Date	April 17, 2016
Track	Simraceway, Sonoma, CA
Configuration	Sprint
Total Drivers	7
Qualify Position / Time	P3 / :51.061
Heat Race 1 Position / Best Lap	P3 / :51.039
Heat Race 2 Position / Best Lap	P3 / :51.290
Main Race Position / Best Lap	P3 / :51.331
Points Earned / Series Points	185 / 365
Standings Position	3/7

Sonoma is beautiful this time of year. Photo by Tony Leone, Dromo Photos — Sonoma is beautiful this time of year. Photo by Tony Leone, Dromo Photos

This weekend was my time to shine! After one long year of hard work and dedication, I finally made it to the front! what's even better is that I'm still improving "three times over" as fellow competitor Zach Pettinicchi said to me at the beginning of the weekend. I am most certainly looking forward to how much more I will progress until race 3 next month in May!

Practice

For the first 6 sessions of the day, practice was just casual lapping and self critique over my driving through some data. I pinpointed what changes I wanted to make in the chassis and set an ideal lap time of 51.9s. For the last two sessions, I exited the pits in front of Zach, and we immediately went right into some pre-race sparring. During both sessions, Enzo Prevost managed to sneak his way into the fun, and the results were very tightly packed practice sessions that anyone could mistake for a main event! Little did I know, however, that I was also giving both Zach and Enzo the chance to study my every move for Sunday. Little did THEY know, I had my GoPro camera facing backwards, so that I could study THEIR moves as well without having to look backwards during practice! A fair trade off if you ask me.

Qualify

If there was one thing I lacked in qualifying, it would have been those extra seconds I would have had a year ago! I landed 51.061s on my final lap, putting me in P3 for the first heat. Enzo and Zach both qualified ahead of me by just a couple tenths of a second, and I knew the rest of the day was going to be difficult.

Heat Races

Heat 1: Nothing too special about this heat. At the start, I was right on Zach's rear bumper, something that I was constantly nagged about by my many coaches and mentors throughout my career so far. However, that technique was actually hurting me because I was starting in P3. Starting 3rd meant I had the opportunity to jump from P3 to P1 right on the first corner. As the green flag waved, Zach had complete control of the corner, and Enzo slipped into 2nd, right between me and Zach. That was when I realized: "Okay, time to change my strategy for next time."

Heat 2: This time, I tried something else. I decided to give myself a little room and anticipate the green flag, as Pablo, one of the guys who worked under the tent with Cameron Karting, advised me. Unfortunately, I was too distracted by the repeating abrupt contact from the driver behind me to realize that it's time to get racing. I was still able to maintain 3rd position, but there was already a big gap between Zach and Enzo.

Main

Enjoying my moments in P2. Photo by Tony Leone, Dromo Photos — Enjoying my moments in P2. Photo by Tony Leone, Dromo Photos

This was by far my best race start ever. I tried this new method again, and it worked out beautifully. I was able to stay right next to Enzo, and I had full control over turn one. I decided to stay behind Zach because I didn't want to risk a collision that would endanger my chances of my very first podium finish. I think it was a smart move as I look back at the GoPro footage because there were no openings for me to shoot for P1. Halfway through the race, I made a very small mistake that cost me my position. I had a bad entry into Monaco, but I decided to stay on my own racing line, knowing that Enzo was still right behind me. That gave him the chance to go for a pass, and he was able to make it stick. Now that I've recognized what I've done that caused this to happen, it is now up to me to figure out how to counter a situation like this next time it happens.

Overall, I would consider this weekend to be very successful. I finished on the podium because I worked hard and dedicated my time and energy into racing. I took every chance I had to come to the racetrack to practice, and every time I practiced, I got better and better, whether I noticed it or not. I'd like to thank everyone at Cameron Karting for their amazing support, and everyone else at the race for cheering me on at the end of the day!