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Krause Cruisin' Towards The Front Again
by Dan Bailey
(Buffalo City, WI) – Change is a powerful entity. Whether it is forced upon
someone or undertaken voluntarily, change almost always impacts more than just
the intended alteration.
Case in point, the change undertaken by Buffalo City racer Travis Krause
between the 2004 and 2005 racing season.
After six years of racing and four years of dominating the WISSOTA Street
Stock Division at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY in Arcadia, WI, Krause decided that it
was time for a . . . change.
Following four straight track championships, Krause set aside his Street Stock
and took the step up to the WISSOTA Midwest Modified Division. Krause’s
Monte Carlo was replaced with a brand new EZ Chassis Modified – and the
dominoes started to tumble soon thereafter.
“I expected to encounter some issues with the change”, commented Krause
earlier this week, “I knew that I’d have to figure out the driving style
along with learning the differences between setting up a Street Stock versus a
Modified.”
The ‘issues’ were much more numerous than Krause had anticipated. “The
differences between a Street Stock chassis and a Modified chassis are like the
difference between night and day . . . first of all, there are so many more
adjustments that can be made.”
As a matter of fact, this comment led Krause to point out one of the issues he
hadn’t quite anticipated, “I kept talking to the guys at EZ”, explained
Travis, “and I quickly found out that just communicating with them was
different. Talking about different points or parts of the car, the setup, what
I wanted and what was actually happening on the track. That’s been a
learning process in itself.”
Opening night of the 2005 season, Krause unloaded his new Midwest Modified and
promptly won his first heat race. For a moment it appeared that this whole
‘change’ thing had been hugely over-rated. Then those dominoes started to
fall.
First, contact on the track messed up the rear end of his new car, “That was
a lot harder hit than I think anyone realized”, offered Krause, “we had to
put a whole new rear clip onto the car – from right behind the seat all the
back. Then the learning process of reworking the setup began.”
The second week out, Krause struggled just to keep the car headed in the right
direction – he didn’t even finish the feature. The third week saw Krause
getting a bit more comfortable and actually running up near the top-5.
“Then this past week we went to a Tuesday night practice session.” Krause
continued, “The guys from EZ were there and we just turned lap after lap
after lap – burned up a bunch of tires – they drove it a little, I drove
it a lot, we made changes and I was able to FEEL and understand what changes
affected what.”
All that hard work showed this past Friday evening with his photo-finish
challenge for the feature win at FOX RIDGE. “When we crossed the finish
line, I had no idea who had won.” Krause mentioned while referring to his
second place finish by a matter of inches. But the fact that he was right
there, battling for the win, shows that Krause may have already turned the
corner (pardon the pun) and is now headed in the correct direction.
“It’s a big difference”, reflected Krause on the change in division and
the difference in his own racing, “I’m learning a different way to driver.
With the Street Stock I could drive it much harder – harder in, quicker on
the throttle, harder out. With the mod I have to much smoother. I’m learning
to use smaller inputs to get the car to do what I need.”
The change has also shown up in Krause’s attitude about his weekly racing.
“Those last two years”, he explains, commenting on his battle for the
WISSOTA Street Stock National Championship, “was pretty rough – kind of
grueling. This year, we’re just going out to have fun; a little more laid
back. My girlfriend Jenny and I, we’ll hit FOX RIDGE on Friday, Deer Creak
on Saturday and then MAYBE every so often head out on a Sunday night. But
it’s all more relaxed this year.”
The bad luck and acclimation process may be quickly dropping behind him,
meaning that the rest of the Midwest Modified drivers might want to pay
attention to that #01 of Krause’s. The success, for which he was so well
known in the Street Stock Division, may just be catching up to him and his new
Modified.
I’m sure it won’t be long before we start to regularly see Krause parked
in Victory Lane again. And I hope you’ll forgive me for closing this article
with a cliché, but, it’s becoming obvious that “The more things change .
. . the more they stay the same”.
Visit FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY this Friday night to see if this is the week when
Krause will begin revisiting Victory Lane. Hot laps begin at 7 pm with the
first green flag slated for 7:30! For more information, please visit the
tracks website at www.foxridgespeedway.com
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