and the fans on hand the chance to see some passing take place.
After the practice and Heat Race it was becoming clear who the hands-on favorites would be, and to no one's surprise "Terrible" Tim was turning out to be one of the fast ones. "I had a pretty good kart in that Heat," said McDougald with a smile. "It laid down a pretty fast lap, improved on my fast lap from the practice session by about 2 seconds so I was pretty happy with that. It was probably because it was the #9 kart, Kasey Kahne and all that. I also noticed a couple other guys picked up about 2 seconds as well, so it all balanced out I guess. I was pretty excited to make the A Main; I thought it was going to be tough just to get in there. The entire group was only separated by less than 2 seconds so it's a fast, tight group."
With the field taking shape for the A Main, the drivers would line up on the grid. The start of this race would be a Formula-1 style "Standing Start". McDougald would find himself starting shotgun on the field. "I'm not real sure what happened when we came to the grid," said "Terrible" Tim. "I was supposed to be 1 row in front of the last row and on the inside. But somehow a couple guys rushed around me and took the spots so I gridded in the last position. Ultimately I really didn't care. It's for fun and 1 spot isn't going to matter that much. I wasn't sure the inside was the spot to be anyway. I know it looked like a long way to the front from back there though!"

 

 

The green flag would fly and the field took off headed to that dreaded 1st turn where the talk before the race had been of complete mayhem looming when they got there. True to their word, upon reaching that 1st turn the field did not disappoint. "Yea, I knew that 1st turn would be crazy," said McDougald with a huge grin. "We had all been saying over lunch 'I'm not using the brakes when we get to that 1st turn' and it showed! I got a huge jump on that start. I must have passed about 5 or 6 guys before we got to that turn. I just went to the outside and drove right around 'em coming to the turn. I set the kart in on the outside of someone thinking 'This is the spot, I'll have the inside coming out of the next turn. I'm golden' and then suddenly everything just went horribly wrong. Before I knew it I was turned sideways and being shoved right off the track. It was crazy. When I stopped sliding I was facing backwards so it took a bit of time for me to get pointed the right way and get going again. I was way down at that point so I just started logging laps." But the action for McDougald was far from over at that point. Within a matter of a lap and a half he would run down the pack and begin passing other drivers for position. "I was shocked that I was able to run 'em down," said McDougald. "They were all so busy beating and banging that none of them were keeping the momentum up so with all that open track I ran 'em down in a hurry. I had worked my way up to about 4th at one point before tangling with a guy trying to make the move for 3rd. Not sure what went wrong there but I set it in on the inside of him and someone hit me from behind shoving me into him. The guy who was in 3rd place went shooting off the track, I lost all my momentum and the guy who hit me from behind took off into 3rd. I never was able to run him down after that."
McDougald would take his 4th place to the finish, missing the trophy spots by a single position. "I'm pretty happy with my run to be honest," said an ecstatic "Terrible" Tim. "After that turn 1 ordeal I thought my race was over. So to rally back to a 4th is pretty awesome! In the end, it's all for a good cause so the finish really doesn't matter. We all left with huge smiles on our faces so I think that's a win right there. Any time I can come out and do something like this, have this much fun and help out a charity is a good day in my book!"
To learn more about the Donald B Weller Memorial Foundation, for information on how you can help or to make a donation, visit www.lapsforlittleones.com.