WINTRY MIX IN ONE WEEKEND AT ROUTE 66 AT NEW CASTLE MOTORSPORTS PARK!

Saturday was just a crappy day at Route. The day was cold, wet and snow on the ground and the chassis were hard to setup, period.

Qualifying we decided to go on rain tires, which would have worked well if a KA Master driver didn’t stop me from getting my fast lap, so I qualified 15th overall out of 29 drivers, on top of that we only get 2 laps to have a fast lap.

Prefinal came and our row was going into turn one, when another driver clipped another kart and spun right out in front me, which caused me to run into him and bent my tie rod. That ended my prefinal.

Final I started 29th, going into turn one another incident occurred which pushed me off the track, but I stayed on and pushed to get to finish out the race in 16th out of 29. My kart was not fast, and we weren’t sure why, till my dad took my kart apart and found something was wrong with the back of my kart, which would slow me down.

Sunday morning, we wake up and its about 20 degrees if not colder, but no snow, so that’s a plus. Morning warmup I was the fastest on the track and the kart felt so much better than Saturday. Sunday, we roll up to qualifying, which I thought they lined you up based off the day before, but it was based off of morning warmup, which I started 1st.

Going out on the track for qualifying and something happened with another kid that had me lose all draft possible and to be alone, on top of having the wrong tire pressure in my tires with the cold weather. I qualified 8th out of 29 drivers, which was better than the 15th I qualified yesterday.

Prefinal, I started 8th and pushed with my teammate Addison all the way to the finish line, with me finishing 7th, which was going to be the inside row going into the final.

Final started a little rocky again, when the driver in front of me made contact with the driver next to him, which bobbled me up and I got pushed back spots by a few karts. Then going into the Monza I got slowed down again, which put me back a little more to 9th. I knew from the first few laps my kart just wasn’t the best kart I had in the prefinal, so once I lost my teammate I had nowhere else to go. I was able to still salvage 8th out of the 29 drivers on the track, after all penalties.

Overall, I feel after the Saturday track drama between the weather and the accidents, it was overall a good weekend. My realistic goal was the top 10, which I was able to secure that goal on Sunday. I may not have been the fastest all weekend, but I gained a lot more experience in the KA class. I am looking forward to the next race where I can continue to grow.

Thank you to Team CRP (my dad) for always being there to work on my kart and helping me improve, even when I don’t listen to you. Thank you to Comet Engines for always making sure I have the best engines so that I can compete. Big thanks to all my sponsors CRP Racing, Rocks Trailer Sales, PKT, Ogio, Motul, Action Sports Canopies, and Slick Products.

Next up is CKNA at G&J where I will be with Team CRP in my 206 Junior kart.

BACK TO THE WINDY CITY OF NEW CASTLE INDIANA FOR THE FIRST CLUB RACE OF THE SEASON!

I ventured out with Team CRP to New Castle Indiana for the first club race of the season, may I say the weather was terrible. Saturday & Sunday were both cold and very windy, but it wouldn’t be New Castle if it wasn’t windy!

Saturday, we decided to move me to the CIK Sr Lite class to race against some great kids that are 14 plus in age. Saturday, I showed some great speed, practiced with the front runners all day and was able to keep up with them. So overall practice turned out to be good and we learned a lot.

Now Sunday comes around and its probably about 30 degrees outside and the rubber probably washed away from the rain on Saturday evening, so not a great day to start out.

Qualifying comes up and me and my teammate were not being smart and stayed with about 5 other karts, well I leaded the train of karts (dumb decision on my part) and that didn’t help my qualifying session at all but helped the ones behind me that qualified 2nd-5th. I qualified 8th and my teammate Addy qualified 9th.

We had to wait a good 4-5 hours till race time, since our group is the last group of the day. I lined up 8th and going into turn 1 was a mess, 2 of the karts in the front got together and took most of our row into the grass. So of course, I fell back to 12th on the start. I was able to work with another competitor and we pushed to get ourselves through 4 or 5 karts, which is all we could do with the 3 kart drafts way ahead of us. I was able to finish out the race in 8th. A 3-kart draft vs the 2-kart draft was about .6 tenths of a difference, which you were not going to catch that being 9 seconds behind them.

Overall, I am proud of how well I did. I know I have it in me to compete for a win, I must be patient and mature in my racing a little bit to get there. Being 12 years old and having barely any body weight, probably isn’t helping much, but I will keep trying and never give up on myself.

Thank you to Team CRP (my dad) for always being there to work on my kart and helping me improve, even when I don’t listen to you. Thank you to Comet Engines for always making sure I have the best engines so that I can compete. Big thanks to all my sponsors CRP Racing, Rocks Trailer Sales, PKT, Ogio, Motul, Action Sports Canopies, and Slick Products.

Next up I will run my first KA100 Jr Route 66 race at New Castle where the weather is looking cold and possible snow. Not too sure how that will work, but I will give it a try.

CHARLOTTE MOTORSPORTS SPEEDWAY WITH WORLD KARTING ASSOCIATION-2022

This past weekend we ventured out to Charlotte again with Team CRP for the WKA event, where I decided to run 2 classes, 206 Jr and KA 100 Jr.

Running two classes can be a good thing and bad thing. For my brain it wasn’t a good idea, because when I would learn something in the KA or in the 206 Jr, I would tend to try it in the other kart, when I shouldn’t be. You would also run out of time to focus on one class instead of the other, so one of the classes tend to suffer.

Friday gave us 3 practice sessions then we had to qualify for both days in both classes.

Here were my qualifying results:

KA100 Jr Day 1- 4th with no draft and only .479 tenths.

KA100 Jr Day 2- 3rd with no draft and only .071 tenths off.

206 Jr Day 1- 6th place with no draft and only .366 tenths off.

206 Jr Day 2- 4th place with a little draft and only .054 tenths off.

Saturday comes around and it is race day! Weather is a bit cold, but not raining OR snowing, I should say since it was so cold.

KA100 Jr Recap:

Prefinal: I started in 4th place, which of course is the outside, which isn’t always the greatest spot to be on the start. I was able to get out to 3rd place on the start and stayed there till the last lap, where a 2-train draft passed me for 3rd & 4th and I finished 5th place.

Final: I started 5th in the final, which is on the inside so not a terrible spot to start. Got up to 4th, but my kart started to go away, and I was making too many mistakes, which slowed me down and I finished 5th.

206 Junior Recap:

Prefinal: I had a great start, started 6th, had a great battle with the top 5 battling back and forth, made a great last lap pass and finished 3rd.

Final: I started 3rd, I don’t really remember what happened but went back to 7th and was able to finish out the race in 6th. Certainly not the best race with all the pushing and shoving around.

Sunday I wake up, starting a new day and trying to get my head on right for the last race day. It is cold, like 30 degrees out, not the greatest race temperature at all.

KA100 JR recap:

Prefinal: I started 3rd and luckily the kids behind me were battling, or I would have never finished 3rd when my kart was going away. I couldn’t catch 1st & 2nd since they were long gone in a draft.

Final: I started 3rd, stayed there for a few laps till I lost 2nd place, then 4th & 5th caught me in a draft, which pushed me to finish 5th. After tech I finished 4th overall.

206 Junior:

Prefinal: I started 4th till 3rd place and 2nd place hit tires, which pushed me out into the grass, where I was pushed to 15th. Nothing I could do but I did salvage to 11th.

Final: I started 11th, once again got pushed into the grass and went back to 15th, pushed hard to get back up there and salvaged a 7th place finish, which is as far as I could go without a draft.

Overall, I am pretty proud of my results, just wish they could have been better. I knew I could compete with the front runners in both classes but just needed some luck, patience and not make too many mistakes.

Great job to my teammates Christian Quijano & Addison Ianniello on their podiums this weekend, you worked hard and earned those spots.

Thank you to Team CRP (my dad) for always being there to work on my kart and helping me improve, even when I don’t listen to you. Thank you to Comet Engines for always making sure I have the best engines so that I can compete. Big thanks to all my sponsors CRP Racing, Rocks Trailer Sales, PKT, Ogio, Motul, Action Sports Canopies, and Slick Products.

Next up is our local club race at New Castle Motorsports Park for KRA #1 where I will be running in a new class, 206 CIK Light with some older and more experienced young adults.