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Killion dominates the 80cc Masters class at Dixon
season opener. David Killion (#71 Formula 80cc Shifter) had a great season in 2003, despite a midyear chassis change to the Rocket. However, he showed up to run the first club race of 2004 at Dixon after some unfortunate personal situations that made it impossible for him to do any testing. Expectations were low but, "We just wanted to shop up and get some points", claimed David. Scott Conway of Team MMI made this all possible by volunteering to deliver the kart to the track so all David had to do was show up and race. "Without Scotty, we wouldn't have even attempted to make the race". David took to the track for the first practice session turning times in the 32.4 second area which were way off the mark. The setup notes from 2003 were not sufficient to run with the leaders by any means and something had to be done. However, with so much time away from the kart the team elected not to change anything before the first qualifying session, but rather just have David work on his lines. The first qualifier resulted in a 31.995 time to place him 6th on the grid for the 12 kart field, but David did come in with some feedback on the kart. First off, they weighed in at 393lbs which was nearly 20lbs heavy for the class; since there was no weight on the kart the only thing to do was to go out with a minimum fuel load. Secondly, they decided to add a little caster to help the turn into the corner. The second qualifier resulted in in a slightly better time of 31.985, but not enough to move him up on the grid - he would start the first heat in 6th position. The weight was closer to the 375lb minimum, with weighing in at 383lbs. Major changes were going to be required to get up to the front. 2003 Pro ICC SuperNats Champion, Wesley Boswell, listened intently to David's concerns and recommended lowering the front ride height to get better front grip under breaking. The first heat was where the day started to turn around; David nailed the start to immediately move up into 5th place. This was to be followed in the next few laps by an outside pass coming onto the front straight to take 4th, an altercation in turn 2 moving him to 3rd and then an inside pass through the bowl to move him to 2nd. Then it was time to chase down the leader who had checked out from the rest of the field. David caught him in good time but ran out of time to get by him. This outstanding run would place him off-pole for the second heat. Wesley's changes definitely worked. David nailed the start again to immediately jump into the lead in the first heat. However, since 80cc limited only had 2 karts in the class they were starting in front of the masters class. The limited class runs 15lbs less and should have separated themselves from the pack, but that didn't happen. David was putting pressure on the kart in front of him while they were racing for position in another class. Coming onto the front straight the limited kart right in front of David overshot the exit of the turn and took a drive through the grass. He then shot back across the track right behind David who passed him on the lower side, however, this near miss wasn't then end of it. Another kart plowed into the limited kart at 60MPH who was sitting in the middle of the track - twisted metal, red flag is out, and the ambulance makes it's way out to the scene of the accident. Fortunately everybody was ok, but for the two collected karts we can't say the same - both had to retire for the day. We have the accident on video and hope to have it posted soon. The second heat restarted single file the way they completed the lap before the incident - David was in front. Another great start - but the handling went way away on the kart and 2nd place was all over him, but David drove a defensive line and protected his lead to take the checkers first. The track tempature had risen nearly 15 degrees since the 1st heat and no compensation was made - this was a mistake, but luckily recoverible. After the 2nd heat David complained of a horrible push in the right hander after the bowl - it had to be fixed. Wesley stepped up again along with Scott Conway and it was decided to add camber (because front tire wear was not ideal) and widen the front end adding even more front grip through the entrance and middle of that right hander he was struggling with. Main event; there's not really much to say. The changes that were made to the kart worked flawlessly and David quickly separated himself from the rest of the field to run away with his first 80cc Masters win in his first race in that class. This ended a year and a half winless streak since switching to the 80cc shifter. "We knew we could win - with so many 2nd place finishes being right on the leaders. We were due!" "I can't say enough about the team, it's incredible that we can show up so unprepared and so off the pace and then bring home a win. We are excited about the rest of the season, imagine what we can do if we actually did some testing. There is so much speed left in that kart - we just need to get it on the pavement and it will be strong all year. This PowerWorks motor really came to life this weekend - heck, we were hanging with the leader of the limited class who was running 15lbs lighter!", said David. David wants to thank the following people for for
these outstanding results:
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