TRI-C R1: An almost perfect weekend

PRACTICE: We were consistently one of the fastest, showing great speed.

QUALIFYING: Due to the format, we only get one qualifying lap. I set a good time to qualify P4, and though I did feel I could’ve done better, this was still a great result for day one.

PRE-MAIN: I had a good start, until I went three wide into turn two, which resulted in a kart ramping on top of me. This caused a big pileup, and a red flag for the race to be restarted, where I unfortunately made a small but punishing mistake to let off throttle slightly and then push on it. This meant my acceleration was much less than the others. I fell back many spots before reaching turn one. To add some salt to the burn, I also had damage from the pileup before the red flag, which greatly hindered my pace to get back to the front.
RESULT: P11 of 25

MAIN: From here, my only mindset was to make a comeback, and to save the weekend with a good result. Come the start, I stayed on their bumper, making up 4 spots in the first lap. However, there was a big crash (see second to last slide), where a kart flipped. The driver is ok, but it did cause a red flag, resulting in all my progress having to be redone. Despite this, I pushed through, and simply re-did the amazing start. I overtook five people within the first lap, putting myself P6. I quickly caught up fifth place, overtook them, and from there, I slowly but steadily caught up to P4. I was quicker, but didn’t have enough laps to truly get within overtaking distance.
RESULT: P5 of 25

Overall, I’m extremely proud of the weekend. Had the pre-main gone our way, a podium was definitely possible. However, I’ve learned from this mistake, and our pace has grown greatly. We have never been this close to a podium in such a competitive environment, which has given me the confidence to keep pushing forwards.

Thank you to my team @formula_works @gfckarting for all their support, my mechanic @alexanderjsiragusa for pushing with me, my mom @pinartoprakcomposer for allowing me to live my dream, and my driver coach for working hard with me towards results. We’re getting closer and closer to the front, and it’s only a matter of time.