Riker Racing #00

Yesterday we ran up at Greenwood Valley Action Tracks for the fourth time this season. When we got to the track there was some lightning and some cracks of thunder but we just thought it was because of the heat that was to come. Well we were wrong. Within a matter of minutes it started down pouring along with tons of thunder and lightning and extremely strong winds. People were not expecting it so they pulled their cars and ez-ups of out the trailer just like any other raceday, and as soon as the storm came, ez-ups were flying all over the place and go-karts were being knocked over on their stands. Luckily we did not take anything out of our trailer so we ran for cover in our truck. The storm only lasted ten to fifteen minutes but it was a strong one! When the storm was over everyone started coming out of their trailers and trucks and getting ready to go racing. The sky cleared up and was sunny and blue which made for good racing conditions. If anything, the rain helped the track a little. The crew didnt have to water the track before the karts because all of the rain had just done that for us but the in-field was a mess. After about fifteen to twenty minutes later they were calling karts out onto the track to start their warm-ups and everything continued like nothing even happened.

When I signed in before the storm I picked #15 which I thought would get me a pretty good starting place. Later when I saw the line ups I was to start in 7th place out of 11. In practice the car was doing okay for just putting this new motor in to replace the other from two weeks ago, but the car didnt want to stay to the bottom of the track so it was loose and loosing speed. My dad made some changes and we went back out for the heat. I started 7th place of 11. The car was handling okay but it still wouldnt stay to the bottom. I ended up racing my way up to 4th place. During the time between the heat and the feature my dad made some other changes, which included changing the shock back to the way it was two weeks ago. We werent sure if this was the problem, but we were about to find out. In the feature, I started 4th out of 11. I could notice even just driving under caution, the car was back to how it drives the best. On the first lap, I got a run on the inside 3rd place car and was on the outside of it the whole lap until we got to the third corner. Since my car wanted to be at the bottom of the track I ended up hitting the 3rd place car and spinning out. So I got sent to the back because I was the only car that stopped on the track. It was another double file restart and I was starting 11th now. The green came and I passed two cars before we hit turn one. Now I had to catch back up to the leaders. I was passing cars here and there and I finally made it back up to 3rd. I was probably 4 or 5 car lengths away from the front two cars and we were catching up on lap traffic. With one lap to go, the second place car was trying to make a move on the first place car and spun himself out in turn two. This put me up to second place with one lap to go. It was a single file restart and the first place car had a great jump on the start. I fell back about two car lengths and ended up getting second place. So far that is my best finish in my micro career. It was also probably one of my best feature races to date. I was happy with that finish and hopefully a 1st place will be in our future soon!