Sanzaru Games Karting Championship, Race 2 Results
Kyle’s second race was a true learning experience. Lots of ups and downs, but at the end of the day, he racked up some more knowledge and continued to improve his overall time.
The Ups:
Race #2 ran the Sprint Track configuration. It's not a pure apples to apples comparison between the National layout that was used for the first race, but Kyle set a personal best time of 52.088 in lap 4 of the second heat race. Prior to this weekend, he was running fairly consistent 53's on this track configuration, so he shaved another second off his time.
This weekend, Kyle’s Technician from Cameron Karting was Wesley Boswell. Wes is an accomplished racer (like many others at Cameron Karting) and he spent a great deal of time breaking down Kyle’s GoPro footage between sessions and giving him lots of helpful pointers. He got a great education this weekend.
Kyle also got a chance to meet and race with Austin Riley. A talented and wonderful kid from Canada, who is currently touring California raising awareness for Autism. This was an inspirational moment for Kyle, to see someone who isn’t letting their condition get in the way of pursuing and being successful in racing. Check him out and support him if you can: RacingWithAutism.com
Despite starting at the back of the grid (more on that below), there was a moment where he was holding onto 6th position for 5 laps in the main race due to a few drivers getting tangled up on the start which he was able to maneuver around.
Below is a video of the start which you can see the mess unfold up front, then Kyle powers through from the back, followed by a quick moment where he goes side-by-side with Austin (in kart #320).
It’s quite possible he could have finished in 7th (out of 12) for the race, but he spun-out during one lap at Tic Tac Toe which ultimately did him in. It was a big lost opportunity, which brings us to…
The Downs:
That spin was a self-inflicted error. Kyle just timed his turn too late and missed the apex on Tic (the first of 3 serpentine turns). It happened during the same lap he got passed by Jarrett Lile, the 2013 Champion of this series, which dropped Kyle from 6th to 7th place.
Unfortunately, the spin took Kyle off the track, and provided an opportunity for Maggie Simms to also get by, which subsequently dropped Kyle to 8th. At this point in the race, there were only 10 drivers left. 2 had been taken out by the start, and the 2 remaining on the field behind Kyle just happened to be 2 of the fastest drivers in the series. Jared Higham (who secured Pole Position for this race), and Zach Pettinicchi (the 2014 Champion of this series). Both of these drivers were involved in the collision at the start, but managed to get back into the race so they were furiously making up ground and attacking from the back. Jared caught up to Kyle in lap 7, and Zach caught him in lap 11 of the 15-lap race, so Kyle ended up finishing 10th out of 12 drivers again. Jared set the best time of the race (50.772) and also passed Maggie to finish in 7th, while Zach finished just ahead of Kyle in 9th.
At the start of the day, Qualifying was also a bummer since Kyle’s engine cut out during the first lap, which meant he didn’t actually get to qualify, thus had to start at the very back of the grid. Given the experience of the other drivers in his class, it’s really difficult to move up from the back of the grid since Kyle is still working on shaving another second off to be competitive. The collision at the start did help get him some experience in the middle of the pack though, so that was good.
The last downer (or first, depending on how you look at it) was on Practice day. Kyle got bumped, spun, and actually partially driven over by another kart which resulted in some damage to Kyle’s kart and one of his wheels. Thankfully, Kyle escaped injury – it was a pretty hard hit and close call, which we didn’t fully realize/appreciate until we saw the footage of this from Kyle’s GoPro, but we did have some clues when we saw the tire marks on the side of his seat. We’ll post that up the video later.
Final race results:
Here are the full results from the day: