Oh....My....Gosh!!!! Spring 3

The title says it all for me. I am completely in awe of my little boy. We had our Spring 3 race last night - our first Saturday night, under the lights, race of the season. And what promised to be a nice day weather-wise turned into a bitterly cold and windy evening. But that didn't matter to the action on the track in the TAG Cadet class.

We had 6 kids racing together last night in our group. For the 5-minute qualifying heat, Hunter got caught behind a kid who spun out and he ran into to kid. But he jumped back into the racing action and caught up with the back two and worked until he passed them both to get a good lap time and be able to start in 3rd position for the pre-final heat. But his kart suffered a bruise. The front nose cone was bashed in a bit. Oh, the drama of seeing his wrecked kart after he came back in to the pit area...but it got popped back out...racin' is rubbin' ya know!

Then came the pre-final heat. Hunter was gridded up to start in 3rd position, but all of a sudden, Reilly's kart stopped running...bad clutch. So that put Hunter up in 2nd position. But Gunnr is a seasoned veteran in the TAG Cadet class and we didn't think Hunter would be able to keep up with him. OH BUT GUESS AGAIN!!! At the drop of the green flag, Hunter took off and flew in front of Gunnr and STAYED THERE for half of the heat...but Gunnr was right on his tail the entire time. Finally, Gunnr managed to pass Hunter and took off for the win of heat 2. But my stress level was through the roof watching that. I've never been so proud of my son!!!

Finally came the Final heat of the night - this was the points race - the place ribbons race - all the marbles so to speak. Hunter was gridded in 2nd position right by Gunnr with Reilly now back in the race right behind Hunter (I'd tell you the other kids, but I don't know them yet). There was a confusion on the track as the kids were doing their warm up laps and then needing to slow down to line up together for their rolling start. We had one kart that was 1/2 a lap behind the pack so they had to go around the track again, but then that kart pulled off the track for problems. Then once we thought they were ready to go, another kart pulled in front of the pack away from his starting position and we thought we would have to do another lap, but the flagman chose to start the race anyway. With the exception that Gunnr, Hunter, and Reilly had to try to get around the stray kart in the front (again, he was not supposed to be there). Gunnr got the jump on the lead this time, but Hunter and Reilly were right there with him (see attached video). The they had the #57 to try to pass - this was our wayward kart, but they all three got around him and it looked like a good race brewing. But Gunnr finally pulled away for a comfortable lead.

But the race was for 2nd.

Hunter and Reilly stuck together like glue for the majority of the race. Their karts sounded like they were in perfect sync with each other. They looked GREAT! Reilly would try to pass Hunter on the straightaways, but Hunter would pull away from him. I was so stressed watching all this, yelling and clapping. I was beat, but excited. At last, Reilly caught and passed Hunter for 2nd and then we got to the checkered flag and 3rd place. But that still counts! He came home with a white ribbon and points for 3rd place.

Ah....racing. Love it!! And OH....MY....GOODNESS!!!!

Spring 1 - Done and Movin' On

So, we decided for Hunter to go ahead and race the first race of the season at NTK on Sunday. He was super excited!!

He didn't have his times down to where we wanted them on Saturday, but he did get down to :47 second laps on Sunday.

And he finished 2nd!!

Okay, okay, there were only two karts racing in his class, but it's still 2nd place points!

One boy had an accident during practice and banged up his elbow pretty badly and damaged his kart, so he was out, then another racer did something to her kart during practice, so they packed up and left, which left Hunter and another boy to race. The other kid is in his 2nd season in this kart so he had at least a 4-5 second lead on Hunter per lap. But that was okay. We got seat time.

I took a little video of the first lap on the final heat of the day for Hunter. Boy, he looked good on the start...he jumped up front and looked like he wanted to stay there...until...well, we have some corner work to do as you'll see, but bless his little heart he did good!! We are so proud of him.

We're not racing in Spring 2 next week...Dad is working the race so Hunter will just collect the 1st place points for that (cool deal, huh!). But we'll get some corner work down for Spring 3 on Saturday, March 27th at 6PM. Come on out!

Back in the Saddle...or Kart Seat, that is...

We are racing again!! The track re-opened in January from our paving and weather delay adventure and Hunter raced one last race in his Kid Kart in January.

Now we are moving up to the next class: TAG Cadet 1. (pic - we haven't put his # on it yet) This kart is bigger and faster for him and we thought it would take a long time for him to get to speed. After all, his first time out in this kart had him running slower times than he did his first time out in his Kid Kart. Yipes!

And with more weather delays during January and February, it wasn't easy to just run to the track for some practice. So, with the Spring racing season starting this Sunday, March 14th, we jumped on the good weather this week and took him to the track. We were really not expecting to be able to race this Sunday or even maybe next Sunday...possibly if he really worked hard, we might make it for Spring 3 race. But Hunter told Daddy that he would do whatever it takes to get up to speed so he could race in Spring 1. Uh-huh. Hunter has always been such an overly cautious boy - holding on to fear - that we really didn't see it happening too quickly, but we were willing to work with him.

So we went out Wednesday to the track and he brought his time up from 1:10 a lap to 1:02 a lap....he needs to be at :47 seconds a lap to race - and this will be on the low side of his class. Then we pulled Hunter out of school a little early yesterday and went to the track to practice. A Kid Kart friend of his showed up to practice and with that little bit of competition to push him...

Oh...My...Goodness...!!!

The boy started running :56, then :54, then, :52, then consistent :51 second laps. We were thrilled and told him how great that was and how proud we were of him, but that it had to get faster still to race on Sunday. Before we left, he clocked in consistent :49 second laps.

We are ALMOST there! He has shown us he is determined to get this down and race. And I think one he is out with the even faster karts in his class, that will push him even more to get it down. So, we are going to the track today for more practice....

I think we'll be racing on Sunday. Maybe we'll see you there!!