Day race at Road America. We had 13 drivers, which is the least we’ve had all season, but would’ve been unheard of last year - with our usual 8. We went into the day hoping for a top ten finish.
During practice, I was able to bump draft and follow my friend Emily.
The first heat I started in P5, and was behind someone who was having engine issues, which slowed down my start and cost me positions. There was also a wreck that I was involved in, being 3 wide up the front stretch, I was in the middle and all of our tires got stuck on each other's tires. I spent the rest of the 5 laps trying to catch back up, finishing in P10.
In the second heat, I started in P9. I didn’t have the best lap times, and wasn’t able to keep my positions. I fell back from P9 to P11. I wasn’t able to get my positions back in 5 laps, so I finished in P11.
I started the feature in P11. It was rough because the feature is the most important part of the day. People were taking corners 3 wide on the start and pushing around. Me and Emily were swapping places for most of the ten laps, I would get her up the straightaway, and she would get me around the last few corners. In front of me, there were two karts that wrecked, and Emily followed me to avoid it. After a couple laps, one of the karts caught up to me, and decided to pass me through the grass in a corner. Later, the other kart that was in the wreck also caught up to me. She followed me and Emily through the track. In the last two corners before the checkered flag, I looked to both sides of me and saw I had enough clearance, but Emily decided to still try to go to the inside. She ended up t-boning me, the girl behind her following. They hit me again, just enough to flip my kart straight. I finished in P10.
We finished where we wanted, and I was the top finishing female in our race.