Sage Karam Has Awesome Weekend in South Bend

Written By: Karam Racing

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - (May 7th, 2007) -- Sage Karam continues to put the Birel/Fleming package up front in the junior sportsman and cadet categories. Sage won both Cadet finals and the HPV Jr Sportsman Championships by large margins. Sage’s 3 wins further enforce his substantial points lead in both WKA classes.

 

Sage is excited about the season and the support of his team. “It is great to be a part of a team like MRP. Tim and Chris Lobaugh take care of everything with my dad. All I have to concentrate on is the driving,” claimed Sage.

“Garry Lobaugh and Doug Fleming have provided my son with the finest equipment available, ” said Sage’s dad, Jody. “I understand and appreciate the fine materials, but I also understand how important the human efforts are. Tim and Chris Lobaugh put countless hours into prepping and tuning Sage’s kart. I guess sage doesn’t do a bad job either”.

 

Sage’s log

Thursday – Flew into Chicago O’Hare airport with my mom, dad and both Grandpas. We drove through Chicago traffic and arrived too late in South Bend to work on the karts. Tim Lobaugh called and said not to worry, everything is ready to go. That’s probably the best phone call we could have received.

Friday – Showered and left the hotel towards the track around 7 am. No Waffle Houses in sight! Guess we’ll have to settle for a Starbucks biscotti and hot chocolate instead. Not a good sign.

Practice went really smooth and the karts required very few adjustments. These MRP guys are good. Doug sent us some killer engines too. There is no need to beat up the equipment and my dad doesn’t want to wear me out, so, we skip a couple of practice sessions. We get out of the track fairly early and we meet up with some of my MRP cadet driver friends at Damon’s restaurant. I enjoy playing the trivia game against my friends at the restaurant.

Saturday – Same start to the morning with another trip to Starbuck’s. Morning practice goes well and we change setps for qualifying. Had a carb-adjusting problem in Yamaha, which forces us to start 9 th. But, I won the pole for cadet by a nice margin!

Won the prefinal in Cadet and moved up to 5 th in the Yamaha. I am really happy with the new Birel AR28Z chassis for Yamaha. In the final of Yamaha I really blew it. I was in 2 nd, waiting to make my move in the upper corner of the track. On the last lap, I was bumped from behind forcing me to miss my line and the pass. I had to settle for 2 nd place. I guess a lot of drivers would be happy with 2 nd place. I am pleased, but definitely not satisfied. I leave the crowd and go t a field and just laid there to think about my error. After fifteen-minutes, I return to the team and discuss things with my dad. We go over the good points of the race and the places I could have improved. My dad doesn’t want me to dwell on not winning. He immediately focuses my attention on the upcoming cadet race.

I went out and won the Cadet race by a huge margin. I think I drove even more intensely because of the mistake I made in the Yamaha race. I ended up with a Championship and a runner-up..not bad. We headed to Damon’s restaurant again for dinner. I really like this restaurant. My MRP Cadet gang met us their again. Mr. Bloat even paid for dinner. My dad was real happy about that! My dad often tells me that my fellow friends and I will be “friends longer than we are racers”.

Sunday – No surprise on where we went for breakfast…again! Arrived at the track and got the HPV and cadet karts fueled up. Everybody is intense because we all know that I could win both classes today if everything goes well. After morning practice, dad had to make some serious adjustments to the carb settings. The air is totally different from yesterday. He makes the changes and I drive to a pole position in both classes!

I carry the qualifying momentum onto winning both heats and features by large margins. Things went really well. I mean really well. It’s the first weekend that I ever ran-away with a race. I remember when I first started racing, there was this kid named Jordan Johnson. Jordan would run-away all the time with his wins. I always wanted to do that. I met Jordan’s tuner in South Bend last week at the Mid-West Sprint Series race. His name is Les Fink. Les spent some time talking to me about my driving and pointed some things out. It’s nice to have people like Brent Ebert (MRP), Mike Giessen, Tim and Chris Lobaugh coaching my driving.

Dad goes into Tech-Inspection with my engines. Dad tells the tech official (Phil) from the WKA to tear the engines down more than the usual. A lot of people kid around over the weekend and claim we are cheating. But, dad always warns “there is a little bit of truth to all kidding!” So Phil has no problem taking dad’s advice and really goes through our engines. You know what Phil found? – NOTHING! He said it was all driver. That’s about as good as a compliment as anybody can give you. My parents are proud of me. I think the team is happy too. The hard work and efforts of the team, make me want to be a better champion. I’ll enjoy it for the weekend – on to New Castle….

Sage would like the thank his sponsors and supporters: Michael Andretti, MRP, Gary, Chris and Tim Lobaugh, Brent Ebert, Rick, Doug Fleming, Grand Products, Noonan Pedal Risers, Bell Helmets, Aplinestars, Orwig Management, SmitHahn Co., L & T Clutches, Strober Building Supplies, and Walters Web Design.

For more information on Sage Karam please visit www.SageKaram.com.