This weekend was an up and down kind of weekend for sure, but I knew the stepping stone into Junior would be rough with the experienced competition I would be up against.
The roller coaster wasn’t so much as my driving but it was the kart setup on a new kart, different type of tire and getting it all right in the KA100 Junior kart, in 206 Junior we were golden from the beginning. I wish there would have been more kids in the classes, to give us more competition, but this weekend helped us get ready for CKNA Grand Nationals that is coming up in a few weeks.
Here is my weekend recap:
Saturday morning we had 2 warmups and 1 heat race in each class. In the first 2 practice sessions we looked real good in 206 Junior, but kept falling like a rock in the KA 100 junior class. The motor was fast, but the kart itself was not getting better. We literally threw the book (OTK book) at it each session to find out how to fix the problem, but we weren’t getting any faster.
Qualifying comes around and we qualified 6th in KA100 Junior out 8, with one good lap and only 2 tenths off, which still wasn’t enough. Again that was only one lap then the kart went away. In 206 Junior, I qualified 2nd by .127 off the first place kart out of 8 karts.
Heat 1 in KA 100 Jr didn’t go too bad, but we were still off quite a bit. The kart would come in at the beginning, fall off then come back in. It was really strange. We had a great race with our Nitro teammate Miles Murray that session and finished 4th.
In 206 Junior, I was running real good sitting in 2nd place for 5 laps till my front bumper decides it wants to fall off, due to a lot of bumper kart action going on, which ended my race and I finished last. (8th place).
Saturday ended with a black cloud over me and my go karts, but we knew we still have Sunday for the heat 2 and final race, so I had to get a good night’s rest and recoup tomorrow.
Sunday we start off with morning warmup, which 206 Jr I was good but KA still struggling.
Heat 2 I finished the heat race in KA100 Jr in 4th and the 206 junior race in 6th, so jumped up 2 spots in 206 Jr kart.
Final comes around and I knew in KA100 Junior we probably weren’t going to get very far, since we were still struggling. I made it around 8 laps till I decided to just pull in because my kart was hopping all over the place no matter what I did, so I finished that race with a DNF.
Final time in the 206 Jr class I had to make up some spots, I hoped that I would do better since I have been struggling all weekend with one class. I started in the 6th spot and by lap 3 I had already gained 2 spots and sitting in 4th place. The leader was about 4-5 kart lengths ahead of our 6 kart train, but since everyone kept passing instead of pushing forward, we all fell so far back and the leader was long gone. Normally in racing you and someone else want to push together to catch the leader and get away, but in this race the kids just kept passing each other and nobody was moving forward. You knew if you didn’t pass the person in front of you, you were going to get freight trained by the 2-4 karts behind you, so you kind of just had to go. Me and the Margay driver, Reid Sweeney, worked together and pushed away from the other karts for a while, so we could move forward. We were so far behind 1st place at that point there was no catching him, but we kept pushing till 1 lap to go. On the last lap Reid and I had a great battle to the finish line where I crossed the line finishing in 3rd place, which I was okay with at my first national junior race.
I am overall proud of my weekend, even though it started out real ruff and luck wasn’t on my side at all Saturday. The luck turned around on Sunday and I am ready for my next big National race with CKNA at the Grand National event, where I will be racing in the 206 junior class against 60+ Junior racers.
BIG THANKS TO MY DAD JOHN AND JOHN MACRANDER FOR MAKING SURE I WAS READY, MY KARTS WERE READY AND FOR ALL THE TUNING/COACHING.
ALSO BIG THANKS TO NITRO KART FOR THE FAST CHASSIS AND TO MY ENGINE BUILDER COMET RACING ENGINES, FOR ALWAYS MAKING SURE I HAVE THE BEST MOTORS YOU CAN GIVE ME TO KEEP ME ON THE PODIUM. ONE DAY I HOPE TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP STEP.
I would like to thank my sponsors for all the support they have provided to me throughout my racing journey and believing that I can do it; CRP Racing, Rock’s Trailer Sales, PKT Axles, Mason Motorsports, Alissa Grim Photography, EVS & OGIO.
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