Boy, what a day that Saturday was. It was awesome!
First things first, I was more than excited to be there. After all this anticipation, it felt great to be in a kart again. Especially this one, I took to the new chassis like a charm, and was able to sort of get a setup by working with the team that day. We got good results, and I basically was able to end the day with a smile on my face.
Pictured above is me in the new chassis. We haven't put on the stickers yet for testing, but don't worry, we should have them on around the time of the first race. No need in roughing those up just yet!
That is of course, given the circumstances. Originally, the point of Saturday was not to push the kart for lap times, but to instead figure out a setup and get used to the chassis and to break in the new engine that we got. So in terms of tires, we just slapped on a set of Mojo D1s, (the incorrect tire, as Senior Rotax uses Mojo D2s) and ran the day on those. When the time came to push, the kart felt like an absolute dream. My best time was a 37.5, only half a second slower than teammate Aidan Abdulali (another driver in the Senior Rotax category), who ran a 36.99 on the faster Mojo D2s. Due to the tire difference being a second in grip, it would make sense for my theoretical time to be a 36.5, and there's a little optimism in saying that due to how worn the D1s I was practicing in were.
It is because of this that the team gave me a thumbs up in terms of where I'm at, but of course there is no real way of telling where I'm at until I slap on the Mojo D2s and do a lap. Fortunately for me, I should be able to test the new tires this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park. As testing continues, the first club races and Northeast Regionals approach this May. But for now, it looks like we're starting the season with our heads up high!