Due to scheduling conflicts between the European Tour and the CRKC Championship, the Demaras Auto Racing Team was forced to miss Race 4 at Goodwood. A rare Friday night race was used to make up for the missed round. Daniel found himself in the midst of a competitive field, but looked forward to competition against new drivers.
After 3 rounds of practice, driver #12 qualified in 4th position. As the race began, Daniel quickly caught the 3rd place qualifier, who buckled under the pressure. Daniel emerged from a big cloud of dust in 3rd place, as his competitor drove his kart off the track. Within half a lap, Daniel was under attack from the 5th place qualifier. From 4th to 3rd and back to 4th in the course of 40 seconds.
The highlight of the race (and for that matter the entire CRKC event) was the back and forth battle between Daniel Demaras and his equally skilled competitor, Cameron Cluett. These two racers were glued together the entire race, passing each other lap after lap. Daniel would take a tight line into turn 5 and complete his pass by turn 6. Cameron would take a wide entry into the final corner, regaining his position.
In the photographs below, each driver is seen on subsequent laps passing the other at the flat-out turn 1. The most impressive thing about these two young gladiators was the fact that they raced clean. Each of them gave the other racer space, never pushing the other off track. It was a display of maturity rarely seen in motorsports, even at professional levels.
As the top 4 finishers crossed the line, less than a second separated them. Between Daniel and Cameron, the gap was only tenths of a second. Demaras’ body language shows the relief and exhilaration of competition.
While the final result was another 3rd place podium finish, Daniel had the most exciting race of the season. While the objective is always winning, being in a battle against a competitor, who races hard and clean, is all any racer ever wants.
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