Challenge of the Americas - Race 4
Race 4 had it’s ups and downs which left Kyle with some frustration over the course of the day, but ultimately, these two races in Phoenix netted a better average finish for Kyle than the first 2 races in this series, so we went home feeling pretty satisfied.
Warm Up
We had thought we would hit 47 seconds on Saturday, but never got there, so this was a big goal for Sunday. Since we did not run the final two sessions on Friday practice, we actually had another set of new tires that we ended up using for just the warmup session before putting on the race tires for qualifying. The elusive 47 second mark was finally hit when Kyle laid down a :47.805 during this 9-lap warmup session.
Qualifying
We were both pretty excited going into qualifying after the good warmup and thought we would be able to build on the good warmup and ultimately start higher in the heat to set us up for a better run in the main. Unfortunately, the best time Kyle was able to get ended up being :48.108, considerably slower than the fairly consistent 48-flats he had been running. This put him in P20, which was at least 1 position higher than Saturday to start, but not exactly what he was looking for.
Heat Race
Further frustration set in when he was not able to finish the heat race. During the grid up, Kyle spun his kart when he entered turn 6 a little too hot while other drivers had begun braking to set up for the rolling start. By the time he got his kart turned around and back on track, the green flag had already been thrown and he was too far behind to have any significant movement up the field. Instead, Kyle just came off track after 1 lap to save his tires for the main race.
Main Race
Due to the mishap in the heat race, Kyle had to start all the way in the back. He actually had another really good start, and moved up several positions, but right at the end of lap 1, there was a huge pileup on turn 10. Kyle was in the process of passing Davey Hamilton Jr on the straight when the yellow flag was thrown, so he was going full throttle toward the carnage. Thankfully, he was able to pick the right line and skillfully maneuver around 2 sets of crashed karts. Right after the crash zone, Kyle was able to keep racing with the other drivers that got by the incident. He actually found himself in P11 with only 2 laps into the race, so things were looking good. Unfortunately, the race got red flagged since Michael Michoff's kart was flipped in that pileup. He had also clearly been injured so the race had to be stopped.
Photo by Sean Buur
Here’s video of Michoff getting out of harms way from Kyle’s GoPro. It’s slowed down so you can see the details better. While he suffered some bruised ribs and required surgery to repair a lacerated spleen, Michael is reportedly recovering well which is great news to hear.
Because the red flag was thrown and the race stopped before the end of lap 2, the grid reverted back to the original start positions, so Kyle’s move up to P11 was pretty much wiped out. Since there was a break to clear the accident, all of the other drivers whose karts got a little mangled had a chance to get their karts fixed in pit lane. It was quite a sight to behold. Teams of mechanics swarming down in fairly tight quarters, all working feverishly to get their drivers back on the track before the race was re-started. Everyone but Michoff was able to resume racing, so Kyle had to start all the way in the back again, but this time in P21 instead of P22.
As usual, the start is key. This time around, Kyle pushed up from P21 to P17 in lap 1. Then in lap 5 he got to P16. By lap 8, he was squarely at P15. Although he wasn’t as fast as some of the other drivers, he had the pace to hold onto this position for the majority of the rest of the 25-lap race. However, on lap 18 he got bumped by Logan Cusson at turn 4 which threw his momentum off. This ultimately gave Cusson and Toni Breidinger the opportunity to pass him on turn 8 which dropped him back to P17. Kyle was able to stay close to them for a couple laps – he actually ran some of his fastest laps of the race in laps 20 through 22 behind Cusson and Breidinger, but fatigue started to settle in and his pace started to slow for the final laps of the race so he wasn’t able to gain those positions back.
The net result of P17 was still a great finish for him. In the first two races at Tuscon, he finished P18 and P19 respectively in the main events, whereas in these last two races in Phoenix, he improved to P12 and P17. He gained a total of 56 points this weekend vs 29 in the first weekend, so it was a pretty big improvement for him. Currently, after 4 races he is 19 out of 26 drivers. With races 5 and 6 being at his home track in Sonoma, we feel pretty good about our chances to keep moving up in March. Bring on Sonoma!
Full Results:
Current Standings:
Read about the other races from 2016 Challenge of the Americas