I thought this time at Road America was much better than the first time we visited the track in May. My dad kept pretty good notes from the last time here and we knew what to do and what not to do. It saved us a lot of time.The first practice that we had went well. The second time that I went out I got sideways in a real scary part of the track and got hit by another kart. It through me off the track and my kart got stuck. It seems that the guy who crashed into me bent my side bar so bad that it stuck in the ground and would not let my kart roll. My dad had run all the way from the pits and up the hill to help me. He had a lot of work to do to repair the kart so I missed a few practice sessions waiting for him. While I waited I hung out with another driver from my class, Alex. We rode bikes and just horsed around for a while until it was time to go back out on the track again. When we finally got the kart fixed I went back out and found another kid from my class was on the track. Eliott doesn't come to a lot of our races but when he does he's usually pretty fast. My kart must have been working right because I was sticking right with him. I actually got in front of him and stayed there for an entire practice session too. This changed when Sunday came.
Sunday morning we went out and practiced and found ourselves running pretty strong. I was clearly ahead of both of the drivers that I'm battling with for 5th, 6th, and 7th place. Going into this race I was 1 point ahead of my friend Kathya, and about 70 points behind the 5th place driver, Taylor. I finished in 5th spot in both morning heat races. The second heat race I actually finished in front of my friend Alex! This doesn't happen very often as Alex is one of the fastest drivers in our class. I was really happy and very excited to get to the Feature. While we all waited for the Feature I played baseball with a bunch of the other drivers that I race with. My dad got a little angry at me for not changing first. I got my driver suit all full of grass and mud, and this was after I got my pant leg stuck in my bike's sprocket.
Finally the Feature Race! I was really excited to start this race. I was gridded 6th and I knew that we could do good. For the first couple of laps I was following Taylor and couldn't find a way to get around him. I tried on the outside of the last turn and he moved over and we touched. I finally got close enough on the next lap to race him up the straight and got in front of him before turn one. With him behind me I set my sights on Kodiak. He's another quick driver in my class that I was giving a run for his money and this weekend I was pretty close to him in my lap times. I almost caught him before the checkered flag fell. If there was another lap or two I might have passed him, but I was happy with a 6th place finish. (and ahead of Kathya and Taylor). Kathya finished 7th and Taylor finished 8th. This now puts me into 6th place in the points. I'm ahead of Kathya by 21 points and behind Taylor by 49 points. If we all finish this way for the next 4 races left in the season, I can catch him for 5th!
It was a pretty good weekend for us. The new bodywork is working fine, and my dad just installed an aluminum axle that he says helped my engine spin up faster and also lighten the kart a little more. He wasn't kidding. I went from 229lbs to 225lbs (my class minimum). We have to be very careful now so we do not come in under weight. If he doesn't put enough fuel in my tank I could actually weigh in too light and be disqualified. I think we're putting a couple of pounds of lead in it just to be safe. Luck was on our side this weekend too. After I crossed the finish line my kart sputtered and died. I rolled to the side of the track and had to get picked up by the tow truck. When my dad got the kart back he noticed that my gas tank was falling off the kart and it had spilled all of my fuel out. He said that a bolt had worked it's way out and caused this to happen. I hope we can get it fixed and not have this problem again when we return to our home track at Dousman in two weeks.
