2 month Go Kart Hiatus has came to an end. Went to Motorsports Country Club with WKA!

For the past 2 months I put go karting on the side and tried to focus more on my Miata stuff. Since my dad had to work at the WKA event I decided to dust off the cobb webs and go racing in the KA Junior class.

We got to go to a new track Motorsports Country Club, which is about 2 hours from my home, located in Batavia Ohio. Great facility owned by Shawn Bayliff with Trinity Karting. Their track is very nice, very fast layout with a tight section in the back. Looking forward to trying this track out again.

We got to MCC Thursday afternoon, I got some practice to learn the track. Friday practice, it seemed I had the pace, then by the 3rd session the kart was starting to fall off. We found some issues that probably were from the weekend at Stars, where I ended up in the pond, so we fixed them and I got a little better.

Then came the first race day Saturday. I did ok in morning warmup, I qualified p9 out of 13 which was not good at all, then it was pre final time I had a bad start, the kart was not the best so I ended the pre final in p10. It was time for the final, I was feeling confident, I had a great race I was in p7 the whole race, till a driver spun and got in my way so I had to slow down, at that point I knew I wasn’t getting the pack back. Then on the last lap me and a driver made contact and went off finishing my race in p10.

It was the next day, Sunday, I had an ok warmup got p7, the rest of the day the track was wet/raining. I qualified p7 my kart was not perfect, then it was time for the pre final. I had a blinding start to the race with zero visibility so it was guess where to go kind of race, I had a good race finished p5. It was the final time I knew I was in a good spot to get podium, my kart was really loose the track was soaked, not raining, I had a good start got into p4 and stayed there the whole race and finished p4.

Overall not a terrible weekend still a lot to improve in this Junior class with this new chassis.

Next is VIR with Nasa Mid Atlantic in my Miata this week!

Thanks to my parents for keeping my go kart fast and the support as always. I had fun this week but much to improve on still.

FIRST RACE AS A ROOKIE NASA LICENSED DRIVER AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK! 6TH OUT OF 16TH

I had an amazing weekend with NASA Mid South at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The track was so amazing with the number of pieces of artwork around the track and the views were also amazing of the track. They have their Vintage Museum that we got to explore on Saturday that had some old race cars and tons of motor bikes.

Check out some photos below of the artwork around the track. There were more but I didn't get them all.

They also had a sky bridge that had glass on it that you could look down and see us on the track, my mom took this little video of me on the warmup lap with the other drivers.

Friday there was no practice cause they had a Porsche club going on so we just set up that day. So we got setup and explored the facility a little.

Some Museum photos below

Saturday it was race day and very hot. I feel I did good for my first time on the track in warmup, just had some time to find. It was qualifying time, I was feeling confident. I qualified p7 out of 15, the car was feeling good and ready for racing. When racing time came I fell back on the start a little trying not to make any body contact and I still managed to finish p11 with a very close race.

Sunday was race day # 2 filled with two races and hotter than the day before. There was no warm up or qualifying just racing. The first race was going good, I had a decent start, I got some good racing in, but an unfortunate failure in the car caused me not to finish the race on the white flag lap in the last turn. Has anyone heard of the Brake Caliper breaking off and ending up in your wheel? See photo of what I mean. It was the craziest thing and I was lucky I felt something wrong and spun out in the grass.

That race was over for me with one lap to go and battling a good battle for 11th, but ended up DNF.

I went into that race feeling confident, I started p11 and raced with a couple of people, passed a lot, had a lot of hard racing, and I ended up finishing p6 out of 16. I was really happy about that and hope to keep having hard races like this!! See my onboard camera video below.

Barber Motorsports Park Track was my favorite, it was very elevated and had art all over the track.

Big thanks to John Grim aka DAD for keeping the car fast, Alissa Grim aka MOM for the pictures, also thank you to Wright Graphic Design & Printing for the amazing stickers and Carvantage for all the support thank you all!

Next up will be at one of my second favorite tracks, VIR in August with Nasa Mid Atlantic August 19-21, 2022!

HARD WORK & DEDICATION PAYS OFF IN THE LONG RUN! I FINALLY GOT MY NASA ROOKIE LICENSE!

All my hard work, dedication and time has finally paid off.

Before I go into my weekend details, I first off just want to thank everyone that helped make this happen.

My dad & my mom for doing everything they could to help me prepare for this moment. They took me near and far, everywhere they could, to get me the seat time I needed in the Miata so that I was ready for the Competition School and my first race.

(Photos below: Dan Williams and His Green Miata)

Big thanks to Dan Williams, the regional director at Nasa Rocky Mountains, for giving me the chance to show him I was up for the challenge. He allowed me to complete the HPDE 3 & 4 to be checked off, competition school that I fully completed and raced my first 4 races incident free.

This all allowed me to show

them I may be only 13, but I am talented enough to be competing with the big boys/girls. Thank you for not judging me based on my age, but on my race craft and skills.

(Photo below: Erik Nemnich)

Thank you to Erik Nemnich and his crew with Driving Force Motorsports for giving me the chance to come out and race their car, not knowing what I could do behind a wheel. Thank you for giving me the chance and believing in me that I could do it. Even though we had some issues with the car, you and your team never gave up on fixing it to get me out on the track, I really appreciate everything.

(Photo above: Drive Force Motorsports Team)

I had so much fun getting my license and I got to meet some awesome people along the way. Trayc Walker Scott ,another young driver in the Miata racing world that used to race go karts, gave me some tips throughout the weekend. Mark Lessner, who didn't have much luck in the race, getting hit from behind by another driver, but he also gave me some tips and words of advice that I will take with me everywhere I venture out to.

Here is a little more detail about how I was able to obtain my license with Nasa.

This past weekend we ventured out Pueblo Motorsports Park n Pueblo CO with Driving Force Motorsports for their Nasa event. Aryton had the opportunity to get his rookie license going through HPDE 3 & 4, Comp school and race 4 races where he would be incident free for all 4 races, which he was able to do so. With 19 Spec Miata's on track, he did awesome and made some pretty cool passes, finishing out his first race 14th out 19th.

I was given my Rookie NASA license and will get to race my Miata around the U.S. I am one of the youngest drivers to get their Miata license at 13 years old, but I have been working hard these past few months and has been looking forward to this day. If anyone knows me they know Miata racing has been my goal after karting since I was little. Now I am living my first dream in racing.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO EVERYONE & BIG THANKS TO ALL MY SUPPORTERS! CAN'T WAIT TO MAKE YOU PROUD ON THE RACE TRACK!

ALL PHOTOS BY MY MOM ALISSA GRIM PHOTOGRAPHY!!