Real Racing!

Last night was the last race in our NTK Spring series and Hunter clinched the championship with an awesome win! So far this season, our competitors really haven't been up front running with Hunter for various reasons, but last night one of our friends - who has a new kart and new confidence - really poured it on and gave Hunter a real run.

Jake consistently ran faster times than Hunter (yes, we have him on old equipment - again), but Hunter didn't let that stop him. I told him that we could put on new tires, new drive sprocket, new gear, etc and he could possibly have set the track record last night, but we didn't, so it was up to our driver to show us what he can do with what he has. And Hunter certainly stepped up to that challenge! He loved having to run down and chase another kart.  That is what fuels his fire - stiff competition. It was lapped traffic that caused Jake to stumble a bit and for Hunter to capitalize on it. Hunter just has more experience and confidence in his passing and once he got around them, it was all Blue Bolt time.

For the final heat, Hunter took off out front but Jake was on his tail. The two of them blazed a trail around the track like there were no others on it. They tore off from the pack and it became a two man race in the front. With three new racers on the track, lapped traffic might have posed a problem, but Hunter and Jake looked like they were glued to each other as they passed one kart after another. We were so thrilled to watch Jake take the corner passes with Hunter and stick with him so closely. That was exactly what Jake needed to do to gather more confidence. One last kart to pass caused a sticky bit of issue for Jake so Hunter bolted past, but Jake got hung up for a second leaving the win wide open for Hunter.

We certainly know that with that experience and now that Jake knows what he can do, there will be no more advantages for our Blue Bolt racer - it's going to be gun and run the entire race from here on out.

But that's what our racer wants - real racing!

And not to be left out, our HES"2" driver, Hadyn, got to race in Kid Karts again last night. She and I worked on her corners a little bit on Friday night and reviewed before her race on Saturday. With just a little bit of coaching from Mom, she was able to shave 7 seconds off her previous "fast" time to set her new personal best time. She's getting better every time - just imagine what she'll be like at Hunter's age if she sticks with it!!

Next weekend is the start of our NTK Summer series.
Until then!