This weekend was the first time I got to wear my newly painted helmet and brand new suit. The helmet was a graduation present from my mother, and the suit was a surprise gift from my father for passing all of my classes this year at school. Love you guys!

Practice

Practice on Saturday was certainly chaotic because drivers from all over the nation came to compete in this weekend's race. I got to spar against some very highly respected racers and ended up accidentally triggering some aggressive behavior. I got yelled at for passing, which I thought was odd, coming from a seasoned pro. Nevertheless I remained focused on my main goal for the day, which was to fine tune my chassis so that it can perform the way I need it to in order to be competitive. On the last session of the day, my tires were completely worn out, and I started out near the front and passed several drivers on the first lap. I drove at a great pace and pulled away from the pack to my own surprise. That's when I knew the next day would be my most competitive race to date.

Qualify

I was completely focused on my driving, but I forgot one very important thing. When I left the pits, I forgot to flip my radiator flap up to keep the engine cool, which completely threw off my momentum on corner exit. Therefore, I couldn't get a good run down the main straightaway, where I could have made up a lot of time. It was a complete waste of fresh tires, which was unfortunate on my end. Still, qualifying in P5 with lap times that are very close to the leaders gave me confidence in my capabilities for the two heats and the main.

Heat 1

On the start of the first heat, I was too distracted by my fuel line, which caused me to fall back 5 spots on the first couple corners. Throughout the 8-lap race, I was able to regain 2 positions and finish in P8, not so far behind the driver ahead of me. Both of my passes were clean and well-timed. The only thing I could have done better was execute those overtakes sooner.

Heat 2

Once again on the start, I had no power. Since my gearing was relatively low, the bottom end was my engine's weak point in exchange for better performance down the straightaway. I fell back a few spots, but made my way back up to P6. I maintained a good pace and slowly caught up to the leaders, which gave me the visual interpretation on how important those race starts can be. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy weekend, so I had to do something about those poor starts.

Main

For the Main Race, my start was much better, thanks to a small technique that Brett told me to try out. Obviously, there were a couple things that I could have done better, but I'm still pretty happy with how I improved. Here is a video of the start of the Main Race:

As you can see, I crashed out on lap 1. As I was following Mason Cohen and Nic LeDuc through the exit of Tic Tac Toe, I immediately saw another kart that was not quite pointing in the right direction. As Cohen and LeDuc drove into the dirt, my quick thinking told me to try and swerve to the inside of the track as an attempt to avoid getting into the dirt and crashing into the other two drivers instead of the road block. My plan unfortunately failed as I locked up and clipped the other kart's rear bumper with my right rear tire and tore off the wheel hub. Thankfully, I made it out in one piece, and so did everyone else who was involved in the accident, but 4 of us were knocked out after 1 lap. After looking back at the GoPro footage, both front and back, people told me that I had nowhere to go and that the crash was unavoidable. I thought differently. I believed that I lacked the reflex and skill to avoid the mess, which decided whether or not I finished the race. As I am writing this recap, my mind hasn't changed, and I'm still determined to find a way to avoid another similar situation at some point in the near future. 

At the end of the day, I looked at this race weekend as an opportunity to learn about a proper driver's behavior off track. I was given the chance to witness two examples of how two different professional racers act when they're not behind the wheel. Special thanks to Tom Dyer, a well established professional racecar driver, for being a fantastic sport, and helping me realize that my rash behavior after the accident was clearly not the appropriate behavior for anyone who wants to have a successful career in motorsport. If anyone is curious about his success as a driver, please visit Tom's website to learn more about his career.

Despite having a weekend that consisted of mostly negative results in the end, that's not going to stop me from trying even harder next time!

Full Results:

• Warm-Up
• Qualifying
• Heat Race 1
• Heat Race 2
• Main Race

Current Standings:

Read about the other races from 2016 Sanzaru Games Karting Championship