Posted on May 09 2017
The 2017 Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series kicked off on April 22/23 in Chandler, Arizona. The off season was short and busy, although my dad & I put a lot of effort into getting my kart dialed in.
Friday's practice was good. I went out for the first practice and the kart felt awesome! So good, that on Saturday I qualified 4th for the main event, starting 2nd row on the outside.
When the green flag dropped I carried a smooth line through turn one holding my 4th spot and maintained that position until lap 8. I got taken out and rolled in turn two.
Once the Safety crew got all the karts separated and turned me back over I was now in the rear of the field sitting in 18th. When the raced resumed I had only 4 laps left to make up positions. My kart was really fast and I drove hard finishing in a very close 8th. I was upset, although making up 10 places in just 4 laps made me feel more at ease. I did well.
Sunday the track was pretty wet in qualifying, I qualified 8th. It was hot and windy that day so we knew the track would dry out and blue groove the last half of the race, so we set the kart up to run dry, and it did. By the 4th lap I had moved into the 4th spot and by lap 10 I had moved up to 3rd place:)
With only 1 lap to go I was in a podium spot, but with just 3 turns to go I set the kart hard in turn two, it hit a rut and I went up on the bike and I spun finishing 16th. Pretty frustrating, but that is racing.
All in all, I feel I had a good weekend even though it didn't go my way. Knowing we have finally got a good setup that will run up front, I'm now confident we'll be getting Top.5 and podiums real soon.