Great Weekend to Close Out Great Year!

Hunter, Jake and Ethan - the top 3 for the Year, too!

We raced our final race of the season at NTK on Saturday. And this time, I really mean "we"!

Hunter had a great showing on Saturday and with a great pass during the final, pulled away from the field to close out his year with a win and clinching the Year End Championship at North Texas Karters! We are so proud of him - and how much he has improved throughout this year.

 Hadyn had her first race this weekend. I was just hoping for her to stay on the track, hold her line and finish the race - and she did all of that and had her best time to date! She was so excited. During the awards ceremony, she was given her medal (all Kid Karts receive 1st place awards), her 1st time driver trophy, a bag of candy, and her 1st time driver Teddy Bear from the Kid Kart sponsor, Polar Graphics. With her arms full of loot, I asked her if that was it - were we done with racing. She said "yes" and I asked if we could sell the Kid Kart now. The misunderstanding was mine, apparently, gauging by the appalled look on her face when she replied, "NO!" She meant, we were done for the day. Okay then. She really wants to do this.

Can't beat that smile!!

Then it was Mom's turn. The Chonda class allowed all of us Moms, wives, girlfriends, etc. to run a Powder Puff heat in their karts. I had a blast - too much fun, really. I think two karters in the family is enough right now. I got t-boned on the first lap and had to wait for the guys to pull our karts apart, but I was still able to catch up and finish in 3rd place (out of 10, I think).

Hunter #88, Kaleb #17, Michael #88, Riley #53 -
Photo by Stephanie Haseloff

On Sunday, we left home at 5AM and drove to New Braunfels, TX for Hill Country Karting Club's annual Enduro race. For Hunter's class, it's a 30 minute race to finish. And it was a chance for us to hang out with our SWRC friends for the afternoon. Hunter started the race in 4th position, and after our 2 friends dropped out due to engine troubles we thought that Hunter might have a good chance to finish in the top 3...until...he was penalized a lap for passing under a yellow flag. But even with that, he still finished 4th out of 12 and can now say he ran a 30 minute enduro race. And it was all fun. We'll definitely be going back there to race next year.

Throughout the entire year, we've had ups and downs and have learned valuable lessons at each turn. I love this sport and all the people we have around us have been so great to help us grow and learn. I am very excited to see what both our kids can do next year.

HES2 Motorsports will be very excited for 2012! Hope to see you all at the races!