Today was a long day. We were at Road America for a night race. Practice went well, it was the heat races that were rough.
They had me starting P1 on the grid. I wasn’t able to get enough power from my engine to get going with everyone else. My sidepods were getting bumped and I was being bumped from behind.
We got all sorted out, and I had somebody right behind me as I was going past the start/finish line. Suddenly, there was a pop. It sounded like a big rock hit my engine. What really happened was parts of the inside of my engine got stuck, which caused it to blow. I quickly lost power and lost all of my oil in my engine. I pulled to the side, out of the driving line.
Once I made it to the pits, I asked my dad if I was done for the day. The response I got was, “Hold on.”
My dad walked around, talking to everybody he could. Luckily he found someone at the track who had an engine there, and they were willing to sell it to us, and help us get it mounted onto my kart. Thankfully, our new sponsor, Patriot Concrete Finishes LLC, helped us cover the cost of my new engine. They quickly got to work, and got my new engine on my kart without missing the second heat race.
I made it out, starting last on the grid, just to make sure everything was set up right. My new engine quickly impressed me. I realized how down on power I really was with my old engine.
The feature started off good, getting the green flag, and it honestly stayed pretty good. I came out in P14, after starting in P15. My new engine really pulled through.
-Sydney