The 2016 NY State Championship was quite an eventful race for me. I qualified pretty well in 4th, and that was good considering the field was rather large and finding a lap with clean air was difficult. The start was pretty decent, for the pre-final, but unfortunately I was victim of a dive-bomb and very deliberate punt off the track at a hairpin. The move was quite deliberate, and I was lucky nothing was bent. The incident caused me to lose a few spots and finish 7th.
The final was a bit better, as I was able to make up places very quickly - thankfully the chassis was handling well, and had some fantastic pace all race long. I was actually closing in on 2nd and 3rd, who were having quite a duel. Predictably they came into contact, which put me closer to them, but with not enough laps left to take advantage of their mistake. Fourth was all we could do after all, but my recovery from being pushed off the track made the headlines, and it was nice to receive all the compliments and applause after the fact!
Apologies that this is the only action picture we could find after all was said and done, and I happen to be the "blurry" kart LOL. However, you may say I'm was so quick that day I can only register as a ghostly apparition...
The second picture, however, brings a smile to my face. There are many ways that you can tell whether you are making progress as a racing driver, and this picture of my right front tire after qualifying tells me my tire conservation is coming along nicely. I like how I can see the original mold line after pushing the kart for a bunch of quali laps. ;)
