![]() Sweet and sour weekend here at Sumas International Motorsports Academy marking the penultimate round of the IKF Region 6 Gold-Cup series. Friday practice served its purpose as valuable practice time to switch driving styles from the previous two weeks, racing the Follis Kart Racing 4-stroke at PGP and Spanaway. This time, hopping from the 9hp lawn mower to the beastly 45hp shifter and the screaming fast TaG motor. The more comfortable I got with the karts, the more previous problems started to arise. Come the big weekend, a brand new carb for the TaG on Saturday put me in P2 for the final and my bent shifter chassis, with the help of new tires, held on to P3. It was a stretch in itself to finish on the podium in the shifter with such tough competition, knowing there was nothing we could change to the chassis to make it better. I knew I had some work to do to keep a podium come Sunday. The last day of the 3-day event puts the pressure on for all drivers and mechanics. It’s the make it or break it day for many, knowing it’s their last shot to throw everything on the table and hope for the best. A crappy and miscalculated qualifying meant we started further down the running order, not where we needed to be. Halfway through the day, dark, overcasting clouds cast a shadow over SIMA, the rain came shortly after... Perfect! Was my reaction as I knew it would level the playing field and if I dealt my cards right, a win was possible. Come the TaG final, the rain really started to pick up as we frantically rushed to put the rain setup on the kart. The green flag dropped and we went from 4th to 1st within 2 laps and increased our gap by a mile by the halfway mark. But, to our disadvantage, the rain cleared and the hot black tarmac quickly evaporated the water leaving my wet setup now lacking speed. Within a few laps the gap decreased and I was dropping back one-by-one to ultimately finish 5th. A big disappointment, as was the shifter final where my chassis kept me out of podium contention. Two hard Gold-Cup weekends in a row takes its toll on my dad and I but we keep our heads high for the last round in McMinnville, Oregon. It was a blast helping out my FKR teammate, Jake Mann getting up to speed in the 4-stroke where he ended up finishing P2 and P1 over the weekend - awesome job Jake! Can’t thank my parents, Italian Motors, and 425 Motorsports enough for their support.
On to the next one...
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Follis Kart Racing
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September 2017
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