Race Report: 7/11/11

Qualifying
Kart felt good, but wasn’t running into the back of the pack of karts ahead. Got into a good rhythm and focus but never felt blazing fast. Very physically comfortable. Finished fifth fastest.

Race 1
Started fifth. Kart started off with moderate grip that improved after a few laps. Lost two positions in the first 5 - 10 laps due to lack of speed. Surprisingly, after kart hit the usual performance plateau it got much better and was much faster during the second half of the race. Got two positions back and finished fifth while challenging for fourth.

Race 2
Started fifth. Took four caution laps to get everyone bunched up for the start. Traffic was very thick and aggressive. Got knocked sideways into the wall at the top of the hill but kept the throttle open and got through it as well as possible. Jose Pimentel was charging through the field and got past in the middle of the hill after the hairpin. Tried to follow him down the inside of the final corner but he got pinched into the wall and I tagged him pretty hard. Next lap Mark Keene checked Richard Serino hard into the wall at the top of the hill, allowing John Hintze and myself to go by, but the race was red-flagged. It was deemed that the flags came out before the pass was made, and after all the shuffling and a few verbal warnings I was lined up last but with two karts in the penalty box. Drove by those two at the green, then another penalized kart a few laps later, then another a few laps later. Stayed within sight of first - fourth and finished fifth.

Race 3
Started sixth. Kart had blazing fast top speed, but was in heavy traffic from lap one. First and second opened up a quick lead but third - seventh were in a train with everyone driving defensively. Tried unsuccessfully to pull a cross-over on fifth (John Hintze) two or three times but couldn’t get far enough up going across the top to have position turning left down the hill. Tried a few other times to push fifth past fourth going up the hill, but fourth was driving a great defensive line and there wasn’t much room to do anything. Was getting pushed around by seventh (Jay Dennehy) the whole race so I had to stay fairly defensive myself. Finished in sixth after 35 laps of intense concentration.