Skip Barber Southern Series - Sebring
February 16, 2010
I always look forward to taking a Friday off from school to go racing. So I expected to have a four day week, but lucky for me, we had 2 feet of snow here in New Jersey. Two feet of snow equals two days off from school! I went to school on Monday and Tuesday, then I enjoyed a nice 6 day weekend thanks to the snow days and race days! It was sweet! With all the snow, my dad and I were lucky our flight went out on time Thursday night. We met up with Steve Welk in Orlando and we were all in bed at the hotel in Sebring by midnight.
Friday I spent the day driving in a mix of wet and dry conditions. It was cold down there in Florida and by the end of Friday's practice session, there were lakes forming on the track! It rained so much during my final practice session that it was actually cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday morning. It was pretty cool to be racing on the full track at Sebring.
On Saturday morning, I finished up the practice session and got ready for qualifying. It was really cloudy and cool, but at least it was dry. My qualifying didn't go as well as I had hoped because of some mistakes in our strategy. I ended up P7. That meant I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to get up front.
When the race began, I got a real good start and gained three positions in turn one. After that, I worked on chasing down the top four drivers who were very quick. I caught up to the third and fourth place drivers and overtook both of them for third. It was only an eight lap race since the track is so long and I needed more time in order to catch the front runners. That didn't happen so I had to settle for third place which was a solid finish and a good points day for us.
Sunday I started the race in third but I had a really bad start and ended up falling back to fifth. Going through turn three, I tried to make a pass but the driver on the outside lost control of his car and unfortunately I had nowhere to go, so I ran right into the side of him. I was able to drive back to the pits but the car was too badly damaged to keep racing, so my day was over without ever completing one lap. I was scored in dead last. I was bummed but I knew that it would happen sooner or later.
I would really like to thank God for keeping me safe, especially when I crashed. Thank you to my parents for being able to pay for the crash damage. Now my mom will be eating even MORE ketchup sandwiches until we pay off the crash bill. Thanks, too, to my sister Sloane for all her support & congrats to her on finishing up her high school swimming career with 2nd place at the conference championship. Way to go, Sloane! Thank you to Steve Welk for his awesome coaching skills and for not beating me up when I crashed. I want to thank Gerardo Bonilla for teaching me so much during his online coaching class and to all the Skip Barber coaches and mechanics who help me so much. Of course, without the support of my sponsors Atlas Acon, Liberty Contracting, Sparco, and Bell, none of this would be possible
Since I have no Skip Barber regional races in March, I am planning to race the Florida Winter Tour Rotax weekend at Ocala Gran Prix. I haven't been in a kart since November so I am really looking forward to racing one again and to seeing all my karting friends again.
I would like to congratulate my friend Jamie McMurray on his awesome Daytona 500 win! I met Jamie in Daytona last year and he was very cool. It's amazing to actually see someone from karting achieve such a great victory. It makes you feel like it really is possible to go all the way.
Friday I spent the day driving in a mix of wet and dry conditions. It was cold down there in Florida and by the end of Friday's practice session, there were lakes forming on the track! It rained so much during my final practice session that it was actually cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday morning. It was pretty cool to be racing on the full track at Sebring.
On Saturday morning, I finished up the practice session and got ready for qualifying. It was really cloudy and cool, but at least it was dry. My qualifying didn't go as well as I had hoped because of some mistakes in our strategy. I ended up P7. That meant I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to get up front.
When the race began, I got a real good start and gained three positions in turn one. After that, I worked on chasing down the top four drivers who were very quick. I caught up to the third and fourth place drivers and overtook both of them for third. It was only an eight lap race since the track is so long and I needed more time in order to catch the front runners. That didn't happen so I had to settle for third place which was a solid finish and a good points day for us.
Sunday I started the race in third but I had a really bad start and ended up falling back to fifth. Going through turn three, I tried to make a pass but the driver on the outside lost control of his car and unfortunately I had nowhere to go, so I ran right into the side of him. I was able to drive back to the pits but the car was too badly damaged to keep racing, so my day was over without ever completing one lap. I was scored in dead last. I was bummed but I knew that it would happen sooner or later.
I would really like to thank God for keeping me safe, especially when I crashed. Thank you to my parents for being able to pay for the crash damage. Now my mom will be eating even MORE ketchup sandwiches until we pay off the crash bill. Thanks, too, to my sister Sloane for all her support & congrats to her on finishing up her high school swimming career with 2nd place at the conference championship. Way to go, Sloane! Thank you to Steve Welk for his awesome coaching skills and for not beating me up when I crashed. I want to thank Gerardo Bonilla for teaching me so much during his online coaching class and to all the Skip Barber coaches and mechanics who help me so much. Of course, without the support of my sponsors Atlas Acon, Liberty Contracting, Sparco, and Bell, none of this would be possible
Since I have no Skip Barber regional races in March, I am planning to race the Florida Winter Tour Rotax weekend at Ocala Gran Prix. I haven't been in a kart since November so I am really looking forward to racing one again and to seeing all my karting friends again.
I would like to congratulate my friend Jamie McMurray on his awesome Daytona 500 win! I met Jamie in Daytona last year and he was very cool. It's amazing to actually see someone from karting achieve such a great victory. It makes you feel like it really is possible to go all the way.
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