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| August 04, 2012 |
| Driver News: Travis Lowe - SKUSA SummerNationals Report |
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 | Travis Lowe and the Bunny, getting ready to head out to battle
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
Over the weekend of July 20-22, 2012, Travis Lowe set out to compete against the best in the country, in the TAG Sr. class, at the Miller Motorsports Park for round 3 and 4 of the SKUSA! SummerNationals. Travis was aboard his Buddy Rice Karting Energy chassis, powered by D Power Racing Engines. The weather looked to be tricky all weekend as the temperature was reaching 100 degrees and each day came with a chance of rain.
The weekend showed great promise early on as Lowe was consistently near the top of the time sheets all day on Friday practice. After the first timed practice session, he was placed in the eighth position looking to move forward. Following some chassis and motor changes, Lowe headed out for the fifth practice session of the day and was able to move up to the sixth position on the time sheet. Looking for more, Lowe and his mechanic ‘Freck’ proceeded to fine-tune the chassis, setting up the kart for the final official practice session of the day. All the hard work in the scorching weather paid off as Lowe was placed fourth in the final practice session. Lowe and ‘Freck’ poured over the data and were able to figure out a few things, make more changes, and were confident with their equipment going into the first day of racing.
Saturday’s action started off with morning warm-up. Although Lowe had improved his time, so had other racers and Lowe would end up tenth quickest. Following more changes and a new set of tires, Lowe set out to qualify in the TAG Sr. class. Due to some traffic on his opening fast laps, Lowe was only able to put in a time good enough for eleventh place. After a few adjustments, everything was ready for the racing action to come. The start of the first heat was hectic due to the nature of the track, but Lowe was still able to advance his position to ninth place on the opening lap. Throughout the racing action, Lowe would move up to seventh place and on the last lap he secured sixth from Jake Craig with an outside pass going into turn one. Travis showed quick pace once again in the second heat and moved up as high as second place, but due to hard racing he was fourth at the drop of the checkered flag. The main event was full of action. In the opening laps, rain began to fall causing all racers to lose traction. While running fifth, Travis was shoved off the track, fell down to sixteenth place, and had a lot of work ahead of him. Lap after lap Lowe advanced his position. With two laps to go, Lowe was up to tenth with a chance to get up to sixth by the end. When Lowe went to pass for the ninth position, there was contact, which would end Travis’ run and taking him out of the race.
Round 4 of the SKUSA! SummerNationals showed even more promise. Early on, Lowe was classified in sixth place with more pace at hand by the end of morning warm up. With a few more adjustments and yet another new set of MG Whites, Lowe headed out for qualifying. He was able to find more pace and went the fastest he had gone all weekend, but was only able to qualify in the ninth place. Once again, things looked promising in the first heat race, as he was able to move up into the fifth position. Lowe was quicker than the field by two tenths a lap and he also set fast lap of the race. Heat race two was a real barn burner in the closing laps as it was a tight race for the third position and each competitor in the top eight held the spot at one point. On the last lap, Lowe was able to take advantage of the race incident ahead of him and was able to hold on to third until the checkered flag. After a few minor changes, and a look over the kart to make sure everything was ok, it was time to head out to fight for victory in the main event. At the drop of the green, Lowe fell back to fourth and fought his way up to third by lap three, and shortly afterwards a red flag flew for an injured Kathryn Cornell. Cornell was diagnosed later with a dislocated 12th rib and will be healing for a few months. As the racing action started back up again, Lowe was able to sustain his position and had a fight on his hands from there on out. Due to an issue with his engine, he was lacking power. Lowe found himself aggressively defending his third place position throughout the entire race by passing back whoever passed him right away. Sadly with two laps to go the three drivers contesting his position were able to get around and Lowe would settle for a sixth place finish overall.
Although there were some downfalls throughout the weekend, Lowe showed great pace and was able to run up front all weekend. With some more testing and fine-tuning Lowe looks to do even better at the SKUSA! SuperNationals in a few months, at the Rio in Las Vegas. There will be on-board video of each race and photos from the event posted on his Facebook fan page and YouTube channel, TravisLoweRacing, shortly.
Travis would like to thank all his current sponsors who made this possible throughout their continued support: Barstow Electric, Buddy Rice Karting, D Power Racing Engines, Energy Corse, Osiris, OMP, his mechanic ‘Freck’, and of course his mother, father, family, and friends.
For partnership opportunities or any other inquiries about Travis Lowe you can e-mail Travis at Travis@TravisLoweRacing.com, add him on Facebook, YouTube, or visit his website at TravisLoweRacing.com |
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