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Boonville’s Daniel Cary still remembers the day like it was yesterday while capturing first place in the Clone Heavy Go Kart feature in Emma, Missouri on December 31.
In a two-day event Friday and Saturday, Cary was about to embark on the biggest race of his life while competing against approximately 200 Karts.
He said while last year’s event was a pretty big event, they expected the entries and the Kart count to double this year.
Of course while competing in the Clone Heavy Go Kart race, Cary said there were 30 drivers signed up for the race but only 16 would advance on to the next round. “They had so many drivers that they were going to split the heats into A, B, C and D class,” Cary said. “We qualified fifth. We got a second and third place finish in our qualifying heats and that averaged us out to 2.5. Then they go by your draw number at the beginning of the night, which is how they start lining you up for the A main.”
As it turned out, Cary was both good and lucky while starting out fifth in he main. Meanwhile after passing a couple of Karts at the beginning of the race, Cary said everything kind of got feathered out.
“We were running second at the time,” Cary said. “We were right behind the guy running first but then my tires started going away and I could tell the motor was cutting out a little bit. Luckily, we were just getting to the halfway point.
“Actually, at the beginning of the night I told dad if we can just go in there and run decent and start the A main that I would be happy. At first we were just going to throw a couple of decent sets of tires on and just race, but we had some better equipment with us so we decided we were going to try to do better. The race format was a 50 lap race and they were going to run 25 laps and take a 10 minute break. You could do anything you wanted to your cart besides changing the engine and changing the driver itself. Everything else is fair game such as changing tires, bodies and clutch.”
Of course soon as Cary pulled into the pit after the first 25 laps, he said they changed the tires and sparkplug. Meanwhile with the announcer telling the crowd that they were about to celebrate the New Year, Cary said it seemed like the 10 minute allotment went by in no time.
Boonville’s Daniel Cary still remembers the day like it was yesterday while capturing first place in the Clone Heavy Go Kart feature in Emma, Missouri on December 31.
In a two-day event Friday and Saturday, Cary was about to embark on the biggest race of his life while competing against approximately 200 Karts.
He said while last year’s event was a pretty big event, they expected the entries and the Kart count to double this year.
Of course while competing in the Clone Heavy Go Kart race, Cary said there were 30 drivers signed up for the race but only 16 would advance on to the next round. “They had so many drivers that they were going to split the heats into A, B, C and D class,” Cary said. “We qualified fifth. We got a second and third place finish in our qualifying heats and that averaged us out to 2.5. Then they go by your draw number at the beginning of the night, which is how they start lining you up for the A main.”
As it turned out, Cary was both good and lucky while starting out fifth in he main. Meanwhile after passing a couple of Karts at the beginning of the race, Cary said everything kind of got feathered out.
“We were running second at the time,” Cary said. “We were right behind the guy running first but then my tires started going away and I could tell the motor was cutting out a little bit. Luckily, we were just getting to the halfway point.
“Actually, at the beginning of the night I told dad if we can just go in there and run decent and start the A main that I would be happy. At first we were just going to throw a couple of decent sets of tires on and just race, but we had some better equipment with us so we decided we were going to try to do better. The race format was a 50 lap race and they were going to run 25 laps and take a 10 minute break. You could do anything you wanted to your cart besides changing the engine and changing the driver itself. Everything else is fair game such as changing tires, bodies and clutch.”
Of course soon as Cary pulled into the pit after the first 25 laps, he said they changed the tires and sparkplug. Meanwhile with the announcer telling the crowd that they were about to celebrate the New Year, Cary said it seemed like the 10 minute allotment went by in no time.
With 25 laps to go until the checkered flag, Cary said he remembers getting passed by another driver.
“In my mind I was satisfied with third place,” Cary said. “I didn’t ever think I would say that because I always like to do as good as I can and for the class that I was running a third place finish would be really good. I was going to try and race the top two guys as hard as I could so I decided to lay back a little bit and let them battle but stay close enough to where if they would mess up I would be right there to where I could pass them, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Cary said the second place driver got eager and ran up under the driver running first and then both drivers got out of the race groove and spun each other out with 12 laps to go.
Of course with the top-two runners in the back of the pack, Cary assumed the first place position. He said while he was happy where he was at, he also knew there were plenty of fast drivers behind him who were just as eager to win the race.
“We got back going again and everything was just rolling good,” Cary said. “However, I just kept having this paranoid feeling that somebody was still right behind me the whole race. We came around with five laps to go and I kept telling myself that I just need to hold on for five more laps. Then I came around and they gave us two to go so I said ok we just have two more laps, that’s all I need. But then the tires started going away and the cart was getting a little bit looser on the corners the last-two laps so I knew it was just a matter of time before somebody was going to be right there.”
With two laps to go, Cary said he remembers getting the white flag and thinking to himself that he has a chance to win this race.
“I thought ok just four more corners and I will be just fine,” Cary said. “We went through the first-two corners and everything was going good and I could see dad up in the stands and he was jumping up and down and everyone was giving me thumbs up and I thought ok I may have this thing. I go through corners three and four and everything sticks almost perfectly but I was looking for someone to try and hit me to get me out of the groove and try and pass me.”
As it turned out, Cary said nobody tried to knock him out of the groove and he wound up winning the race.
“It was overwhelming because I have never won a race like that before,” Cary said. “I have been in races where I have won $200-$300 but nothing like this. I was really at a disadvantage to start the race because I was running around 475 pounds with my cart and myself where other drivers were running around 375, so that made me the underdog already because I weighed so much and everyone knew I wasn’t going to be very good.”
Not only did Cary win the race, he won it by a landslide. With that first place finish, Cary pocketed his biggest purse ever of $2,500.
“This is the biggest race I have ever raced in my six years of racing,” Cary said. “I had guys telling me that I just didn’t beat the other drivers by a little but that I smoked them. They told me I had a full straight away lead on these guys and that just made things even more better. Of course the check was nice, too.
“Racing is definitely something I am going to stay with for a long, long time. Kart racing is something I will always be a part of. I have helped out so many people who are in it right now. A part of me will always be with Kart racing. I don’t know how long I am going to stay with it. We are having a lot of fun winning and doing good at big races and local races but the possibility of moving up is always a factor.”
Cary said he and his dad have tossed around the idea of moving into like a 600 CC micro midgets.
“We bought a hobby stock that we played with last summer and we are kind of toying with that a little bit, but as far as moving up to NASCAR of anything like that, that’s not a possibility. But moving up to a bigger car is always a factor like midgets or 305 or 360 sprint car.”
Of course Cary is no stranger when it comes to helping the younger generation of Go Kart drivers. He said his reason for liking Go Kart racing is that he gets to help out the kids and their parents.
“I get kids and their parents come up to me all the time for advice on what they should do to make them faster,” Cary said. “For me being able to help out the little kids and get that kind of feedback makes me not want to get out of it because I am always helping the younger generation. Really, though, it all comes with experience and knowing how to set your stuff up.”
But even then, Cary said wrecks do happen in this sport. He said his worst wreck to date happened in his second year of racing at Sedalia. He said he got hit so hard that the Kart flipped over and he hurt his arm on the header. But after getting checked out, Cary said he was back out there racing during the next feature.
“Whether it’s Go Kart racing or racing lawnmowers, I will be racing until the day I die,” Cary said. “I couldn’t imagine getting myself away from it. Both my uncles still have a passion for racing, so as long as my dad doesn’t mine pulling my Kart I guess we will continue to race in approximately 50 races or so.”
By capturing first in the biggest race of his life, Cary said this was also his 53rd career feature win.
