CATCH UP ON MY BUSY FEW WEEKENDS OF CLUB RACING

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but with racing back to back weekends and being sick, I haven't had much time to post.

We last left off with the 8/23 race when I came home with a tied win in 206 Jr class with my buddy Eli Warren. It was so rare that it was talked about all over social media, even by Kart Chasers. That was a great race for sure with teammates and friends.

My next race was September 11th, under the lights at New Castle.

I haven't raced in the dark since my first Micro Swift race years ago at Adkins Raceway. Racing in the dark is a bit different than racing during the day, because you can barely see the track. I raced in the X30 Jr class this time only, just because my 206 engines were out to Comet getting ready for my national races coming up. I didn't do too bad. We struggled all day trying to find speed, but we were able to finish the night out in 2nd place.

The race weekend of September 12th, was just one of those weekends.

My favorite saying that weekend was “YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME!"

That weekend we were struggling to find speed in our X30 Jr, the same issue we kept having last race. We tried newer tires, since the ones we had on had no tread at all, but that didn’t seem to fix the problem. We tried to change the setup in the kart, but that didn’t work either. We watched my video and my dad said my line was fine, but still nothing was making me faster. By the time Saturday was done, we were out of options, especially since we just kept getting slower and slower by the day. So, we said we would wait till Sunday to see if new tires would work.

Sunday came around and new tires made no difference at all, we were still 6 tenths off the leaders. Final came around and we ran some competitive lap times, but we still couldn’t get there so we finished back in 3rd. We go to tech and find out something no our engine is broke, so that would be helping us lose power (smack my head).

Luckily, we found this problem now, instead of finding it at the next national at GoPro in a month.

Next up I will be racing at WKA at New Castle in the KA100 Jr and 206 Junior class.

COMING HOME WITH A TIED WIN IN 206 JUNIOR & 2ND PLACE IN FIRST TAG RACE EVER AT NCMP!

This weekend I got to try out something new, the Tag Junior engine in my new OTK Neos Chassis. It was something you need to get used to, since the chassis handled differently than I am used to, more speed to it, watching the temperature to make sure it doesn’t over heat, and different tuning for my dad.

Saturday I went out for my first session and WOW is all I could say. I was so in AWW on how much faster the engine and chassis was compared to my KA Motor. I just loved it. I did a few sessions in my 206 junior just to get it dialed in, but finished the rest of my day in my new Tag kart.

Sunday was Qualifying and race day, and boy was it a hot one. The heat index was probably 100 degrees and running 2 classes was certainly a lot of work on me, but I was able to do it without a heat stroke.

I qualified 1st in the 206 junior class by .382 seconds out of 11 drivers. In Tag Jr I qualified 2nd by .110 seconds from the leader out of 5 drivers, which is not a whole lot. I really hope they get more drivers in those classes to make it more fun.

ANYWAYS let’s get to the race results………

Race time and I start inside pole in the 206 junior class, which instantly I start off in the lead. My buddy/teammate Eli and I took turns a few times changing lead till we decided to just push away from the field. We pushed away from the field with a lead of 10.147 seconds. It was so close of a race to the finish that Eli and I finished at the same exact time, so we got to share the win. When I mean share, I mean my dad split the medal in ½ along with the sticker so that it would give us a memorable moment. (See pic below) Something else interesting was we are on the same team, same chassis and have the same engine builder.

(VIDEO BELOW OF THE SIDE BY SIDE ACTION TO THE CHECKER AND TEAMMATES GIVING A THUMBS UP)

Next up was Tag junior, which by now I am so exhausted from how hot it is, but I was ready to race my tag for the first time. I started off really good and held on to my buddy Luke Powers, till about lap 8 or 9 my tires started to fall off and I kept slipping further and further back. I was able to still finish 2nd, 3 seconds behind Luke, but I also ran the 2nd fastest lap time. I felt pretty good about the results this weekend in this class considering this was my first time ever running a tag. I look forward to many more races in it.

This coming up weekend we are taking off, and then the following weekend we are back to New Castle for a Saturday night race.

PHOTOS BY ALISSA GRIM PHOTOGRAPHY

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VIDEOS FROM MY CAMBOX PRO HELMET CAMERA!

3 SPOTS AWAY FROM A PODIUM AT CKNA EAST LANSING MICHIGAN REGIONAL EVENT IN THE JR CLASS!

This weekend there were a lot of ups and downs in the Junior class. It was a tough class which I knew going into, especially going up against the more experienced drivers in my class. The track was nice but very bumpy, tight corners and everyone passed you on the inside and outside line, no matter where you were on the track. This track made it hard to get ahead in position considering, I would come off the track with more marks on my go kart from other karts, because everyone treated you like you were bumper karts. It was very exciting but frustrating weekend at times, but here is a recap of my race weekend.

On Saturday morning warmup I was the fastest which lined me up to go first in the qualifying session. I qualified 5th with no draft.

Heat 1, I instantly got pushed into the grass and pushed back to 17th, but due to my front bumper coming off I had to come in and didn’t get to finish. (DNF)

Heat 2 I started the race in 25th and worked my way up to the 17th spot, but still hard to get around some kids that use your kart as a battle ramp.

The final race I started 17th, worked my way up to 12th but since my back bumper came off this time, I lost 2 laps and was labeled as finishing last.

Saturday was just a really bad day, no matter what I tried to do and how hard I pushed, I would somehow just end up in the back. On a good note, my teammate and buddy Eli finished 2nd and Addy finished 6th.

Sunday once again I finished morning warmup being the fastest, which I was kind of hoping that I didn’t because it kind of felt like a curse.

Qualifying comes up, they spread the field out, I am by myself with nobody around, my teammate Addison was by herself, and Eli was able to have a drafting partner by the end of the session. My friend Eli was able to pull off the fastest time, I finished out in 4th place, which still isn’t bad for the kids I am up against, and Addy finished out 10th.

Heat 1 rolls out with me starting in 4th place, it was a good race overall, except for the fact that someone went over the back of me in a turn, but it didn’t slow me down, and I finished the race in 5th.

Heat 2 rolls out with me starting 5th, which it is normally good to be in inside line, but not at this track. Turn 2 it is better that you are on the outside line so that you don’t get pushed out in the grass going into turn 3. What do you think happened to me in turn 3? I got shoved wide into the grass and lost quite a bit of spots and finished out the race in 10th place.

The last race of the weekend and I started 10th, which is good because it was an outside line, I knew I had to make this one count. We come down to the checker flag and into turn 1, someone right next to me on the left gets spun out and takes out almost ½ of the field behind me. I luckily got out of that safely and raced hard. I got myself up to 8th but fell back for a few laps to 9th, but I was able to battle on the last lap and raced for my 6th place spot to the checker.

After today’s results, I felt more confident in my driving ability in the Junior class, AI am glad that I got to get the feel of the drivers and class before the big CKNA Grand Nationals in October, since this will be my first Junior 206 Grand National race. I know I have some work to do with the aggressiveness, but I will get some practice before then to prepare.

Thanks as always to my sponsors for supporting my dreams, without you guys I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Next race will be a club race at New Castle Motorsports Park, where I may try out my X30 engine or race my KA100.