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!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment