First Race in Rotax

Our first race in the Rotax series was at Bakers Creek Kart Track in Alambama. The officials decided to run the Minimax class with the Junior class. This decision turned out bad though. When my engine shut off rounding a corner, everyone passed me. When I restarted the engine, I was really trying to catch back up with the pack. Around the hairpin, I was too fast and ran right into the side of a slower Minimax. I went over him and his kart, and got 4 ft. of air. I was ok and ended up bending an axle, but the other boy wasn't so lucky. He got his hand hit by my kart, had a bloody nose, and bent an axle. We quickly replaced the axle and ended up finishing third. Not too bad for a first race.

New Kart

When we got back into karting, we still had the Emmick kart. We wanted to race in the Rotax series to get away from all the cheating in dirt, but also because it was the series that suited us best. We got a black CRG with a Rotax JR. 125 cc engine on it. Our first track day was at the infield kart track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The track was pretty challenging for the first time. Also, it was hard getting used to the power of the Rotax engine. We drove all day, which really tired us out. This resulted in heading off track into a big mud puddle. That confirmed our day was done. There was mud up my helmet, and the kart was not a pretty sight. It was covered in mud that took us three days to get off, mainly because it took us a while to actually start cleaning it. Since then, we have been to Lowe's numerous times, as well as VIR.

First Time in a Kart

The first time I drove a kart was when I was 5 years old. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but it looked fast and fun. It was a red 50cc Comer engine on a Emmick Racing Karts chassis. The first place I drove this mean machine was in the street in front of my house. I did that a lot, with my dad at one end of the street and my mom at the other. We had soccer goals that would mark the place to turn around. My parents had signs that said go on one side and stop on the other. All the neighbors would come out and watch, which made me feel pretty cool, so I would show off by getting sideways around the soccer goals. I went to one or two track days, but then stopped racing.